Rebecca Slough


Rebecca

Academic Dean
Associate Professor of Worship and the Arts
Director, Spiritual Formation Program

  • B.A., Goshen College, 1978
  • M.Div., Goshen Biblical Seminary, 1982
  • M.A., University of Notre Dame, 1983
  • Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union, 1989

Email: rslough@ambs.edu
Phone: 574 296-6238

To download a print-quality photo, click on the small photo at right.

Rebecca Slough's gifts in worship, music, ministry, and the arts come together in her teaching at AMBS. She is a musician, focusing attention on congregational song, and has done liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame and Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif. She served as managing editor for Hymnal: A Worship Book from 1989 to 1992.

Rebecca is a member of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, and is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy. She is a regular book reviewer on music and worship for Religious Studies Review. Rebecca extends her teaching beyond the AMBS classroom by leading retreats and workshops for pastors and congregations on worship, music, and the arts.

"Good pastors are artists who improvise countless variations on the theme of God's saving work in Jesus Christ and the inauguration of his reign. Pastors listen for the themes in the lives of their people, extending or altering the themes, shifting the accents, changing the harmonies, and then offering them back for response. Often through this improvisational work, God's Spirit opens unimagined possibilities for healing, confession, reconciliation, deepened love, and extended grace.

"I thrill to watch students, colleagues, and even strangers risk the transforming possibilities of improvisation."

Scholarship

  • Nurturing Spirit Through Song: The life of Mary K. Oyer, co-edited with Shirley Sprunger King (Cascadia, 2007). Companion DVD, Nurturing Spirit Through Song: The Legacy of Mary K. Oyer, produced by Mennonite Media Productions.
  • Preparing Sunday Dinner: A Collaborative Approach to Worship and Preaching. (Herald Press, 2006) coauthored with Marlene Kropf and June Alliman Yoder
  • "Pastoral Ministry as Improvisatory Art," in The Heart of the Matter: Pastoral Ministry in Anabaptist Perspective (Cascadia, 2004)
  • "Acting the Word: Preaching in the Context of Worship," in Anabaptist Preaching: A Conversation Between Pulpit, Pew, and Bible (Cascadia, 2003)
  • "Changed from glory into glory" in Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology (Fall 2001)
  • "Deal with it," Generation Why Youth Curriculum, 2000
  • Hymnal: A Worship Book (Faith & Life, Brethren, Mennonite Publishing House, 1992), managing editor