Vesting The Lord's House (Advent 2007)

Our church was a bee hive of activity today as we vested the narthex and sanctuary for the season of our Lord's nativity. Small Moravian stars were hung throughout the nave earlier this week, but today the largest star was hung at the crossing. It's quite dramatic, and it was pretty dramatic watching it being swung into place! Several dedicated women placed the Advent candle stand and wreath, the crismon tree, and various wreaths, flowers and other items in the narthex and sanctuary. Finally, with two performances coming up in the next week, Lucy D. was busy organizing handbells (she even polished a few smudged bells). It was an exciting day to see the transformation, but also to see and be part of the expression of devotion these many persons made today. We all will be blessed, and our Lord honored, by their efforts.

I know more than one of the folks I snapped today was bemused I was taking their picture. One asked, "What do you plan to do with that photograph?" I'm not sure she believed me when I told her I was going to post that one and several others on the web (for all, gasp, to see)! Yet, here they are!

Worship music November 18

The week in worship we will be welcoming Harry and Debbie Horne, PC(USA) missionaries in Peru. First appointed as missionaries in Grand Cayman Island and Guatemala, the Hornes have been in Peru since 2004, teaching at the Lima college of the Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana (UBL). Here is a bit of bio on them.

Congregational song at FirstLight this week will feature a couple of oldies-but-goodies: “Be still for the presence of the Lord,” and Michael W. Smith’s “How majestic is your name" (is that song really 26 years old!?!?). Also in the opening set we will sing two currently popular songs, “We fall down” (ask Caroline P. what the rest of the title is!!) and “That’s why we praise him.” Other music will include the Caribbean “Halle, halle,” Harry Smith’s classic “Give Thanks,” and Richard Gillard’s “The Servant Song.” The Prophets will be introducing us to a fantastic new song, “With all of my heart.” The song itself has been around a while, but it’s new to us; with a cool beat, we are certain you will enjoy it, and want to turn it quickly into a congregational song!

Hymns at 11 AM will include “Rejoice ye pure in heart” (Marion), “As those of old their firstfruits brought” (Forest Green) and “We give thee but thine own” (Schumann). The choir will lead us with the Cameroon worship song, “Praise the Lord;” (try and listen without tapping or shaking something, or without singing along!) the standard Greatorex “Gloria Patri,” and the familiar two-fold Dresden “Amen.” The anthem will be Jack Noble White’s “First Song of Isaiah,” written about here. Caroline P. and others of the Prophets of Praise and a couple of bell ringers will accompany the choir. Instrumental music for worship will include the Adult Handbell ensemble ringing Tim Waugh’s “Come Thankful People,” a medley of Thanksgiving tunes, and at the organ a bit of French baroque music at the offering and Sigfried Karg-Elert’s timeless setting of “Now Thank We All Our God.” Here’s a clip on the organ at Trinity Church, Boston, a nice, large instrument in a wonderful acoustical setting; wish the poster had given us the performers name!

Preparing for Advent

Those who know better may appreciate the pun. If Advent is a season of preparation (it is), it may seem kind of redundant to prepare for it. Yet, it seems a good idea this year.

Worship planners at BMPCNC are organizing the worship for Advent-Christmas-Epiphany around a theme. In conjunction with the lectionary readings for the Sundays of the season, we are using a theme, generated from a general sense of the readings, to help guide our worship plans.

Our theme for this season will be: Fear Not: Words of Peace in Troubling Times. Reading through the various lections for the Advent season espeically, one is struck by how fraught with trouble were the times before and during the era of Jesus' birth. Isaiah wrote to a people trapped in exile. Mary, an unwed mother, was due to birth the Messiah. Roman hegemony stood on the neck of the people of Palestine. Those were indeed troubling times. And yet it was the moment which God appointed as the right time for the birth of the Savior. Isaiah proclaims a marvelous word of hopefulness to the people in exile. The angels appear to Mary and to Joseph to reassure them that God is in control.

We also live in fearful times. The war on terrorism drags on. Poverty, issues of the environment and financial instability are very much on people's minds. These are troubling times for us. From a global level all the way down to a very personal level, each of us no doubt can identify troubling aspects of our lives. And during the Advent season, we hear again a word of grace, "Fear not." What a wonderful word of hope to which to cling!

In practical terms our utilization of this theme will help your worship leaders more than anything. It will provide a framework within which we can develop preaching plans, rehearse musical offerings and orient our visual and dramtic arts for the season. We believe this theme truly captures a sense of our current life situation, while at the same time offers a profound word of hope for each of us. Our desire is that our use of this theme will provide a unique cohesiveness to our worship, which will in turn deepen your faith as we journey through the Nativity Cycle of worship this winter.

A New Presbyterian Hymnal

In 2006 the 217th General Assembly of the PC(USA) approved a recommendation for the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation to produce, in conjunction with the Office of Theology and Worship, a new hymnal to be available by 2014.

In October the PPC announced that David Eicher will be the Editor of the new hymnal. A Presbyterian elder, Eicher brings to the project estimable credentials. It appears he will be a fine leader for the project. One wishes the PPC site was more current so we could provide a link to the complete press release.

However not everyone in the denomination sees the need for a new hymnal. Here is a report on some of the conversation surrounding the prospect.

Black Mountain PC(USA) has been using the Presbyterian Hymnal (1990) for quite some time, though many still refer to it as "the new hymnal." We also have in the pews the supplement, "Sing the Faith," which is in actuality the United Methodist "The Faith We Sing" with a blue "Presbyterian" cover. The congregation here has used these books faithfully. "Sing the Faith" is a key resource for music at FirstLight especially.

Has the time come (in 2014) for a new hymnal? Most folks in the know recommend that denominational hymnals change every 20-25 years based on changing tastes in musical preference and in order to capture new developments in hymnology. Plenty of folks have issues with language- and music-related aspects of both our current hymnal and "Sing the Faith." We can hope that the new editorial board will listen carefully to the faithful users of the hymnal as they move forward in development of this vital part of our corporate worship.

Worship Music for 11 November 2007

This week we welcome the Aerie Singers, the older children’s choir from our Logos program. These children are in grades 3-4-5. They will sing “Cantad al Senor,” a Brazilian worship song and “God of The Sparrow, God of the Whale” by Carl Schalk. The visual arts component of Gateways (youth Sunday School), Visual Impact, studied this hymn and its theology last term. As they sought to express their understandings of the text, they created mini-banners about 18 inches square. We will have these placed in the worship spaces this week, as the children sing the song. The appellation Aerie Singers is brand new. This week no one around church knew what this group of musicians had ever been called before. Our resident fount of wisdom Carla S. was not present for the conversations, so she may know better. But this is a new name for this group of kids. Whatcha think?

Congregation song at FirstLight this week will include Kurt Nystrom’s “As the deer,” “I will call upon the Lord,” “My life is in you,” and David Ruiz’ “You are worthy of my praise.” In the absence of our usual (and much-beloved) singers (Caroline P. and Connie S.) we welcome Donna Marie Todd to lead congregational song. Other songs for worship will include the jaunty “Halle, halle,” and Dennis Jernigan’s “You are my all in all.” Here’s a link to a nice music video of that song.

Hymns at 11 AM will include “Our God, our help in ages past” (St. Anne); “Live into hope” (Truro); and “Take up your cross, the Savior said” (Bourbon). How’s that for a tune name?!? Here’s a little information on the tune (scroll down a bit to find the relevant material). The Aerie Singers will sing the Introit and at the Time with Children; other worship music will include “Halle, halle,” and George Tomer’s “God be with you till we meet again.” The choir will be singing Mark Patterson’s setting of text from Habakkuk, “The Lord is my strength.” This is a lovely anthem with shimmeringly close harmonies that have the basses on their toes (and the other sections also for that matter)! Organ music will include John Benke’s setting of “Magdalen” (an alternative tune for the text “My hope is built on nothing less), JSB’s “In dich hab ich gehoffet Herr” (from the Orgelbuchlein) and Healy Willan’s short setting of St. Anne. Here is a wee bit of information about John Stainer’s tune “Magdalen” also known as “Rest.”

They shall be known by...

How do we want to be known? As music leaders in the church, what do we want to leave folks with when they hear us? Or what do we want to have as the primary characteristic of our music-making?

I think we all want to be known for well-performed music. I’d much rather be known as one who can keep both hands playing in the same key. I would rather be known as the director of a choir which can stay on pitch, which sings correct notes and rhythms. I’d like to be known as a fantastic improviser at the organ. I’d like to be known as one who can work with musicians of all ages. And more than that, I would like to be known as a music leader who helps church musicians sing not only the notes and rhythms, but most importantly the message of the music.

You guys probably want to be known as singers who don’t stick out vocally, but blend harmoniously with the ensemble. Or as instrumentalists that stay on the beat, that help the congregation feel the music inside and in that sense the stirring of the Spirit. I can tell that many of you want to be known as faithful, reliable ministry participants. And for all these things I am extremely grateful.

But is that it? No. We as church musicians, lay and professional, must also be known by our relationships, by the fellowship we keep. Not merely with whom we associate, but the manner in which we relate to one another in the music ministry, and how we relate to our congregation and our community.

This is a plea for us all to remember that music-making in the church is great, but it’s not our end. Our end is the relationships we forge and foster in our communion of music. By this I mean not only the friendships we have in rehearsal with other musicians, but our relationship with the congregation as pastoral worship leaders, and the relationships we foster within the congregation as we model compassion and mutual forbearance, and most importantly, the relationship we foster between an individual listening to our message and the God whom we adore. When we gather to practice, it’s good to be focused, but it’s also good to be sensitive to one another. In the midst of trying to get music ready every week, I know I am not always able to slow rehearsals down enough to allow time for sharing and concern and compassion to take first chair. But I am re-committing myself to do what I can to facilitate that. I would like to ask for your resolve to do the same: to take feel the pulse of your comrades in the music ministry and find out how they are and how they are feeling. Not just your “buds” but the folks you don’t know all that well also. When we sing and play for worship it's good to strive for accuracy and precision. But more importantly it is vital the we communicate so that persons hearing us are drawn not to the music but to the Musician, our Creator, our Redeemer and the abiding presence of the Spirit.

For some reason, as I am writing, this poem springs to mind. I’m not sure I’ve adequately made the connection, but perhaps you can connect the dots for yourself.

'Thou shalt know him when he comes
Not by any din of drums
Nor by the vantage of his airs
Nor by anything he wears
Neither by his crown
Nor his gown.
For his presence known shall be
By the holy harmony
That his coming makes in thee.'

In closing I remind myself and all of us engaged in music-making in the church to continue to strive for musical perfection. Anything less than that striving is not faithful to our calling to an awesome, infinite, creative, extravagant God. But more importantly, and in the midst of our music-making, we ought to keep before us these words from St. John, “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples - when they see the love you have for each other." (13.35, The Message).

Have a good week, my friends!

Review: Torgerson, An Architecture of Immanence

No one doubts the seismic shifts that have taken place in how we understand worship in the late-20th and early-21st centuries. What varies is how to discuss these shifts intelligently, dispassionately and in a manner that fosters forward momentum in the conversation rather than digressions into petty pet peeves. In "An Architecture of Immanence: Architecture for worship and ministry today" (Eerdmans, ISBN 0802832091) Mark A. Torgerson has made a profound contribution to the conversation and given a helpful paradigm upon which to begin at least one aspect of the conversation.

At its simplest the paradigm or paradox at hand is the notion of God's transcendence or other-ness over and against God's nearness. God's holiness and the fact that God created everything-that-is sets God wholly in another realm, utterly beyond the grasp of humanity. That is countered by God's nearness, most dramatically expressed in the incarnation through Jesus the Christ. Torgerson's basic premise is that whereas prior to the mid-20th century the church emphasized God's transcendence, in more recent years the church has come to find increased meaning and relevance in the notion of God's nearness and one-ness with humanity. For the purposes of this book, church architecture is the lens through which this theological shift is explored.

I have long been fascinated and captivated by church architecture and hoped to find many, many pretty pictures of churches in this book. In that regard I was sorely disappointed. What I found was an incredibly engaging discussion of a theological precept, with church architecture serving to illustrate the point. Because, Torgerson notes, architecture influences the activities it contains, in this case worship and Christian education and service, I was immediately drawn into the discussion. I believe the paradox of transcendence/immanence is quite valid and feel that understanding how that pendulum is swinging can help interpret a great deal about current trends not only in architecture, but in worship and in worship music. Torgorseon would probably say he was writing a book about changing trends in church architecture, using the lens of a theological precept to focus the discussion. Either way, this is a thoroughly engaging discussion for theologian, architect, artist and indeed any person of faith.

The thing with paradoxes is that each pole relies upon the other for its ultimate expression. One cannot understand immanence without the context of its opposite, transcendence. As the church goes too far toward one or the other poles, it looses part of its identity and part of its authority or relevance. Thus, where transcendence predominates how the church designs its buildings, people are swallowed up (literally) and feel irrelevant and separated from their faith. And yet, where immanence plays too great a role, the awesome nature of God is shrouded and people can lose a sense of their need for God and their own salvation.

Torgerson pulls from many sources related to architecture to help define the way architecture depicts the theological shift. He explores the work of several key architects of the last century to show how their work embodies the shift toward a theology of immanence. I learned a great deal about the modern architecture movement and what we must now be experiencing as post-modernism in church design. But most enticing for me was his exploration of worship and liturgical documents from Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions that help articulate the shifting trends.

All this being said, I think Torgerson believes we are about to reach the end of the arc of this swing of the pendulum. He believes that architecture of immanence has served its purpose to pull the church away from a predilection for transcendence. He sees more signs now that churches are seeking to work their way back toward the center in architecture and more generally in worship.

Torgerson concludes with a few select guidelines for the future of church architecture. These same guidelines I think can be interpolated to serve as guidelines for the future of worship in general.

1) a value for common Christian witness and an attention to beauty
2) the importance of sustainable church design (and awareness of the world and our faith as
a global presence)
3) the importance of maintaining a unique testimony and public presence

A couple of questions began gnawing at me as I neared the end of the book. What does the architecture and decor of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church say about us as a congregation; and more importantly is that what we want to say to those who visit and worship here? And more pointedly: most of us would notice immediately if we went to a friends house for dinner and saw that there had been no changes in decor or furnishings for 50 years. People in the market for a new home expect that changes and improvements have been made over the life of the home unless it's new construction; we would be nervous if we didn't notice anything "re-done" since initial construction. Couldn't we same the same about a church? Ours is a beautiful sanctuary and facility, in a decidedly mid-century modern architectural style. Very recently a couple of pews were removed and floor space added to the chancel area; yet recent worship services have shown the lay musicians at least that space is limited and flexibility for function nearly non-existent. We have installed a new table, font and Christ candle. How well, though, are the same space configuration, same color, same wood, same windows serving us 50-plus years after construction, and how well do those convey to a guest? Some things to ponder; please leave a comment.