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A native of Cordova, Tennessee, Bishop will join the Mississippi College Music Department faculty in August. The 32-year-old professor will serve as the first director of the Christian university’s new worship leadership program.
It’s an innovative multi-disciplinary degree on the Clinton campus to give students a solid grasp of church music along with Biblical studies, graphic arts, and theatre techniques. Undergraduates will learn about contemporary Christian music, the sounds of church choirs and much more. At the same time, students must build their creative social media skills to promote church activities year-round.
Mississippi College’s new degree program responds to the rapidly changing needs of churches in the 21st Century, Bishop says. “It’s what best for your church” from one season to the next.
Will earned his bachelor’s in music history Summa Cum Laude at the University of Memphis in August 2006. His master’s in music ministry came from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas in 2008. Bishop received his doctorate at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2015.
Bishop’s introduction to learning in the Aven Fine Arts Building came as one of the professors at the Mississippi College Music Camp in late June. More than 50 teens from Mississippi and nearby states enjoyed music classes at the five-day residential camp and had fun, too.
In between music camp activities, Will stayed busy house hunting in Clinton.
For the past seven years, Bishop served as associate minister of worship at Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, Texas. During his tenure, he led Mobberly’s Academy of Performing Arts with more than 100 students and ten teachers from 2010 through 2014. He joined the East Texas Baptist University faculty in Marshall, Texas in 2012.
Bishop remains pretty familiar with the landscape in metro Jackson. He served as associate pastor of worship and music ministries at Briar Hill Baptist Church in Florence from 2008 through 2010. Will has done extensive research on hymnology education at Evangelical colleges and seminaries.
Away from duties at church and on campus, Will, 32, is an active family man. He and his wife, Jamie, are the parents of two young children, a daughter, Caroline, and son, Jackson. He’s a big fan of the Memphis Grizzles in the NBA and the Memphis Tigers football team.
This summer’s career move to Mississippi College and its award-winning Music Department is “a great fit,” Bishop says. It brings him closer to his family in the Memphis area and gives him the opportunity to lead a new MC music program with much promise for years to come.
Department of Music Chair Angela Willoughby and other colleagues say they are thrilled to welcome Will Bishop aboard at Mississippi College.
