A Vision for Music/Worship/Arts Ministry Where We Are Now: When FCCB began its search for a new Music Director, I, much like everyone else, assumed the Music Director Search Committee should focus on looking for someone who could rebuild FCCB s traditional organ and choir music program. However, as I have studied the current state of American church music, and the trends attendant to that, I am increasingly convinced that a bit of a stretch. According to the National Congregation Survey (the gold standard, if you will, for understanding what is going on in America s religious communities,) the number of churches that focus their attention on traditional church music has declined precipitously over the past decade and a half. In 1998 (the first cohort of the NCS) nearly 80% of mainline Protestant churches featured traditional church music in their worship services. Today, only 50% do so, and the evidence suggests that number will continue to decline, and decline more swiftly as time goes on, for a preference for traditional church music correlates very strongly with the average age of a given congregation. Simply put, the older the congregation, the more likely that congregation s worship music is traditional, and the younger the congregation, the more likely its worship music is contemporary Christian. Why? Because younger adults who are members of the Buster and Millennial generations are largely disinterested in traditional or classical music of all sorts. They by and large weren t exposed to it in school or elsewhere as young people, with the result that music like that is sort of a closed book to many of them. So when younger adults participate in a congregation focused on traditional church music they tend to so in spite of their church s musical style and not because of it. This also means that when younger adults do participate in a church focused on traditional church music they overwhelmingly do not participate in their church music ministry because they are not attracted to their church s music 1
style. We see this in our own church choir, whose membership does not reflect the age distribution of our congregation as a whole. What this means is that simply attempting to rebuild a substantial volunteer choir that solely sings traditional church music is not likely to be successful, as many of our older members who are interested in singing in the choir probably already do so, and most of our younger members are simply not interested. As I see it, we must do two things: First, we must embrace the reality that, for younger adults particularly, contemporary Christian music is a much stronger attraction than traditional church music. Second, we must find innovative ways to maintain and stengthen our traditional church music program, ways that may move beyond the old organ and choir model. Where We Can Go From Here--Music: How can we innovate to strengthen our traditional music program? I think we need to consider two things. First, we need to reorient our choral music from an emphasis on a large volunteer choir to an emphasis on a smaller and at least partly professional ensemble. Perhaps we could consider building some sort of relationship with Yale s Divinity School, Music School, and Institute of Sacred Music to assure an affordable supply of outstanding singers for such an ensemble. One way we might do this is by starting a Choral Scholar program which would pay able Yale singers a stipend equivalent to a Yale work-study position in exchange for participating at FCCB during our September-June program year. Second, we should consider developing an innovative instrumental program to supplement our choral program. For example, two good keyboardists playing four good digital synthesizers would be able to add a full range of string, wind, and brass instruments sounds, in almost endless combinations, to supplement our organ during 2
worship services, both creating a fuller instrumental sound and supporting a smaller vocal ensemble. So far as contemporary Christian music is concerned, at some point in the near future we are simply going to have to bite the bullet and create a contemporary-music worship service. We ve begun this on an experimental basis this summer, and I think that this should be something that carries through on a full-time basis in the fall. One of the keys for a contemporary music service is a good worship leader, someone who can pull together the music and musicians required for the service, run rehearsals, and share in the leadership of the service itself. Contemporary worship leadership is a specialized skill and usually the people who are good at it don t work cheap. FCCB has been very fortunate in having someone with a solid background in contemporary worship leadership essentially show up on our doorstep and she is working with Kelliann and I to put this new service together. And right now, this person is even willing to work for free! Should the service take off she will probably not want to work for free forever but for right now she s will to work for free! Such a service would also require something of an investment in equipment. Usually churches with contemporary music services supply drums sets and amplifiers (for the obvious reason that such equipment is cumbersome and/or heavy) as well as stands, microphones, and so forth. The biggest question with starting such a service, though, is when to schedule it? The approach that would be the least disruptive for our present services would be at a time other than Sunday morning. Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have been attracting crowds for centuries on Saturday evenings, and I think that would be the best time for us. A Saturday evening contemporary service would allow us to reach out to two groups of people who don t have much to do with us right now: people who are looking for a service with contemporary music, and people who cannot (or will not) come to church on Sunday morning. 3
And, since we live in a region that is so heavily Roman Catholic, there are probably lots of people out there who grew up going to church on Saturday evening, so doing so at FCCB wouldn t seem too strange. There is one more type of new service that we should consider starting: a Taize-style vespers and Communion service. What is a Taize-style service? Well, it s a worship service that uses the music of the ecumenical Christian community in Taize, France, which since the 1950s has become one of the most important pilgrimage locations on the planet, visited by spiritual seekers and searchers from around the world. Taize services are simple, musical, reflective, prayerful, and when done well, very powerful. Such a service would allow FCCB to reach out to people seeking a third way between the contemporary and the traditional, to people who are seeking to connect to the deepest spiritual well of the Christian faith, but to do so in an accessible way. There is a precedent, of sorts, for this at FCCB as starting this sort of service could be thought of as a modern, year-round revival of the old Killam s Point-based Sunday vespers service. One of the beauties of the simplicity of Taize-style music is that it can led by a musician or musicians playing almost any instrument or combination of instruments guitar, piano, violin, any combination of the above: that s all the musical infrastructure one needs for a Taize-style service. Finally, should we make service like these a weekly part of life here at FCCB, I think we should offer them in such a way that they create a, for lack of a better term, total church experience, that is, they give folks the opportunity to do everything they would on Sunday morning on Saturday evening. Worship, fellowship, church school for kids, adult ed. for grownups, it all should be included. Additionally, I think we need to broaden our musical and arts offerings for young people. I think we should expand our Terrific Tuesday program to include theater and, perhaps as time 4
progresses, consider adding visual arts and perhaps dance programs as well. FCCB might also consider developing an arts-based VBS program to complement our current program. Perhaps a multi-week theatre program (maybe down in conjunction with our friends at the Roundtable Players) there would involve theater and music for sure, and perhaps at some point dance and visual arts as well. In fact, there is probably something to be gained from thinking of the VBS arts camps as complements to Terrific Tuesday and find a way to encourage kids who might attend VBS over the summer to join Terrific Tuesday during the school year. In addition, we should consider finding a way to market Terrific Tuesday through Branford s public schools, just as we are working on ways to similarly market VBS. Where We Can Go From Here Arts Ministry: Finally, I think we need to consider developing a fuller arts ministry, one that embraces not only music, but also theater, dance, film and other visual media, and visual arts. There are several reasons for consider developing such a ministry. One, there is no other church of which I m aware in the area that specializes in such a ministry, and developing such a ministry would distinguish us from other churches in an era when, to the unchurched, all churches are pretty much the same. Two, for most of its history, the church was the primary patron of the arts, and the church s present estrangement from the arts impoverishes both the church (by cutting it off from forms of expression that have historically deepened and reinforced the faith) and artists (by cutting them off from communities which focus on the deeper questions of meaning and value in which artists have traditionally been interested). Three, an arts ministry would allow the church to reach out to a different demographic audience then those currently targeted by our church s other successful ministries (particularly our youth ministries, which is currently our most active form of outreach to the wider community). Four, our church is already the hub for a couple of important community 5
artistic enterprises (the Roundtable Players and the Branford Messiah) and we have a number of members currently involved in the arts, and I have contacts at a church that has already developed in active arts ministry, so we have a preexisting foundation upon which to build. I think we can begin to develop in arts ministry in three ways. The first way is by cultivating a closer relationship between the church and the two principal arts groups that actively use our facility now: the Roundtable Players and the Branford Messiah. What I propose is inviting both the Roundtable Players and the Branford Messiah to become our church s first artists in residence. The details of such a relationship would need to be worked out, but ideally I think it should allow both groups access to the church s organizational, staff, facility, and some financial resources for productions they mount here at church, and give the church administrative oversight of the non-creative aspects of each group s church based productions, while allowing each group the freedom to do whatever they want outside of the church. In addition, such a relationship could allow the church to recover whatever funds it invests in a production (should that production make any money) and then allow for a 50/50 split of any other profits. Over time, I think the church should develop a roster of artists in residence across the spectrum of the arts. The second way I think we can develop an arts ministry is by utilizing and improving the church s facilities to support arts shows. Our church s facilities include a number of areas (both large and more intimate) that could be used as galleries to display visual art. Larger spaces would include Pilgrim Hall, the foyer between Walker Chapel and Pilgrim Hall, and the Child Development Center hallways; more intimate spaces would be the Russell Room and the All-Purpose Room. While some remodeling of those spaces might be required for them to reach their full potential as gallery space (the bulletin boards in the foyer would have to go, as might the wall sconces in the All-Purpose Room,) such remodeling would be neither too expensive nor limit the church s ability 6
to use those spaces for other purposes. The church might be able to schedule a couple of art shows per year, with each opening taking place during special fellowship hour following the 10:00 worship service. Scheduling openings for Sunday following church would encourage people visiting the gallery opening to also attend church, which could serve as an additional outreach opportunity. Finally, in addition to simply serving as a space for displaying visual art, the church could also serve as a dealer as well, selling the art we display. Frankly, I have no idea how that would work, but it does seem to me that earning a 15% commission on selling a $5,000.00 artwork is something that might be worth considering. The final way I think the church could develop a broader arts ministry is by founding a Shoreline Film Society dedicated to screening vintage and family films. Vintage films could be screened in the evenings, and family films could be screened on Saturday afternoons. We could use Pilgrim Hall as our theater, although this would require some financial investment as we would need to upgrade the screen on the stage, install proper video projection equipment in the projection booth, and probably upgrade Pilgrim Hall s sound system. Also, should the Film Society prove successful we would need to replace the current folding chairs with something more substantial and comfortable. As a ministry of the church, I don t think such a society should charge for tickets to individual productions, but it might be possible to offer Film Society memberships to cover some of the society s operating costs. 7