Ugh, I went to an organ recital recently
and the organist, though technically proficient, was devoid of energy,
interpretation, originality or excitement. No wonder today's youth are
not taking up the organ as an instrument because they have to listen to
people like that in their churches every Sunday. What a turn off. In
many of our churches on Sunday, the organ is like a sports car, backed
out of the garage for one hour each week and only to the end of the
driveway then back into the garage.
When I work with singers
either in the church, workshop or theater venue, I often share one of
several simple videos with them. We first watch the video with the
sound off. Then we watch it a second time but this time I tell a story
based upon the facial expressions and movement of the singer. Then the
singers each take a turn doing the same. I then tell them the story of
the song and we watch it one final time with the sound still off.
Finally, we watch it with the sound on. Listeners often hear the notes
and not the words because singers, like organists, put more effort into
the notes rather than communicating.
This exercise not only
makes the singers aware of their expressions, movement and inflection,
but it also makes them cognizant of the importance of words and story
telling. All too often singers are mired down with technique, notes and
style rather than simple communication. This applies not only to
theater performers but church musicians often fall down into that hole,
too. I'm not saying they need to employ theatrics into their delivery
of the Psalms and holy scripture, just become better communicators of it
through basic facial expression, making eye contact and most
importantly - BEING PREPARED. If you have to look at the page more
than 20% of the time, you're not prepared to interpret.
I'll say
no more on the topic. You can use any video you like but one of my
favorites to start with is Betty Buckley's interpretation of the song
"Meadowlark." The first video with commentary but, without sound can be
found here:
https://youtu.be/NaLch5-ItPg
Here is the original video with sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqI6-Lrvi68
So, all you singers, story tellers, poets and organists, "SING . . . " for me.
Showing posts with label organist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organist. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2016
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Why the Church is Losing Membership
Running Hawk of the Lakota Nation once said that religion is for
people who are afraid of Hell. Spirituality is for people who have
already been there. Are our churches filled with the first or latter
and how does that affect the growth of the church?
People are leaving the institutional church in droves. Many of the peripatetic people are not taking the time to technically leave, they are just not going anymore. Despite that, there are a few churches in my area who are boasting that their congregations are bursting at the seams but they are just cherry picking their data. One church dropped from five Masses each weekend down to two. The priest at that church reports that his two Masses are packed every Sunday; consolidating five Masses into two is not growth. Another pastor was interviewed by a local paper where he said that his church has seen significant growth and every Mass is packed. He failed to mention that the bishop of his diocese closed three other churches in his community and his church simply picked up the people who lost their buildings. New people where not suddenly going to church, regular attendees just got displaced and had to find a new home.
I have heard all the excuses why people are leaving the church such as society is lost, or they are sexually deviant, they don't beleive in God, they think the church is full of hypocrites, the church worships money, that gays and atheists and politicians and Hollywood have destroyed morality and our society of lemmings is blindly following. All that may be true to a certain extent but those people are still not the problem, the church is. Ultimately the church is terrible at choosing which battles to fight and how to reach out to those who see the church as irrelevant.
A church was hiring a new music director and the best candidate who had promising ideas and talent turned out to have a felony record. Instead of hiring him they hired the next guy in line who lacked vision, worshiped music and consequently destroyed their existing music program. That church chose to die rather than forgive. They failed to walk the walk and realize that Jesus, a convicted felon himself, while on the cross didn't take an honest man to paradise with him but another convicted felon. That church lost members who were not only frustrated by the diminished music program but some people left because an unforgiving church was not a church they wanted to be part of or thought they belonged to. Ultimately, churches would do well to replace their staff with people who only have the goals of serving God.
Each day our communities are beleaguered with violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism. Meanwhile our churches are battling with issues such as, do we take out the kneelers or leave them in? Should we have background checks to protect our children? Should we put in pew cushions and carpet? Do we buy a pipe organ or electric organ? Should our music be more upbeat and contemporary? Should we purchase a pool table for our youth group room?
Now to be fair, there are churches who address the big issues of violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism very well. Most people would very much like to be part of those solutions but when the church bickers about something other, it can be a turn off. The decision to put in a carpet may not be the reason someone leaves a church but it could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. Usually there have been a series of disillusionment or a longing for something more. The church should work on ministry and leave the building issues to the professionals they hire.
I once had a choir member who didn't like the fact that our church, the church she was raised in, was a liturgical church. She longed for a more charismatic approach to worship. She said that the church used an archaic and dusty language which didn't resonate with her. It didn't give her comfort and she said that the message she heard each Sunday wasn't worth hearing. When she came to me expressing this ache in her heart and that she was interested in the local Assembly of God congregation, I didn't try to talk her out of it. She was no good to us if she was unhappy and guilt ridden. I told her to try them out for a few months and if that style of worship made her feel closer to God and the community, then she had my blessing but, our door was always open for her if she ever wanted to come back. We never saw her again but she became very active in her new worshiping community's food bank and soup kitchen. She went on to organize a mission trip to South America. For her and her spiritual needs, she chose right. She is no longer at war with herself and the church and now her battleground is with poverty. Who knew this Milquetoast of a person had it in her to become a General in the army. That is what happens when you have faith and there is an opportunity to turn it loose.
Another reason people may choose another church is for their Sunday production value. People may have joined their church because of the music but, I don't want people to come for the music. Instead I want my music to inspire them to action, to be re-energized, to oxygenate their blood, to transform them, to remind them of a Kaddosh moment from their life, to be part of an awakening to a call for action, to feel joy. Many church organists are just organists. That is too bad.
The music we sing should not simply be a song that fits into a time slot like most musical offerings in our worship services are. It should speak to the needs of the community, not preach to nor entertain them. Much like the words of an uninspired preacher, music can also speak in a foreign dusty tongue. Some of our music holds onto dusty words that have no resonance in the ears of society, not realizing that just singing those words louder or faster isn't the answer. Religious buzzwords and fancy octavos used to work 50 years ago but they don't anymore. This spiritualized insider-language keeps regular people at a distance. People need the music to speak in a language that they can understand. They long to sing songs that pertain to what is happening in their lives this day. People don’t need to be dazzled with big production numbers larded with churchy words that are about eschatological frameworks and theological systems or warm and fuzzy theology.
Too many organists don't see how pastoral and ministerial their work is. I knew an organist who never played the same song twice in a church. He would date each piece and never repeat it again. People love to hear their favorite song over and over and if something an organist plays or the choir sings resonates with people, why not use it again? The same holds true for hymns. I fell in love with a new song called "You Are Mine" and I thought it would serve my parish well for funeral purposes and decided to use it every week for a month. The confirmation class liked it and asked if I would play it for their confirmation Mass and the song became a comfort and favorite of the parish over time. Another song I selected for a whole month was "All Are Welcome." The city was planning to put up a parole shelter next door to the church and the church was protesting so I thought that the congregation needed to hear that message over and over again. The church lost the battle and the parole shelter was put in. Some members left. All are not welcome.
A lot of churches have drastically changed their gimmicky worship styles to include lights, stages, elaborate sound systems, bands, videos screens, computer graphics, cameras and big production numbers from the praise band. In reality this is just noise to those who are really seeking an encounter with God. It is a distraction that has little importance, purpose and applicability to the rest of their week, or for people who are trying to grapple with the painful and confusing issues in the trenches of their real lives.
I have nothing against tech, I use it myself. I own four cameras, mixing boards, a switch box and the ability to stream live but I don't use those tools other than for recitals. If my church wanted to move in that direction for ministerial purposes then I'd gladly donate my expertise for that purpose but, the gimmick of a church "rock show" simply doesn't make a difference in peoples' lives. People can find entertainment anywhere. Church shouldn't be entertaining. Church should challenge us and inspire us to do something with our lives. Yes, many people who don't know what they are looking for may choose a church that offers entertainment but, that is all those churches may have and it requires a lot of energy to maintain that illusion. "Ignore the man behind the curtain."
There is a church near me who has a full time youth minister and a youth group budget of about $50,000 per year. The youth have their own service, plan all the music and readings and no adults are permitted to attend that service. The music by most standards would be deemed liturgically inappropriate for they use pop songs in place of sacred music such as "Lean on Me" and "Don't Stop Believin'." They average over 200 teens each week and despite that, they don't have a collection anymore because it would usually yield about ten bucks. Their swanky teen lounge sports a pool table, ping pong table, Foosball table, several sofas, a small kitchen, a 54 inch flat screen TV, a game console and WiFi. Post service activity include copious amounts of pizza and soda. For a teen on Sunday night, it's the place to be. When the teens graduate high school, they are not permitted to come back because they are now adults nor do they bother to join the church they don't know. The whole program is a wash financially and only gives an outward appearance of being spiritually alive, active and having a reputation for success. I'm sure many will disagree about the efficacy of the program but the numbers don't lie because on Sunday morning the youngest person in attendance at the normal Mass is 60 years old because the kids just don't ever come back. I bet most youth programs are much the same. Dollar for dollar, they are not a very good investment. Kids, like adults, yearn for a message worth sharing and an opportunity to act on it and make a difference, but it’s hard to hear that message above gimmicky pyrotechnics.
Some friends of mine heard that message and sent their daughter to Arizona one summer to help build housing for the poor. She came back a different person, with vision, drive and the decision to dedicate her life in service of the poor. She really wants to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church but we know that isn't going to happen. That's another issue which drives our contemporary society away. Like many issues, the church is usually on the other side of popular opinion.
I knew a Methodist pastor who wanted to start a satellite church in a strip mall in a poor section of a nearby city. They would move their food pantry there and offer counseling with meeting rooms and ancillary worship space. His parish council shot down the idea citing that it would be expensive and they wouldn't have the volunteers to run it. I applaud the pastor's vision - instead of trying to lure people to the church, to instead go out to where the people already are. Just because the parish council didn't think anyone in the parish would volunteer didn't mean that once people found out about this ministry they wouldn't take part or join. Especially people in the community where this vital ministry would have been offered. The parish council couldn't see past its own building. Ironically this church has a large wooden sign above their front door which can only be seen as you leave the church to the parking lot. It says "Enter." When you leave the church you are entering the mission field. The best way to reach the people who don't come to church is to get out of the building and go to them. Get out of the building!
Churches don't walk the walk. My dear friend Maggie's husband was arrested for a consensual yet illegal sex crime with a teenager. They were immediately ostracized from their church (as was the victim, strangely). When they approached the pastors at several other churches about joining, the answer was always the same; they were not welcome. Some churches are not very forgiving or loving or welcoming. That was too bad for the many churches who turned their backs on them as Maggie and her husband are very well off financially and tithe over $100 weekly. Unable to find a church who accepted sinners, they formed their own little living room church with several friends who were more forgiving and they all left their respective churches to create their own.
When two hurricanes struck my area, I went out with a small band of volunteers to help people with cleanup. We encountered many people who lost their homes and were sleeping in their cars. When they called FEMA for help, they were told to call Catholic Charities who told them to call United Way who told them to call Family and Children's Services who told them to call 211 who told them to call . . . FEMA! Many of these people haven't had a good meal, a shower or clean clothes and were living day by day waiting for help to arrive. I knew there was nothing I could do to fix their dilemma but I was telling Maggie that I wanted to help them in some small way that could at least give them hope. That Sunday when Maggie's living room church of about ten people gathered, she raised $5,000. I then went out with the cash and when I encountered people living in their car or in distress, I gave them $100 a piece and told them to go get a good meal, go get a good night sleep in a hotel, or go buy some necessities. That little band of ostracized sinners did more for the homeless than a church full of "good" people.
So, if Jesus spent his time with prostitutes, murderers, thieves, lepers and outcasts, why can't the church? Hate begets hate and when the church hates, they lose but, they don't know it. They don't know what they don't know. In reality, all are not welcome in our churches despite the pastors regurgitating it on Sunday. That is part of the reason people are leaving the church because some of us are honest to admit that we are sinners and know that the "good" people in our churches would not accept us if they knew the truth. So you see, the people who don't go to church are not the problem, the church and its "good people" are the problem. If they would stop praying, preaching, judging, diagnosing, denying and just simply welcome, that would make all the difference. This doesn't necessarily mean that people are walking away from faith, it just means faith is more attainable somewhere else. Maybe if the church pulled its praying hands apart, their arms would be open for embracing and welcoming rather than denying.
Occam’s razor (developed by Ockham) is the law of parsimony. It is a problem solving principle which posits that it is pointless to do something with more when it can be done with less. In other words, simplicity is your best bet. When faced with a decision on which is the most likely strategy to be successful, generally, the most simple choice is the most efficient.
Here is an example of Occam's Razor in my life. I volunteer for a cable access show each week and it took my predecessor an hour to set up the studio while it only takes me about half an hour. The difference is when he put away microphone stands and camera tripods he would loosen them, fold them, tighten them then put them in their respective corner. I would just leave them extended and put them in the corner, saving a significant amount of time setting up and taking down. They weren't in the way and nobody else used them during the week. Likewise, all the cables going to the cameras are about 50 feet long and he would unravel them then have to roll them up after the show. We only need about fifteen feet of cable so I taped up about 35 feet and now I only need to uncoil and roll up fifteen feet. He would always put out 25 chairs for the audience but if we only have six guests on the show, I only need to put out six chairs. If they bring a friend, I can always go get another chair. Simplicity is your best bet.
The church desperately needs to be aware of the law of parsimony. Especially when it comes to forming committees. The problem with a committee is that all it takes is for one person to not like an idea or say it can't be done and it probably won't be pursued. Much worse is to assign a task to someone and they either don't get it done or do it poorly. Committees usually have a religious agenda, an argument to win, a point to make or a cause to defend and while these may keep the church running, they are also the bane of many a church. As a member of the staff, my preferred method of work is to meet with the pastor, toss around ideas then implement them. I spend the week talking to people about it, getting their input, researching it, then being a master of delegation, I either call people whom I trust or catch them at Sunday coffee hour and assign them a task. Implementing deadlines and followup with each person is crucial. I can get more accomplished in one day than a committee can get done in three months and it is the simplest route.
My pastor once charged me with the task of organizing a haunted house because our church youth group attended one and I commented that we could do better so he said "Then do it." I researched haunted house ideas, mapped out a route for our three story rectory and spent the year casually gathering materials. Several months later I contacted people and groups in the parish asking them to be responsible for whatever haunting I planned for each room. Nobody said no, I had over 80 volunteers and the program was a huge success. Several hundred visitors filed through in a two hour period commenting that it was the best haunted house they've ever visited and we made several hundred dollars from donations.
Showcasing parish leadership was key. One year the pastor was in an open coffin and the choir served as mourners. I saved flowers from funerals for the whole year and that funeral room was decked out with dead flowers, wailing choir members and creepy organ music. Another year the pastor and associate pastor's heads were mounted on a fake wall and the secretary, wearing a pith helmet, stood proudly next to her trophy collection. People came every year just to see what the pastor would be doing in his room.
After I left that parish a lay person took over the haunted house. With no vision and waiting until the last minute to plan, she formed a committee where anarchy reigned, tempers flew and people who had no idea what they were doing shot down idea after idea. The haunted house was a disaster, half the rooms didn't have anything in them. It failed miserably and they never had one again.
Occam’s razor can serve an individual very well also and this is where I think Occam’s razor can come into play for the person who is disillusioned or disgruntled by their church, the institution, the politics or anything else that leaves them yearning for something more: Withdraw your membership. Leave the church, leave the apathy. Form a small bible study group with family and friends. You don't need much to run a home church, a bible and a place to sit is all. Churches are failing across the country and they need to crumble more before we can begin to rebuild. Many pastors need to get real jobs instead of pretending to serve the community and we need to let the money serving churches fail. Church people are notorious for worshiping music, buildings, organs, groups, committees, activities and money. One parish council I sat on discussed the need for attracting new members to the church - to help pay the bills. That is totally the wrong reason for a church to exist but churches are businesses, institutions, corporations and are run by like minded lay people. How does growth for the sake of having more money to pay the bills serve the poor, naked, hungry, dying and imprisoned? So what do you need from a church that you can't find in your living room surrounded by like minded worshipers? The church needs to be reminded of the commandment “Thou shall have no other Gods before me”. This is Occam’s Razor at its best. When the church teaches love, joy, forgiveness, death, peace and God, the people will listen. That is all they need. Continue with worshiping other things and soon the church will be an empty room.
A big problem in our churches is poor leadership and people who lack vision. Something I try to do with all my ministry projects is to network to organizations and people out in the community in addition to the diverse organizations within the church. When I organized the aforementioned haunted house I made sure every organization in the church had a room to haunt, likewise, I invited local community theater organizations to haunt a room. I asked a funeral home to donate a coffin and a local contractor to build me a working guillotine. The people who were not part of the church were excited to see their labor being part of something bigger and they even visited the church on Sundays thereafter. They also never said no to future requests.
I once went to a Christmas party at a home where the host hung foil stars from her ceiling and I thought that would be a good idea for the church. I asked the pastor if we could decorate the church that way for Christmas and he said if I thought I could pull it off, do it. I bought 300 various colored and sized stars and spent two days building a fishing line grid then hoisting it up to the ceiling from a ladder. When I entered the church that Saturday for Mass, I was horrified to see that our forced air heat was causing the stars to wave and twinkle, thinking they would be a distraction. When people began to arrive for the four o'clock Mass, you could hear the gasps, oo's and ah's as people entered. The following week attendance grew by 25% at every Mass. The stars became an annual attraction with many volunteers looking forward in taking part with the hanging them and, the pastor even purchased a lift for the project. Now I don't know if people joined our church because of that new ministry program but, more fallen away members began attending again because something new was going on. It also didn't hurt that the pastor used the stars in his homily for weeks to come. The true success to that program was socializing and networking as I was able to use that program to make contacts for other programs.
At another church I offered a weekly organ recital every Tuesday at noon. I dropped off a flyer at that new parole shelter and some of the men started attending (probably for the free coffee) and eventually began volunteering to set up, pass out programs and clean up. They eventually asked the church to use a room for their daily AA and NA classes. In return they provided electrical, plumbing, carpentry and painting services to the church. A few of them joined the church, got married and had children. People often find our churches in the most unexpected ways. That is why we need to network and be willing to step outside of our comfort zones and areas of expertise and hire people with vision and courage. Someone may not ever think of approaching an organist to talk to about their problems but if that organist also skis and they encounter them during a coffee hour and begin discussing the new parabolic technology, it opens a whole new dimension of relationship which can be tapped into later. Like my disgruntled choir member, acorns can become oaks.
A woman found out that I answered a suicide hotline and she joined the choir. It took her five years to approach and talk to me about her suicidal thoughts. She said she never wanted to talk to me about her issues, she just wanted to be near someone who would understand and care. It was a "hem of the garment" encounter for her and for her it was all she needed to keep going.
I once inherited a church with a lot of problems. What church does not have problems? There were three music groups; the traditional choir, the folk group and a youth choir. There were three directors for each group and they all hated one another and worse, they planted the seeds of hate among their individual membership. I met with each of the directors asking them what their vision for the parish was and I remember the folk group director said "Vision? I just come in and play every Sunday. What do I need vision for?" So I created programs where no group had ownership but all three could participate in, together. It took about five years before wounds began to heal and I'd say it took fifteen years before all hate was abolished. The secret wasn't in creating musical opportunities for them to participate in. It was in the creation of non-musical activities for them to socialize in where they discovered one another outside of what they were competing with. I organized a Living Stations of the Cross service and asked a few members from each group to participate by writing and reading personal meditations based upon an assigned station. When they heard testimony about each others fears, pains and struggles, they began to see each other for who they really were: broken and frail human beings. When I saw them spending time together at the coffee hour, I knew healing had begun. Soon they began attending each other's concerts and Masses.
Judgmentalism, ostrcisation, fear, anger and separation slowly and insidiously breeds distance. A woman in adultery, a doubting follower, a rebellious prodigal, a person with a record, a demon-riddled young man with substance abuse issues or mental health issues; they all need a Church which will love them, nothing more. People who are hurt and confused feel God's love when they are cared for. They take shelter in God's love when they look with gratitude at all the beauty they see. A church who offers all that, they will feel it too. So if their problems are growing like a bacteria, if their money problems are a concern, if they lack vision and membership is falling, they have nothing to lose by embracing grace, mercy and forgiveness and everything to gain. Like someone caught in a rip tide, they need to stop flailing, take a deep breath and just float. Like the boy in the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000, they must offer all they have. Like the people in my church who left through the back door because a parole shelter moved next door, God provided and more people entered through the front door.
God works through people. The church moves forward rhythmically like a clock ticking. The key is to remember, it’s the Lord’s church. Churches should focus on this truth. When they do, time heals wounds. Conflict embraces resolution. Anger gives way to joy. Emptiness surrenders to fullness. But first we need to forgive and not judge. Is the church willing to do that?
Society is becoming more enlightened and many good people recognize that they are sinners and are still searching for a place where they can be known and belong. A place where it feels like God lives, and the people of that church are the ones who can show it to them. Maybe we do live in a sinful, deviant and disbelieving society but it is those people whom the church is supposed to be reaching out to. So, for the love of God; reach. Step out into the neighborhoods around you and partner with the amazing things already happening in the secular world and all the beautiful stuff God is already doing there. As C. S. Lewis once said, "We're going to be really surprised who actually makes it to heaven."
People are leaving the institutional church in droves. Many of the peripatetic people are not taking the time to technically leave, they are just not going anymore. Despite that, there are a few churches in my area who are boasting that their congregations are bursting at the seams but they are just cherry picking their data. One church dropped from five Masses each weekend down to two. The priest at that church reports that his two Masses are packed every Sunday; consolidating five Masses into two is not growth. Another pastor was interviewed by a local paper where he said that his church has seen significant growth and every Mass is packed. He failed to mention that the bishop of his diocese closed three other churches in his community and his church simply picked up the people who lost their buildings. New people where not suddenly going to church, regular attendees just got displaced and had to find a new home.
I have heard all the excuses why people are leaving the church such as society is lost, or they are sexually deviant, they don't beleive in God, they think the church is full of hypocrites, the church worships money, that gays and atheists and politicians and Hollywood have destroyed morality and our society of lemmings is blindly following. All that may be true to a certain extent but those people are still not the problem, the church is. Ultimately the church is terrible at choosing which battles to fight and how to reach out to those who see the church as irrelevant.
A church was hiring a new music director and the best candidate who had promising ideas and talent turned out to have a felony record. Instead of hiring him they hired the next guy in line who lacked vision, worshiped music and consequently destroyed their existing music program. That church chose to die rather than forgive. They failed to walk the walk and realize that Jesus, a convicted felon himself, while on the cross didn't take an honest man to paradise with him but another convicted felon. That church lost members who were not only frustrated by the diminished music program but some people left because an unforgiving church was not a church they wanted to be part of or thought they belonged to. Ultimately, churches would do well to replace their staff with people who only have the goals of serving God.
Each day our communities are beleaguered with violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism. Meanwhile our churches are battling with issues such as, do we take out the kneelers or leave them in? Should we have background checks to protect our children? Should we put in pew cushions and carpet? Do we buy a pipe organ or electric organ? Should our music be more upbeat and contemporary? Should we purchase a pool table for our youth group room?
Now to be fair, there are churches who address the big issues of violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism very well. Most people would very much like to be part of those solutions but when the church bickers about something other, it can be a turn off. The decision to put in a carpet may not be the reason someone leaves a church but it could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. Usually there have been a series of disillusionment or a longing for something more. The church should work on ministry and leave the building issues to the professionals they hire.
I once had a choir member who didn't like the fact that our church, the church she was raised in, was a liturgical church. She longed for a more charismatic approach to worship. She said that the church used an archaic and dusty language which didn't resonate with her. It didn't give her comfort and she said that the message she heard each Sunday wasn't worth hearing. When she came to me expressing this ache in her heart and that she was interested in the local Assembly of God congregation, I didn't try to talk her out of it. She was no good to us if she was unhappy and guilt ridden. I told her to try them out for a few months and if that style of worship made her feel closer to God and the community, then she had my blessing but, our door was always open for her if she ever wanted to come back. We never saw her again but she became very active in her new worshiping community's food bank and soup kitchen. She went on to organize a mission trip to South America. For her and her spiritual needs, she chose right. She is no longer at war with herself and the church and now her battleground is with poverty. Who knew this Milquetoast of a person had it in her to become a General in the army. That is what happens when you have faith and there is an opportunity to turn it loose.
Another reason people may choose another church is for their Sunday production value. People may have joined their church because of the music but, I don't want people to come for the music. Instead I want my music to inspire them to action, to be re-energized, to oxygenate their blood, to transform them, to remind them of a Kaddosh moment from their life, to be part of an awakening to a call for action, to feel joy. Many church organists are just organists. That is too bad.
The music we sing should not simply be a song that fits into a time slot like most musical offerings in our worship services are. It should speak to the needs of the community, not preach to nor entertain them. Much like the words of an uninspired preacher, music can also speak in a foreign dusty tongue. Some of our music holds onto dusty words that have no resonance in the ears of society, not realizing that just singing those words louder or faster isn't the answer. Religious buzzwords and fancy octavos used to work 50 years ago but they don't anymore. This spiritualized insider-language keeps regular people at a distance. People need the music to speak in a language that they can understand. They long to sing songs that pertain to what is happening in their lives this day. People don’t need to be dazzled with big production numbers larded with churchy words that are about eschatological frameworks and theological systems or warm and fuzzy theology.
Too many organists don't see how pastoral and ministerial their work is. I knew an organist who never played the same song twice in a church. He would date each piece and never repeat it again. People love to hear their favorite song over and over and if something an organist plays or the choir sings resonates with people, why not use it again? The same holds true for hymns. I fell in love with a new song called "You Are Mine" and I thought it would serve my parish well for funeral purposes and decided to use it every week for a month. The confirmation class liked it and asked if I would play it for their confirmation Mass and the song became a comfort and favorite of the parish over time. Another song I selected for a whole month was "All Are Welcome." The city was planning to put up a parole shelter next door to the church and the church was protesting so I thought that the congregation needed to hear that message over and over again. The church lost the battle and the parole shelter was put in. Some members left. All are not welcome.
A lot of churches have drastically changed their gimmicky worship styles to include lights, stages, elaborate sound systems, bands, videos screens, computer graphics, cameras and big production numbers from the praise band. In reality this is just noise to those who are really seeking an encounter with God. It is a distraction that has little importance, purpose and applicability to the rest of their week, or for people who are trying to grapple with the painful and confusing issues in the trenches of their real lives.
I have nothing against tech, I use it myself. I own four cameras, mixing boards, a switch box and the ability to stream live but I don't use those tools other than for recitals. If my church wanted to move in that direction for ministerial purposes then I'd gladly donate my expertise for that purpose but, the gimmick of a church "rock show" simply doesn't make a difference in peoples' lives. People can find entertainment anywhere. Church shouldn't be entertaining. Church should challenge us and inspire us to do something with our lives. Yes, many people who don't know what they are looking for may choose a church that offers entertainment but, that is all those churches may have and it requires a lot of energy to maintain that illusion. "Ignore the man behind the curtain."
There is a church near me who has a full time youth minister and a youth group budget of about $50,000 per year. The youth have their own service, plan all the music and readings and no adults are permitted to attend that service. The music by most standards would be deemed liturgically inappropriate for they use pop songs in place of sacred music such as "Lean on Me" and "Don't Stop Believin'." They average over 200 teens each week and despite that, they don't have a collection anymore because it would usually yield about ten bucks. Their swanky teen lounge sports a pool table, ping pong table, Foosball table, several sofas, a small kitchen, a 54 inch flat screen TV, a game console and WiFi. Post service activity include copious amounts of pizza and soda. For a teen on Sunday night, it's the place to be. When the teens graduate high school, they are not permitted to come back because they are now adults nor do they bother to join the church they don't know. The whole program is a wash financially and only gives an outward appearance of being spiritually alive, active and having a reputation for success. I'm sure many will disagree about the efficacy of the program but the numbers don't lie because on Sunday morning the youngest person in attendance at the normal Mass is 60 years old because the kids just don't ever come back. I bet most youth programs are much the same. Dollar for dollar, they are not a very good investment. Kids, like adults, yearn for a message worth sharing and an opportunity to act on it and make a difference, but it’s hard to hear that message above gimmicky pyrotechnics.
Some friends of mine heard that message and sent their daughter to Arizona one summer to help build housing for the poor. She came back a different person, with vision, drive and the decision to dedicate her life in service of the poor. She really wants to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church but we know that isn't going to happen. That's another issue which drives our contemporary society away. Like many issues, the church is usually on the other side of popular opinion.
I knew a Methodist pastor who wanted to start a satellite church in a strip mall in a poor section of a nearby city. They would move their food pantry there and offer counseling with meeting rooms and ancillary worship space. His parish council shot down the idea citing that it would be expensive and they wouldn't have the volunteers to run it. I applaud the pastor's vision - instead of trying to lure people to the church, to instead go out to where the people already are. Just because the parish council didn't think anyone in the parish would volunteer didn't mean that once people found out about this ministry they wouldn't take part or join. Especially people in the community where this vital ministry would have been offered. The parish council couldn't see past its own building. Ironically this church has a large wooden sign above their front door which can only be seen as you leave the church to the parking lot. It says "Enter." When you leave the church you are entering the mission field. The best way to reach the people who don't come to church is to get out of the building and go to them. Get out of the building!
Churches don't walk the walk. My dear friend Maggie's husband was arrested for a consensual yet illegal sex crime with a teenager. They were immediately ostracized from their church (as was the victim, strangely). When they approached the pastors at several other churches about joining, the answer was always the same; they were not welcome. Some churches are not very forgiving or loving or welcoming. That was too bad for the many churches who turned their backs on them as Maggie and her husband are very well off financially and tithe over $100 weekly. Unable to find a church who accepted sinners, they formed their own little living room church with several friends who were more forgiving and they all left their respective churches to create their own.
When two hurricanes struck my area, I went out with a small band of volunteers to help people with cleanup. We encountered many people who lost their homes and were sleeping in their cars. When they called FEMA for help, they were told to call Catholic Charities who told them to call United Way who told them to call Family and Children's Services who told them to call 211 who told them to call . . . FEMA! Many of these people haven't had a good meal, a shower or clean clothes and were living day by day waiting for help to arrive. I knew there was nothing I could do to fix their dilemma but I was telling Maggie that I wanted to help them in some small way that could at least give them hope. That Sunday when Maggie's living room church of about ten people gathered, she raised $5,000. I then went out with the cash and when I encountered people living in their car or in distress, I gave them $100 a piece and told them to go get a good meal, go get a good night sleep in a hotel, or go buy some necessities. That little band of ostracized sinners did more for the homeless than a church full of "good" people.
So, if Jesus spent his time with prostitutes, murderers, thieves, lepers and outcasts, why can't the church? Hate begets hate and when the church hates, they lose but, they don't know it. They don't know what they don't know. In reality, all are not welcome in our churches despite the pastors regurgitating it on Sunday. That is part of the reason people are leaving the church because some of us are honest to admit that we are sinners and know that the "good" people in our churches would not accept us if they knew the truth. So you see, the people who don't go to church are not the problem, the church and its "good people" are the problem. If they would stop praying, preaching, judging, diagnosing, denying and just simply welcome, that would make all the difference. This doesn't necessarily mean that people are walking away from faith, it just means faith is more attainable somewhere else. Maybe if the church pulled its praying hands apart, their arms would be open for embracing and welcoming rather than denying.
Occam’s razor (developed by Ockham) is the law of parsimony. It is a problem solving principle which posits that it is pointless to do something with more when it can be done with less. In other words, simplicity is your best bet. When faced with a decision on which is the most likely strategy to be successful, generally, the most simple choice is the most efficient.
Here is an example of Occam's Razor in my life. I volunteer for a cable access show each week and it took my predecessor an hour to set up the studio while it only takes me about half an hour. The difference is when he put away microphone stands and camera tripods he would loosen them, fold them, tighten them then put them in their respective corner. I would just leave them extended and put them in the corner, saving a significant amount of time setting up and taking down. They weren't in the way and nobody else used them during the week. Likewise, all the cables going to the cameras are about 50 feet long and he would unravel them then have to roll them up after the show. We only need about fifteen feet of cable so I taped up about 35 feet and now I only need to uncoil and roll up fifteen feet. He would always put out 25 chairs for the audience but if we only have six guests on the show, I only need to put out six chairs. If they bring a friend, I can always go get another chair. Simplicity is your best bet.
The church desperately needs to be aware of the law of parsimony. Especially when it comes to forming committees. The problem with a committee is that all it takes is for one person to not like an idea or say it can't be done and it probably won't be pursued. Much worse is to assign a task to someone and they either don't get it done or do it poorly. Committees usually have a religious agenda, an argument to win, a point to make or a cause to defend and while these may keep the church running, they are also the bane of many a church. As a member of the staff, my preferred method of work is to meet with the pastor, toss around ideas then implement them. I spend the week talking to people about it, getting their input, researching it, then being a master of delegation, I either call people whom I trust or catch them at Sunday coffee hour and assign them a task. Implementing deadlines and followup with each person is crucial. I can get more accomplished in one day than a committee can get done in three months and it is the simplest route.
My pastor once charged me with the task of organizing a haunted house because our church youth group attended one and I commented that we could do better so he said "Then do it." I researched haunted house ideas, mapped out a route for our three story rectory and spent the year casually gathering materials. Several months later I contacted people and groups in the parish asking them to be responsible for whatever haunting I planned for each room. Nobody said no, I had over 80 volunteers and the program was a huge success. Several hundred visitors filed through in a two hour period commenting that it was the best haunted house they've ever visited and we made several hundred dollars from donations.
Showcasing parish leadership was key. One year the pastor was in an open coffin and the choir served as mourners. I saved flowers from funerals for the whole year and that funeral room was decked out with dead flowers, wailing choir members and creepy organ music. Another year the pastor and associate pastor's heads were mounted on a fake wall and the secretary, wearing a pith helmet, stood proudly next to her trophy collection. People came every year just to see what the pastor would be doing in his room.
After I left that parish a lay person took over the haunted house. With no vision and waiting until the last minute to plan, she formed a committee where anarchy reigned, tempers flew and people who had no idea what they were doing shot down idea after idea. The haunted house was a disaster, half the rooms didn't have anything in them. It failed miserably and they never had one again.
Occam’s razor can serve an individual very well also and this is where I think Occam’s razor can come into play for the person who is disillusioned or disgruntled by their church, the institution, the politics or anything else that leaves them yearning for something more: Withdraw your membership. Leave the church, leave the apathy. Form a small bible study group with family and friends. You don't need much to run a home church, a bible and a place to sit is all. Churches are failing across the country and they need to crumble more before we can begin to rebuild. Many pastors need to get real jobs instead of pretending to serve the community and we need to let the money serving churches fail. Church people are notorious for worshiping music, buildings, organs, groups, committees, activities and money. One parish council I sat on discussed the need for attracting new members to the church - to help pay the bills. That is totally the wrong reason for a church to exist but churches are businesses, institutions, corporations and are run by like minded lay people. How does growth for the sake of having more money to pay the bills serve the poor, naked, hungry, dying and imprisoned? So what do you need from a church that you can't find in your living room surrounded by like minded worshipers? The church needs to be reminded of the commandment “Thou shall have no other Gods before me”. This is Occam’s Razor at its best. When the church teaches love, joy, forgiveness, death, peace and God, the people will listen. That is all they need. Continue with worshiping other things and soon the church will be an empty room.
A big problem in our churches is poor leadership and people who lack vision. Something I try to do with all my ministry projects is to network to organizations and people out in the community in addition to the diverse organizations within the church. When I organized the aforementioned haunted house I made sure every organization in the church had a room to haunt, likewise, I invited local community theater organizations to haunt a room. I asked a funeral home to donate a coffin and a local contractor to build me a working guillotine. The people who were not part of the church were excited to see their labor being part of something bigger and they even visited the church on Sundays thereafter. They also never said no to future requests.
I once went to a Christmas party at a home where the host hung foil stars from her ceiling and I thought that would be a good idea for the church. I asked the pastor if we could decorate the church that way for Christmas and he said if I thought I could pull it off, do it. I bought 300 various colored and sized stars and spent two days building a fishing line grid then hoisting it up to the ceiling from a ladder. When I entered the church that Saturday for Mass, I was horrified to see that our forced air heat was causing the stars to wave and twinkle, thinking they would be a distraction. When people began to arrive for the four o'clock Mass, you could hear the gasps, oo's and ah's as people entered. The following week attendance grew by 25% at every Mass. The stars became an annual attraction with many volunteers looking forward in taking part with the hanging them and, the pastor even purchased a lift for the project. Now I don't know if people joined our church because of that new ministry program but, more fallen away members began attending again because something new was going on. It also didn't hurt that the pastor used the stars in his homily for weeks to come. The true success to that program was socializing and networking as I was able to use that program to make contacts for other programs.
At another church I offered a weekly organ recital every Tuesday at noon. I dropped off a flyer at that new parole shelter and some of the men started attending (probably for the free coffee) and eventually began volunteering to set up, pass out programs and clean up. They eventually asked the church to use a room for their daily AA and NA classes. In return they provided electrical, plumbing, carpentry and painting services to the church. A few of them joined the church, got married and had children. People often find our churches in the most unexpected ways. That is why we need to network and be willing to step outside of our comfort zones and areas of expertise and hire people with vision and courage. Someone may not ever think of approaching an organist to talk to about their problems but if that organist also skis and they encounter them during a coffee hour and begin discussing the new parabolic technology, it opens a whole new dimension of relationship which can be tapped into later. Like my disgruntled choir member, acorns can become oaks.
A woman found out that I answered a suicide hotline and she joined the choir. It took her five years to approach and talk to me about her suicidal thoughts. She said she never wanted to talk to me about her issues, she just wanted to be near someone who would understand and care. It was a "hem of the garment" encounter for her and for her it was all she needed to keep going.
I once inherited a church with a lot of problems. What church does not have problems? There were three music groups; the traditional choir, the folk group and a youth choir. There were three directors for each group and they all hated one another and worse, they planted the seeds of hate among their individual membership. I met with each of the directors asking them what their vision for the parish was and I remember the folk group director said "Vision? I just come in and play every Sunday. What do I need vision for?" So I created programs where no group had ownership but all three could participate in, together. It took about five years before wounds began to heal and I'd say it took fifteen years before all hate was abolished. The secret wasn't in creating musical opportunities for them to participate in. It was in the creation of non-musical activities for them to socialize in where they discovered one another outside of what they were competing with. I organized a Living Stations of the Cross service and asked a few members from each group to participate by writing and reading personal meditations based upon an assigned station. When they heard testimony about each others fears, pains and struggles, they began to see each other for who they really were: broken and frail human beings. When I saw them spending time together at the coffee hour, I knew healing had begun. Soon they began attending each other's concerts and Masses.
Judgmentalism, ostrcisation, fear, anger and separation slowly and insidiously breeds distance. A woman in adultery, a doubting follower, a rebellious prodigal, a person with a record, a demon-riddled young man with substance abuse issues or mental health issues; they all need a Church which will love them, nothing more. People who are hurt and confused feel God's love when they are cared for. They take shelter in God's love when they look with gratitude at all the beauty they see. A church who offers all that, they will feel it too. So if their problems are growing like a bacteria, if their money problems are a concern, if they lack vision and membership is falling, they have nothing to lose by embracing grace, mercy and forgiveness and everything to gain. Like someone caught in a rip tide, they need to stop flailing, take a deep breath and just float. Like the boy in the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000, they must offer all they have. Like the people in my church who left through the back door because a parole shelter moved next door, God provided and more people entered through the front door.
God works through people. The church moves forward rhythmically like a clock ticking. The key is to remember, it’s the Lord’s church. Churches should focus on this truth. When they do, time heals wounds. Conflict embraces resolution. Anger gives way to joy. Emptiness surrenders to fullness. But first we need to forgive and not judge. Is the church willing to do that?
Society is becoming more enlightened and many good people recognize that they are sinners and are still searching for a place where they can be known and belong. A place where it feels like God lives, and the people of that church are the ones who can show it to them. Maybe we do live in a sinful, deviant and disbelieving society but it is those people whom the church is supposed to be reaching out to. So, for the love of God; reach. Step out into the neighborhoods around you and partner with the amazing things already happening in the secular world and all the beautiful stuff God is already doing there. As C. S. Lewis once said, "We're going to be really surprised who actually makes it to heaven."
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Buxtehude's Daughter, a Cantata
Buxtehude's Daughter is a spoof cantata written by Tom Savoy and Byron Nilsson about the true story of Buxtehude, his daughter and Bach. In October of 1705, Bach, at the age of 20, secured a one month leave to go hear a musician of considerable reputation. Bach proceeded to walk over 250 miles from Arnstadt to Lubeck to hear the famed Buxtehude perform one of his weekly recitals and, was so impressed that he forgot to go home and he stayed for four more months, greatly offending his superiors at his home church.
The aging Buxtehude was retiring and seeking someone to take over his directing position at the Marienkirche. The catch was that Buxtehude would only offer the job to the applicant who would marry his daughter. She was not young (over the hill at 30), not pretty, and perhaps did not posses much of a personality. At any rate, her father was having difficulty marrying her off. Other famed applicants for the position included Handel and Mattheson but the thought of marrying the daughter was too high a price to pay. Apparently, when sacrificing for your art, there are certain sacrifices that are too costly. The practice of offering a daughter as part of the "benefits package" was not uncommon in those days as Buxtehude himself married the daughter of Franz Tunder, his predecessor.
When Bach eventually returned to his home church in Arnstadt, fireworks ensued. The "minutes" of a meeting to which Bach was called to explain himself still exist today. Bach was accused of "making music" with a "stranger lady" and he was even accused of inviting her up into the choir loft. This was a time when women weren't allowed to sing in the choir and it was a serious breech of etiquette to make music with one. What would the congregation think? Not that church people are ever prone to gossip.
Buxtehude did eventually find a successor and son in law; Johann Christian Schieferdecker won the position. He was a little-known composer who was an accompanist and composer at the Hamburg opera. Schieferdecker also served as Buxtehude’s assistant shortly before the master died.
The Musicians of Ma'alwyck;
Join us for a wonderful afternoon of delightful, funny songs with Byron Nilsson, Amy Prothro and Malcolm Kogut, paired with the spoof cantata Buxtehude's Daughter and then enjoy a delicious champagne dessert buffet generously prepared and donated by Randy Rosette. Songs of Flanders & Swann, Stephen Sondheim, Noel Coward and others followed by Tom Savoy's and Nilsson's hysterical take on the surprise requirement attached to accepting the position as Buxtehude's successor. Musicians of Ma'alwyck and Byron Nilsson and friends join together to present Songs to Amuse, Sunday, October 5th at 2pm. First Unitarian Universalist Society in Albany hosts us in this special fundraiser. An afternoon not to be missed and a great way to support Musicians of Ma'alwyck. Tickets are $35 per person and available at rwww.musiciansofmaalwyck.org
Friday, September 19, 2014
Simple Improvisational Device for Organists
Here is a short lesson I created for church organists who on occasion may be desirous to employ a simple re-harmonization device without getting too carried away. I apologize for the little rant in the beginning of the video about organists getting in the way of the congregation. I too am a frequent offender of this practice. It is part of the organist ego. The devil makes us do it. Bach's congregation had the same plaint.
This device is simple. Whenever the melody is on the third tone of a chord, or you change the chord to make that note the third, leave the melody where it is but raise the chord up half a step to it's minor equivalent, then drop it down to its dominant seventh. Keep the voicing open as that will leave a lot of room for inner linear movement and a lot of room other chordal substitutions and leading. If you don't know what that means, that is okay, listen to your ear. It knows.
I often throw something like this in toward the the end of a verse to signal to the congregation that I am about to do something such as a key change or interlude. I usually only throw in interludes when the liturgical movement calls for it because the people on the dais need more time to get where they're going or to do what they're doing. If a choir is processing and they just hit the stairs to the balcony, I may do the same thing.
Personally, if I am pew-side of a church, I like to sing the harmony to the hymns and when the organist doesn't play what's on the page it renders me mute. Organists need to be cognizant of the text, too. I remember being at a music convention for Pastoral Musicians and on the fifth verse of a hymn, the text stated something about not toiling or mourning for, the gentle presence of God will carry you through the tough times. I thought it ironic that the organist was re-harmonizing, ratcheting up the crescendo pedal and tossing out trite-trumpet-triplets all as we were singing words such as "quiet" and "gentle."
Read your texts, love your people, help them to sing, hold their hand if necessary. Think of the church in the theater model; the congregants are the actors, God is the audience and you are the prompter. Prompt, don't hijack.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Church Growth
There are about six organist positions open in my area. Each of the churches are desirous for their music program to be revitalized but don't know how to do it. Some of them are dividing up the positions because either they can't find one person who can do it all or, they don't know how to find that person or they're stuck in the past.
A good music program does not exist in a vacuum. Many calcified churches try to build a program where one can't be supported because if the base congregation is not necessarily healthy and vibrant, then the music program will not be able to grow. The health of a church is like those giant sand piles the DOT stockpiles for the winter. The height and strength of the whole is only as great as the base. In order to build a bigger and stronger pile, you must enlarge and stabilize the base, then you can add to the mass. The base of any church program is the life of the whole parish. A local well endowed church thought they could grow a vibrant music program by hiring the best music director and then hire professional singers to sing in the choir. They do have great music on Sunday but, the choir often outnumbers the congregation. The people of that church usually leave talking about the music and not the Gospel.
It is good that a parish have many diverse programs but, those programs will only promote growth if they are sinuously networked within the whole parish and community crossing lines of age, diversity, income, education, gender and taste. In order for growth to occur, there must also be a cross-pollination of everything, everyone and all their ideas. If one component is missing, a church will only grow so far, as large as its base, then it will settle, ceasing to grow.
Any time that a church finds that it has nice services, can care for its own members, pay its bills and has a favorable place in the community and is saving money, it runs the risk of losing momentum and can be lulled into a peaceful slumber of religious passivity. A symptom of this is any program within the church who may find they are not growing, doing the same thing each year or their membership is not excited about what it is doing and not growing.
The story of Joshua is a perfect example where the Israelites conquered enough land and stopped fighting. They became passive and failed to occupy the whole Promised Land and soon neighboring armies overran the country. In Joshua 13, God said to Joshua that there was much more land to be possessed but the Israelites settled down short of fulfilling their destiny. It takes more power to break inertia than it takes to continue momentum so, instead of daring imagination and challenging its leadership to break inert habits, the church often continues on a path of cautious stagnation or finds itself resting on its laurels. Although not immediately deadly, this is a symptom whose problem must be discovered.
Diversification and comprehensive programming is a sign of a healthy parish. God's solution to Joshua's failure was to diversify the tribe so that a broader base of lay leaders could be established. This divided the task among the common people. Church leaders need to diversify in the same way however strong and creative leadership is still needed and a good leader must first be a commander rather than a controller. When a church divides its assembly and each group does their own thing without cross-pollination, they run the strong risk of stunted growth. Everyone loves babies and may wish that their child could stay cute and small forever but, if a mom senses that her child is not growing, she would panic and rush him to the doctor. We should panic when our churches are not growing for that is a symptom of a greater problem.
Leadership from only the top will stifle growth and extinguish life no matter how good the leadership is at what they do. The reason church leadership is unwilling to open the door to unbridled creativity may be that they are afraid to do something new, don't wish to include other people or do not wish to upset their own power balance or be challenged. It is in giving that we receive and it is in delegation and cross-pollination that we grow.
Ask anyone in the peripheral community if they've heard of your church and they will most likely give you the physical location rather than the deeds and service to the community from the church membership, another symptom. I once offered weekly organ recitals for a whole year and someone asked me which church I belonged to and when I told them, they said, "Is that the church with the weekly organ recitals with the buses parked out front every Tuesday?" They identified the church by an activity or service to the community rather than the address. Nursing homes, parole shelters, homeless people, business owners, retirees, pastors from other churches and their choir members and choir directors were among those in attendance. Churches should not be museums but movements. They should not be part of the community but circuitously networked within the whole community. If the church is merely an address or a building, they are not a growing body, they are a location and most likely a social club for the existing elite membership.
The whole congregation should be on the offensive, not just a few committees and leaders. If a visitor came to your church, would they be greeted by several people or just a few? I lost a choir member to one such church. While visiting this church on a Sunday morning to witness an adult friend's baptism, she was greeted in the parking lot, she was greeted at the door, she was greeted at the pew and she was greeted at the coffee hour. She was impressed that the choir was a family choir and didn't consist of just adults or just kids. She was impressed at the variety of music, how personal the homily was and how it pertained to people in the pews and events in the community and was not just some philosophical or academic rambling by a learned cleric (*I* think this can only happen if a pastor gets out and meets his people during the week. After all, Jesus didn't keep office hours).
A church needs to make a list of priorities, what they want to change in the church and community, where their talents can be put to use, and then they need to train and commission the people of the congregation to go out and do it. The church needs to live in the future. As long as the task is undone, there is something to do and room for growth.
For a church or a program to grow, all boredom must be eliminated. There must be a sense of expectancy, excitement and challenge. If a choir, for instance, performs the same anthems year after year, the same hymn arrangements or sings at the same annual programs, they will become stale and stale is not attractive to new members for there is no challenge. There are new ways to do old programs and every group within a church must be heated to the boiling point for, energy begets energy. This is where a good leader comes into play, not just a person with a good resumé or a proven record of status quo.
Ultimately, the problem with most churches is they are too far removed from original apostolic Christianity. The true apostle is willing to put their pot over the flame and see what happens. The word apostle comes from the roots apó which means "from" and stéllo, which means "I send." A church choir, regardless how well they may sing on Sunday morning, if they are not "sent out," to do something the other six days of the week, they run the risk of growing complacent or worse - worshipers of music. A church may hire the a music director with the best resumé or the most skilled director but if that person doesn't know how to inspire people to "go out," nothing will return. Most likely, the people they attract will be there for the wrong reasons. A CEO friend of mine told me once that when business is good, that is when you save. When business is poor, that is when you spend and pull out all the stops (partially because your competition won't be).
Many programs, especially music programs, which are more concerned with performance values than with true service can do more to hide Christ from the church than any irreverent action. A failed event can be forgiven and learned from, but a long term quality program of inertia can cause atrophy which will insidiously trickle down over time because it is only a symptom of a greater problem. A problem most churches will only replace with the same problem when hiring new people.
When the Israelites marched around Jericho blowing their horns, the battle was already won because they gave off an image of winning. Success and growth always comes from those who are unorthodox and are dreamers who dare to break with tradition and trust in God's unique ways of cross pollination and comprehensiveness. The question should not be "How can we make our church grow?" but, "What is holding us back from growing?"
When the Israelites came upon the city of Kadesh. They sent spies into the city who then reported back that the city could not be taken because there were giants living there. So, the Israelites did not have the courage to take Kadesh. A generation later, the Israelites forgot about the giants and took the city with no difficulty because the giants turned out be peaceful farmers and were easily defeated. A church that recoils at challenges or fails to hire the right people will retreat into the wilderness of comfort, safety and ultimately stagnation. They will then wander aimlessly until or unless they are replaced by another generation of people who don't know what they can't do or, hires someone who possess the vision to do something different.
The task of the church is to worship God and teach doctrine, not be a performance venue or social club. If someone in the back of the church yells out "Praise the Lord!" and everyone turns around to see who said it, your church has failed. In many of our churches, applause has become the norm because it is safe from people turning around to see who is doing it. It is sad when we are more comfortable clapping our hands rather than shouting "AMEN."
So once again, how does a church become creative to the point of producing growth and boiling over? They need to take two or more unconnected ideas and put them together to create something new. They need to create an atmosphere of creative combustion. This comes from marshaling people who have unique, different, daring and creative insights and giving them permission to dream. I've witnessed many organist search committees who commission their most academic musicians in the choir to conduct the search for a new music director. The problem is those people look for other academic musicians who will promote what they like or are like them rather than find someone with vision. A cantor friend is on one such committee and finding someone who will promote the current cantor ministry is more important to her than finding someone with vision.
Many people are capable of genius but are never allowed to explore their creativity. Instead, churches operate through groups and committees where great ideas are often stifled, shot down, altered and dumbed down by crowd consciousness or fear. Everyone is limited to their own experience and vision, especially groups. This is because we don't know what we don't know. When coupled with other creative and daring thinkers, a group can do unimaginable tasks. Many of our greatest achievements in medicine and science were the result of accidents or in the search for something else. We must embrace those mistakes and cross pollinate them with other mistakes to create something new which may work wonders.
A great example of this is Frank Abagnale, the world's most notorious check forger and imposter. He was able to assume the identity of a doctor, lawyer and airline pilot. Today, after serving time, he is a highly sought after consultant and is regularly hired by the Federal Government. His life inspired the movie "Catch Me If You Can."
When the disciples were fishing all day and were not catching anything, Jesus said, "Cast your nets on the other side." That is the problem with the church, they are stuck doing the same thing and are either afraid to change and risk growth or they lack creativity and daring to try new things. This is often because of uninspired and non-creative leadership which we replace with uninspired, non-creative leadership.
How and why we do what we do makes a difference, too. If a church musician stands before their congregations and thinks, "You are here, let me sing to you." rather than, "You are here, how may I minister to you?" prepare for a slow downward spiral. In thinking about the theater model, the choir are not the performers, the clergy are not the prompters and the congregation is not the audience. In reality, the choir and clergy are the prompters, the congregation are the actors and God is the audience. It may behoove us to redefine our roles.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Spirit of the Living God
by Malcolm Kogut / Daniel Iverson
Arranger : Malcolm Kogut
This 1935 charismatic hymn to the Holy Spirit is given a positively captivating treatment here. While the SATB scoring is mostly what one would expect, it is dressed in a piano accompaniment that can be characterized as nothing short of lovely.
Sheet music:
http://www.giamusic.com/search_details.cfm?title_id=505
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