Utilizing a mix of presentation, piano performance, and song, Stephen Newby, the Lev H. Prichard III Endowed Chair in the Study of Black Worship at Baylor University, will examine Andraé Crouch’s gospel music legacy through the theological and communal lenses of kindredness, kindness, and koinonia (fellowship). Grounded in Galatians 1, Crouch’s enduring impact emerged not only from extraordinary “Mozartian” musical gifts, but from a gospel-centered practice of collaborative leadership rooted in grace rather than human approval. Drawing on nearly a decade of collective scholarship and interviews with over 200 musicians, producers, and witnesses, the study reveals Crouch, widely celebrated as the most influential figure in modern gospel music, as a “collaborator-in-chief” whose creative process flourished within a beloved community. Songs were forged in live worship, congregational response, and intensive studio experimentation, where musicians became co-creators of the distinctive “Crouch sound” and touring buses, recording studios, homes, and public spaces were regularly transformed into sites of prayer and worship.
Stephen Michael Newby currently serves as The Lev H. Prichard III Endowed Chair in the Study of Black Worship, Professor of Music and as Ambassador for The Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University. He formerly served as Minister of Worship at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA, and as Director for the Center for African American Worship Studies at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, TN. He held a tenured Professor of Music post at Seattle Pacific University, where he also served as Director of University Ministries, Director for the Center for Worship, and Senior Advisor to the University President for Missional Excellence.
He has more than three decades of university-level teaching and administration to his credit. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and received his Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Music Education from Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan. He received a Master of Music in Jazz Composition and Arranging from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He returned to Michigan to complete his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and served as an Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Computer Arts. He received his Master of Arts in Theology from Seattle Pacific Seminary.
For more than 35 years, he has served in various church music ministries in Michigan, Massachusetts, Washington, California, Georgia and Texas. His voice and works have earned awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (Continental Harmony Grant), the King County Arts Commission of Washington, The Rackham School Fellowship for Ethnomusicological Research in Dakar, Senegal, and the John Wesley Work III National Composers’ Award. For more than nine years, he served as national anthem conductor for the Seattle Sounders FC. He created concert music for The Cascade Youth Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, Canton Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, Savannah Symphony, and the New World Theater Orchestra, among others. His concert music works are recorded by Albany Records and Parma Recordings. His gospel music works are recorded and published by Maranatha Music and Newby’s Witness Music. His scholarly works are published by Redemption Press, Oxford University Press and Rowman & Littlefield, his worship and praise choral compositions are published by GIA, Gentry, Fred Bock, and OCP. He writes Op. Eds for Christianity Today. He is editor for PRO MUNDO—the African American Sacred Music Series with Oregon Catholic Press.
