HI, I AM REVEREND DR. LISA ALLEN-MCLAURIN
An Emmy and Webby-award-winning pastor, professor, and public theologian.
I am the Helmar E. Nielsen Professor of Church Music and Worship and Degree Coordinator for the Master of Arts in Liturgical Arts and Culture at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I am also an ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and serve as the Coordinator for Practical Ministries in the Sixth Episcopal District.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
I am a graduate of Millsaps College and the University of Southern Mississippi with Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in piano and music education. She also holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
"I simply enjoy teaching. This entails worship in
African-American contexts, spirituality and theology in worship, and gender issues in the Black Church."
I am the author of A Womanist Theology of Worship: Liturgy, Justice, and Communal Righteousness (Orbis Books, 2021), and two other texts, Worship Matters! A Collection of Practical Essays on the Practical and Spiritual Discipline of Worship (Creative Publishing, 2015) and Development Comes Before Deliverance: A 9-Week Sermon Series and Bible Study for Pastors and Congregations (Creative Publishing, 2018). I have authored many articles, including “The Theo-Ethics of Negro Spirituals as Folklore and Their Import and Implications for 21st-Century AfricansinAmerica,” published in the Fall, 2019 Journal of the ITC and is a featured contributor in the 2020 People’s Voice Webby Award-winning documentary, A King’s Place: Reclaiming the Black Church’s Civil Rights Past. Lastly, I am also a noted composer and arranger and, in 2019 debuted her Advent cantata, Christmas is Waiting to Be Born: An Advent Cantata Inspired by the Works of Howard Thurman at the ITC. She is also a featured musicologist in the 2015 Emmy-award-winning documentary, Reflect, Reclaim, Rejoice: Preserving the Gift of Black Sacred Music.
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In addition to my work at ITC and in the CME Church, I serve on the Arts, Religion and Literature, and Music and Religion Program Unit Steering Committees of the American Academy of Religion, the editorial board of The Methodist Review-Journal, and holds memberships in the Society for the Study of Black Religion, Hymns for Him Board of Directors, and the National African American Leadership Council. I am the CEO/curator of Sunday’s Coming, a weekly online worship planning webinar, CEO/founder of Creating Collegiality, a collaborative leadership mentoring program, a member of the Sisters Chapel Advisory Council at Spelman College, a mentor with the RISE Together National Mentorship Network, and a 2018 inductee into the Morehouse College Board of Preachers. In 2023, I will serve an awarded appointment as the Music Scholar-in-Residence/Interim Choral Director at the American Church in Paris, France. I feel a great responsibility to help leaders, particularly women, shape and hone their academic and ministerial gifts.
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You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place."
ARE YOU READY TO WORK WITH ME?
Trust Me, You Are In The Right Place.
Pathlight Unlimited, LLC is the umbrella company for my various enterprises, including The Worship Professor – Classes, workshops, presentations, videos, books, and other resources for individuals, pastors, musicians, and churches seeking to improve their worship experiences, Creating Collegiality – a collaborative leadership mentoring program, LifePath – Spiritual direction, and Sunday’s Coming! - an online worship planning webinar.