“Sing Praises to the Lord”: Bekah Marsh (MDiv ‘25)
“Sing praises to the LORD, O you saints, and give thanks to his holy name.” These words from Psalm 30:4 not only express the psalmist’s joy at the goodness of his God but also give eloquent expression to one of the main themes running through Bekah Marsh’s personal story. For the past two and a half years, Bekah has served as the Chapel Coordinator for the Seminary, a position that involves planning the liturgy, coordinating musicians and speakers, and leading the music for weekly worship services for the campus community. Making music to the glory of God and helping others to worship him well through it is a job—or rather, a ministry—she loves and one she feels blessed to have been called to from a young age.
Growing up as the daughter of a PCA pastor—her father was the late Rev. Rodney Stortz, founding pastor of Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church in St. Louis and the long-time preaching voice of the radio program Oaks of Righteousness—Bekah had much encouragement in her musical endeavors from her family, peers, and especially her church youth leaders. But the most important seed for her future life was planted not by music but by water.
“I was baptized as an infant just down the road from the Seminary at Covenant Presbyterian Church,” Bekah says. “My dad had just become the pastor there, and I had the amazing privilege of growing up in a covenant home and in a church that really embraced the covenant ideals of raising up children in the church together. My parents were my first disciplers but many others also poured into me and my sisters along the way. I really experienced the joy of that.”
Later, after her father had planted Twin Oaks Church, she found herself discipled further by dedicated Sunday school teachers. “I still remember many of them, several of whom are connected to the Seminary. As I grew into middle and high school, the youth leaders at church were very discipleship oriented. I had taken piano lessons all my life, and around this time I started messing around playing and writing songs, as well as journaling, as a way of wrestling through my faith and my sin and my need for Jesus. It was a blessing that God gave me music to do that with at a young age.”
In middle school, God opened up other opportunities for her to use her gifts. “This was when worship music that wasn’t traditional hymns was just becoming a thing,” Bekah remembers. “So, as people noticed my abilities, they started inviting me to play at youth group and during the school chapel services. Then at church on Sunday evenings, the youth band would be asked to play, and I would be part of that. I realize now it was a very intentional thing on the church’s part. It would have been so much easier not to have the youth play, but the fact that they did made us feel like loved and valued members of the church. That was really important.”
An even bigger opportunity soon came Bekah’s way. “When I was in high school, my dad noticed me writing down these songs and playing them, playing in coffee houses with my friends. So, one day he said to me, ‘Will you write a song for Advent?’ I was so excited. Our music director at the time, John Haines, who is now at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, took the tune and words I wrote and orchestrated them for full choir and orchestra. It was amazing!”
Hearing her music played and sung in church this way had a profound impact on the young Bekah. “It was one of the most humbling experiences. It was the first time I really understood that I could not have come up with these things on my own. It was a pure gift from God. And then to have someone take the time to make it something a choir and the congregation could sing—it inspired me to want to pursue music in a way that could enrich the church, not just for my own benefit.”
As she prepared for college, Bekah considered whether she should pursue her musical interests more fully or, as she puts it, “continue figuring out this whole covenant thing I’d been part of growing up. I was very hungry for theology and the Bible. I was reading a lot of theology and grappling with the sovereignty of God and why he would choose me and not some other person. Then around that time, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and that was part of my struggle too. Why him, when he was doing so many wonderful things for the kingdom? It didn’t make sense.”
In the end, theology won out. She decided on Covenant College, where she pursued a Bible major and a music minor. “A music major probably would have been more practical, but it really was very fruitful for me at that period of my life to study under so many good Bible teachers, especially as my dad did pass away during my freshman year. I was so thankful for that community and for how God used my Christian friends to love me well. Even the writing of a term paper on heaven to help me work through some of my issues. Those four years were some of the most formative of my life.”
Also during these years, she began to sense a strong call to music ministry in the church and thought about going to seminary. “I felt like many churches, especially the ones using more contemporary music, didn’t really know how to sing well. I wanted to be a help in that, but I knew I needed more training to understand exactly what that might look like.”
Then, in her junior year, she met Jeremy, the man who would become her husband. He was a decade older and a JAG lawyer in the Air Force. “I really wanted to marry him, but it would mean not being able to pursue some of the other things I wanted. So, I married him anyway, and we went wherever the Air Force sent us for about ten years. Just like the decision to major in Bible instead of music, it didn’t make sense at the time. But everywhere we went, the Lord provided ministry opportunities.”
Soon after they married, Bekah started teaching Bible to middle school and high school students part time, while also working on a seminary master’s degree online. It was a very challenging couple of years. Then came a move to Virginia, where Jeremy taught at the Army’s JAG Legal Center and School, and the couple had two baby boys, James and Ben. They got involved in a PCA church where Bekah was able to get back into leading worship music. It was a blessed five years.
After that, they headed for Colorado Springs, where Jeremy taught at the Air Force Academy, and where their daughters, Emi and Betsy, were born. They found another PCA church. One day they noticed in the church bulletin that the music director position had opened up. “Jeremy said I should apply, but I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m crazy busy with four kids!’ But he put my name in for it anyway, which just shows how much he’s always supported me in this. So, I became the music director there for about four years—with babies! Sometimes I’d have babies hanging on my front in a carrier while I was playing, then go nurse during the sermon and come back to play later on. It was a wonderful church that gave me opportunities to think creatively. We started a children’s choir, an adult choir, and other things.”
Then Jeremy retired from the Air Force and the Lord called the family to Kalispell, Montana, where he started a second career as the head of a Christian school. “Montana is basically like another country,” Bekah says. “But it was wonderful. God put us in another PCA church, and I had these four little ones and figured I’d just focus on them for a while. The church had just hired a new worship pastor, but it very quickly did not work out. We’d been there about a year when the pastor called and asked if I wanted to do music for the church. The Lord just gave me the opportunity. It turned out to be probably the most fruitful three years I’ve ever experienced in ministry. I felt like I was really doing what God made me to do. The pastor loved to be creative, and he encouraged me in that. For example, one of the things we did was to start monthly vespers services that were all music and readings and prayers. I started teaching the women’s Bible studies, too, which I loved.”
She also loved Montana and the mountains and watching her kids enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. The family loved their church and the kids’ school. From Bekah’s perspective, they could have stayed there forever—but the Lord had other plans.
An opportunity came up in St. Louis for Jeremy to work in development with Westminster Christian Academy and it seemed too good to pass up. There were many other advantages to being back on Bekah’s home turf. They would be near her extended family again. And there are lots of PCA churches to choose from. It also got her thinking of going back to seminary. She got a job teaching music at Twin Oaks School, her old alma mater, and started taking classes part time at Covenant Seminary. She very quickly realized that this was what God was calling her to do full time. She quit her job and became a full-time student in the MDiv program. At the time, there weren’t many immediate opportunities to do music at her local church, but God again stepped in. The Seminary’s Chapel Coordinator position became available.
“The Lord opened that door, and it’s been a huge gift. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve learned a lot. Though planning and leading Chapel worship is very similar to what one might do for a congregation, there are also some important differences. With Chapel, we’re not really a single congregation. We have people here from lots of different church backgrounds and styles, different ethnicities, different nations. The number of songs that are familiar to everybody may not be as great as in a congregation. There’s a little more freedom to try something new. I see it as an opportunity to show future ministry leaders some of the rich music that’s out there, and the wide variety of it, so that when they go to their church’s later as pastors or music directors or whatever, they’ll know what resources are available for good music.”
Good as her Chapel experience has been, Bekah’s time at Covenant has done more than simply give her another outlet to express her musical gifts. “It has helped to shape me in new and more profound ways. As we have dived deeply into the books of the Bible, I’ve been struck by the realization that the times when God is most lifted up and glorified, when we see his majesty the most, are the times when his people are worshiping and singing to him. And that is not just one person individually. It’s always throngs of people. Even in the New Testament letters, the church is commanded to sing together communally. Just as the Trinity is complete in community with one another, so is the church when we glorify God as his people singing together. Worship is not a spectator sport. The goal is for all of us to participate—and to participate thoughtfully, which is why it’s especially helpful for those who are planning and leading liturgies and music to be thoughtful in how they put those elements together. Covenant has helped me understand that in deeper ways.”
As a musician who feels called to minister to God’s people through leading worship, Bekah found Dr. Collins’s Psalms and Wisdom Literature class especially impactful for her spiritual growth. “Thinking through why God chose to give not just the psalms, but all of this other wisdom literature to his people was just amazing to me. What a creative God that we have! But how do we teach these books well to the people in our churches? And how do we incorporate things like lament into worship? How do we lament well together?” Other classes were significant for her too. “Dr. Yarbrough’s Revelation and General Epistles class stirred my heart to the vastness of God’s world and the immense diversity of his church. Educational Foundations gave me principles I use every time I teach a Sunday school class, or even when just at home with my kids. Those are just three examples, but I’ve learned so much from everyone here. I said earlier that my college years were pretty formative, but I think my time in seminary has been even more so.”
Having graduated in May 2025 and handed the reins of the Chapel Coordinator job on to someone else, what is next for Bekah and her family?
“I’m not exactly sure yet. My husband has shifted back to education from development and is now interim head of school at Heritage Christian Academy, so we plan to be here for a while. I want to minister in the church in some capacity. I hope to use my degree in some way to help shape the worship of the church both locally and more broadly, and to continue to teach as opportunities present themselves. We’ll see what doors the Lord opens. Whatever happens, I’m grateful for my time here and for all the encouragement I’ve received. I’ll keep playing music no matter what—there is so much to sing about!”
Note: This article first appeared in the spring 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.
