Rev. Dr. Lisa Waites

Biography

The Rev. Dr. Lisa Waites founded her company, Servant Song Music & Ministry, in 1998. She’s been composing and recording inspirational Christian music and contemporary hymns, crafting liturgies, and leading worship across Canada and around the world for many years. A handful of Lisa’s recent musical compositions will be featured in “Then Let Us Sing,” the forthcoming UCC hymnal (June, 2025). To sample her liturgical writing, check out the title, A Liturgy for All Bodies: New Words for the New World (Cyclical Press, 2022).

Lisa has worked in diverse ministry settings over the years, including appointments as an ecumenical campus ministry chaplain, a civilian military chaplain, and in several different congregational ministry settings in Ontario and Alberta as a United Church of Canada minister. Presently, Lisa is an adjunct seminary instructor, an ecumenical inspirational speaker/worship leader, and an accessibility advocate.

Lisa earned her doctoral degree in Christian Worship Studies from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies in 2016. She is passionate about equipping others to craft and deliver creative, well-integrated worship services that incorporate diverse worship arts modalities. Her warm, highly engaging teaching style is practical and accessible, while also integrating theological coherence, artistic excellence, and academic rigour. In any given context, Lisa teaches worship leadership and the formative power of the liturgy as if it matters deeply (because it does); she is always looking for opportunities to help communities of faith discover innovative and impactful ways to broaden their discipleship and widen their welcome.

Lisa also lives with medical disabilities. She is grateful to spend most of her days at home now, composing contemporary hymns and liturgical service music, writing liturgies, teaching worship arts, the liturgical year, and disability justice, and undertaking occasional pulpit supply and speaking engagements, as her health permits.