Where music brings Christ into the world
David's Harp exists to print resources and establish centers of musical development in churches, schools, and missions, so the next generation of church musicians can be raised right in the parish.
Our Mission
David's Harp exists to print resources and establish centers of musical development in churches, schools, and missions.
Our Vision
To catechize and evangelize through the pairing of God's Word and music.
Why David's Harp
The Church has always taught music. We believe she still should.
There is a real shortage of church musicians, felt most sharply in rural parishes, inner-city congregations, and the foreign mission field, but no community is exempt. We started David's Harp because the answer is not to wait for a music school graduate to move into town. The answer is to raise musicians right inside the church.
Long before there were secular conservatories, churches in the days of Luther and Bach were training the world's finest musicians. Sacred music was learned where it would be sung, in the parish itself. That model still works. When music is taught from the church, the lesson hour becomes a catechism hour, and the student becomes both a musician and a confessor of the faith.
Next to theology, I give music the highest of praise.- Martin Luther
Our Story
From one parish in Iowa to centers of music around the world.
David's Harp began with the music ministry of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. In 2007, the congregation made music a more central feature of its outreach. What started as a humble offering of private studio lessons grew into St. Paul's Music Conservatory, today a school of more than a dozen faculty serving over a hundred students.
Out of that work came a question: could other parishes do the same? Pastors Tim Frank and Nathan Sherrill, with the encouragement of Rev. Richard Resch, founded David's Harp to share the model and the resources beyond one congregation. The organization received RSO status in The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod in September of 2020.
Since then, David's Harp has helped open music conservatories across the United States and on the foreign mission field. We publish graded resources for piano, guitar, organ, C and B-flat instruments, choral music, and the liturgy, all designed to bring the great hymnody of the church within reach of the beginning musician.
2007
St. Paul's Music Conservatory begins
2019
Vision expands beyond one parish
2020
Granted LCMS RSO status
Today
Centers of Music nationwide and abroad
The David's Harp Way
A simple seven-step path for any church or school.
You don't need a music building or a degreed kantor to begin. Start where you are, with what you have, and follow the steps.
Strategize
Adopt a Hymns of the Season strategy across your congregation, school, and outreach.
Develop
Build your music program around those core hymns (kernlieder).
Establish
Form choirs, kantors, and instrumentalists who lead with those same hymns.
Train
Nurture musicians through piano, organ, guitar, and early childhood instruction.
Formalize
Shape a formal approach to teaching music in your church, school, or mission.
Engage
Serve your community as the local experts in sacred music.
Connect
Join the David's Harp Family and link arms with Centers of Music nationwide.
A note from our Executive Director
Dear friend of our Lord Jesus Christ and His gift of music,
We are so glad you are here. The work of David's Harp lives in harmony with Luther's classic line, that next to theology, he gave music the highest of praise. We have seen firsthand the evangelistic power of pairing music and missions, and that is why this organization exists, to help you establish, or further develop, a center of music in your area of influence.
Not every center of music will look the same, and it shouldn't. But the fundamentals will be shared. The Word of God will be proclaimed. You will reach into your community, develop relationships, baptize, show mercy, and raise up the next generation of church musicians. We would be honored to walk that road with you.
To God alone be the Glory,
Rev. Nathan SherrillExecutive Director, David's Harp
Our People
The team behind David's Harp.
Pastors, musicians, and lay leaders serving the Church through music.
Rev. Nathan Sherrill
Executive Director
Dr. Martin Dicke
Director of Resource Development
Mr. Jay Lewis
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Trey Stickler
Director of Operations
Become part of the David's Harp Family
Join an active and excited community of Christians extending the Gospel through music in their own area of influence.
Join the Community