Within the PCA, churches of different sizes and in different settings are using their space, resources, and skilled teachers to train the next generation of musicians and artists. These ministries vary in style and scale, but they share a conviction that artistic excellence glorifies God and that the church is a fitting place to shape young artists who will honor him through their craft.
And while designed to serve and strengthen the church, these programs often become touchpoints with families who have little prior exposure to the gospel. Parents drop off children for lessons and find themselves in a church building for the first time, welcomed by teachers who care about their students’ flourishing, not merely their technique.
The following profiles offer a window into how three PCA churches are pursuing this work and what they’re learning along the way.
Fine Arts School of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Crossville, Tennessee
When First Presbyterian Church in Crossville, Tennessee, launched its Fine Arts School of Music in September 2025, the new ministry was the fruit of nearly a decade of prayer and planning. Pastor Andy Aikens said the school grew out of the session’s vision to “develop the beauty of our worship for the glory of God.”
The school’s reach, though, quickly extended beyond the congregation.
Crossville sits on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, roughly halfway between Nashville and Knoxville. In a town of about 13,000, quality music education options are limited. The Fine Arts School is meeting a real need: of the program’s approximately 20 enrolled families, 17 are not currently members of First Presbyterian.
Director April Stewart, who also teaches piano at the school, oversees five other teachers, with two more preparing to join. Teachers are required to be members of a local congregation and to affirm a statement of faith. One of the school’s teachers serves as minister of music at another local church. The school offers private lessons in piano, woodwinds, guitar, ukulele, and violin. Its curriculum draws from sacred music as well as Appalachian folk and bluegrass, reflecting the deep musical heritage of the Plateau.
While the school can accommodate up to 120 students, Aikens is careful not to let growth metrics define the ministry.
“We’re not pressing for it to be a large school as much as we want it to be a faithful school,” he said. “Faithful to Christ and faithful to the gospel.”
That faithfulness plays out in ways beyond music education. Stewart said the school has become a first point of connection for families with no church background. Parents linger on the grounds while their children take lessons, building relationships with staff. Some have shared significant personal struggles with Stewart during those unhurried visits.
The ministry is already bearing fruit across Crossville’s wider church community. A nearby congregation recently called to ask whether the school could recommend a violinist for its Christmas service. In late March, teachers and students performed an outreach concert at the public library that drew more than 80 spectators.
“This is us in real time, showing our congregation and our community what the chief end of man is: to glorify God and enjoy him forever,” Stewart said. “That’s truly our heart here.”
School of Fine Arts at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church, Birmingham
Amy McGucken’s three sons were taking piano lessons at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church before her family ever visited a Sunday service. Lessons were not the McGuckens’ only draw to Oak Mountain. One son attended Westminster School, the church’s classical Christian school. Another son’s Boy Scout troop met at the church. Between lessons and extracurriculars, the McGuckens were in the building several days each week.
“It’s like, Why are we not going to church there?” McGucken recalled thinking. Her family joined Oak Mountain in 2012, and she has served on staff for nearly a decade, now wearing two hats as worship assistant and administrator of the church’s School of Fine Arts.
The Oak Mountain School of Fine Arts, founded in 2007, operates under the oversight of the session and worship minister Jason Sears. It offers lessons in piano, violin, guitar, bass, and percussion to approximately 60 students drawn from church families, Westminster School students, and the wider community. The school’s integration with Westminster is a distinctive feature: students enrolled in after-school programs can be pulled aside for a 30-minute lesson and returned, saving families time and deepening their connection to church life throughout the week.
The school does not formally advertise beyond the church and school communities. Growth happens through word of mouth, teacher networks, and the sort of organic discovery that brought the McGuckens to Oak Mountain in the first place. Teachers are required to have a professing faith, and while lessons focus on musical instruction rather than explicit spiritual content, the environment is shaped by the conviction that musical gifts are given for worship.
“Everyone is created with a heart to worship,” McGucken said. “We want to help students develop those gifts so they can be expressed in a life of worship as they grow.”
One of Sears’ former students is now a worship leader at another PCA church. For McGucken, that kind of long-term fruit captures the goal of the program. The school isn’t trying to be the largest or most visible arts ministry in Birmingham; it is trying to be faithful and fruitful where it is, embedded in the life of the local church.
When asked what she would say to another church considering a similar ministry, McGucken didn’t hesitate. “The world is fighting for our children,” she said. “If we have an opportunity to develop a heart of worship in them, how could we not?”
Briarwood Ballet at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham
In the early days of Briarwood Ballet, founder Barbara Barker would send away students she deemed too talented for her fledgling program, pointing them to schools that could offer more advanced training. She watched many of those young dancers struggle spiritually in secular programs.
A mother of one of those talented dancers told Barker that her daughter had “gained ballet, but she lost her soul.”
Those words, according to Barker’s daughter Peggy Townes, broke Barker’s heart.
Barker began to pray that God would provide the facilities and faculty to serve even the most gifted dancers. What started in 1980 in cleaned-out nursery rooms with chairs for barres is now in its 47th year, with more than 450 students, 16 faculty members, and a reputation that draws dancers from as far as 90 minutes away.
Barker, who pursued a ballet career before coming to faith in Christ, founded the program as a ministry of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. She was the wife of Briarwood’s founding pastor, the late Frank Barker, and today Townes serves as the ballet’s executive director.
Only about 12% of the school’s students are connected to Briarwood Church; the rest come from the wider community. Every faculty member is considered an employee of the church and must sign its statement of faith. Many of the instructors had professional dance careers before joining Briarwood Ballet’s staff.
The school runs two tracks. The classical track’s top performing group, Ballet Exaltation, tours nationally and internationally. Last August, the group performed at a music festival in the Czech Republic, dancing on the stage of a communist-era culture house.
“Satan can do nothing but build a stage on which God can perform a greater miracle,” Barker used to say. Townes and her team watched that conviction come to life in Prague.
The contemporary track, led by a performing group called Immanuel, develops students with equal seriousness to use dance in ministry contexts, whether in worship services, concerts, or other venues.
Nine seniors graduated from the program last year, and all nine went on to dance at the collegiate or professional level.
“We teach dance in the context of the gospel, and we teach the gospel in the context of dance,” Townes said.
Every classroom, production, and tour is oriented around that conviction. The school’s annual audiences number between 7,000 and 10,000 people, and the company treats each performance as an opportunity to share the good news about Jesus.
Briarwood Ballet has also helped launch dance programs at several other churches, including Perimeter Presbyterian in Atlanta. Townes believes the model is replicable, even on a small scale, but insists that elder leadership and vocational vision are essential.
“This generation identifies with their passions,” she said. “Let’s show them how their passions connect to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”