Biography | Ministry Profile

Eric Mathis believes corporate worship is a critical agent of spiritual formation, and he is deeply committed to connecting all ages to the power and possibilities inherent in worship and the arts. Most recently, Eric served as Associate Dean for the Division of Music, Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship Leadership, and founding Executive Director of the Center for Worship and the Arts at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Before moving to Alabama, Eric taught as an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, and Baylor University. He has maintained leadership roles in various congregations across the United States, most recently as Music and Worship Associate at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Under his leadership, the undergraduate and graduate music programs at Samford saw significant growth, and the Center for Worship and the Arts received more than $3 million in grant funding. These funds fostered innovative programing, research, ministry, scholarship, and collaboration on themes surrounding adolescent spirituality and youth ministry; worship, theology and the arts; race, class, and worship; special needs ministries in congregational life; and innovation, entrepreneurship, and change-based leadership rooted in the arts.

An ordained Baptist minister, Eric holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Wheaton College (IL), a Master of Divinity from Baylor University, a Master of Music in Church Music with a concentration in Choral Conducting and Organ from Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in Theology with concentrations in Christian Worship and Preaching from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has maintained an active role as an ordained minister, serving congregations in Missouri, Illinois, Texas, California, and Alabama as Minister of Music and Worship and Minister of Youth. He currently holds memberships in the Academy of Homiletics, the American Choral Directors Association, the North American Academy of Liturgy, and The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada where he has served on the editorial board for The Hymn.

Eric is active as a worship leader, musician, writer, speaker, and consultant nationally and internationally. Deeply ecumenical, he has planned and led worship for multiple denominations including the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Cumberland Presbyterian, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (E.L.C.A.), the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the United Church of Christ, among others. He has published articles in Choral Journal, The Hymn, Worship Leader Magazine, and Working Preacher. With Lester Ruth of Duke Divinity School, he is co-author of Leaning on the Word: Worship with Argentine Baptists in the Mid-Twentieth Century (Eerdmans, 2017). His most recent publication, Worship with Teenagers: Adolescent Spirituality and Congregational Practice, was published by Baker Academic in Spring 2022.

As a musician, Mathis has conducted and accompanied choral ensembles nationally and internationally, working with notable conductors Jeffery Ames, Anton Armstrong, Donald Bailey, Rodney Eichenberger, Mary Hopper, Weston Noble, Rosephanye Powell, Paul Salamunovich, Z. Randall Stroope, and others.

When not at church, Eric enjoys running, cooking, and a strong cup of coffee. He finds respite hiking the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, or relaxing at his family’s place on Kentucky Lake. He will be forever disappointed that his favorite on-screen family – Johnny, Moira, David, and Alexis Rose – didn’t see a seventh season.