Leadership

Dr. Jonathan Michelsen, Ph.D.

Founder & Director, Agape Worship Arts®

Agape Worship Arts® was founded in 2020 by Dr. Jonathan Michelsen and Deana Michelsen with the vision of establishing a distinct model of worship music education. This vision responds to a gap between conventional private music instruction and the practical, musical, and spiritual formation required of contemporary worship musicians.

Dr. Michelsen is the creator of the Agape Worship Arts Method™ (AWAM), a sequential framework developed from the musical language and living culture of contemporary worship music. The method identifies how harmony, rhythm, melody, texture, standard music notation, and ensemble roles function within the genre and organizes them into a purposeful learning pathway.

Supported by original method books, course materials, worship studies, and practical instruction, the framework develops scales, chords, rhythms, progressions, voicings, notation, song application, ensemble awareness, and spiritual formation. Through this approach, Agape Worship Arts® is establishing a consistent and scalable model of contemporary worship music education.