Church Musicians: Get Out Of The Way

When a church focuses on sin, they focus on what the church is not called to be.  When they focus on forgiveness, mercy, grace and compassion, they focus on what the church is called to be.   Where can we learn this if not from the pulpit?  Our music.

A friend of mine was hired to oversee a large music program at a church with about 2,000 families.  One of the groups in the church which he didn't have authority over was the folk group.  This group consisted of several singers who sang back up to a soloist.  The soloist was a very active wedding singer and the drummer in her band was also the drummer for the folk group.  They also had a saxophone player who improvised a blizzard of 64th notes on every song. 

The "audience" loved the music.  The music was alive, vibrant and energetic.  Everyone clapped along, it was very entertaining, they listened and they loved it.  Each and every Mass was a concert of the highest caliber.  The new priest noted that nobody at that Mass was singing, they just listened.  Many people, especially musicians, would not be alarmed at this as long as the people were happy but, the sweetest sound a pastoral musician can hear is that of a congregation singing while fully and actively participating in the liturgy, not just listening. 

If you were to attend the ritual of a birthday party for someone you cared about and right before you were all to sing the song Happy Birthday, someone hijacked the singing by doing a campy, over the top or stylized version of the song, the focus would be on the singer/performer, not the person celebrating the birthday.  Liturgy is much the same.  The congregation participates in the ritual by singing and if a band does it "to" them, the congregation doesn't need to do their part as the "actors" of the liturgy, it is done for them and they are the "audience."  In the theater model, God should be the audience and the congregation the actors.   The musicians would assume the role of prompter.

In my friend's church, the sax player was asked to play only the melody so that his torrent of notes didn't get in the way of the congregation's  participation but he replied that the priest was trying to stifle his creativity.  Therein is the confusion.  The liturgy and music is not about the musicians.  It is about the people.  Musicians are not there to do the work of the people, they are there to support the participation of the people.  If we need to show off our musical ability, there are bars for that.

Why Singing Is So Important:  Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. 
There is an old African saying that "We are the stories that we tell."  We are what we believe and stories are the foundation of our identity.  There is a saying among pastoral musicians that "We are what we sing."  That is why singing in church is so important.   Singing scripture gives us the opportunity to enflesh the Word.  Singing is not only "praying twice," but combining scripture with melody and rhythm further helps to get it in our brain, heart, sinew and soul.  I think it is interesting that medical science calls breathing “respiration.”  The root of respiration is SPIRIT – re-spir-ation.  We re-spir-ate,  take in Spirit.  Singing oxygenates our blood and brains with spirit.

If I were on an airplane and it hit turbulence, I might think of a psalm text I have sung hundreds of times (Psalm 27) "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?"  If life is throwing me curve-balls, I may remember the scripture from Psalm 42, "Why do I mourn and toil within when it is mine to hope in God?"  If your memory is like mine, I can't remember a name I just heard but I can recite hundreds of lyrics.

Consider the gay teenager who is thinking about suicide, might he think deeply when he sings the words "Will you love the 'you' you hide if I but call your Name?" from the song "The Summons," or what about the person filled with hate and prejudice when he sings "See the face of Christ revealed in every person standing at your side," from "We Remember."

Our songs and hymns are a treasure trove of philosophy, scripture and poetry which has the power to change and transform life and, singing it is one powerful way to quickly and lastingly get it into our bones, sinew and brains.  If we are distracted by musical proficiency, performance and technical artistry, the moment of being in the moment may pass us by. 

Musicians, back off from the mike, let the people sing, carpet living rooms not churches, and revel in the sound of their congregation.

Musicians don't know what they don't know and it is the churches fault for not hiring pastoral musicians or not educating and training the ones they do hire to be pastoral.  It may be appealing to hire a young person with an advanced degree, who can play or direct well and build a quality music program, but does a church want a quality music program or a congregation lusting for justice, conversion, proclamation, respiration or community?  Many music programs are like a Texas longhorn; a point here, a point there, but a whole lot of bull in between.

People are changing, society is changing, churches must change, too.  People no longer look to the church for social activity or entertainment.  They thirst and hunger for something more, something the church isn't giving them.  More than entertainment, they want a sense of sacred, they  thirst for simplicity and a relationship with God.  They can only grow by facing and navigating the difficulty of life - together.  That takes an apostolic church rather than an entertaining one.  Instead of feeling still and empty the way the eye of a hurricane must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding action - which is where real life is at.  Every condition of our lives, good or bad, wonderful or horrible, is merely the support system for the journey.  There are always people who wish to deny us our humanity but if we tell our stories, there will always be someone who wishes to restore it.   Any church which has a focus on sin, they focus what the church is not called to be. 

Additionally, music ministry is a parish wide ministry, a community wide ministry, not a Mass time centered ministry.   This is not to say that musicians need to put all their feelings into their music.  Musicians should not be burdened with the responsibility of expressing themselves and demonstrate how much the music and God means to them.  That is important but whatever gift you have, it has to be used to support what the music and Word itself is saying, not inflict a personal view on it.   Feelings should not be injected into music as if through a syringe.  You can find that in a lot of churches and it can be distracting.  Musicians must learn to PROCLAIM the word, not interpret it. Leave interpretation to the Holy Spirit.

To the church who is afraid to forgo entertainment in favor of liturgy, consider the media; they only write about the sinners, crime and the scandals, but that's normal, because a tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows.  That church needs to have faith.

My friend in the opening story, after they disbanded their folk group who refused to modify the entertainment model of ministry, there was a flurry of nasty emails, all the folk group left the church and the church even lost members who supported the folk group.  Two years later after creating a more pastoral music program, they have tripled the number of people they had lost.  One of the long time members said, where once he knew all the faces he encountered during the passing of the peace, today he is met with many and new faces.  That is something to sing about for a congregation doesn't sing because they're happy; they're happy because they sing.

The Funeral Organist

Some funerals are joyful celebrations of life while others can be like - funerals.  Organists are the greatest offenders of the latter.

New organists often ask what kind of music to play for funerals.  All too often they think they have to play slow, soft and with lots of whole notes.  I hate hearing the organ played that way for any occasion but especially at funerals.  Having grown up in a 19 room house where my parents operated a rest home for elderly woman, I experienced a lot of death but mostly the love of life. 

I doubt any of us would want flat, boring, sad, subdued and dirge-like funerals upon our passing.  I suspect many organists play this way because they are too afraid to sound any other way because they think that is how funerals are supposed to sound and the books out there currently offer nothing but dirges. 

For the prelude, or gathering period, I would mostly improvise so that I could keep an eye on the pastor and watch what everyone else is doing and I could quickly respond to assembly dynamics as they were gathering.  My music was always joyful, often fast but light in registration.

In my previous parish I was also charged with the task of meeting with the family of the deceased  to help them choose readings and music.  I would also meet with those who were asked to do readings to instruct them, give them copies to practice and explain what was going to happen.  I would ask the family if they wanted the mood of the service to be subdued or a joyful celebration of life and they always chose the later.   It didn't hurt to have a pastor whose funeral homily was consistently about death being a birth into new life.

During the funeral, since the console was only about 15 feet from the front pew, the family always looked to me for cues and when I played something with a joie de vivre, they would look at me and smile.  During the Communion procession they would pass by my bench and most of the time, touch me on the shoulder or whisper a thank you.

Here are examples of how I would play both slow and fast.  Again, nothing from books - so that I could be in the moment:
http://youtu.be/VhhO6DAe2A0
http://youtu.be/QN40wHW6s2g    (actually a little bit slower but with the same gist)

For the Offertory (Preparation of the Gifts) or Communion, if we were not singing a song or hymn, I would play like that.  There are dozens of books out there with music intended for funerals but anything from classical or contemporary literature works well.  They don't have to have slow and quiet.  As I mentioned earlier, if the organists improvises, they can be in the moment and respond musically and dynamically to mood of the room.  In many cases, can even influence the mood in the room.  A skilled and cognizant organist can even control the talking and even volume of the assembly's discourse. 

Have you noticed that at a lot of funerals people will use humor about the deceased to help them get through the pain?  Music can serve in that capacity, too.  Not by playing "funny," but by playing joyfully, excitement, varied dynamics and registration changes. 

Funerals are for the living.  Here is a little story for the organist who is too afraid to play with joyful expectation because they thing funerals should be soft and slow:
God said to his people,
"Step toward the edge."
and the people replied,
"No, it is too high."
God repeated his command,
"Step toward the edge."
and the people replied,
"No, we are afraid."
God then said,
"Do not be afraid.  Step toward the edge."
So the people stepped toward the edge,
. . . and God pushed them.
. . . and they flew.

Close the book.  Step toward the edge.

-Malcolm.

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. 

Saving Money

“I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Achilles; Fortune hath not one place to hit me.”
― Thomas Browne.

When I volunteered answering the phone for 211, if there was someone that I couldn't provide referrals to or, they exhausted their service options in their particular community, I would brainstorm with them trying to find ways they could save money.  If they could save money from one area of their budget and expenses, they could then divert funds to other more important areas of their budget.  Many people are not willing to give anything up, however.  Some people, for instance, would rather spend $70 or $150 per week on cigarettes rather than pay their heating bill.  That's another problem altogether.  Here are some tips to save money: 

In the winter, turn your thermostat down.  If you are home during the day, 60 - 65 degrees can be very comfortable, especially if you wear two or three layers and there are no children, elderly or sick people in your house.  If you absolutely need or want to be warmer, so be it.  But, turn the thermostat down when you are gone for the day or when you sleep at night.  I turn my thermostat down to 55 when I go to bed because I like sleeping in a cool room.  I have several layers of blankets on top of me and I often wake up sweating and I find myself peeling off a layer or two.   I know someone who keeps his heat set at 75 degrees day and night, whether he is home or not.  He is always complaining about his heating bill.  At night, it is often too warm for him to sleep so he has a fan pointed at his bed to keep him cool.  Who does he blame for his high utility bills?  The utility company and the economy.   Instead of heating wisely, he puts in for overtime at work.

Make sure your windows are not ciphering heat to the outside.  If you can't afford to replace your windows, get some window plastic from any hardware store and seal them yourself.  If there are rooms you don't use during the day or even rarely, such as a spare bedroom, turn off the heat or close the vents and doors to those rooms.  I keep my bedroom door closed during the day and open it at night when I go to bed.  There is no need to heat a room if you are not using it.  There are grants to assist homeowners to winterize their homes if they qualify.  Call 211 to find out about them or if they exist in your community. 

Based upon your income and expenses, you may qualify for HEAP.  This is a government subsidized program to assist people in paying their heating bill in the winter.  The amount they may offer you varies from county and/or state.  Qualification depends on a multiple of factors.  I'm sure a brief internet search for HEAP and your state will provide all the details you need. 

Buying clothing, shoes, accessories, some electronics and other merchandise from Ebay and China can save you a lot of money.  Many of those vendors don't charge for shipping or tax and, their prices tend to be lower than what you will find in your local US store to begin with.   Many venders from China sell on Ebay or Aliexpress.  Just make sure the vender you buy from has a good rating and has a strong history of sales and satisfied customers.  My brand name laptop is priced at $800 in my local electronics superstore,  I acquired it for $300 online.  You can find many brand name products online for less money but keep in mind if it is too good to be true, it just might be.  Be a wise consumer and do your research. 

Don't eat out.  It is less expensive and healthier for you to buy and cook your own food. Also, shop at some of the discount markets and buy store brands.  There is a discount market near me which has great produce.  Their milk is priced at $2.37 a gallon while at the brand store it is $3.99 a gallon.  This little market is actually an overstock store for a major supermarket so you are getting the same quality at less the price.

Would you be willing to pay $16 for a two liter bottle of soda?  Of course not.  But when you pay $2 for a glass of soda or a bottle or water at a restaurant, that is what you are paying.  Don't buy drinks at restaurants.  If you shop around for sales, you can get brand name soda for as little as eighty eight cents for two liters.  Ninety nine cents most of the time.  Would you pay $50 for a salad?  Of course not, but, you can buy six heads of Romaine lettuce for under $2.50 and make about 15 or 20 salads out of it.  Don't eat out or at fast food joints, either.  It is not cost effective.

The same principle goes for coffee.  For under ten bucks you can buy a can of coffee and make your own before you leave for work.  A few  pounds can yield about 250 cups.  That will cost you over $500 at your local drive through coffee house.  Would you pay $500 for a can of coffee grounds?

Cancel your garbage pick up.  If you bag your trash on a daily basis, crush the cans and shred the paper, well packed trash takes up very little space and you can deposit small portions of it in garbage cans found everywhere such as gas stations, markets, work, school, etcetera.  Burning is not allowed in most jurisdictions but safely lighting up your daily paper waste each day is not like igniting a raging fire once a week.   I have a smoker and use my paper waste to start my fires.   I also go for walks and collect small chunks of wood for smoking, saving on the cost for propane. 

Another key factor here is to minimize the trash you bring into the house.  Cancel junk mail and catalogs you don't use.  Don't bring paper waste into the house in the first place.   Another option is to talk to your neighbor.  If they pay for trash pick up, maybe you can make a deal to share the service and split the bill? 

Free internet is everywhere.  If you need to be connected 24 hours per day, can you wirelessly connect with a neighbor and split the bill? 

What about "cutting the cable" and eliminate cable TV?  Do you need all those channels?  Do you find yourself watching the major networks which are actually free to begin with?  Why would you pay for something that is free?  If you have a newer TV (since 2008), you don't need a converter box and can probably pick up the major stations with just an antenna and then you can eliminate your cable bill.  Many of your favorite shows are available for free online the next day anyway and you can watch them at your leisure. 

Ultimately you would be better off if you didn't have television at all.  Calculate how many hours you spend per day or week watching TV.  Now imagine what you could accomplish with that time if it were spent pursuing a hobby, exercising, with your children, with friends, sitting on the stoop with neighbors, reading or cleaning the house.  Buddha once said that in order to find enlightenment, one must chop wood and carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.  You won't find much enlightenment watching TV.

When closing accounts to your cable or trash pick-up, make sure you have your very first bill.  There are many companies who when you open an account, will charge you in advance for the first month.  Say for instance that I open a cable account on January 1.  They will charge me for the first month and around the middle or end of the month I will get a bill for February.  At the end of February I will get a bill for March.  After several years of service, one may forget that they are paying in advance of receiving the service.  Unless your bill states the pay period, as most do, you may forget about your advancement and the company may trick you into paying for the current month when you close the account.  Let's say halfway through the month of April you decide to cancel your account and forgot that your March payment WAS for April but the company may say that since fifteen days have elapsed into the month, you owe them for the fifteen days of service.  Knowing the day you opened the account and that you paid in advance might save you from overpaying and giving the company additional money.  The company can get around this by changing your due date at some point, "for administrative purposes."  This tactic can complicate your argument should you challenge them on it.  That is why you should at least keep the first bill and any bills relating to changes in your account due dates and pay periods. 

If times are really tough, there are a couple of free cell phones offered by the government.  Assurance Wireless is one.  You don't get many minutes, about 300 per month but, the phone is completely free.  If you qualify for HEAP and several other government offerings, you would qualify for this.  It is perfect to help get you through the tough times or eliminate an unnecessary bill.  If you have internet access, Google offers a free "voice over internet phone (VOIP).  All you need is a Gmail account and then sign up for the free phone.  You'll get your own number and it is completely free.  It is not the same as a cell phone but you will save a lot of money each month, money you could spend on heat or food.  It is best to not allow yourself to lapse into a downward spiral of debt in the first place.  I was raised - If you don't have the cash, you can't have it.

If you are truly poor, you have probably been in contact with the Department of Social Services and already know what you qualify for regarding health care but keep in mind that many hospitals offer charity care programs.  Call your local hospital and ask if they provide that service.  Hospitals are businesses and they are discovering that it is less expensive for them to prevent illness than it is for an uninsured person to come in when the illness becomes chronic or worse and the uninsured person can't pay the hospital for expensive treatments and service. 

Finally, call 211 and ask them for assistance in finding organizations who may help you with paying your specific bills.  211 ONLY makes referrals and many of the organizations they refer you to may be tapped out already, but, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Something else to keep in mind when calling 211, be patient as some of the call specialists may have to ask you personal questions which you may be embarrassed to answer or don't think are relevant, but, they are.  For instance, say you need assistance paying for your dog's vet bill.  You may be ashamed, insulted or think it irrelevant to be asked if you or anyone in your household has HIV but there are organizations who will pay your vet bill but only if you are afflicted with that particular disease.  The same thing is true for military veterans, or if one is living in your household.  Other stipulations may include income, age, gender, sexual orientation or race.   You may not think that is relevant but to the organization offering the free service, they do.  Some organizations will only assist you with your utility bills if you have children or elderly people in your household.  Others, only if you don't.  Be patient, answer the questions and let the database do the work of filtering out the services you may qualify for.  You don't want 211 to refer you to a company only to find out that they won't help you because you didn't answer the questions up front.

Ultimately, if you can't pay your bills and getting more work is not an option, you have to cut back someplace - unlike schools and town governments which don't cut back - they just raise your taxes.  If you don't go to town or school board meetings and speak up about their wasteful spending and budget management, don't blame them if your taxes go up.  Not to act is to act. 

Speaking of which, if you are having financial difficulty, write your elected officials.  Of course they won't do anything for you but, they need to know the difficulty their constituents may be having.  If you have a Catholic education and don't know how to contact your elected officials, go to this website: whoismyrepresentative.com - then type in your zip code to find out who you may or may not have voted for.  Then contact them and let them know how they are doing and how you are doing.  If your elected official doesn't know you are having a problem, then there is no problem, right?  We don't truly live in a democracy if the silent majorly remains silent.  Then the people who do speak up get to make the rules you then live by.

If I had my druthers, I'd make it so that nobody earned more than $30,000 per year, we all had a stay at home parent and for the working parent, more time was spent with family than at work.  Our lives are backward.  Instead of spending the best part of our day with our employers and our most exhausted time with those whom we love, we should reverse that.  We could all learn from having less.  Buddhist philosophy suggests that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, it is gratefulness which makes us happy.  It is hard to be grateful when you have everything and in order to obtain everything, you have to give up everything.

Nursery Rhymes for Organ

I recently finished a collection of Nursery Rhymes arranged for the organ.   To hear the complete collection, they are compiled here. 
http://youtu.be/h572RzNMPX4

To purchase the sheet music, go here:
http://www.musicaneo.com/sheetmusic/sm-206860_nursery_rhymes_for_organ.html

The selections are as follows:
B.I.N.G.O.
Ten Little Indians
This Old Man
Did You Ever See A Lassie
London Bridge is Falling Down
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Old MacDonald
Pop Goes The Weasel
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Thoughts on: If They Gunned Me Down

The moral worth of the society is not measured by the life in a palace but by the life in the streets.  To know the all powerful God, one must know the powerless.

For those without Twitter, the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown is spreading around the world.   Users are posting divergent images of themselves and asking which image the media would use in the event that they were killed.  The media always uses the worst picture they can find of someone to make them out to be a bad person not a picture of all the good they may have done in their life.

So, I ask these questions;
Is someone defined by the worse thing they've ever done?
Does a good person change because we know more about them?
Does everyone deserve a second chance?
Can you climb a smooth mountain?
Are our struggles the foundation of our identity?
Does oppression breed the power to oppose it?
There are always people who wish to deny us our humanity but if we tell our stories, will there be someone who wishes to restore it?
Is it fair to abandon someone who has spent a life doing good but they make one mistake?

Van Gogh was a patient in a mental hospital.  Temporal Lobe Epilepsy allowed St. Paul to hear the voice of God.  Hemmingway, Sylvia Plath, Billie Holiday, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, Dylan Marlais Thomas, just a few of the great minds who suffered from madness.  Should they have been medicated into mediocrity?"

A woman was raped as a teen and became pregnant because of it.  It changed her career path and affected every relationship she ever had since.  At the age of fifty, someone asked her if she hates her rapist.  She said she did once but now she pities him for, she now has a beautiful daughter and two beautiful grandchildren and he doesn't know them.

All the images in this video show people who may not have made good choices in their youth, but, look at the choices they made as they matured.  Desmond Tutu once said that we may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.  In a world gone mad with mistrust and alienation, the church (like never before) must present faith as a dynamic and relevant force for change.

Isaiah 58:9 if you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk and if you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will arise in the darkness and your night will become like the noon day.

In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, each recalling the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy, is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is welcomed back into the tribe.

Have You Been Thinking About Suicide Today?

The whole world is in pain over the completed suicide of Robin Williams.  Robin was very sick and despite reaching out for help countless times, he wasn't able to find the help he needed.  I'd like to talk about suicide and some thoughts about it.

Have you ever been dumped by someone and found solace in a torchy break-up song?  Breaking up with someone can hurt so much that you think no one else could possibly understand how you feel.  But break-up  songs understand, they feel your pain, they say exactly what you are thinking and feeling, they don't say the wrong things and they comfort you because they resonate with you. 

In Dusty Springfield's song "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" she desperately sings;
Don't you see that now you've gone
And I'm left here on my own
And that I have to follow you
And beg you to come home

You don't have to say you love me
Just be close at hand
You don't have to stay forever
I will understand

Phil Collins sings in "Take A Look At Me Now;"
So take a look at me now, oh there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face
Ooh take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space
And you coming back to me is against all odds and that's what I've got to face

I wish I could just make you turn around,
turn around and see me cry
There's so much I need to say to you,
so many reasons why
You're the only one who really knew me at all

Who hasn't felt those feelings over a love lost?  If we have, how many of us have found a comfort in those songs and listened to them over and over simply because they explored our feelings?

Henri Nouwen once said, "The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares."

When someone is thinking about suicide, chances are they want to talk about it, about their feelings, about their pain.  They just don't know how to start the conversation and most certainly, many of us don't know how to, either.  It is very easy to say the wrong thing and many people do.

Every fifteen minutes, someone in this country completes suicide.  Many have given warning signals and have even reached out for help but all too often the people they reached out to may not have been listening.  It's not their fault, they just don't know how to listen or are uncomfortable with the topic.

We should never be afraid to talk about suicide because the person thinking about it isn't and we need to engage them and encourage them to talk.   Getting them to talk means listening to them.  Re-read the Henri Nouwen quote.  That is how you listen, by not talking. 

For example, if someone is depressed because they lost their job, here are some things NOT to say: You'll find another one;  I lost a job once; You're better off not working for them; I know someone who is hiring; I'm sorry; Get over it; I know exactly how you feel; it's only a job; You'll be able to collect unemployment now; How dare they, you should write them a nasty letter; What did you do wrong?

Instead, with careful listening, like a good torch song, you should steer them into their pain where they can explore that pain.  You can achieve this by asking questions.  These questions will get them to talk about their pain and like a good torch song, help them to understand their own feelings and heal. 

So someone tells us that they lost their job.  You can ask, "How have you been dealing with that?"  An open ended question such as that will get them to talk further about how they are feeling.  Again talking about their issue is for them, not you.  They may pause and the silence may be uncomfortable for many of us but resist the urge to fill the uncomfortable silence.  Re-read Henri Nouwen's quote.  In that silence, they may be thinking and feeling and working through how they are feeling and your discomfort and urge to fill in the silence could destroy all that.  Be patient and silent and present. 

If they are not responding, here are some other questions you may ask:
What is most difficult about losing your job?
Tell me what happened.
Tell me more about that.
What is it you want from your job?
How do you feel about what happened? 
Do you feel comfortable talking to me about this?
Have you told anyone about how you are feeling?
What do you think you can do?
What may stand in your way?

These kinds of questions establish rapport and define the problem.  Your job is to guide them or steer them into the pain.  If you can't find a question to ask, there are statements you can make which may spur their thoughts and conversation:
Say more about what happened.
It sounds like you are going through a difficult time.
I can see why you feel that way.
Take your time, I'm here to listen and support you.

After exploring feelings, don't be afraid to ask the suicide question.  If they are not thinking about suicide, there is no harm done.  If they are, chances are they will be willing to talk about it.  This is very important because if they are willing to talk about it, it is because they are ambivalent and your talk, honesty and presence can actually save their life.

Go ahead and ask questions like:
Have you been thinking about suicide?
Do you have a plan?
Do you know how you would do it?
Do you have the means to act on your plan?
Do you have a time set for doing this?

If they answer "yes" to any of those questions, help is critical.  If you can get them to give you or lock away the means (drugs, gun, knife, rope) that is what is called a protective factor.  The point is to get them through the moment.  If you can get them to live another day, tomorrow they may feel different. 

While answering a local suicide hotline, I discerned that the caller was safe for the night because she locked her gun in a box and put it in the basement.  I made her promise to call me tomorrow to let me know how she was doing.  She did.  She told me the only reason she didn't go back down into the basement to retrieve her gun and kill herself was because she promised to call me back the next day and she wanted to keep that promise.  At the very least, I got her through the moment and to live another day.  While speaking with her the next day she made a comment to her cat which jumped on her lap.  I asked her what would happen to her cat if she were not around anymore and she paused for a moment and said, "I don't know.  I could never leave my cat alone."  The cat was another protective factor.  A very powerful one.  She had a reason to live.

Before leaving someone, we need to make sure they will be safe.  We can achieve this by exploring their protective factors and distracting activities.  Getting someone to prepare a meal, go shopping, take their dog for a walk, cuddle with their cat, take a shower, take a nap, draw, write, watch TV or exercise, we are giving them a plan which can be enough to get them through the day.  

"The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares."
-Henri Nouwen.