Fine Tuning

2011 AND LITURGY SOLUTIONS

2011-12-26T10:50:00.001-08:00

2011 was a busy year for many of us - which unfortunately meant a light year for Liturgy Solutions, Inc. I realize that some promised projects are still yet to be posted, such as woodwind arrangements by Terry Herald, and my own setting of the Divine Service. We also have several new settings of verses, psalms, hymn stanzas, and graduals in the queue. So don't give up on us: we WILL be putting up new content in 2012.

This does not mean that 2011 did not see any activity. We did put several new pieces up, including some pieces that expanded the range of our offerings - such as a classic anthem by Paul F. Liljestrand (composer of the tune CONRAD, LSB #339) on "When Peace Like a River", several hymns by Steve Starke with fresh tunes by Stephen R. Johnson, and also a rather popular Venite that uses CANTAD AL SEÑOR for the refrain, with through-composed verses. 2011 also welcomed award-winner composer Terry Herald to our team, and the launch of our Facebook page. Be sure to "like" us on Facebook so that you can see updates from us whenever new content is loaded.

This coming year, I will have less on my plate and thus more time to devote to editing and posting new content on the site. This past year had many demands on my time - opportunities for service that led me to Montréal, Ontario, Springfield, Minnesota, St. Louis, Nebraska, Florida, Alabama, Colorado, Texas.....and Congo. Some of these places multiple times! While certainly the consulting services we offer that contributed to this hectic schedule will continue next year, there are other things I'm letting go for now that will allow me to refocus on Liturgy Solutions and also a recording project of some of my piano work planned for this summer.

So if you have a particular need that we might meet for you, don't hesitate to contact me. We have many pots that are cooking here at Liturgy Solutions, and often a little encouragement from our clients is all that it takes to move something to the "front burner". Whether you are looking for a setting for a liturgical text, need to commission a composer for a special occasion, or would like to retain one of our experienced liturgical musicians for consulting or for a workshop, Liturgy Solutions is here to connect you with many of today's top Lutheran composers.

So here's to 2012 - may it be a banner year for the Lord's song in your congregation!

In Christ,

Phillip Magness

WOW!

2011-07-22T12:35:00.001-07:00

Leaving now from St. Peter to go back home - energized and renewed in my vocation as a "storyteller" in the church. This is the calling of all who lead the Lord's song, to lead and to teach the family song, the song which tells the family story. (Ps. 89:1 - "I will story of Your love, O God, and proclaim Your faithfulness forever.")

The sermon at Morning Prayer today was focused on the eternal worship we get a glimpse of in Revelation 7:9-17. We certainly had a foretaste of that feast to come in our worship together this week, and the pastor joked that we might feel like we don't want to leave here today because we just don't want it to end! Of course, we are ready to come off the mountaintop and return to our homes now, but the point is made: in heaven we really will be home, and so then we will never have to "go home" from worship.

Speaking of going home, I've got an 8-hour drive ahead of me and would like to be home before it is tomorrow, so I will have to continue this later. For now, let me highlight a couple of things that made this a heavenly experience, and also give thanks to a new friend I had the pleasure of making this week. First, some highlights - or why you really want to be at the next WELS National Worship Conference:

*Singing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" with 900 other singers and an orchestra. The ultimate, "sing-it-yourself Messiah" experience!

*Singing Paul Tate's Venite at Morning Prayer this morning. I'll have to introduce this one to Bethany!

*Experiencing the catholicity of the church's song with such a vibrant assembly as we sang chorales, a contemporary song by the Gettys, contemporary psalmody, new hymn tunes for old texts, and new texts for old tunes. Led by a rich variety of organ, piano, brass, winds, strings, and percussion, this conference was indeed a model for what parishes should strive for in involving the whole talent of the congregation and embracing both the depth of our rich heritage and the breadth of our communion.

*Concluding, as all WELS National Conferences do, with "Jerusalem the Golden", sung to THAXTED. (Many in LCMS know this as "And There's Another Country") Led by the orchestra in a subtle, sensitive, and moving arrangement that really let the congregation sing, this cantor was one of many who had to pause for tears as the assembly carried us along with this powerful picture of heaven.

A blessed antepast, indeed. And one person among many who contributed to this wonderful conference was Dr. Kayme Henkel, piano professor at the International School of Bethesda, MD (outside of Washington, DC) and a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison. She played piano most excellently for this morning's service and did a fantastic job. I want to extend my thanks publicly to her particularly for her performance of the work the WELS commissioned from me for this conference, my piano solo on "Lamb of God." It is a musically challenging composition, and she played it with convincing sincerity and passion. Thanks, Kayme!

PASSING THE TORCH

2011-07-21T06:38:00.001-07:00

Today at the WELS National Worship Conference we are off to New Ulm, MN, where we will have classes and worship at Martin Luther College. An institution of the WELS, they will showcase the fabulous new chapel they have built there. We will enjoy the day there, and then return to St. Peter this evening. (The conference is hosted at Gustavus Adolphus College because there is not room to accommodate 1000 people in the dorms at Martin Luther College)

Yesterday, the keynote address, "Passing the Torch" highlighted the role of the church musician as the one who hands down a tradition. This reminds me of my work in Africa, where Lutherans there eagerly desire to learn the hymns of our faith, and so treat me as some sort of esteemed elder who teaches them the family story. Whether born into a family or adopted into a family, someone who is truly part of a family wants to know the family traditions. Musicians serve the Lord's ministry by teaching and celebrating the family song, that they may also tell "the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done." (Ps. 78)

Rev. Aaron Christie, who is a musician as well as a pastor, encouraged us with five principles to help us "pass it on":

* Strive for a life-long pursuit of excellence.

* Proclaim the Gospel always in our music and our art.

* Be students of art and culture, and carefully apply your learning to the art of church music.

* Develop along with your art. Make the best of the various styles your own.

* Teach your craft to young musicians, and inspire them to be the next generation of leaders.

Seeing all the young people here at the conference, I think the WELS is definitely passing the torch. May all Christian churches learn from their example.

The Best-Kept Secret in Church Music

2011-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Once again I am totally impressed by the quality, organization, and spirit of the WELS national worship conference. I have been to many such gatherings of other organizations, many of them fine in their own right. But every time I spend a week with the WELS, I am reminded of Proverbs 31:29 ("Many have done excellently, but you have surpassed them all!"). That such excellence proceeds from a church body of but 400,000 souls is truly noteworthy. Clearly, these saints love the Lord's song, and, as we prayed in chapel this AM, desire "to worship in excellent, noble, and lovely ways."

There is so much that merits these accolades that I will not be able to squeeze them all in here between morning chapel and the upcoming keynote address to be delivered by Rev. Aaron Christie. But one highlight that must be mentioned is the outstanding opening concert last night given by the Festival Choir and Orchestra. Volunteer groups gathered from WELS congregations around the country, these ensembles performed magnificently under the inspiring direction of Dr. Kermit Moldernhauer and Katherine Tiefel. Especially memorable moments included a beautiful setting of "When You Pass Through the Waters" (Is. 43:1-3) by Paul D. Weber (published by Morning Star Music), Evelyen R. Larter's arrangement of "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel (Augsburg Fortress), Mendelssohn's "There Shall a Star", the Crucifixus from Bach's B Minor Mass, and Manz' "Even So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come." Liturgy Solutions composers Kevin Hildebrand and Jeffrey Blersch also had works performed: Kevin's setting of Jaroslav Vajda's incredibly moving text, "In Hopelessness and Near Despair," and Jeff's concertato on "Crown Him with Many Crowns" (CPH). Both of these works were excellently performed, as was John Rutter's Psalm 146. Above all, this reviewer was particularly moved by Brad Holmes "Star in the East". This should not surprise my friends who know my love for Sacred Harp music! :)

More to come. It is now time for the keynote address, "Passing the Torch." The hymn festival last night was loosely themed on "passing the joy of our Lutheran heritage to the next generation." It'll be good to discuss this, and we need strategies and motivation for training up all those who are new in the faith in the Lord's song - whether young or old. But it'll be great after discussing this to get back to enacting it, both here at this conference and back home in our congregations. And with 1000+ participants here at this conference, there will be a lot of places after this conference where the Lord's song will be sung with greater nobility, excellence, beauty, and joy!

GREETINGS FROM THE WELS NATIONAL WORSHIP CONFERENCE

2011-07-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

It is a great day here in St. Peter, Minnesota, as musicians and pastors are gathering for the triennial WELS National Music Conference. Phillip Magness and Stephen Johnson are both here to make presentations, and also have set up a display booth in the vendor's area. We are so happy to be here, as the Commission on Worship for the WELS always does such a fantastic job.

If you are here, come by, say hello, and sign up for a free Liturgy Solutions download of your choice!

RAGTIME PRAISE

2011-06-16T05:59:00.001-07:00

Some things never change - like Cantors' struggles to nurture the Lord's song in this strange land. Here's a short article from a 1904 Lutheran Observer:

"Music In the Sunday School" by H. W. Siegrist (of Lebanon, PA)

It should be a well-known fact that our Church is rich in its musical history. From the time of Luther down to the present day, composers have not been wanting, and it should be equally well known that the productions of the best composers of all other denominations are ever at our disposal. It is, however, a well-known but lamentable fact, that a large proportion of our churches have failed to avail themselves of their magnificent opportunities. For instance, in how many of our infant schools are the little ones taught anything but the most senseless and unmusical ditties, which pervert their taste for the fine hymns of the Church - hymns written especially for children, and with the distinct purpose of fostering in their minds and hearts a desire and love for Christ, through the beautiful in poetry and music. This method the children find carried on when they reach the intermediate and more advanced grades, until their idea of Sunday-school music is utterly perverted and abnormal. Many of these same Sunday-schools exercise the most unusual, and sometimes unaccountable, vigilance in selected books for their libraries, yet when it comes to the selection of hymns and hymnals, a decidedly mediocre selection will be agreed upon. The care taken in regard to the former is commendable, but why should it not be taken, also, in regard to the latter?

From many churches comes up the cry, "We have such poor congregational singing, and we cannot account for it!" It can, unquestionably, be traced back to the infant and intermediate departments of the Sunday-School, where, if proper care had been taken to teach the children to sing the hymns of the Church they would have learned to know and love them, and they would now sing heartily in the services of the Church as a matter of course. This is not a theory, but the result of an experience of more than twenty years in choir and Sunday-school work in the Lutheran Church.

This need finds expression, too, in the music of the services published by the different Boards of Church for their special Sunday-school exercises. We are furnished services several times a year, the music of which, generally, is of the most ordinary character, and in schools where proper discretion is used, they are as often rejected. If the General Synod will not furnish a hymnal of standard quality for its Sunday-schools, and the Church Boards, services of the same grade, no mere matter of sentiment should stand in the way of securing hymns and services from other sources. We owe it to our children, to our Church and to our God - who, in all reverence I cannot believe is well pleased with some uncertain words of praise sung to "rag time" tunes...

My plea is for the very best possible hymns for the children. Nothing can be too good for them. It is our duty to inculcate a love for the beautiful in church music along with the Christian training in the development of the minds and characters of our youth.

Dr. Waldo Seldon Pratt, Professor of Music and Hymnology at Hartford Theological Seminary, in his "Musical Ministries in the Church" says: "Educational effort should be brought to bear where it will do the most good. It surely should not be confined simply to the older people. Children and young people have quick appreciation and few prejudices. Other things being equal, the Sunday-school is generally the most promising place to work out progressive hymnodic ideas, especially on the musical side. The full sense of some hymns will be caught only vaguely, no doubt, but many of the richest tunes are more readily learned by young people than adults. In the long run, the general grade of a church's hymn-singing will be found to be fixed by the Sunday-school. Hence here there should be special care taken. Here at least we cannot afford to have less than the best available book or less than the best available musical leadership. Here the Pastor and the Superintendent and the Teachers have a distinct opportunity to build for the future, hymnodically as in other ways."

Singing is the Main Thing

2011-06-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

My daughters attend a small parochial school. On the first Friday of every month they have a Mass. Today, one of my younger daughter's class "hosted" the Mass. This means the the kiddies do some readings and help with the prayers, and then hold a little reception in their classroom for the parents who attend. You all are probably familiar with this practice.

The hymnody was typical Catholic fare. "Here I Am Lord," "One Bread, One Body," "Lord of the Dance." This post is not going to critique these pieces. The purpose of my post here is to note the very strong singing in the Mass -- by ALL those in attendance -- students and parents alike. Very strong singing. But here's the catch. The singing was done a cappella! No instrumental accompaniment (unless you count the kid playing melody only on a keyboard).

Now, I found this rather notable. Roman Catholic congregations are not exactly renowned for their singing in the first place, but these folks really did sing, and without instruments to boot. I looked around and noticed the participation of the adults with whom I was sitting. Parents of students and many rather elderly people who just decided to attend this Mass. There was a small group of students in the back of the church that were taught the songs and sang as a sort of "choir" as well.

In previous years, there was a teacher who played the guitar for these Masses. He is no longer at this school. So, here are my observations:

1. After the guitar playing teacher left, I was told by the singer who prepares the choir that the singing was at first a little tentative, but soon improved.

2. This shows that congregations can indeed adapt to a cappella singing, but it requires some getting used to and some stronger, more prepared singers guiding them.

3. This shows that instrumental accompaniment, where very pleasant and often glorious, is by no means a necessity and we should not elevate the use of any instrument in the service (e.g. the organ)as utterly indispensable.

4. Do we really need electronic resources (without a real live person playing) to "help" the congregational singing? Or can we rely on our own live flesh and blood parishioners to guide the singing for the congregation by simply singing themselves?

5. Some congregations may have to sing without any instruments, if they do not have anyone to play them. Or they may have to use a flute/trumpet/violin to play the melody, much like the student who plunked it out on the piano this morning. But, if our congregations can do it the way this little Catholic school did, with the lovely voices of the whole congregation singing so nicely, I'd consider it a great success.

The Lutheran Church has always been known as the singing church. We should not shirk in our attempts to continue to be just that even when the instruments we tend to treasure are not available to us. Just sing. That is the main thing!

Fine Tuning

2011-04-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

Fine Tuning

And now - for something completely different - I'll blog about blogging about this?

A Round Unvarnish'd Tale: "Lamb of God" Like You Haven't Heard It Before

2011-04-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

A Round Unvarnish'd Tale: "Lamb of God" Like You Haven't Heard It Before

And here is a video of my arrangement of "Lamb of God", with commentary by my wife, Cheryl.

I thought I'd try out the new "Blog This" feature with Google Chrome - so consider this a "test blog". If this works well, you might see more articles from me in the days ahead! ;)

Lamb Of God (Twila Paris)

2011-03-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'm putting the finishing touches on a 4-minute piano meditation on Twila Paris' "Lamb of God". I was commissioned to write this by the Wisconsin Synod for their triennial national worship conference this summer. I won't be able to publish this on LS due to copyright restrictions, but NPH or another print house may choose to publish this should the piece be favorably received.

The inclusion of this tune in confessional Lutheran hymnals has generated some controversy because of its roots in the CCM genre. I have not shared those concerns, because I believe that each tune and text should be judged on its own merits, but I do understand them. After all, the mind works by association. (For this reason, I make exception to my "stand on its own merits" policy and don't use AUSTRIA for "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" because of the tune's association with "Deutchland, Deutschland Uber Alles", the Nazi anthem. Maybe it'll be OK for my grandkids to use the that tune, but I chose that tune once and had a Jewish convert and also a woman who grew up in the 40's Germany ask me not to choose it again.) If the song were still "the latest thing" in Christian Pop and had not proven its staying power, I would be more likely to agree with the objection that its use confesses unity with American Evangelicalism. However, the song has been seasoned by time, and the popular culture has moved on, and so we sing this American hymn at Bethany.

But though I have supported LSB 550 because the text is salutary and the tune is beautiful and accessible, I had always wondered if the tune was sturdy enough to support convincing compositional elaboration. The "sturdiness" of our historic chorale tunes is one of the reasons they are still so commendable for the church: they support all sorts of musical treatments. So after I accepted this commission, I mused extensively on the tune itself, seeking to separate it from all "poppy" accompaniment associations. I also didn't want to submit a predictable, formulaic piece that may be superficially pleasing but not really say anything.

I'm happy to report that I was able to do some pretty cool things with the tune, thanks to inspiration from the text but also due to some of the qualities of the tune. I used some polytonal techniques to paint "no sin to hide" and some impressionism to highlight "brought me to his side" and "O wash me in His precious blood". I created a mutation of the tune's intervals to accompany "I was so lost", and derived a harmonic progression from the polytonal assertions I made in the first stanza to accompany the Passion stanza, with pianistic flourishes to evoke the mocking and crucifixion. I was able to land all this with recapitulations of several ideas in the third stanza and found resolution in the end for "and to be called a lamb of God." It will take some pianism to pull it off, but is not a technically demanding piece.

I'm so pleased with this piece that I think I'll play it as the Voluntary at the Tenebrae on Good Friday this year at Bethany. I had another piece selected last August, but there is room for adjustment when something unexpected and convincing comes along. And I think the sobriety of my arrangement combined with the familiarity of the tune and text should result in more worshippers actually engaging with the text than usually happens with instrumental music in the church.

At least that's what I hope will happen. We'll see!

The Hubris of Contemporary Worship

2011-03-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my junior high choir sang a Kyrie by 16th-century composer Leonhard Lechner for the Divine Service. They sang it AS the Kyrie, so the assembly stood for prayer as the choir sang this. It was sung as originally composed, in beautiful 3-part a cappella counterpoint, and so we experienced the music as it was intended and conceived by the composer. Judging from comments I received afterwards - including from a young mother who exclaimed how much her baby enjoyed the piece - I dare say it worked as well for us in 2011 Chicagoland as it did in 1560s Germany. My young choir enjoys singing it as well.

And yet many in the church today believe that both congregations and singers, especially young ones, can only connect with the most recent of musical constructs. If something historic is done, then it at least needs to be done in a "contemporary" way. Now I am all in favor of new interpretations of existing melodies. It is a time-honored church tradition after all, and one of the strongest arguments for using traditional hymn melodies is their objective strength, i.e. they are sturdy enough to "hold up" various styles and musical treatments.

But it struck me after the service that all this emphasis on "new", "fresh", and "contemporary" assumes that somehow singers and congregations today are different than those of previous generations. Somehow what has served the Gospel well for dozens of years and even dozens of generations can no longer "work" today. No reason is really ever given for this, it is just assumed that "that was then, this is now." But do we really have different chromosomes, brain cells, and hearts today? Has our technology or our culture really changed us that much? Or are we in 21st-century America just full of ourselves. I think it is the latter. The church suffers because of it. The proclamation of the Gospel suffers because of it.

I say this as a composer, an improvisor, and as a church musician who embraces the musical developments of our age: let us constantly learn from the great musicians who have gone before us, and have the humility to let their voices speak. They usually have much better things to say than we do.

Another Solution

2011-03-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

This video from Incarnate Word Lutheran Church - a mission congregation outside of Detroit - doesn't have much to watch, but is definitely worth a listen. Here the congregation's song was led this past Sunday by guitar, oboe, flute, and violin. This mission congregation meets at a local school, and so has no organ. They use piano, guitar, and various instruments each week. So here is another example of how many "solutions" there are to accompanying the Lord's song without organ. No karaoke required!

We will be publishing several accompaniments written for piano & winds by the arranger, Terry Herald. He asked me to note that the microphone was placed a little too close to the oboe and so the recording balance was a bit off. Oboe comes across stornger that it really was; congregation weaker. He'll get the mic a little closer to the congregation next time. He also wanted me to mention that the particular musicians couldn't see his cues for breaths between stanzas, due to where he was seated and the subtlety of trying to direct from the guitar. Still, this video shows how readily even a small congregation (20-30) can be led by all sorts of different instruments, so long as the musicianship is about the SONG and not about the instrument.

This arrangement and the ones we will be publishing (we can't put this one up due to copyright restrictions) are very flexible. They can be done with piano or organ for the harmonic part (and/or guitar in some cases), and the melodic parts can be realized by various combinations of instruments. A clarinet could easily have substituted for oboe, for example. And one of the instrumental parts could have been omitted as well. Also, a bass instrument can be added for additional support.

We look forward to sharing Terry's music with you over the months to come, as we seek to offer more "solutions" for leading the Lord's song according to the talents of your local musicians.

CAITLIN THE WONDER GIRL

2011-03-09T05:09:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday my junior high day school choir sang a Brazillian Cantate Domino for the Divine Service. It was not folk music per se, but a contemporary composition in a samba style, called "Cantate Brasilia", by Roger Emerson. One of the choristers plays percussion in the school band, and so had been given a conga part, but for greater authenticity I wanted to add the clave & shaker parts suggested by the composer. Of course, several choristers wanted to play the claves - but there was not way they could sing their part while playin a samba clave ("+ , e,1 a, + "). So a couple of nights beforehand I asked my daughter if she would play claves on Sunday, and she said, 'cool'.

After dinner on Friday, I took her into our music room and modeled the clave part for her. No music required. She listened once to the rhythm, as I played it first by itself and then while counting the pulse. She asked for the sticks and then played it perfectly. Upon repetition she made a slight error, which I corrected her by remindeing her that the groove starts on the "and of one". Done. We then went to the piano so I could play the whole piece and show her the breaks, and then we added a couple of accents to the breaks. It took about five minutes. The next night, we did the piece one more time together, adding my older son, Trevor, on shakers and then were ready to go on Sunday.

Now, the reason for the above title is not because I think my daughter is musically extraordinary - I teach her piano lessons and know her weaknesses, after all! Nor is it because of her servant heart, as wonderful as that is. (Lots of young people are eager to help, we adults just don't ask them enough.) No, the title is because of the reactions I heard from folks after the service, about how talented my kids are and then their reaction to discovering that we put the percussion for the song together in less than five minutes.

It is true that my kids are talented & musical, but there really is nothing extraordinary about their talent - however wonderful I think they are. Most people think that such musicianship is some big "gift" and suppose that it somehow "runs in our family", either through genetics or through hearing lots of music or through both. But what most people don't understand is that musical aptitudes and hearing music in early childhood are only foundations that may be built upon. The real reason Caitlin or anyone can do the wonderful thing of picking up a groovy clave part in short order and then play it well is because they are musically educated.

This education can't just happen by sending a child to choir once a week. It requires regular music instruction in music throughout elementary school, ideally accompanied by private instruction on an instrument. And it needs to be real, that is, classical, instruction. If they are to learn, the focus for grammar school children must be that they learn to count the pulse, hear the music, and play the notes. Sadly, much for what passes for "musical instruction" these days is just "edutainment", focused more on "community building" and "self-expression" than actual achievement. That may be more fun for the teachers (the focused repetition children need is much more boring for them than for the students), but it doesn't nurture comprehensive musicianship.

And that's what Caitlin has: comprehensive musicianship. Sure, she is a work in progress (I teach her piano lessons, remember?!). But even though she most likely will not major in music like her older brother she will always be able to make music for herself and for her community because she has learned the art of music.

That's my point here: the art of music is learned. Caitlin does not have unique chromosones or extraordinary grey matter between her ears, and still she is a WONDERFUL musician. Any Caitlin can do wonderful things with music, if their natural talents are patiently nurtured in the art of music. May we lead people to understand this, that more parents may see the potential in their children to achieve great things music.

FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

2011-03-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we sang "Seek Ye First" as an Offertory. At one of the services, our Schola Cantorum (3rd-6th grade parish choir) was the choir for the liturgy, and so in addition to the other things they sang I had them add the traditional descant to "Seek Ye First" on the last stanza of the hymn.

After the service, a father of one of the choristers came up to me and excitedly told me how much he loved that descant. Turned out he had sung it himself as a boy. Even though this hymn was written in the 1960's, there is now a tradition behind it that connects the generations.

There are other times in our parish life where kids sing something the parents have sung. Every three years on Christmas Eve we do the Quempas Carol with the children, for example. Some of this music is newer, like the famous Willcox descant for "O Come, All Ye Faithful"; other pieces are centuries old, like Bach's "Zion Hears the Watchmen Singing". Our life together in Christ is manifested and celebrated as adults enjoy hearing the next generation sing favorites from their youth.

How much of this do we miss out on when we pick new music? Do we stop and ask ourselves what would we sing if we weren't doing this new piece? Is the new piece really better from the hearer's standpoint? Or is it just something fresh for the director? What is really best for the singers and the hearers? I think we should ask these questions.

And churches that don't share the living tradition of the church's song with their children have some more critical questions to ask themselves. What are their kids missing out on? And what are the adults missing as well? And are any of the new things they are doing something that the next generation will want to sing or hear?

EASY SOLUTIONS

2011-02-19T10:49:00.001-08:00

Different parishes at different times need different "solutions" to the musical challenges and opportunities provided by the liturgy. We try to offer a wide variety of options on the site, knowing that there is no one-size-fits-all "solution" for any given text. That said, even a parish with a high level of artistic activity needs easy options. And so we do try to lean more toward providing "music for common use" rather than "high art" on the site.

One of the things that we are doing more often is simply putting up something that works well with the hymnal accompaniment. The handbell accompaniments for DS III we put up last year are an example of that, as are the brass parts for the DS IV Gloria I put up recently. Sometimes we aren't looking for a concertato setting of a hymn, or some new text-painting harmonization. With one rehearsal and many irons in the fire, it is often helpful just to have a trumpet part that "goes with the book".

The latest of such offerings went up today: a simple descant for LSB #819, "Sing Praise to God the Highest Good". A very parish-friendly descant, it only goes to a high F. And yet it still cuts through thanks to the tessatura of the melody. Most importantly, the organist can "play from the book", making this an easy adornment to add to the service. Similarly, we'll be putting up several instrumental descants & countermelodies by Terry Herald this spring that also "work with the book".

We're putting these things up because they work for us. We hope they work for you!

Solutions In Your Hymnal

2011-02-07T05:57:00.000-08:00

Today we offer a guest column, which readers of Rev. Larry Peters' excellent blog, Pastoral Meanderings, have already seen. Larry has given his permission to run his article here, which we are glad to do because it so well supports one of the chief aims of this blog: to help musicians and pastors discover and explore the treasury of resources available to us for preparing authentic Lutheran worship. Almost all of the music published on our website is written to support the use of hymns & lectionaries of the Lutheran Service Book. (Which therefore means the music works well with other Lutheran hymnals, as our many WELS friends have discvoered.) Pastor Peters here offers an excellent outline of how to make the best use of this book. Whatever hymnal you use, this article will renew your appreciation for your hymnal, and help you explain its purpose and benefits to others.

THE FULLEST USE OF OUR RESOURCES
Rev. Larry Peters

Often the problem with "traditional" worship is not that what is done is bad but that it fails to exploit the full measure of the resources provided by the hymnary, lectionary, and liturgy of the Church. Those who yearn for creativity are, in some respects, right in their condemnation of of "traditional" worship as being boring or routine. But the fault lies not with the hymnal or liturgy. The fault usually lies with the people planning and conducting the Divine Service. In our busy lives it is easy to fall back upon the book and use it because it is there. In this respect many congregations using the hymnal are not technically "liturgical." I write this not to condemn but to encourage a more full use of the inherent resources of the hymnal, liturgy, and pericopes.

I forget where I read it that if you are using these resources fully, only something between 12-15% of the time on Sunday morning carries over from week to week. Block out the sermon, the readings, the collect, the hymns, and the liturgical options within the Divine Service and you see how the figure is achieved. When we use all of these resources to their fullest measure, then it is true. When we fail to use these resources fully, this figure may still be true but you would hardly recognize it while sitting in the pew.

Lets begin with the lectionary. Lutheran Service Builder allows you to print out all the pericopes on one sheet (Introit, Collect, Psalm, Lessons, Gradual, Verse). It is great to have these texts together and to spend time looking at them more fully before sermon and liturgical choices are made. You can do the same thing without Lutheran Service Builder but it takes just a bit more work. The point is that by immersing yourself in these texts you are better equipped not only to preach them but to use them in the Divine Service.

From the lectionary I always go to the hymnal. LSB has a marvelous hymn selection guide and you can use Lutheran Service Builder to locate hymns through its digital concordance to the hymnal but nothing replaces you own familiarity with the texts. I believe that praying the texts of hymns is important devotionally for you and is the greatest tool and gift when planning for the Divine Service. If you know the pericopes and you know where your sermon is going, then the next step for connecting the dots is to know the hymnal well enough that hymn choices are already flowing through your mind as you make it through the pericopes and sermon preparation.

I might say something here about tracking your use of hymns. It is easy for the congregation to be reduced to using only 25% of the hymns in the book. You want to use a combination of many familiar with one or maybe two new or less familiar tunes. Given the desire to satisfy people and working within the limitations, it is not uncommon for parishes to know only a small percentage of the hymns in the book -- I knew one parish where only about 12 tunes from LW were used! This is a problem that needs to be addressed. If you do not know these tunes, set up a plan and program to learn them -- week by week. Use soloists to sing them as preservice music, as the offering is gathered, or during the distribution. The choir can do the same thing. Warm up the folks before the liturgy begins and use these less familiar hymns to stretch their voices. The only way a new hymn becomes a favorite is through frequent use. Once you introduce a new hymn, use it again through the coming month so that its text and tune are embedded into the memory of the people.

Finally, the liturgy is addressed. What season are we in? What options are inherent to the season (omission of the Gloria in Excelsis and Alleluia during Lent, for example)? What additional choices are there to be made (offertory, how to use the Psalmody, post-communion canticle, etc.)? As you flesh out the choices for the Divine Service you also begin to see how the hymn possibilities may fit (entrance hymn, hymn of the day, distribution hymn, sending hymn, etc.).

The goal is to have it all fit together as a seamless garment in which nothing seems out of place or out of character. In this way the fullest resources of the hymnal, lectionary, and church year flow together toward a common goal and purpose in the Divine Service. I do this several times a year for 1/3-1/2 of the Sundays of the year so that I am always ahead. It works for me. Saturday night is the one thing that hardly ever works. If you cannot plan months in advance (for the sake of your parish musician), at least plan one month ahead.

The hymnal is a tool. If it is unfamiliar to you as the Pastor or parish musician, it will most certainly be unfamiliar to your people and an uncomfortable resource. If you know it and use it as one who knows it inside and out, then it will encourage the people in the pew to use the full resources of the book in their family and individual devotional lives as well as Sunday morning. Just do it...

A COUPLE OF AUDIO SAMPLES

2011-01-10T17:41:00.000-08:00

Many often ask about hearing audio samples of Liturgy Solutions' music. We'd like to provide more than computer-generated files, but just don't have the overhead to generate studio recordings of house choirs like the print publishing houses are able to do. So I'm going to try to highlight some services that include some pieces in the catalog. This past week saw two such occasions at Bethany. So, if you are interested in what some of our work sounds like in an actual service, a Gradual by Stephen R. Johnson for the Epiphany of Our Lord starts at 7:40 into this clip. This past Sunday, for the Baptism of Our Lord, we sang a psalm-anthem by Jonathan Kohrs. Pastor liked it so much he referenced it in his sermon! It starts 15:15 into this podcast.

These recordings are a little less polished than my choir normally sounds - but we had a one-hour rehearsal to prepare five pieces to cover these two feasts! Still, they did well - but if you want to hear them in their full glory, check out our Bach Cantata Vespers this past Advent, or our Christmas Eve Divine Service.

You can also hear several stanzas of hymns in our Liturgy Solutions catalog sung by the quartet at our Lessons & Carols service Chrsitmas Eve.

Got any audio clips of LS music? I'd love to hear them!

He Was Singing Again!

2011-01-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

For years I've noticed a young man in our parish attend worship with his mom. Ten years ago, I noticed how joyfully he would sing the hymns along with his mom. Then, as he approached his junior/senior year, he started mumbling. In college, he stopped singing altogether. It was heartbreaking.

This New Year's Eve he was back. Singing. Joyfully. I can only imagine the reasons but I suspect it had to do with the attractive young lady he brought to church with him that evening.

Perhaps he just trying to make a good impression, but people don't sing like that unless they are happy - or professionals (which he is not). I know one skates on thin ice when one tries to read motivations into behaviors, so I won't try to diagnose his heart, but let's just say that it is an example of rejoicing.

I hope that in the future this young man will rejoice not only for the First Article gift of a companion who may be a potential wife, but give thanks and sing for the Gospel.

Whatever his motivation was, I'm glad he found his voice and joined in the Lord's song again. I know the Word dwelled in him richly as he did so. May that song stay in his heart and on his voice all the days of his life.

Who Has Been Good to You?!

2010-12-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

We recently attended a concert of a local children's choir, Anima, formerly known as the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus. It is one of the more famous of such groups around the country, making its mark during its glory years under the directorship of Dr. Doreen Rao. Some of you may have run across music from Dr. Rao's choral series, much of which is quite good. The group continues now under the leadership of Emily Ellsworth.

This may seem off-topic for this blog, but one of the things we share in common is a love for our heritage and a desire to preserve our culture and teach children well. This is primarily, of course, about the heritage we receive as Christians, and so I don't want to confuse the Two Kingdoms here. But as we are "in the world" even as we are not "of it", I think most of you also seek to be preservers of what is good in our national culture as well. Especially where it intersects with our church culture.

One of those selections is the "Johnny Appleseed Grace". I learned it at Camp Lone Star when I was in 8th grade, when I first started going to church. Lutherans love to sing it. We have slightly different versions of the tune in different parts of the country! Most of us refer to it by it's first line, as if it is a hymn: "Oh, the Lord's been good to me." It is one of my younger son's favorite mealtime graces.

Guess what? The Anima chorus sang an arrangement of this Americana standard as their closing number. But they changed the words to "The earth's been good to me." And made the audience sing that line every time. I guess such was to be expected from a group whose 'holiday concert' was themed "Voices from the Earth". Still, if you feel you have to sing something to appease the pagan kids' parents because the choir sang a couple of Christmas carols, why don't you write your own words instead of torquing with someone else's?

This is more than just abusing the lyrics. (What's next: a Gaia version of "Silent Night"?!) It is also about a community arts organization that is supposed to be nurturing cultural literacy - the reason public school allow Chrsitian choral repertoire in the curriculum - changing the core meaning of Johnny Appleseed's famous ode promotes cultural IL-literacy. It reminds me of the politically correct re-imagining of history.

Christians today are like frogs in a big kettle. Every day the world around us becomes more evil. Perversion 'mainstreamed' into our military. "Faith-based" advertisements banned from the Ft. Worth transit system. Shiny new abortuaries built 'proudly' in the middle of our communities.

This Christmas, I long even more for our Lord's return. Yea, I will merrily sing and play as we celeberate the birth of our King, and rejoice in the salvation He came to bring. But we live in a night that is getting deeper and darker every year. "E'en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come."

SO WHAT'S WORKING FOR YOU?

2010-12-14T08:28:00.000-08:00

Ah, Advent. Prepare, prepare! The busiest weeks for most of us are actually done now. I always get a chuckle when people come up to me the week before Christmas and say "you must really be busy right now!" I enjoy telling them that the first two weeks of Advent are much more hectic for me than the last two. Even with all my summer worship planning, the need to finalize arrangements, book practices, and get music to musicians at the same time Advent services and the school Christmas program are added to my plate puts me in overdrive.

But Advent is a wonderful season - definitely worth talking about. And yet it is so short while we are so busy that we church musicians and pastors don't talk about it as much as we should. So what's working for you?

Here's a few things that have been Advent blessings at Bethany so far this year:

*A Bach Cantata (#140, Wachet Auf) for our first Advent Vespers.

*The return of Schalk/Vajda's "Light the Candle", which we sing for the lighting of the Advent wreath.

*The wide amount of variety available at Liturgy Solutions for this time of year. It really is amazing how much Advent music we've got up on the site. Drawing from the catalog, I've used settings by Hildebrand, Blersch, Johnson, and Sonntag so far this year.

*Our Schola Cantorum kids kicking off our second Advent Vespers with Allan Mahnke's "Fling Wide the Gates". (Yes, we sing lots of things around here that aren't LS - chuckle)

*Our sermon series: "Christmas with Isaiah", which runs from the beginning of Advent through Epiphanytide, using the appointed Old Testament lessons from the Three-Year Lectionary.

*Singing "Prepare the Royal Highway" with the 'old' setting from LW. (Still using the LSB text). The people really love this hymn, and we've tried it with the LSB/LBW rhythm, but folks prefer it in 4/4. Here's a video using my arrangement from "Hymns for the Contemporary Ensemble", published by CPH. That series has been discontinued, but I'm thinking about starting that project up again at LS.

Speaking of LS projects, look for several new instrumental arrangements for congregational accompaniment to be uploaded by New Year's. These are for woodwinds & keyboard and are by professional composer/arranger Terry Herald, whom we are proud to introduce as the newest composer in our 'stable'. Welcome aboard, Terry!

So, that's a taste of what's working for me right now. What's working for you?

I LOVE THANKSGIVING

2010-11-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Of all the secular "holidays", Thanksgiving is my favorite. There are just so many wonderful Thanksgiving hymns! (And, besides, I'm a foodie. No wonder I love the French!)

Anyway, I'm just wondering what y'all are cookin' for tonight & tomorrow. Here's what's on the menu at Bethany:

OPENING HYMN - "Come Ye Thankful People Come" LSB #892 concertato for organ, piano, choir, congregation.

CALL TO WORSHIP - Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation

PRELUDE - "We Gather Together" Handbell arrangement by Frances Callahan.

ENTRANCE HYMN - "We Praise You, O God" LSB #785

LITURGY - A Liturgy of Sevenfold Thanks (basically a Thanksgiving Lessons & Songs format)

I. Thanksgiving For the Gospel (Luke 7:36-50) "Give Thanks" LSB #806

II. For the Company of Saints (Rev. 7:13-17) "Oh, How Blest Are They" LSB #679

III. For Children and Families (Mark 10:13-16) "Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds" LSB #867

IV. For the Friendship of Believers (Eph. 4:1-6) "Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings" LSB #782

V. For the Harvest (Eccl. 2:24-26; 3:9-13) Quartet: "The Eyes of All" setting by Michael Larkin

VI. For the Earth (Psalm 8) Choir Anthem: "For the Beauty of the Earth" setting by John Rutter.

VII. For the United States of America (1 Peter 2:13-17) "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (original words)

SERMONETTE

VOLUNTARY "Songs of Thanksgiving" piano/organ duet arr. by Stephen Nielsen & Ovid Young

OFFERTORY HYMN "For the Fruits of His Creation" LSB #894

THE PRAYERS

BENEDICTION "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" (choir; setting by Peter Lutkin)

CLOSING HYMN "Now Thank We All Our God" LSB #895

POSTLUDE "Now Thank We All Our God" handbell choir playing transcription of the Paul Manz organ prelude by Martha Lynn Thompson

In the AM we'll have Matins. Psalm 65 setting by Barbara Semen and Gradual by Carl Schalk (Psalm 104:24, 27-28,33; "I Will Sing to the Lord as Long as I Live"). Hymn of the Day will be "Sing to the Lord of Harvest" (#893). "Come, You Thankful People, Come", "We Gather Together", "Give Thanks", and "Now Thank We All Our God" will be reprised. Liturgical variation will be use of a Kyrie by my Comprehensive Music professor at the University of North Texas, the sainted Avon Gillespe. Years after his death I found that he had written a setting of the mass for the Roman Catholic church, the Kyrie from which I have taught our congregation.

I'll give thanks for the many teachers who cultivated the art of music in me as we sing and pray the Lord's mercy upon us all.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! Share the joy! :)

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S TRUE

2010-11-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

One of my wife's friends sent her this video that is sure to strike a nerve with all musicians and pastors who perform weddings.

Being in a strongly confessional church, I don't have many "bridezillas" in my office. But I've had a few in my days.

In addition to some medicinal laughter for pastors & musicians & their families, I also recommend the following for those who don't understand why most of us vastly prefer playing for funerals over weddings.

(Warning: one four-letter word. Don't worry, it's not a commandment-breaker. Just a heads up not to watch this with unconfirmed minors.)

AND NOW.......A "TWO-FER"

2010-11-06T05:55:00.001-07:00

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your selections for Reformation Day. Let's move on to this Sunday: All Saints' Day (transferred). I've got two questions for us:

1 - What hymns will your people sing, and what liturgy will you use?

2 - Will you observe a Commemoration of the Faithful Departed from your parish in the last year? If so, would you mind describing your rite (what you do) and ceremony (how it is done)?

Reformation Sunday!

2010-10-30T06:02:00.001-07:00

Hey, hey - Sunday is Reformation Day! Time for some "reader response." :)

What will your folks get to sing? Most certainly, "A Mighty Fortress". And most probably "Salvation Unto Us Has Come". And I think a majority will sing "Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Your Word." I suspect many will also sing "Thy Strong Word", which has become quite popular this past generation.

Anything else?
What is your choir doing?
What setting of the Divine Service will you observe? Anything special?
And will you stand for AMF? All stanzas?
And will you sing all ten stanzas of "Salvation Unto Us Has Come"?
And how will you sing them?
And where in the service will you sing the hymns you've prepared?

The fall festivals can be so much fun. Let's compare notes!

Lutheran Catholicity

2010-10-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

In my teaching in Congo, the musicians there learned several chorales, from EIN FESTE BURG to O DASS ICH TAUSEND (used for "By Grace I'm Saved" and 3-4 other hymns in LCL). We also learned a couple of African hymns - hymns that have become popular in the US that are Lutheran hymns from Tanzania. I'll post a video of the Congolese joyfully singing "Ecoute L'Appel de Dieu" (Listen, God Is Calling) on my next post. It is more of what one would "expect" from an African church choir.

But first, consider this: What Wondrous Love Is This, or "O Merveilleux Amour". Not originally a Lutheran hymn, but one we have adopted from the Sacred Harp tradition. I knew the words would touch the hearts of the singers in Congo, even as the modality and even the shapes of the phrases would be new for them. I heard several of my new friends sing this hymn later, after practice.

As I explained to them, we in North America sing some hymns from Africa, from Latin America, and from Asia, as well as from many different parts of Europe. Similarly, even as I encouraged them to always sing their beautiful African hymns and to continuing writing their own music for the psalms and spiritual songs of the liturgy, I told them that their singing of music from other parts of the world was a way in which they could be unified with their fellow Lutheran Christians throughout the world.

With that explanation, I introduced to them "What Wondrous Love Is This?", a beautiful love song to God extolling Him for all He has done for us in Christ Jesus. Being a Sacred Harp melody, it is from the American South, where I have my roots. So I told them this was a song from my homeland, and that just as we in Illinois will be one with them as we sing "Listen, God Is Calling" or "Jesus est le même" (my favorite Congolais chanson), so they can think of their brothers and sisters in the US whenever they sing "O Merveilleux Amour".

I think I'll just call this idea "Lutheran Catholicity". It is important that our "kernlieder" or chorales be sung throughout the world - most importantly because of their theology and then because of the sturdiness of the Lutheran Chorale tune in supporting the text. But also so that our churches throughout the world share a common set of core hymns and embrace not only our heritage but each other in song.

It's clearly something they want to do in Brazzaville:

LOOK, MA, NO ORGAN!

2010-10-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

We've discussed much the merits of the organ - particularly a pipe organ - for the leadership of communal singing. There is nothing like wind moving through pipes for leading a large number of human voices. And the text-painting capabilities of "The King of Instruments" are unquestionable.

But the organ is but a tool. A tool to serve the Lord's song, which consists of the words & the melody. Hymnody is not art music; it is folk song. And sometimes the organ gets in the way - especially when it is in the wrong hands (which, sad to say it often is). Some even advance the idea that they "need" to have an organ in order to sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs - even though Christians did fine without them until just a couple of centuries ago, and even as most Christians seem to do just fine without them, including many Lutherans.

Ah, but our great LUTHERAN hymns surely need the organ, some might say? Again, it is certainly wonderful to sing our chorales with organs. At least good organs in the right hands. But they are at their best when they accompany the singing. Which means the singing should stand on its own. Unfortunately, in many places our singing has become dependent on the organ. Rather than walking side-by-side, like two friends going to the store, the organist drags the congregation around. But the congregation should not be subserviently walking two paces behind. Indeed, the congregation should be free to get to the store on her own. (The only thing the Bride of Christ needs is the Bridegroom, which is the Word of God, not the sound of pipes). If our hymnody is to remain a living tradition, it must maintain the character of folksong. Folksong enjoys accompaniment, but can always stand on its own, a cappella.

In Congo, I was pleased to share our living tradition of Lutheran folk song with our brothers and sisters in Christ, who readily embraced our hymnody and who eagerly desire to learn more of it. Their instruments are not organs, but drums and the occasional recorder or imported Western electric keyboard or bass guitar. Because their music is primarily lyrical, they readily learned and adopted our hymnody when it was taught to them as folk music, not art music.

So take a look, have a listen, and let us know what you think of this version of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" from our brothers and sisters in Brazzaville, Congo:

OUT OF AFRICA

2010-10-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I returned yesterday from Brazzaville, Congo, and eagerly look forward to sharing news of my journey and the Lord's ministry in French West Africa with you.

The upcoming posts will have a less liturgical emphasis, but will be appropriate nonetheless because the point of our work together is the proclamation of the Gospel. True, our focus is on how this may best be done through our singing of psalms, hymns, and liturgical songs, but such was the central part and prime reason for my recent trip, as I went to Africa to introduce the French-language edition of the LSB, Liturgies et Cantiques Luthériens, to our brethren in French West Africa.

For now, let me just just offer a few initial thoughts:

1 - Our hymnody is truly catholic, i.e. "universal". Its essence as folk song means our melodies can be planted and take root in any cultural soil. One of the most well-received hymns I taught was the French version of "Triune God, be Thou Our Stay". And the singing of "Savior of the Nations, Come" was especially vibrant.

2 - Chanting is also catholic. One of my favorite moments of the Divine Service last Sunday was the responsive Introit between Pastor Mavoungu and the congregation of 300. The formula tone used was also interesting in that it was more Ionian than most of our tones (expected) and more complex (unexpected).

3 - What we've been saying about the primacy of singing is so true. The best singing of the congregation was when they sang a cappella or with just traditional drums. When microphoned singers sang and an electric keyboard & bass joined in, there was less communal singing. Part of this was the (limited) skill of the instrumental musicians, but there was a fundamental shift in the spirit and voice of the assembly everytime they had "ownership" of the song.

Most inspirational was how thankful our brothers & sisters in Congo are for their blessings. They have been given so little, and yet rejoice so much.

May we who have been given so much (materially) in America be like-minded in thanksgiving, and may we be generous in our support of our fellow confessional Lutherans around the world. As President Harrison says, "Now is the time to rock the world for confessional Lutheranism."

This is our work to do together - not something to just leave up to synod. If the Lord moves you to want to help our brothers and sisters in French West Africa as I share my journey with you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

There is so much to be done.

Last thought for now:

4 - I think the coolest thing I witnessed was a 5th-grade girl reciting the small catechism in French. Perfectly. Her reward the next day was to receive her own Bible. Her joy was so thorough, so genuine.

Awake, our hearts, with gladness!

Bethany Lutheran's Model

2010-09-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

I have been promising a post about Bethany Lutheran as a follow up to my last post here. Life becomes busy for me in the fall as I spend the better part of every day in my classroom where I teach. The evening hours are short as I have two young children, a wife, homework to review, dinner and household odds and ends to which to attend. And bedtime is as early as I can afford as I am up at 5:30 AM daily.

Having said that, let me give you my most concise assessment of what Bethany Lutheran does to model good worship music practice.

First of all, they have a philosophy. I am not quoting anyone here. Rather, I am stating their philosophy as I see it. It is this: Diverse musical styles serve the gospel well. And we ought to use diverse musical styles and every instrument known to man in the pursuit of serving and proclaiming the gospel. The only styles that inhibit this endeavor are those that are completely beholden to popular culture and entertainment functions.

So, what might you hear at Bethany? Will you hear an organ? Yes. Will you hear a piano? Yes. Will you hear a guitar? Yes. Will you hear timpani or conga drums? Yes. Will you hear all kinds of other instruments like, woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, like triangles and finger cymbals? Yes. Will you hear an a cappella choir? Yes. Will you hear soloists? Yes. Will you hear African, Latin American, Early American, Old German, and New American styles? Yes.

So, given ALL this diversity, what will you NOT likely hear? The pop-band, (i.e. the praise band). You will also probably not hear the jazz band, although many new American styles borrow chord progressions from jazz (which reflects harmonic practices of turn-of-the-century French composers like Debussy, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Ravel, among others). But putting up the pop band or the jazz band to play the music of the church is too easy and it does not often prove to be the best expression of the Gospel. It is, in a word, uncreative. And it is far too grounded in worldly entertainment associations. We are not in church to be entertained. We are in church to worship and to hear the Gospel message in its fullness. The music should contribute to that fullness of the rendering of the Gospel.

Now I know the argument is going to be that not many churches have these kinds of resources to pull this off. But let me say two things. 1. If a church has the resources to have a praise band play every week, they have the resources to be more creative than that and can endeavor to provide more diversity than that. And, 2. If a church does not have any of these resources, they have many options as to how to deal with their congregational singing that does not involve having a quasi rock group play their hymns. I have written about this at length before so I will spare you the details.

My advice to Lutheran congregations: Like Bethany, embrace musical stylistic diversity, but do so with these things in mind:

1. Make the focus of your music program SINGING the hymns and liturgy. Singing is the number one component to emphasize.

2. Avoid pop-culture idioms. Keep the rock band (praise band) away from the Divine Service.

3. Use all the instrumental resources you have in your congregation - responsibly!

4. Make sure that all texts of hymns are doctrinally precise and clear. Not just that they do not say anything wrong, but that they say everything right.

5. Make sure the music reflects the spirit of the text. Don’t take the easy way out by using music that is simply the most “popular.”

At core, we need to retain a thoroughly Lutheran understanding of what is worship. The problem with modern Evangelicalism is that they do not share our particularly Lutheran view of what it means to be in the Divine Service, the holiness it conveys and the presence of God in Christ that it gives. Our LCMS has been, woefully, all too interested in following the lead of American Protestantism. Lutherans need to retain their fundamental and confessional understanding of what it means to worship as they choose their worship music. Stylistic diversity is great. But rather than appealing to people’s pet preferences and desires to be entertained in some way, we must make sure that our worship music upholds and illumines the Word of God and the presence of Christ in our midst.

Shaping Modern Lutheran Worship sans Praise Band

2010-08-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, we in the LCMS do have models that can show us what a contemporary, vibrant, fresh, music program can look like without compromising a shred of authentic Lutheran identity. Let me show you a program that I know a little about. That is Bethany Lutheran in Naperville, where Phillip Magness, my partner here at Liturgy Solutions, is Cantor.

First of all, I am very much aware that many if not most of our churches do not have the resources that Bethany has. But that does not mean that they do not have any resources. Be aware that when I speak of what Bethany does, we must understand this to mean, what Bethany thinks. What is the philosophy that lies behind their approach to music? If we can understand this, we can begin to implement it with success in parishes that have limited or few resources as well as those that have a wealth of resources. Here are some things that I think Bethany Lutheran has realized; that have led them to the place where they are as a vibrant, flagship example of authentic Lutheran worship.

1. Lutheran hymnody is exciting

This is really a theological matter. If a pastor is convinced that the Lutheran hymn heritage has something unique to offer Christians in the way of Gospel proclamation and catechesis, they will want to drink deeply from it. If they want to use it, they can find ways of making that happen without capitulating to the desires of naysayers who think other, less theologically astute songs are more “exciting.” There is nothing more exciting about one kind of music over another. One can cultivate an appreciation for all kinds of music, if one opens their minds and interests to doing so. As Christians, we should be open to cultivating appreciation for the Lutheran hymn corpus because of the great value it possesses and the great contribution it makes to Christian understanding theological knowledge and ultimately, spiritual growth.

In order to do this, pastors and musicians may need to streamline their hymn repertoire in their parishes to contain fewer songs sung more frequently. They will also want to introduce more complex hymns slowly, one at a time.

The unfortunate flip-side of this is that one of the reasons why pop-styled music is becoming more and more prominent in our churches is because pastors and their congregations really do not value the hymn heritage of our Lutheran church. They find the musical remoteness of some of the hymns off-putting and do not think it is worth the time to learn such hymns. We have addressed this matter on the blog before and will not go into details now, but this view is absolutely fatal to Lutheranism, because all the hymnody becomes music that does not discuss distinctively Lutheran theological issues, denying the people the comprehensive richness of our Lutheran theology. If this is missing from our music, one can bet that it is missing from the preaching too. That’s how it was in evangelicalism as I witnessed the erosion of strong doctrinal categories. That’s how it will be for Lutheranism too as we toy with the trend toward all things contemporary in our parishes.

2. Singing begets singing

If you want your congregation to sing, then sing. Adding instruments does not beget more singing. If anything, fewer instruments begets more singing, because the voices themselves must supply the musical sound that fills the room. When a congregation gets the fact that their voices are creating the pleasant the sound they are hearing, they’ll sing more and better. They accomplish this by just singing. Sing the hymns from LSB, the old chorales and the new tunes. Let me give a couple examples:

Let’s imagine two congregations. One is inclined to sing and loves their hymnody, the other is not inclined to sing and is uncomfortable with their hymnody. With the latter, the biggest mistake a congregation could make is to employ lots of instruments, especially if a PA system is involved. Why? Because it will not create more singers, but will create more spectators. People who are not inclined to sing, will not become so because you get more enthusiastic people to lead them, or more pop-friendly musicians to accompany them. They will neither become so, if you have an organist who improvises fancy introductions to hymns and re-harmonizes stanzas at will. The only way a congregation like this will sing is if they are responsible for producing the primary sound component in the service through opening their throats and singing. Simple accompaniments will be necessary to accomplish this, be they by a keyboard, guitar or organ, with the help of a solo vocalist or small group singing the hymns. But even more effective, would be simply a few people in the congregation who will just sing out, making the people around them feel more comfortable to do the same. I have often suspected that the trend we are witnessing to put up the rock band as the primary sound for worship has really not encouraged more enthusiastic singers, but rather, more enthusiastic spectators.

I have experienced this phenomenon where I currently work. I teach music in a Catholic high school where the student body is not inclined to sing. I was asked to try to change this by creating a “singing culture” of sorts at the school. Here is how I am proceeding. When I arrived there was a small group that led the singing. They were not very good and they were too small to fill the room with sound. When many of those students graduated, I started using my classes to lead the music for the liturgy. Now I was using 60 – 80 students at once, who could fill the room with their sound. This made them love what they were hearing and want to do it more and better. There were groups that ended up being disappointed when they were not chosen to participate in a particular liturgy, even though they had for the previous one. The point is this: As these students began to experience the sound that they as a community were making, they grew more enthusiastic about continuing to do it. As they learned the songs in class they began to enjoy them. That’s what will happen with our hymns. To learn them is to love them.

Bethany Lutheran understood two things: 1. Sing the Lord’s song to the fullest, including the hymnody of the historic church, and, 2. It is not more instruments that leads people to more singing. Rather, more singing leads to more singing.

3. The use of instruments

Following an understanding of these things, we can now talk about the former congregation from my example above that loves to sing and does so, vibrantly each week. With them, you can use whatever instrumental combination you want because they consider themselves, and their voices part of the music making process. They have developed a love for their hymnody and are engaged in the spiritual/liturgical conversation with one another; they know it and they like it. Any instrumental addition will be regarded as an enhancement to what they already provide with their own voices. It will not distract them from singing. It will not make enthusiastic spectators. It will be embellishment of the liturgical dialogue that is going on. The instruments can help illumine the text and are embraced as part of the celebration.

So, how should such instruments be used? This is where Bethany Lutheran excels. In my next post, I will discuss how the Bethany philosophy provides a much more interesting, creative, pathway to a fresh, contemporary sound and how the praise band is fast becoming hackneyed and trite. Employing a pop/rock-styled worship expression is not nearly as creative as employing a rich, liturgy and hymn based worship expression that is both modern and traditional. As to resources, those churches that can mount the praise band every Sunday are likely have the resources to do something along the lines of what Bethany has done to be modern, vibrant and yet authentically Lutheran in their worship life. The question is, are they willing?

How We're Changing

2010-08-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Part 3 in a series

The LCMS convention is long over, but some of the music demonstrated there reflected the influence of pop-culture influenced American Protestantism. This Protestantism is, to be sure, not Lutheran. They take their cues on worship from Nashville and Los Angeles recording studios and companies like Maranatha Music and Integrity. These entities exist to make a buck and in doing so, cater to the lowest common denominator when it comes to theology. Anything that would identify one theological position from another cannot possibly be produced by the major record labels. It would not sell. The song may not say anything objectionable, but that’s where the money is.

Yet, we Lutherans are now clamoring after this stuff as it if is novel and new. We’re 30 years too late and even some of the most vigorous evangelical proponents of the new efforts in worship back in the 70’s & 80's are now wondering if the affect they had desired actually worked. The Emergent Church has now formed as, believe it or not, a backlash to the mega-church, Willow Creek–styled, mass appeal techniques. Yet, despite these clues, the LCMS convention was advocating by its own showcases the very same approaches to worship that the evangelicals were using 25 years ago. Are we not just a bit slow on the uptake?

Here are some things that are happening in the LCMS now that the evangelicals did ever so long ago. It all looks really familiar to me because it is exactly what occurred when I was in the Evangelical church through the 80's and the 90's.

• Viewing doctrine as divisive and an impediment to missions
• Thinking that one can possess strong doctrinal positions, and change the musical styles to those influenced by the pop-culture (top 40 mostly).
• Disappearance of the chancel furniture except maybe on Communion Sundays
• Praise band leads almost all of the service, typically drums, guitar, keyboard, bass, lead singer.
• Hymns barely to non-existent
• Old=bad, new=good
• How-to, practical sermons for daily living rather than Christological, law/Gospel proclamations (may not be epidemic in the LCMS yet, but don’t worry, it’s coming)
• Disdain for the liturgy. We retain the things that might still qualify us as “Lutheran” but we really wish we could get rid of those too. The liturgy becomes a “style” seen as a necessary evil, rather than a “substance” that is life-giving through what it purveys. So it is altered to become "cooler," if not downplayed, or discarded altogether.
• Communion practiced less frequently or on days other than Sundays
• Service more like a concert with the band warming up for the main act -- the sermon!

I have noticed that we are shifting to a more and more amorphous brand of Christianity where doctrinal distinctions and precision is downplayed in favor of “bringing in the lost.” But we are not using the true Gospel to do it. We’re using techniques. We take the true Gospel for granted. We think to ourselves, “Hey, we’re Lutheran. That cannot happen to us. I mean, my pastor has a Book of Concord sitting on his shelf, after all–– I think.”

Departing from well established Lutheran music to products put out by Nashville and L.A. are sure to threaten our Lutheran identity. The sacraments are not addressed in this music, neither is sin. Nor are a host of other theological distinctions spelled out in our exhaustive Bible commentary, the Book of Concord. So, for those who think that we can start down that list above without directly affecting our historically held Christian and Lutheran distinctions are going to find it to be impossible. No such thing as Evangelical style and Lutheran substance. It just does not exist.

In my next and perhaps final posting in this series, I will speak about how worship music can be contemporary, traditional and authentically Lutheran all at the same time. Better yet, go to a service at Bethany Lutheran in Naperville, IL where Phillip Magness is Cantor. That’s exactly what he does. Bethany and its music should be the standard bearer for the how to be thoroughly, confessionally Lutheran and yet create exciting, fresh musical expressions in a variety of styles. We’ll talk about how they do that in the next post.

What Makes Lutheran Worship Lutheran?

2010-07-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

Part 2 in a series.

One of the most challenging things I faced as a former worship leader in the Evangelical Free Church was exactly how to define what worship was. One elder at the time quipped, “Ask 50 different people what worship is and you’ll get 50 different answers.” This was absolutely true and remains true today. One of the great things about Lutheranism is that it recaptures and explains a view of worship that is Biblical and objective–– not according to my whims, but according to what God says.

Worship is God gathering His church together so He might give to us His gifts. These are the gifts of His Word, Baptism, His Supper and His Holy Absolution. We are sustained through these things. Worship in essence calls us to get out of the way and let these things come to us, that we might receive them in gratitude and allow them to renew and shape our faith. As we hear the Word of God read and preached, we also share it together in our songs and hymns. Since we know that the Holy Spirit works through the Word of God, we do not wish to waste time singing things that are not the clear and well-explicated Word. Lutherans have always regarded our hymns as mini-sermons. This is because what we sing is just as important as what we hear preached. The Word of God present in our hymns sustains us in our faith.

The modern praise and worship craze that the Lutherans are now readily employing runs antithetical to our long held definition of worship. The songs do not proclaim God’s Word in any substantial manner. Rather than appealing to the objective Word of God and expounding upon it, CCM appeals to our subjective emotions, insists that it is us who serves God in our worship rather than God who bestows his gifts as we gather. In modern praise and worship practices, we are to ascend into God’s presence. I used several musical techniques used to accomplish this and it was all really emotional manipulation. But the impulse behind it was mysticism.

In Lutheran Worship, God descends to us, making His very presence real in the body and blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. This He does by the power of His Word and promise, and it is objective. Jesus’ body is present in the Holy Supper because He says it is. And what He says, He does. This is a far cry from the impulse in modern Protestantism to want to experience God as some kind of internal happening. I used to hear people say, “Wow, Jesus was sure present in our worship today.” As Lutherans we can be assured, by God’s own promise, that Jesus is present in His Holy Supper, and through his Word, every single week, every time we gather around those things, whether we feel it or not.

The Sandi Patti song, “Lord I praise you because of who you are; not for all the mighty things that you have done…” is not exactly a CCM hit. But it emerged out of a culture where Christian entertainment has become very popular (and unfortunately imported into church worship). Sandi Patti became a very popular Christian version of say, a Celine Dion, but even before her. As you can tell by the first line of the refrain of this song, it is meant to communicate this: “Of course it is easy to praise God when you get something out of it, or when He does something for you. You ought to really praise Him for who he is. Then you know you will be praising Him rightly.” As altruistic is this sounds, it is pure Gnosticism. Everywhere does Scripture praise God because of His actions. Look at song after song in Scripture. Start with the Psalms, look at the praises of Daniel, Moses, Mary the Mother of God and hosts of others. You don’t even have to go any further than Psalm 136 to see how God is perpetually praised for what he does. Indeed, the Incarnation is the supreme act of God coming amongst his people in a tangible, external, real way. Jesus’ life was a life of doing things: healing, teaching, serving, and ultimately, dying to forgive our sins–– an action on His part–– and then rising again, ascending, judging. This is the God who saves. Not the cosmic “who you are” that the song refers to. Folks, the modern praise and worship movement in all its manifestations is infested with Gnosticism. This runs thoroughly contrary to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions and has been rejected in our historic worship since day one. We know who God is because of what He does!

Lutherans, ask yourselves the question: Is the music we are singing grounded in the objective, external word of God, or in Christian experience? Does it explicate scripture like a mini-sermon, or does it seek to create a mood, elicit an emotional response, or worse, “ascend” into a mystical experience with God?

Lutherans have always rejected a theology of glory in their worship. A theology of glory suggests that we contribute something to our salvation and growth. Everybody wants to feel as though we are gaining God’s favor by our own actions. So we seek the mystical experience. We expect that we can encounter God in some tangible way by using the right music, in the right style, perhaps with a little mood lighting. We want God to make us feel His presence. Take a look at this popular CCM chorus: “In the secret, in the quiet place, in the stillness you are there. In the secret in the quiet hour I wait, only for you, cause I want to know you more. I want to know you, I want to hear your voice, I want to know you more. I want to touch you, I want to see your face, I want to know you more.” Let me just say that one can sincerely believe everything this song says and still die in their sins.

Lutheran theology has always held that salvation comes to us as pure gift. We did not earn it and we do not deserve it. We merely receive in faith what God gives. And, by the way, that faith is a gift too. All of this is outside of ourselves. It is received by believing the promises; by grasping in faith that what God has said is true, not because it is validated through an “experience” with God. So, songs like that above, have no place in Lutheran worship.

Yet, amazingly, God in His grace has given us Himself to experience. He tells us, “taste and see.” His very presence comes into our lives as a pure gift to be received by undeserving sinners. Clamoring after the mystical encounter with God as we are so inclined to do these days amounts to nothing more than unbelief. It is a refusal to believe the words, “This is my body… This is my blood.” It is refusing to believe that those things are enough. We want more, so we must have our favorite music. We want more, so we insist on feeling something. We want more, so we must hear sermons that tell us what to do to be better people and contribute to our own justification. We’re not content with God’s gifts. We spurn His gifts by seeking after a more meaningful experience.

Check out a quote by a fellow named Mike Baker. I do not even know him, but am looking forward to remedying that. He, like me, is relatively new to Lutheranism. He, like me, was a worship leader in the praise band. He, like me, discovered great riches in the Lutheran Confessions. He has left some very inspiring comments in response to my previous blog which was highlighted at The Brothers of John the Steadfast site.

…By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit guides you–a broken desert hermit–to the Lutheran Confessions and you use that like a map to find this remote oasis where the waters of the Gospel flow in endless streams of beautiful, life-giving grace. And it’s free! Not only that, but the water is PURE and there are people in the church [pastors] who have the sole job of just handing it out to you ALL THE TIME. Shoot, if you don’t stick your hands out, they will put it in your mouth themselves! And the water isn’t just to lure in new folk. It’s for everybody! All the time! Did I mention it’s free?

…and the stiff-necked people who have been lounging in the shade the whole time you were out there being made into beef jerky by false doctrine don’t even know what they have. They don’t even teach their own kids about the water. They are too busy complaining about how boring the water is and how it would be better to put in a coffee shop or cut down a lot of these pesky trees to get a better view of the outside world.

Mike did not know he was talking about me and the relief I found in the clear waters of the Lutheran Confessions, but he was. His comments are also about Lutherans who have taken God’s gifts for granted and are seeking after things that will not provide what they think they will. Please consider our warning, not because we deserve to be listened to, but because we learned from our mistakes and observations, from many years of not realizing that God gave us worship so we might receive His gifts – and that is enough!

More Like the Baptists Every Day?

2010-07-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Part 1 in a series.

As a former church musician in the Evangelical Free Church, I was for years immersed in efforts to use music to create enthusiasm for and numerical growth in worship attendance. The LCMS is going where I was, and subsequently left, in favor of a truly Lutheran brand of worship. The LCMS is looking more and more like the Free Church; not everywhere, but in enough places to cause alarm. And it is not so much about who is doing what, as much as there is a consciousness pervading the LCMS that is bound to make us into a more and more mainline protestant church and a less and less Lutheran church. Lutheran theology and worship is distinctive and has certain hallmarks that make it what it is. If we want to preserve these things, we need to speak more clearly about how we are not.

When Jesus comes again in glory to judge both the living and the dead, nothing will be set ablaze more quickly than 21st Century popular culture. Yet, it appears that we cannot wait to befoul ourselves with it. And the 2010 LCMS Convention provided some very good examples as to how. It was disappointing to me to witness the egalitarian manner in which worship music styles were treated. The arguments about how differing musical styles communicate different messages are well established, yet we insist on acting as if they do not, as if differing musical expressions carry no implications, for better or worse, one way or the other. At very least, the music of the pop-culture is carnal and not churchly.

The mainstream evangelical protestant denominations have seen fit to make their worship music reflect the sounds and moods of the secular popular culture almost exclusively. This trend is steadily increasing in the LCMS. The more the music sounds like the world, the better. This usually involves a drum kit, electric bass, electric guitar, and some kind of keyboard. And this has become the essential accompanying entity for their services. Out goes the organ, and even a piano, and in come the trap set, electric bass, and guitar. And this core group of instruments, with the timbres they produce, is the sound that defines contemporary worship music–– and for supporters, it is a requirement. Any other manifestation of a contemporary sound is of little to no interest for congregations intent on going in this direction. This, no matter how much better other contemporary initiatives may serve to uphold and illuminate the texts of the music being sung or how creative and masterful other stylistic renderings may be. For supporters of this approach, there is only one kind of contemporary music: rock-n-roll (or maybe jazz). How many of our churches are moving in this same direction?

It seems apparent to me that the LCMS Convention was trying to model both repertoire and performance standards for this pop/rock style–– a style that was presented, this year more than ever, as a perfectly viable option for any of our LCMS parishes to employ. So, just like the evangelical protestant, we are incorporating into our services a pop-culture sound, some parishes to a significant degree, where the sound of the band becomes normative and essential for our worship music, or so it is thought.

Nowhere was this more dismally exemplified than during the Karaoke styled, congregational hymn singing, setting traditional hymns to prerecorded hymn accompaniment tracks, using this pop-band style. This practice quickly made its way into evangelicalism a couple decades ago. Apparently it is more satisfying to sing a traditional hymn with a back beat, electric guitar and trap set rather than with an organ, piano or both, or even with combinations of other instruments. I seriously question whether most people think this is all that cool to begin with. But even if they do, I am more confident in this: the rock band accompanying a traditional hymn forces its text into a mood or spirit provided by the music. It should be the reverse. The text should inform how the musical accompaniment is crafted. This time-tested, honored, and responsible approach to hymn accompanying is all but destroyed when using the pop-band approach to congregational singing. And the evangelicals who have employed it have essentially given up using traditional hymns in their worship. This is because it does not work! Are we Lutherans doing the same thing?

Like the evangelical, Lutherans in many areas are already closing themselves off to real variety and creativity in worship music, in that, if the service does not have the exact kind of instrumentation and style they want, it does not pass for being contemporary enough. Take away that trap set or remove the electric guitar and the music is not truly contemporary! Like me, those contemporary musicians and composers who resist this style, are open to almost any style of music that does not attempt to mirror or bend the knee to the pop-culture as it is manifest in our day. We are open to a great variety of musical styles, instrumentations, textures, harmonic, rhythmic, and ethnic vocabularies. These are the tools we use as musicians. Our goal is musical quality, as we are musicians. Our great priority is to retain and exalt our rich hymn tradition from ancient and post-Reformation repertoires. Our goal also is to cultivate a churchly, contemporary musical expression that sounds like something other than what the world reserves for it’s most licentious musical entertainments. Is this not a more responsible and creative approach than just simply engaging the pop-band?

Here’s my concern for the LCMS and earnest Lutherans everywhere: After a decade of an all but complete endorsement of pop-culture styled contemporary music (as evidenced by this recent convention) we are moving in exactly the same direction as our Protestant evangelical counterparts. It would be interesting to see how many of our own congregations have minimized the liturgy to the barest framework, altered it to barely recognizable, or jettisoned it entirely–– as the mainline protestants have done. The more of this music parishes employ the less it will be thought that careful adherence to the liturgy will be necessary. Same with our hymns. In evangelicalism, hymns have all but disappeared entirely. How close are some of our parishes to doing the same? How many of your young people are learning hymns? Which hymns? Does it matter? In modern Protestantism, it clearly does not. Insofar as these things are happening among us, we may expect to suffer the same theological fate as the watered down services of the evangelical protestant. It will affect the thrust of our preaching and the definition of our worship, taking us further and further from our confessional moorings.

Next post will discuss how, even in the face of vehement protestations to the contrary, the employment of pop-culture styled contemporary worship music serves to erode our confessional theological precision.

New Hymns at Liturgy Solutions

2010-06-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

As a matter of fact these hymns cannot be found anywhere else other than at Liturgy Solutions. These are not hymn stanzas, but multi-stanza congregational hymns for your congregation to sing in Divine Worship as often as you like. Some of these hymns are texts that can be found in LSB, but have tunes that are different from those in LSB. Some of them will have tunes in LSB, but have new texts written to those tunes subsequent to the release of LSB. In either case, the hymns you find at Liturgy Solutions, are not available anywhere else. We offer them exclusively with the permission of the composers and the authors (poets).

Right now, we have several hymns posted by Stephen Starke and Stephen R. Johnson. But there will be more added as time goes by. In any case, these "Starke/Johnson" hymns are unique and are available exclusively HERE.

Now, a bit about the prices: We all know that if you want to use a hymn under copyright, you have to pay the publisher of that hymn a fee. You have to request permission in writing, and they send you their fee requirements for the use of the hymn. This fee almost always is for a one-time use for the hymn you are requesting. In other words, you do not have permission to use it anytime you wish, but rather, just for the one event or service for which it was requested. Fees for this could be as little as $25 or $30, or they could be much more, depending on how many times you need to reproduce the hymn for your congregation. A congregation of 100 attendees will not pay as much as a congregation with 600, and so forth.

When deliberating this at Liturgy Solutions, we determined that we would need to charge a little more for our congregational hymns than for our choral pieces. Here’s why: If you purchase a choral piece for a choir of 25, you will probably photocopy it 30 times. You will likely collect all those photocopies that were used and file them in your choral library after they have been used. You may need to make the occasional additional copy for lost pieces, because music can get lost over time.

On the other hand, when you reproduce a congregational hymn, you will copy it so that everyone in attendance can have a copy in his or her bulletin. This could be 60 or 80 copies, or it could be several hundred. And you will likely not save them. They will get thrown away with the bulletin.

For this freedom, Liturgy Solutions offers you a great bargain. Purchase a congregational hymn that you like for much less than a traditional publishing house would charge and use it as often as you like, knowing that you are supporting the work of the composer and poet who crafted these fine hymns. You may also enjoy the rich substance of these hymns over and over, every year without having to secure additional permission. We hope that this will help the Lord’s song to thrive in your parish.

PROPERS IN THE SUMMER

2010-06-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

The main purpose of Liturgy Solutions is to help church musicians proclaim the appointed pericopes of the day that are normally sung. The Lutheran Divine Service is very flexible, and so the particular propers used from parish to parish vary. Some congregations use the appointed Introit to begin the Entrance Rite, others sing an Entrance Hymn instead, and still others sing the Psalm of the Day at that point. Similarly, between the first reading and the Epistle, some sing the Psalm of the Day, others sing the appointed Gradual. Some parishes use the appointed Verse before the Gospel; others use the setting in the service book provided as an alternative, in effect making the Verse an "ordinary" instead of a "proper". Then there is the Hymn of the Day, sung by the congregation. In Lutheran circles, this hymn is appointed and so in a way is one of our "propers". Hence, it is more likely to receive special treatment by the choir, and so we offer hymn stanzas to support that practice.

Most parishes establish a certain pattern about all this. Either the choir is in the habit of singing the Verse or they aren't. The do hymn stanzas or they don't. The Psalm of the Day is used or it is not. Some others, including mine, vary the practice. Some Sundays a choir singing the Verse of the Day, some Sundays the congregation sings what is in the hymnal. We usually sing the Psalm of the Day, but sometimes the choir sings a Gradual. And there about seven different ways we sing the Psalm, so there is variety there as well.

Whatever your custom is, summer usually means a break for your choir. Even where there is a summer choir, it is often a different, smaller group and so a different approach is needed. In places where there is a strict pattern for when the choir sings and when they don't, summer provides an opportunity to do something different. Congregations - and musicians - are more accepting of doing something different because of the season, especially if it is a simple variation. The advantages of this are two-fold: one can readily find something accessible for your musicians (who are fewer and rehearse less in the summer) and the congregation can learn through experience that the pattern of worship is about the Word, not when "it's time for the choir to sing."

Here are a couple of examples. In a place where the choir doesn't take stanzas on the Hymn of the Day, have a summer quartet sing a stanza or two each week using a simple SATB setting such as found in TLH. It'll be easy to put together, and the congregation can readily understand that "they're not doing an anthem because it is summer." (grin) As the people become accustomed to the blessing of this practice, you might continue it on occasion in the fall with your full choir, using a Bach chorale for a stanza on Reformation Sunday or even a creative setting from Liturgy Solutions. (Had to get that in there!)

Or maybe you are in a place where the Psalm is always chanted, and you have no choir for the summer. Once a month, the Psalm could be done instead in a song setting by soloist, with the congregation singing a refrain. Again, since there is no "anthem from the choir", people will be more accepting of this in the summertime. And, once they experience the blessing of the practice, they will be ready to have the psalm sung this way on occasion during the year.

What do you do with your propers in the summer?

What a Great Choir!

2010-05-29T16:54:00.001-07:00

So now we are on to Trinity Sunday. Because it falls on Memorial Day weekend this year, many choirs in the church won't be singing. But not at Bethany! I may have the most dedicated - as well as one of the most talented - groups in the whole Missouri Synod. Huzzah! I am a cantor who is indeed richly blessed. :)

I did poll my group to make sure it was going to work for us to sing this Sunday. Turned out more were available for Trinity Sunday this year than Pentecost! As I said in my last post, I had to craft Pentecost for a smaller choir this year (we had 20). It did go very well, though, thanks be to God. I received compliments on the service throughout the week and am looking forward to the service being loaded onto our podcast. (We had a few glitches, to be sure, but, as Robert Preus quipped, "It wouldn't be a Lutheran liturgy without at least one mistake!")

Anway, this Sunday we'll have 29 out of my 36. :) And they will sing for all of both the 9:00am and the 11:15am services. Just like the brass group. (I told you they were dedicated!) On the Entrance Hymn, "O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth" the choir will sing my Liturgy Solutions setting of stanza 3. The Verse of the Day will use the Caribbean "Halle, Halle". The Voluntary will be Ernani Aguiar's "Salmo 150" (published by EarthSongs), a staple in the modern concert repertoire. It is one of the choir's favorites and a great way to end the choir season. And, yes, we sing it in Latin. Oh yes, one more piece - which we sang at the beginning of the year - the choir & the brass will lead the congregation in Carolyn Jennings' magnificent concertato on her hymn "Voices Raised to You We Offer".

Alleluia, indeed!

Ah, Pentecost!

2010-05-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

I know a pastor who got this silly idea into his head that "the reason the music for Pentecost isn't as grand as for Christmas or Easter is because the Holy Spirit just humbly points to Jesus." Now, I certainly believe, along with the rest of my confessional Lutherans, that the Spirit's work is indeed to create faith in our hearts. He calls, gathers, and enlightens us in the one true faith. And, to be sure, He also gives us spiritual gifts, aids the Church in her mutual conversation and consolation, and provides countless other blessings, even as the chief work of the Spirit is to call us by the Gospel and keep us faithful. That's why He enlightens us with His gifts!

But to therefore justify the lackluster way many parishes celebrate Pentecost and to even say that it is fitting and appropriate to have a diminished celebration on purpose is quite bizarre. To the contrary, because the Holy Spirit performs the miracle of creating faith in our hearts, so that we can believe in this Jesus and own the forgiveness of our sins, the Feast of Pentecost should be grand and glorious - just like Christmas and Easter. For without the Spirit, we could not believe in the One whom God our Father has sent! Jesus' death for us would then be in vain.

So, in the end, it is all about Jesus. And the Holy Trinity is blessed co-equally even as we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and praise Him for His wonderful works on Pentecost Sunday. In the comments section, for those who are interested, I'll share some of the things we'll be doing at Bethany this Lord's Day. I hope you will take some time to let us know what you will be doing as well.

May your Divine Services be glorious indeed this Sunday.

Michigan Happenin'

2010-04-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quick shout out to all our friends in Michigan - and to all who have friends in Michigan - to get the word out: Matt Harrison will be speaking in Traverse City next week: May 6 & May 7. All are invited! Click here to find out all the details. Please feel free to add your own link to CFLM to help us get the word out. Share the joy!

Happy Walter Day

2010-04-26T09:38:00.001-07:00

Actually, today is St. Mark's Day, and I just enjoyed Matins here in St. Malo, Colorado, where I am playing for a Doxology retreat. It was a beautiful service held in the "Church on a Rock" here near Estes Park, a beautiful little RC sanctuary which was made even more beautiful by the sound of 26 Lutheran pastors singing the Lord's song this morning. I must add that it was a special blessing to hear the preaching of Rev. Hal Senkbeil this morning and to pray the liturgy under the leadership of Rev. Shawn Kumm, who chants beautifully.

So what's this about Walter, then? His commemoration was YESTERDAY. But, having been in flight to Colorado, I missed Lutheran Kantor's excellent post on the topic. I tried to comment over there, but for some reason his site is not accepting comments. You can read his Walter Day post here, which includes an inspiring poem by Walter himself.

For your listening enjoyment, you might want to listen to this motet on "Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word" by Walter, as sung by the small choir assembled for the last BJS National Conference this February.

It's Time to 'Fess Up

2010-04-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

OK - I was never a great blogger - but in the beginning Fine Tuning did offer about a post a week, sometimes more. And Liturgy Solutions was posting lots of new content regularly. I think it is fair for all of you to know the answer to "Phillip, what are you doin'?" (insert Chicago accent into the question)

For the past few months, I have been spending much of my free time working with a great group of friends over at Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri. We are promoting a return to the churchly style of leadership that characterized the LCMS during her great days of unity and growth. In a nutshell, this means leading the church as a spiritual family, not a business. We believe that it is time for us to come together around Scripture and the Confessions, putting them first over policies and programs. Accordingly, we are supporting Rev. Matthew Harrison for synodical president, and rejoice that he received over 1300 nominations from LCMS congregations to serve in this capacity (almost 600 more than the incumbent, Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, received).

This Saturday, those of you in the New England and New York areas have an excellent opportunity to meet Rev. Harrison. He will be teaching and preaching at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Norwalk, CT. The Saturday AM session will be on his latest work: "A Little Book on Joy: Living the Good News Life in a Bad News World". After lunch, he will talk about genuine and exciting opportunities for mission that the Lord has set before us. Plenty of time is provided also for Q&A afterward. Stephen and I strongly encourage everyone in the to come out and be encouraged in the Gospel. You can get all the details here.

I guess it makes sense that musicians like me and Stephen would be excited about Harrison. After all, a return to theologically-based leadership would mean that our synod would once again uphold Lutheran liturgical piety and practice as the model for our parishes. And, for those of us who love singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Canticles), that would be a good thing.

HEAR FOR YOURSELF

2010-04-09T15:07:00.001-07:00

The LCMS Commission on Worship has now posted recordings and transcripts of the proceedings at MtCow: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=16698

I will certainly be continuign my commentary here, but for those who want to digest a little more in the meantime, I am happy to report that you may now proceed ad fontes.

I hope all of our readers and their congregations are having a joyful Eastertide.

Christ is risen!

FOLLOW-THROUGH

2010-03-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

So what is going to happen with all this talk at MtCow, anyway? Was it just a exercise in exchanging ideas so that we could check something off our lists? Some of us - including everyone at the Northern Illinois District (NID) table - became concerned that little fruit would actually be born from the conference. Indeed, one of our frustrations was that much time was spent on generalizations about which the vast majority of us agree, while avoiding the real divisive issues of "wine, women, and song", sacramental piety, and the Office of the Holy Ministry. These concerns began to surface after Vogel's address and grew louder as the conference continued.

Coincidentally, as I am at this point in my reflections on the conference, I am pleased to report that, at least here in the NID, we will be going forward with the process in a way that should be more helpful to those of us who desire greater synodical uniformity. After the last Board of Director's meeting, District President Gilbert told me that the district pastors' conference next winter would be a district replication of MtCow. This, of course, is what is intended to happen in all the districts in some shape or form. What encourages me, though, is what our bishop said: "And we will do it right. We are going to deal with specifics."

This follows in the wisdom of Norman Nagel, who famously said, "When discussing worship practice, it is important to be specific."

We can talk about adiaphora and the Gospel and the Means of Grace all day and never get to the real issues that divide us. It's time we start talking about the elephant in the room. Bring it on! :)

And maybe, we'll have a synodical president who understands that It's Time to talk about a lot of other things as well!

SINGING WITH LIFE

2010-03-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Recently a visitor to Bethany-Naperville commented positively on the choir, noting that "their singing had life to it."

Their song indeed has life. It is a privilege for me to conduct Proclaim (the adult choir at Bethany). They have hearts for the Lord, and a desire to use their musicianship to magnify His Word. Accordingly, they work with me on polishing sound and developing their instrumnets in a way that many church choirs would resist.

So often church choir members consider their service only to be their personal sacrifice of praise. At best, they then see their sacrifice as an offering on behalf of the assembly. I call that "vertical worship". It's just them & Jesus - and we get to watch. By God's grace, though, I am blessed to be at a place where the choir is devoted to the Lord's ministry, and so they understand their service to be not only their sacrifices of thankfulness and priase, but also a participation in the proclamation of His Word (hence the name). I call this "cruciform worship", because it is horizontal as well as vertical. The choir sings to God and to the assembly, sharing the gifts they receive from Him.

This makes all the difference on so many levels.

More Snippets from MtCow

2010-02-23T12:18:00.001-08:00

I return now to my series of reports on the LCMS "Model Theological Conference on Worship". I am advancing this conversation because it is the one thing I can see the synod doing that is in the spirit of "It's Time", Rev. Matt Harrison's proposal for effecting meaningful reconciliation and unity in the Missouri Synod. The worship wars are an impediment to the Gospel, and I believe the effort begun in St. Louis last month is a good step toward bringing concord back to the churches that subscribe to the Book of Concord.

Going forward then, following Dr. Jeff Gibbs' address, was Rev. Larry Vogel. He sits on the synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR). His focus was on the incarnational, the real presence of Christ in Word and Sacrament, and how that makes our worship truly Christian. We as Lutherans don't need to move "toward" this truth in our theology of worship. We're already there - or should be. The tension among us is that some claim that there is a conflict between sacramental worship and mission. Pastor Vogel says there should be no tension: "it (baptism) is mission: telling and living the new life of Christ's Body."

Besides, we have no choice. If we are to worship the true God, then we must worship according to His command. We must "let God have it His way". Though the world may differ, "it just won't do to make 'spiritual high' the goal or focus of our worship." Sadly, many churches today do just that in an effort to be "missional". And, in doing so, they prove that "worship customs affect doctrine, and are therefore not adiaphora."

So where then is the freedom? After all, we believe that differing customs are not necessarily divisive. (AC VII) The answer is found simply by looking at the Reformers: what they did, and what they did not do. They did not change the essence of worship, nor even its basic order and content; instead, they moved preaching and liturgy and hymnody into the vernacular, that many would hear and believe. Where this is done responsibly, we have good and healthy variety in the Church. Where it is done poorly, the Gospel suffers.

This, I believe, is where the rubber hits the road. And Pastor Vogel then pointed to this by highlighting what he called "Pastoral Realities": to be both "welcoming and faithful" in a "continaully changing America" while working with the "limited capabilities of musicians and pastors." We need wisdom to know what we can do well and effectively. As any musician can tell you, "it is one thing to have instruments - it is another to know how to use them."

Here I cannot help but end with a connection to our work here at Liturgy Solutions. Much of the talk at things like MtCow is conceptual. Very important and necssary, but not immediately applicable. It takes education, experience, skill, and discernment to distill and apply these principles in practical and productive ways. We at Liturgy Solutions serve to provide tools to help you do that.

Your choir is the most effective instrument you have for leading your congregation in worship. By choosing texts that sing faith into people's hearts, and by providing them music for those texts that is appropriate to the musicians and relevant to the hearers, they are truly able to magnify the Word and inspire the congregation's devotion.

May we use our instruments as conscienciously and intentionally as a good preacher uses his pulpit, that many may live the Eucharistic life. +

Those Files in Your Library...

2010-02-09T09:35:00.001-08:00

....tell you a lot about the history of your parish, and even of the trends in church music and American culture as a whole (how 'bout some of the 70's artwork on those covers?!).

Since I've been at Bethany, we've "archived" close to half of the choral music. Evidently it is some sort of transgression to throw the stuff away, supposedly because of all the needy congregations out there just aching to sing dated, heterodox drivel, so we box it up and store it in the attic above the gym in a back corner - where it can be disposed of by a future generation. Some of it actually does get thrown out, such as illegal photocopies or old evaluation copies of out-of-print octavos. But mostly we just store away those things we know we will never use so that we can make room for that which we can and will use. And now we are looking at instrumental music as well.

What sorts of things does one discover? Periods where the all the new music for choir was the "praise music" of an earlier generation, a type of "traditional" CCM, from many of the same publishers who now give us choral knock-offs of today's Bapticostal radio music. Other periods are much better, with sacred classics from the Lutheran repertoire. Periodically, one even finds a few years where the director purchased psalmody and hymn concertati. And then there are those romantic eras where a predecessor bought lots of big works (children and adults' choirs plus brass and bells!) which are still in pristine, unused condition. Guess (s)he went off to a workshop and got all excited about something.......only to discover that planning, rehearsing, and putting together all these forces in Bethany's old sanctuary was too much to do. I found a similarly interesting history when I went through the library during my cantorate at Trinity-Peoria (with choral music from the 1890s in German, along with English anthems dating back to the 1910s!).

I think digging through the library is one of the most important things a new director can do when coming to a parish. One can see where a choir and a congregation have been. One can discover some favorites that will help the new director win the confidence of his new choir. And one can find gems along with the jokes. (I'm sure those who followed me at Trinity have enjoyed the copies of "How?", the spoof of Carl Schalk's hymn anthems written by the late John Folkening.)

What have you found in your library?

The Right Story

2010-02-01T09:31:00.001-08:00

The first speaker up at MtCow was Dr. Jeff Gibbs, who did a fine job of framing our discussions. As he aptly pointed out, a project such as a "theology of worship" is like roofing: everything depends on the first shingle. If the first shingle is incorrectly laid, then everything else will be out of alignment.

Of course, the first shingle for worship is the Gospel. Christ crucified for us for the forgiveness of sins. As we unpackage this in relationship to the "worship wars", Dr. Gibbs pointed out that "the corporate worship of the congregation must be set in the right story." Too often, worshippers and worship leaders center worship on their personal story, their personal experience of faith. But while the Divine Service does return us to our baptisms and so does indeed personally renew our faith, the narrative of the service is not about Christ-in-us, but about Christ-for-us that we may be in Christ.

What does this mean for the church's song? It means that our music should not be primarily about self-expression, but about Christ-expression. In other words, worship is not simply a confession of our own personal experience of Christ, but rather a confession of the whole story of God's salvation of mankind.

This obviously norms the texts we choose, but it also shapes the kind of music we make to support those texts.

Does your music proclaim the "reign of God"? Does it bring the comfort of Christ being with your hearers "always, even to the end of the age"? Sure, we all love to share music that has been meaningful to us. And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we draw inspiration from such music and it helps us in our craft. But are we making music that is meaningful to others?

I submit that the craft of the liturgical musician is to manifest "Christ-for-us" through the music proclaimed to and sung by the assembly, making music that has been personally meaningful an inspiration to others in Christ AND taking music that has not inspired us and discovering how to make it meaningful to all.

Whether one plays the organ, directs a choir, or leads a liturgical consort of guitar, flute, and bass, this is where our musicianship lies.

Too often, traditional Lutheran musicians shy away from the personal and lose that vital artistic connection with the musical spirit that inspired them to play and sing in the first place. And, far too often as well, contemporary musicians will not discipline themselves to make music for the assembly, rather than just for themselves.

HOW DEEP HOW BROAD HOW HIGH (Thoughts from "MtCow")

2010-01-26T11:36:00.000-08:00

Much of the language used to discuss worship at the Model Theological Conference on Worship (MtCow), was centered on "diversity", "choices", and "styles". Clearly the focus was on the second half of the constitutional article cited in the resolution that authorized this gathering: "to develop an appreciation of a variety of responsible practices which are in harmony with our common profession of faith." (LCMS Const. Art. III 7b)

But the first part of this article, also cited in the convention resolution, is that the LCMS has as one of its objectives to "encourage congregations to strive for uniformity in church practice." This would be Art III 7a.

Cultivating "diversity" and "choices" and "styles" reinforces a tension between variety and uniformity that need not be. Instead, if we are serious about responsible practices which are in harmony with our common profession of faith, I submit that we should instead speak about the "breadth" of the Divine Service, the "depth" of the Divine Service, and even the "height" of the Divine Service.

Were we to do that, we would maintain the focus on the uniformity we are constituted to strive for, and also embrace the various practices and customs that are a legitimate and responsible part of our living heritage. "Breadth" would acknowledge the various languages and cultural situations in which worship occurs. "Depth" would encompass the variety that is provided for within the rubrics - just as a basic dance such as a waltz can be simple or elaborate and still be a waltz. And "Height" would embrace the arts in service of the Gospel.

Height. Breadth. Depth. Of Christ. For us. Just as in the wonderful hymn "O Love, How Deep". Just as the Scriptures speak (Eph 3):

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family [3] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Isn't this what worship is all about?

THOSE BUZZWORDS

2010-01-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

I know language changes. And some new words are helpful. "Trinity" doesn't actually occur in the Bible. Neither does "Sacrament." Those words were new at one time, and they serve the Church weel. So some of the new buzzwords may be OK. Accordingly, I am going to withhold critique of "missional" as a buzzword, though it tends to irritate me. Certainly the book of Acts describes the mission of the early church, and we have always sent and supported "missionaries". Church usage is normative, so I'll agree with Dr. Gibbs' assertion, made at the conference, that "God is in the gaps" between "Scripture and the Confessions". He works through His church. Through working with the Word, the Church came up with "Trinity" and "Sacrament". So maybe some of the new words like "missional" will turn out OK.

But given the frequency and novelty of some of these terms today, I think it is fair to ask whether the church being shaped by the world - rather than by the Word - when we use so many buzzwords that carry either modernist or post-modernist freight.

Sure, some of these words might serve the Church well. For example, there was much talk of "context". Certainly there is much truth in the proposition that those who preach and teach need to be sensitive to the situation of their hearers. One does not preach in a language the hearers do not understand. One must teach at a level the hearers can comprehend. Properly used, "context" might become a 21st-century American English equivalent of the Lutheran theological Sitz im leben ('setting in life").

But "contextual" if often used in our culture to justify "whatever works", or "what is true for me may not be true for you." It is the way our public university English and History teachers speak. Accordingly, it has post-modern baggage connected to other buzzwords I heard often at the Conference and also at the regional "Blue Ribbon" gathering I attended in Madison: perspective, relative, impact, diversity, empower and community. None of these words are necessarily wrong when used carefully. But they all stem from the world of relativism. So careful use should also mean minimal use, lest the words echo in the body of Christ and overwhelm the commonsense, Biblical way in which the Church has historically spoken: see, confess, convict, nations, save, and communion.

Words matter. They define us. So I think we need ask ourselves a couple of questions. Are we sharing different glimpses of glory in a passionate way so that we can grow stronger by enlarging the numbers of our faith community? Or are we to share what we have seen with our neighbor, that they may know the truth, and be freed to join us at the Lord's table?

The former is the way of organizations marketing themselves to religious consumers. The latter is what we read about in the Scriptures. Can we have it both ways?

LCMS "MTCOW": continued

2010-01-16T20:10:00.001-08:00

I think I'll start referring to the "Model Theological Conference on Worship" simply as "MtCow". It wasn't exactly a holy mountain - but we did 'ascend' to the LCMS capital of St. Louis and live in the ether of ideas there for three days. So here is the next of my many thoughts to share:

ON EVALUATING WORSHIP

One of the delegates at my table struggled with the idea that one could "evaluate worship". I found this interesting, since we were all there to discuss the theology of worship and so presumably would have some objective standards. I tried to explain some of the criteria Bishop Stoterau had referenced earlier in our table talk, to little avail. I couldn't persuade her that there were vaild, objective criteria by which one can measure worship.

I thought of her when I filled out the survey asking for us to evaluate every aspect of each service we attended. Would she fill it out, given that she really didn't think one could evaluate worship? Or would she fill it out on the basis of simply sharing feelings or "perspective" - i.e. on a purely subjective, self-expressive level, without any objective basis? I'll have to send her an email and ask.

I suspect that while some of this resistance to evaluating worship is simply the cultural influences of relativism and post-modernism, something else is at play here: the fides quae/fides qua distinction I've noted earlier this blog. If one is exclusively concerned with expressing the fides qua, viewing worship essentially as a means of expressing one's personal faith experience, then one is going to be loathe to make any sorts of value judgments. After all, who can look into another's heart?

I think the biggest challenge facing the LCMS in worship today is to get the "fides qua" folk to understand that those who lead worship are first and foremost responsible for the "fides quae", ie. the faith by which we are saved. Yes, on a personal level, one cannot really evaluate how someone worshipped, but on a corporate level, yes we do dare evaluate: on the basis of Scripture and the Confessions.

That this is not universally understood and accepted by pastors and other rostered church workers in the LCMS is troubling. Faith itself is at risk if worship is not about delivering "the faith once delivered to the saints," but rather about enabling worship that has "impact" and "motivates".

I'll talk about the import of some of the buzzwords I encountered in my next post.

LCMS Worship Conference: The Conversation

2010-01-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

I suspect that many of our readers upon reading that title might ask, "Are we still talking about the 'national worship conference' in Seward from 2008?" No, that was the triennial conference hosted by the LCMS Commission on Worship. What just happened in St. Louis was the "Model Theological Conference on Worship", which the synod in convention directed be held in order to attempt to resolve our conflicts over worship. I'm going to have several short posts about this over the next few weeks, as there is much to digest, and as these conferences are now supposed to continue at the District level. But, for now, I'd just like to put two short items:

1 - For those who knew not or new little of this conference, this reminder for everyone about the official purpose of this conference should be helpful: "to build greater understanding of our theology of worship and foster further discussion of worship practices that are consistent with that theology."

2 - And now for my first of many short observations to come that I hope might continue our conversation together on this important issue:

The conference worship was graciously hosted by our brothers and sisters at Concordia-Kirkwood. They have a beautiful facility, excellent musicians, and are a most hospitable congregation. They deserve everyone's grateful appreciation for their efforts. Their musicians ably led the services planned with them by the Commission on Worship. Though the Commission oversaw the planning, I presumed that we had mostly contemporary sounds because of the musicians available, and mostly traditional content liturgically because of the Commission's oversight and because of Concordia's commitment to historic texts. In other words, we were pretty much experiencing worship at Concordia, not "model" worship.

So I thought it interesting that the questionnaire we received about the conference had many questions about the music, ceremony, and rites we experienced together. It appears instead that the several services are being considered as models of the "variety of responsible practices" referred to in the synod constitution (III:7), to which the convention resolution referred and about which we were supposed to discuss at the conference. This was not made clear to us when we gathered. Sure there were many discussions about the services among the delegates - we are pastors and musicians, after all! - but now that I am considering these as models I find it curious that the musical style of 3 of the 4 services at Concordia was identical, and that the "traditional" model lacked the fullness one would associate with model traditional worship (other than the excellent children's choir from the day school that sang a Voluntary).

Indeed, the worship was all on a rather narrow band for a conference that was supposed to discuss variety. I'm not sure why that was. I am sure that we could have had: choral settings of stanzas of hymns, more variety of psalmody, brass, other instruments, and also a more representative example of "real" contemporary worship. (Many delegates commented that if the "contemporary" worship we experienced at Concordia were representative of what is happening in synod as a whole, we would have not had a synod resolution to have this conference to begin with.)

I'm going to ask Commission members for their thoughts on this. I realize there is only so much one can do with five services, but it does seem to me an opportunity was lost.

SHE HELD THAT NOTE!

2009-12-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

On the other side of the worship spectrum, a relative of mine reported on worship at her church this past Christmas Eve. The contrast between what was sung at our traditional, liturgical service and what was sung at hers was striking. Here's a taste of what is going on out there in the world of "contemporary" worship, just in case you were wondering about what a "praise band" does on Christmas Eve:

"Don't get so busy that you miss Giving just a little kiss To the ones you love.

Don't even wait a little while To give them just a little smile. A little is enough.

See how many people are crying. Some people are dying.

Chorus: So don't save it all for Christmas Day.

Find a way to give a little love every day.

Find a way 'cause holidays have come and gone

But loves lives on if you give on love."

Etc.

So there you go. The theology of Celine Dion instead of the doctrines of Christ. No Gospel. Just an exhortation to be nice. All year. Not just on Christmas Day. Because it is up to us. "Love lives on IF. . . ". This is what more people hear in Church these days. Including many children. Lord, have mercy!

The performance of this music reinforced the man-centered lyrics. Here's the report:

"There's a girl in the band who usually sings backup, but they gave her this solo on Christmas Eve. The usual lead singer wasn't there, and so she was sort of getting her chance. Well, we all just couldn't believe how she nailed this long note toward the end of the song. It was just amazing. And as she held it we all just started to applaud. It was so awesome."

There are many who want to ignore the worship wars going on in Christendom today, and let everyone do what they think is right in their own eyes in the name of "freedom." Certainly our Lord gives us much freedom in how we are to worship Him, but I don't think this is what He has in mind for us.

I do know that not all churches dabbling in "contemporary worship" would have this song sung in the Divine Service. But this is the well they drink from, and I encounter things like this every time I go on the road and visit a church's "contemporary worship service."

C.S. Lewis used to say that "he who doesn't believe in God will believe in anything." I think it is fair to observe also that apparently he who doesn't sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs will sing anything.

NOEL!

2009-12-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

So what's your choir singing for Christmas? We at Liturgy Solutions would love to hear from you. We hope your preparations have all gone well, and that you and your singers make the hearts of all in your sanctuaries glad.

Here at Bethany, we are looking forward to the following highlights:

5pm - Schola Canotrum (and flute trio)
*Quempas Carol
*Ding-Dong, Merrily, on High
*Verse for Christmas Eve (Hillert, from NPH series)
*Willcox descants on "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"

7pm - Vocal Quartet (w/ Bethany Brass accompanying congregational song)
*Elise B. Calhoon sings "O Holy Night"
*Stanzas of various hymns sung in Liturgy Solutions' arrangements, including:
-Once in Royal David's City
-O Sing of Christ
-Of the Father's Love Begotten
-O Little Town of Bethlehem
*Dr. Jennifer Barnickel-Fitch sings "Gesu Bambino"

11pm - Proclaim
*What Sweeter Music (Rutter)
*Gradual for Christmas Day (Stephen R. Johnson, Liturgy Solutions)
*In the First Light (Glad studio chart)
*Some Children See Him (Burt)
*Willcox Descants (of course!)
*Elise B. Calhoon sings the Wexford Carol
*Choir sings stanza 1 of Stille Nacht (in German)

Christmas Morning - Elise graciously returns to sing Wexford again. (Thank you, Elise!) Many choir members were willing to sing Christmas AM as well, but I didn't plan voice parts accordingly and, with the divisi on the Rutter, Glad, and Burt, we decided not to have those for Christmas morning.

Which leads to my last question, besides what you are singing, WHEN are you singing? Does your choir do both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Do they do two services on Christmas Eve (like Bethany's Proclaim did last year)?

"Joy, O Joy, beyond all gladness,
Christ has done away with sadness!
Hence all sorrow and repining,
For the Sun of Grace is shining!" (LSB 897, refrain)

A Sinless Christianity

2009-12-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

The hymnody of the Lutheran tradition serves a role of teaching or catechesis. For me, this was a very unfamiliar idea until a number of years ago when I listened to a lecture given by my now, very good friend, Leonard Payton. The idea was clear in his presentation, namely, that the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly is obtained through the appropriate teaching and admonishing of ourselves with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Col. 3: 16). He used the Levitical practice of the Old Testament to illustrate this and pointed to a memorized tradition as being the norm for ancient Israel. When we realize that the Psalms and many portions of the prophets were sung for memory and internalized by the people, we can begin to get a glimpse of what it means for the Word of Christ to dwell richly in us.

Our hymnody teaches on every imaginable doctrinal subject. It is vast and didactic – just like the Psalms. How anyone can use the Psalms to justify simplicity in our worship music remains for me, puzzling.

I was struck by a little tidbit of information regarding a hymn in our Lutheran tradition, All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall. A line from this hymn by Lazaraus Spengler is actually quoted in the first article of the Formula of Concord (Epitome), which states:

We believe teach and confess that original sin is not a slight corruption of human nature, but that it is so deep a corruption that nothing sound or uncorrupted has survived in man’s body or soul, in his inward or outward powers. It is as the church sings, “Through Adam’s fall man’s nature and essence are all corrupt.”

It is telling, by the way, that in the Formula of Concord, one of the most important confessional writings of the Lutheran Church, the first article is entitled “Original Sin.” Without sin as the preexisting condition, proper contemplation of the Gospel will be impossible. It is upon this dark canvas of original sin that the Gospel may be painted in all its gloriousness.

I like to listen to a contemporary Christian radio station in my area. I do not listen for the reasons that most people do. I listen to remain aware of the latest in that genre. I like to keep up with the new songs, new artists and what is contained therein so that I am knowledgeable when I speak with friends and colleagues in other denominations. Well, I have been made painfully aware that the music of this genre does not discuss sin. It does not show the depth of the fall. It does not illustrate that “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin…”

No, the concept that this musical genre communicates is that I am troubled and need assistance. Maybe I am depressed. Maybe I am hurting. Maybe I have a bad habit, or see a therapist, or have baggage from my dysfunctional upbringing. Maybe I have a low self-image. At any rate, the purpose for following Christ is that he then gives me the pathway to live victoriously over all these things. Eventually, if I do everything right and follow the “principles” Christ has given me in his Word, I may even be able to stop seeing that therapist, stop smoking, drinking, chewing, or whatever my problem may be.

If this is the essence of sin, we do not need a Savior. There is no original sin in this picture, and, therefore, nothing from which we need forgiveness. The contemporary Christian music genre speaks very little about confession and forgiveness. Christ is not a Savior in these songs as much as a helper and a buddy who’s always there for me in the hard times. Jesus helps me get over my problems, he encourages me, tells me everything is going to be OK and even “holds me in his arms” as some songs say, –– but he does not forgive me! So I can quit smoking, say bye-bye to the therapist, become a better, more positive person, and help lots of other people do the same, yet still die in my sins. Our sinless Christianity cultivates Christians who trust Christ for for comfort, help, and encouragement, but not for forgiveness. Is this the Christ of Scripture, who dies on the cross? For what? To be our life coach or buddy?

The contemporary radio station reflects the thinking of a great many mainstream Christians. Theirs’ is a Christianity without original sin. It is a faith that thinks our problem is far less serious than it is. And hymns like “All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall” are not sung in most Christian churches and has even fallen out of use, regrettably, in the Lutheran tradition, from whence it came. When hymns like this are jettisoned, we fallen men and women have very little to remind us of our biggest problem. This leads to our justifying ourselves, rationalizing and thinking that we are not so bad. There really is no true Christianity without the doctrine of original sin. We, as people of the Reformation, need to be aware of this flawed view, so prevalent in our day. To embrace a sinless Christianity is to embrace an impotent cross and an ineffective Christ. Bypassing original sin in our doctrine bypasses the work of Jesus to forgive that sin and leads to a tepid faith that seeks personal achievement and success, dare I say works righteousness, rather than the peace and comfort of sins forgiven.

I am grateful that God, in his grace, uses hymns like All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall, to remind me of the depth of my sin, and of God's lavish forgiveness of that sin in Christ.

All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall
One common sin infects us all
From sire to son the bane descends
And overall the curse impends.

From hearts depraved and evil prone
Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone
God’s image lost, the darkened soul
Seeks not nor finds it heavenly goal.

As by one man all mankind fell
And, born in sin, was doomed to hell
So by one man who took our place
We all received the gift of grace.

A Baptismal Liturgy for Post-Modern Americans

2009-12-13T12:35:00.000-08:00

THE RITE OF HOLY BAPTISM

P: We rejoice this day in the gift of new life which our heavenly Father bestows upon us in and through Baptism. We are pleased to share this celebration with many guests this day, and so begin by welcoming our visitors today.
C: We welcome you in the name of the Lord.
P: Yes, that's right, we are all glad you are here. And it is OK if you don't participate in the service. We know that the Lutheran service may be foreign to you. But don't worry:
C: We will sing the hymns for you.
P: And pray the prayers.
C: And confess the Christian faith.
P: You can just take it all in, and through the Word you will hear today, we trust that the Lord's will shall be done in your hearts.
C: That's how He works!
P: And if you feel so moved as to join us in worship, the bulletins you received on the way in have the order of service for this day.
C: And hymnals are in the pew racks in front of you.
P: Yes, this is a worship service.
C: We actually believe God will be present with today.
P: And so we consider this sanctuary to be "the Lord's house",
C: Not your house. Not our house. But God's house.
P: And so we do ask that you respect our customs, even though you may not understand or agree with them.
C: For this is where we worship our God. It is a holy place.
P: And so we ask that you not take flash pictures during the service.
C: Such distractions are offensive to us.
P: You may record the baptism with flash-free photography if you wish or wait until after the service, when I will be happy to re-enact any part of the Rite of Holy Baptism for your benefit. But during the service we want to keep the focus on what God is doing today through His Word.
C: For without God's Word, the water is plain water, and no baptism.
P: But with the Word of God, it is a baptism, that is a life-giving water, rich in grace,
C: And the washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.
P: So, please, let us turn off all cell phones and flash bulbs and put away everything that hinders us.
C: that we all may hear His Word, and gladly hear and learn it.

the service then continues according to the rite as it appears on page xxx in the hymnal...

---

Yes, the paparrazi were at Bethany again today. Two baptisms in one service. All flash all the time. Our pastors don't want to say anything; our ushers aren't comfortable with addressing this either - even though they have directions about this in the usher manual and it has been brought up the last two usher meetings. And the Elders have put a statement in the bulletin, but the kind of folks who flash away in the Divine Service don't look at the bulletin. They are just here to observe (and record) the Baptism.

So what does one do? I realize my ersatz 'Creative Worship' - style liturgy is over the top. And I hope you got some chuckles out of it. I find the satire theraputic. But the problems remains, and we have no "solutions" for it here at LS. Anyone have any ideas?

I have a feeling we are going to have to endure more and more of this kind of a thing as our national culture become more post-Christian.

IDEAS FOR ADVENT

2009-11-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

We're updating the front page soon, but with Advent upon us I thought it best to go ahead and give everyone a few ideas about how Liturgy Solutions might be helpful to you this season:

For the Musician in Small Parish – Perhaps you've got your small choir working on an Advent anthem and are busy preparing a couple of pieces for Christmas Eve. But you'd like to involve your choir in the liturgy when they are scheduled to sing, and perhaps use a soloist for one of the other Sundays in Advent. SO -

Consider Jonathan Kohrs' setting of the first stanza of “Lo, He Comes, with Clouds Descending” for unison/optional 2-part choir and organ as a great way to introduce or reintroduce this hymn to your congregation, using the LSB tune HELMSLEY. The subtle quote of SINE NOMINE (“For All the Saints”) while the choir sings “Thousand, thousand saints attending” is a lot of fun – and meaningful text-painting, even though it is subtle.

Also consider Jeffrey Blersch's psalm refrain for Psalm 25:1-10, appointed for First Sunday in Advent in the Three-Year series this year, but very appropriate for Advent Vespers in any parish. Consider having a flautist play the descant on the repetitions of the refrain. For a Gradual, try “Out of Zion, the Perfection of Beauty” (Psalm 50:2-3a,5), by Phillip Magness, for unison choir (or soloist) and organ. This text is for the One-Year series, but could be used at Matins or Vespers at any Advent series. All four of the Magness Graduals quote the Hymn of the Day, with this one drawing inspiration from “Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding”.

Three-Year Congregation? Try Dawn Sonntag's “Prepare the Way of the Lord”, the Verse of the Day for the Second Sunday in Advent, for Uni/2-part choir and keyboard. This works with piano as well as organ and is enjoyed by children's as well as adult choirs.

For the Musician in a Medium-Sized Parish – Your children's choir will love the Sonntag setting of the Verse for Second Sunday in Advent mentioned above, but will also embrace her setting of “Creator of the Stars of Night”, especially with the descant provided for the final stanzas. A great choice for the Office Hymn at Advent Vespers.

Speaking of hymnody, Jonathan Kohrs' setting of stanza 3 of “On Jordan's Bank” (SAB, a cappella) will be very accessible for your adult choir, with the melody given to the men while the Sopranos & Altos sing a creative, text-painting accompaniment. Your adult choir should also consider Stephen Johnson's setting of Psalm 85, “Surely His Salvation Is Near”, appointed for the Third Sunday in Advent in the Three-Year Lectionary but also appropriate in place of an Advent Gradual in the One-Year series or as a psalm in any parish for Advent Matins or Vespers. For the Fourth Sunday in Advent, consider Dawn Sonntag's setting of the Verse of the Day: “Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive”. This could be sung again as a Prelude or “Opening Sentences” to Vespers on Christmas Eve.

Speaking of Christmas Eve, did you know “Savior of the Nations, Come” was originally a Christmas hymn? Whether your sing it for Advent or Christmas, if you have a good balance of men in your choir, they will sparkle on Jonathan Kohrs' setting of the “Manger Stanza” (stanza 7), with the altos, tenors, and basses singing a haunting undulation underneath the intermittent superimposition of a the lyric melody in the soprano. This stanza provides a nice opportunity for a soloist as well as for your soprano section. Baritone soloist instead? Consider Dawn Sonntag's most excellent setting of the Verse for the First Sunday in Advent, “Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates” for baritone soloist, SAB choir, and organ.

For the Musician in a Large Parish - You've got a big program, and multiple services each week, and so you know that the recommendations for Small Parish provide possible “solutions” for your children's choir and soloists. And that setting of stanza 3 of “On Jordan's Bank” by Jonathan Kohrs is a perfect match for your junior high or high school choir. Your regular SATB choir is scheduled to sing several Advent works for Voluntaries, Preludes, and communion distribution this year – but you want to make time for them to contribute to the liturgy as well.

Consider Jeffrey Blersch's SATB refrain for psalm 66:1-12, “You Have Brought Us Out to A Place of Abundance”, for the Second Sunday in Advent or for Advent Vespers. The congregation could join in this refrain or the choir could sing it and then chant the verses of the psalm responsively with the assembly. For the Third Sunday in Advent, consider giving them the Verse of the Day, with Dawn Sonntag's “Behold, I Send a Messenger”. If they are up for a small challenge, give them her setting of stanza 3 of “Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People”, a free setting that cloaks the melody yet paints the text well.

For Graduals, consider Stephen Johnson's setting of the Gradual for the Second Sunday in Advent, “Out of Zion”, and Phillip Magness' short motet on Psalm 25:4, “Make Me to Know Your Ways, O Lord.” Finally, don't finish your planning until you've reviewed both options we have for stanza 3 of GABRIEL'S MESSAGE. For either the Fourth Sunday in Advent, Advent Matins or Vespers focusing on the Annunciation, or for Lessons & Carols, we've got two great picks here. The option by Jeffrey Blersch is more traditional, yet with fresh and compelling harmonies. Dawn Sonntag's setting includes a soprano solo and either a flute or violin obbligato.

WE HOPE THESE IDEAS HELP YOU TO NAVIGATE OUR SITE AND FIND THE "BEST PICKS" FOR YOUR FOLKS

Whether you are looking for a simple way to chant the Introits or for fresh settings of hymn stanzas that will motivate your choir and enrich your congregation's meditation, we humbly offer these many and various “solutions” for your choirs that they may magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior by magnifying the Word His Spirit gives us to sing in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs.

Magness interviewed by Scripps-Howard

2009-11-20T16:30:00.001-08:00

Our recent post about the use of the organ in Divine Worship shows how we at Liturgy Solutions view the use of instruments in the service of the Gospel. We have shown that we value traditional worship ideals as integral and seek to build upon them, but we also understand that worship can be fresh and unencumbered by tradition for tradition's sake. We believe in using the full palate of color and qualities that many instruments have to offer. We believe that any instrument can serve our hymn corpus and that congregations should be resourceful at all times, especially when challenged by the absence of regular organist serving their parishes. But we also are very concerned about trends that are taking place in our Synod where the Lutheran musical and worship heritage is being undermined or tossed out altogether. As I said before, our hymns and liturgy are our treasure, and to dismiss them is to dismiss one of the most valuable ways the gospel is communicated to the hearts of our parishioners.

Our own Phillip Magness, was interviewed by the Scripps-Howard News Service last week and really fleshed out what it means for churches to cultivate a confessional and liturgical identity in our worship what happens when that identity is compromised. The link to the interview is below. We welcome your comments.

http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/
mattingly-lutherans-and-worship-wars

Luxuriant Lutheranism - the organ on a pedestal

2009-11-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

We Lutherans love our organ music, and rightly so. Hearing fine organ playing can be awe-inspiring. Parishes that have fine organs and organists to fully utilize them receive the great rewards that the instrument has to offer. The organ offers a panoply of colors, expressivity, and sensitivity in hymn accompanying, and of course, the great organ music of the Lutheran überkantor – J. S. Bach. Bach has always been my favorite composer, long predating my years as a Lutheran, extending all the way back to my childhood. The more Bach I hear, the better.

But recently we have encountered some problems in our American Lutheran Churches. There are many, probably even a majority who do not have the kind of organ or organist that would inspire such awe. Many a seminarian, after living in the beauty of the liturgical life at St. Louis or Fort Wayne, and hearing great organists like Henry Gerike, Richard Resch, Kevin Hildebrand and Paul Grime, have left that sublime atmosphere for a more mundane parish existence, where the organist struggles to keep an even tempo and who may have unpredictable, even contrary views on how things should be done. Other parishes, fewer, but still enough to rightly deserve our attention, do not have an organist at all. They have been looking for one, but cannot seem to find one. And the ones they do find are mediocre at best. What to do?

The organ is a great instrument, and it is always wonderful to have a good organist. But if we do not have either, we as Lutherans, may need to rethink our values. What makes Lutheran worship efficacious? Is it the organ, or is it the things that are played on the organ? Is it the chorale preludes of Bach? Or is it the chorales themselves, which place words and melodies on the lips and in the minds and hearts of parishioners for their spiritual nurturing? No chorale prelude can do that.

Is it possible that, without an organ at our disposal, we may need to be resourceful in finding ways to guide the congregation’s song? Perhaps the use of a combination of instruments, or one or two good singers from the congregation can accomplish this goal. Will it be as grandiose, as majestic? Probably not, but will it fulfill the admonition of Colossians 3:16 to “let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us?” Absolutely!

We Lutherans may be growing fat from the luxuries we have been afforded in this great country where our churches are not persecuted. Our “fatness” manifests itself in that we think it a travesty when we do not to have an organ in our church buildings. So, we have elevated this instrument to "king of instrument” status, placing it on some high pedestal in our worship life. We think the organ to be absolutely essential to our worship – that we cannot possibly worship without it.

But, how important has this instrument been in the history of the Christian faith? St. Paul never even knew of one, let alone the ancient Jews who were given the Psalms and encouraged to sing them. The early church never had one. Yet they sang canticles and hymns just as do we. All through the Medieval period, I understand that organ playing was not in full grand use. The Renaissance composers focused on a pervasively vocal art. No great chorale preludes were being produced at that time. However much the organ was used then, it was not until the Baroque period that we get a truly instrumental art that elevated the organ, through Buxthehude and then Bach (and others, of course). If I am a little inaccurate in my timeline, I think you get my point. Christian worship (and I include the faithful ancient Jews in this, who were saved by Christ's atonement) is 8,000 plus years old. Yet, the organ has played a really significant role for only about the past 400 years, and that’s a charitable estimate.

CPH has come out with a product called The Concordia Organist (TCO). This product provides prerecorded hymn accompaniments on the organ for congregations who do not have a real live organist. You can have an organ playing in your parish even without a person to play it. I view this product as elevating the organ to a level it does not merit. What’s communicated is that, if we do not have an organ, we must use this, because we cannot possibly worship without an organ. It is a symptom of our luxuriant Lutheranism. Well, I have good news. You can live without it! And if you are in this position, it might be a healthy exercise for you to live without it. You have the opportunity to look for the benefits that living without an organ can give! You can start by singing the hymns unison a cappella. One or two singers or a small vocal ensemble can assist the congregation in doing so. As you go, you might add a flute, simple chords on a guitar or a combination of instruments, even a keyboard. You might also begin to sing in parts.

Rather than neglect whatever musical talent lies dormant in your congregations, use them. They are your parishioners too and they need catechesis and pastoral care. Teach them what worship means as they learn to guide the congregation in song. Do not neglect them by employing a “sanctified” manifestation of Karaoke in your parishes. CTO is not altogether different than the canned music that soloists in evangelical protestant churches use to sing contemporary songs so they can sound a little more like Nashville. Think about it:

“You too can sound like the Fort Wayne Chapel! Just buy TCO.”

Is there not just a tinge of theology of glory at work here? Perhaps living life under the cross means, for some, getting over personal aesthetic preferences and considering the notion that unison a cappella singing can serve just as efficaciously in rendering a great hymn or Divine Service setting. But even more, it serves to catechize your congregation just as well, if not better than fancy hymn accompaniments. You do not need to be beholden to some aesthetic ideal that you experienced at seminary or a worship conference, all the while forgetting that the true treasure is in our sung hymns themselves and building a faith community that sings that treasure with great authenticity. Our hymns are an immensely valuable, meaningful, and profound treasure, no matter whether we sing them with an organ or not.

You do not need TCO. Sing your hymns. They are the true treasure. Do it with or without an organ. Use your pianist, your guitarist, your high school flutist, whatever. And when you do not have them, sing a cappella! Putting the organ on a pedestal is nothing more than style over substance. The hymns are our substance and sustenance with or without an organ. They are our true treasure.

Could TCO be helpful to some congregations? Sure. Is it expedient? Sure. But living without an organist and TCO may afford our congregations many hidden benefits as they strive to cultivate their singing voices and utilize other musical resources that may be of great value to their worshiping communities.

SOME NOMINATIONS

2009-10-30T17:16:00.001-07:00

OK, I'm out of my sick bed - and am now in Schuyler, Nebraska playing for a Doxology conference. Thanks, Iggy, for starting off Round II of our discussion of "LSB After Three Years" with your nominations. I'll keep things going down with mine:

1 - Personal Favorite - By far my favorite new text in the hymnal is "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" (LSB #596). Thank you, Jon Vieker, for translating this Gerhardt gem into English for us. And I think the pairing of this text with NUN FREUT EUCH is perfect. Historically, we sing this tune to tell the story of Christ with "Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice"; here, we sing the story of our baptismal life in Christ.

2 - Most Beneficial for Your Congregation's Piety - I would also say the above, but let me add another one here, which I think has been especially helpful for the Gospel at Bethany: "O Gracious Lord, with Love Draw Near" (LSB #599). Yes this is a new tune, and I was envisioning "best new texts to old tunes" with these nominations, but this hymn has filled a need at Bethany more than perhaps any other next text: for years I've been looking for just the right hymn to sing before the Rite of Confirmation, and now, thanks LSB, we've got it!

3 - Hymn that Most Effectively Catechizes - "The Gift Christ Freely Gives" (LSB #602) does a wonderul job of teaching the congregation about the means of grace, nurturing in them a Lutheran liturgical piety.

4 - Best Fit for an Old Tune - Another hymn that catechizes well is my pick in this category, as it sings like it was written for it's tune: "Jesus Comes Today with Healing". I've not historically been a huge fan of this tune, as I generally like a little more rhythmic variety in a tune, but the rhyme and rhythm of this David Rogner translation (of a Heinrich Puchta hymn) really make this tune come alive. A great marriage of tune and text.

5 - Text that Helped You Use an Older Tune - As I mentioned before, here I would agree with Christina Roberts and nominate "Christ Sits at God's Right Hand".

6 - Congregational Favorite - Have the people in your parish embraced a new text to the point where they associate an old tune now primarily with a new LSB text? It's hard to know what new LSB text has been a hit with the folks. There was a lot more talk about the new music in HS98 when it came out. Parishioners at both congregations where I introduced HS98 (Trinity-Peoria and Bethany-Naperville) loved "The Tree of Life", "What Is This Bread?", and "God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It", for example. They were all big hits. And there were others. So far with LSB I can only name one that is certainly on everyone's lips: "We Praise You and Acknowledge You". With LSB, we've mostly enjoyed having everything in one book in a most excellent layout. So I hope some Bethany members will help me out here and nominate their own favorites. For now, let me say that one possible candidate is "Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen" (LSB #474). Folks always liked the tune, EARTH AND ALL STARS, but many didn't care for the text. Regardless of one's thoughts on "Earth and All Stars", I think all would agree that here we have a more liturgically useful text - and with this text I no longer get complaints about singing this tune!

OK - I put myself out there. Those are my choices (for now). Anyone else want to play? :)

LIVING WITH LSB - PART II

2009-10-22T13:23:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the last post, the need for LSB to unite LCMS congregations using different hymnals limited the number of new tunes in the book. Certainly as a musician I was more "jazzed" about Hymnal Supplement 98 (HS98) when it came out. So many new tunes! And the fact that the majority of those songs found acceptance into LSB demonstrates the high quality of music HS98 brought to the Missouri Synod.

And yet, as important as music is, I think LSB is making an even stronger contribution, because the LSB has brought so many good texts to our synod. And, of course, the texts ARE the hymns, and given that LSB is a generational hymnal, not a supplement, I think we should all celebrate the hymns that are serving the church so well in the LSB.

So, in the first post I focused on new hymns with new tunes. Now lets focus on the new hymns that are sung to familiar (or, at least, pre-existing tunes). What would you nominate in the following categories?

1 - Personal Favorite

2 - Most Beneficial for Your Congregation's Piety

3 - Hymn that Most Effectively Catechizes

4 - Best Fit for an Old Tune

5 - Text that Helped You Use an Older Tune - (here I would concure with Christina, and nominate "Christ Sits at God's Right Hand". Now we really sing YIGDAL at Bethany. "The God of Abraham Praise" is a FINE hymn, but is less useful liturgically.)

6 - Congregational Favorite - Have the people in your parish embraced a new text to the point where they associate an old tune now primarily with a new LSB text?

I'm at home sick today, so I'm going to ask our readers to kick off this discussion. (I promise I'll make my nominations as we go along...)

p.s. May all our friends have a wonderful Lutheran celebration this Reformation Sunday!

After Three Years - What Do You Think?

2009-10-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

Many of us have now been working with Lutheran Service Book (LSB) for a full three years. So there has now been some chatter on the net about the liturgies and how they are wearing. From the moderate sampling of opinion I've read and heard, it seems that initial excitement about the Service of Prayer and Preaching has waned, with many folks returning to Vespers for mid-week catechetical services (the service seems to be working better for school chapel services). On the other hand, many congregations that only used one setting of the Divine Service from a previous hymnal are now reporting that their folks are using two, three, or all five settings in LSB. Indeed, one comment consistently heard is a desire for a "sixth setting". So, Liturgy Solutions will soon be providing one option for those who would like another setting.

But what about the hymnody? With so much of the successful hymnody from Hymnal Supplement 98 (HS98) included in LSB, there were fewer genuinely hymns that were genuinely "new" to the LCMS provided in this book. Though certainly congregations that had been exclusively using The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH, 1941) have many new songs to sing, congregations that used Lutheran Worship (LW) or that were "LW/HS98" did not get the usual full plate of fresh hymnody one expects in a generational hymnal. To be sure, the need to bring "LW" and "TLH" congregations back together under one hymnal necessitated this, but it did make LSB less exciting for many churches.

Nonetheless, there are a good number of entirely new hymns added to the LCMS hymn corpus with LSB. While we are still a couple of years away from knowing what the real "hits" will be - such as "Thy Strong Word" and "Lift High the Cross" and "O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth" proved to be for LW - I think we are at a point now where we can begin to evaluate what hymns are working for us, and what hymns haven't proven to be as useful as we initially thought.

We look forward to your thoughts. For now, let me be brave and get the ball rolling:

A Hymn that Is Proving to Be As Good As First Thought - LSB #941, "We Praise You and Acknowledge You" was a hymn I knew the people would love and Pastor Stephen Starke is to be commended for this excellent paraphrase of the Te Deum. I continue to get requests for it! The tune for this hymn, THAXTED, is from Gustav Holst's "The Planets". So while it is a new hymn-tune for the LCMS, it is not necessarily unfamiliar. So let me add a follow-up in this category, this one with an old text but a brand new tune: LSB #874, "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright". My Liturgy Solutions partner Stephen Johnson has given the Church a real gift with this new vestment for this morning hymn of St. Ambrose. I also highly commend an evening hymn, "Lord, Support Us All Day Long", LSB #884. We sing this hymn, based upon the concluding collects of Compline, at Doxology retreats and it has worked well in all sorts of different settings using a variety of instruments. A great hymn to add to the prayers for any evening worship service.

A Hymn that Hasn't Met Expectations - OK, I know I'm sticking my neck out here, so let me just say up front that I acknowledge quite freely that what doesn't work as well in one congregation may be a great fit for another situation. That said, I must confess some objective disappointment in LSB #654, "Your Kingdom, O God, Is My Glorious Treasure". I really loved that hymn when I first played it, and it was one of the first LSB songs I introduced to my congregation. I thought it would really provide a boost to a summer stewardship campaign built around the theme "Till the Soil". The campaign proved successful - but the people never really took ownership of the hymn. Lots of folks remember - and speak approvingly of - the hymn I chose for a subsequent campaign, LSB #782, "Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings". But this one just didn't go over. I'll use it again, but I doubt it will become the "hit" that I thought it would be.

A Hymn that Worked Surprisingly Well - We actually sang LSB #669, "Come, We that Love the Lord" last week. I noticed that hymn in there when the hymnal came out, but must confess I really didn't know what that old Lowry song was doing in a Lutheran hymnal. But the readings last week (3-year) made it an obvious pick. So I went for it! And I even surprised myself with how much I enjoyed this hymn. Would I want a steady diet of this musical style? No. But just as it's OK for us to break out the percussion for "Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia" or get meditative with a little Taizé music as the appointed Word suggests, so I think there is room for some old-fashioned Americana. One of my sopranos may have thought it was a little too much on the "Chitty-chitty Bang-bang" side of things, but the people really bought into once they realized we were serious. And with the texts from Psalm 95 and Hebrews 4 this past Sunday, I can't imagine more appropriate words for us to sing for an Entrance Hymn. Yes, I'll be bringing this one out again in three years - and a couple of times before then. ;)

A Hymn We Haven't Sung Yet, But Will - I really like LSB #339, "Lift Up Your Heads, You Everlasting Doors". It is not the most intuitive of melodies, so I've held off on using it - especially since the congregation I serve has so many Advent favorites. But this is the year we're going to do it. I'm confident it will be a "hit". Friends who have introduced it to their congregations give it a confident endorsement. Let's hope I'm not wrong about this one!

Choir Director or Song Leader?

2009-10-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

One of the many joys I have at Bethany is working with talented young musicians such as Susan Keller, our Associate Cantor, and Mike Vasilie, our day school music teacher and director of our parish brass. Mike is primarily a band director, and so he is grounded in instrumental conducting. Yet, as school music teacher, he now has two children's choirs and so is growing in choral conducting skills. A fundamental principle of choir directing we are working on is listening to the choir sing. This may seem like a "no-brainer", and is certainly "head knowledge" to most of us, but many church choir directors - especially children's choir directors - don't do as much listening to their choirs as they do singing with (and for?) them.

And yet if we really want our choristers to own their music, we can't be singing it for them. Sure, we do need to model phrases during rehearsal, especially to illustrate desired phrasing and articulation, and sometimes even the intonation of a tricky interval, but the choir that needs its leader to sing with them is at best "singing along" with their ears rather than singing with understanding from their hearts and minds.

Directors who listen to their choirs also do a better job as directors. They are free to encourage and evoke sound from the whole choir, instead of "leading" one part. And they are better able to fulfill their teaching role because they are able to give better feedback, evaluate challenges more accurately, and proceed with more productive rehearsals.

Musing about this made me think about our direction of the more important choir on Sunday morning: the congregation. Do we lead the congregation as choir directors or are we falling into the trap of being "song leaders"?

I posit that one doesn't necessarily have to be singing into a microphone to have the same suppressive effect on real singing by the congregation that sing-along choir directors have on their choristers. But certainly mics can hurt as much as they can help. And these two approaches can manifest themselves from the organ bench depending on how the organist makes the pipes "sing" for the congregation. Does the organist expect, encourage, and enable the people to find their voice? Or does the organist sing the hymns for the assembly, with the congregation along for the ride?

Certainly there is discretion here as we go about our craft. Sometimes the choir in the loft needs the director's voice on a key entrance or phrase - perhaps due to insufficient rehearsal time. And sometimes the choir in the nave, the congregation, needs an extra 2' or 4' stop and a simpler accompaniment to get that melody or a stronger, more detached pedal to get in sync with the pulse. But even as we allow ourselves the flexibility to do what is needed in every given situation, we must always remember that the musician leads best who listens most.

Are you listening to your choirs? Are you listening to your congregation? What you hear will tell you what you need to do!

p.s. PASTORS - are you listening to your congregations? Or do you speak their reponses for them? Do you turn your mic off for the Creed and the Lord's Prayer and say it WITH your people, or do you "lead" them through the liturgy like a praise team "leader"? You too should listen to your congregations. What you hear will tell you also what you need to teach your people.

Reasons to Sing!

2009-09-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

This year I am blessed to work with a small choir of 18 junior high school students in our day school. They are a talented group of treble singers, who do a nice job of singing SSA repertoire - both accompanied and a cappella. They are the smaller of our two junior high choirs (the other has 22 voices singing 2-part mixed), yet forms the backbone of the group when we combine the two choirs to sing SAB/SAC repertoire. As an example of this group's talent, they are having little trouble taking on René Clausen's Psalm 100 - a piece usually sung by high school and college choirs.

The music is all fine and good, but I especially enjoy working with these kids because of their spiritual maturity. I've worked with hundreds of children their age over their years, but have yet to have a group that would come up with the following list for their "reasons to sing":

*To raise spirits.
*Sustain culture.
*Bring people together.
*Sustain them on their journey.
*Have an impact on their lives.

These are pretty good goals for any Lutheran church choir to have. The raising of spirits evokes the Sursum Corda of the liturgy: "Lift up your hearts!" As the choir assists the Office of the Holy Ministry, how wonderful it is for them to have the attitude of this holy exhortation.

Sustaining culture shows how much these kids love their church. They know that their church is something special, and that they have received an authentic tradition of worship in the music of our Lutheran family. Whether they are singing a chorale, Bach, Bouman, or a contemporary psalm setting from Liturgy Solutions, they are part of a living heritage - and love it.

"Bringing People Together" might be the goal of any choral organization, but in this context we are talking about something more than "building community". The Lutheran Church choir "builds communion" by magnifying God's Word. Through this Word we proclaim, the choir becomes a tool of the Holy Spirit, as He calls, gathers, and enlightens the Church, the "ecclesia", the "called out ones". This happened today as we sang "Listen! God is Calling", and proclaimed the Lord's forgiveness, comfort, and joy.

This Word we sing "sustains people on their journey" as the Word we sing stays with them throughout the week. The Psalm antiphons we sing often stay in people's minds and hearts, as often do words from hymn stanzas or motets or preludes we sing. Working with pastors who cherish the lectionary and coordinate themes with the cantor, the choir is often able to reinforce the preaching, that people may gladly hear and learn it.

And then there is the "impact" we have on people's lives. At first I chaffed at little at that one, because "impact" is a word often used by entertainment evangelists and can reflect a consumerist attitude on the part of the hearers. But we understand that we are delivering the real "impact" that God has for our lives: the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. The Gospel makes all the difference in our lives, and so we rejoice that we can use the gift of music to proclaim that same Gospel, that those who hear our song may know the comfort, hope, and cheer Christ freely gives to us from the cross.

And so this is what happens when we sing of Jesus, the Christ, whose Word is our very song: the faithful are gathered, spirits are raised, our communion is nurtured, faith is increased, and lives are changed, all through the power of the Gospel.

No wonder we want to sing!

ABLAZE (TM) is an Anomaly

2009-09-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

I know what the ABLAZE (TM) movement is all about. I lived in the church growth movement for many years and am aware that ABLAZE (TM) is a pseudo-Lutheran manifestation of the very same synergistic impulses that the church growth movement bears. Essentially, the real definition is this: the Holy Spirit is hamstrung unless we do things right in our churches. If we’re not friendly enough to visitors, the Holy Spirit is hamstrung–– He can’t do His work. If our pastor is too theologically “deep” in his sermons, if he does not “meet people where they are,” the Holy Spirit is hamstrung. If the music is not relevant or entertaining enough even though the texts set forth the Word of the Gospel in clear and understandable language, the Holy Spirit is flummoxed. So, we are asked to be more relevant, interactive, casual, contemporary and all the rest. The poor Holy Spirit needs our help.

As repugnant as that is to me personally, I will say this. My church is actually an “ablaze” church! We hold the Divine Service every week. We baptized more than 6 young people last month. We are about to begin administering communion to kids that may be 7 or 8 years of age (or younger). The pastor offers private absolution. He provides catechesis for adults and children.

Additionally, we have picnics where the entire community is invited to attend. We’re holding an “Oktoberfest” next month. Local businesses are donating gift certificates for that event to benefit our parish. We have special Sundays with added music where the community is invited. The pastor is engaged with the town administration and other clergy. The parishioners serve the elderly in the apartment complex next door. We welcome visitors. We have a coffee hour where our visitors are welcome to attend. We participate in what is called an “Epiphany Walk” –– a community event where people stroll from one church to another over the course of an evening for little prayer services at each parish. When they come to ours, they hear Lutheran teaching and listen to Lutheran music. For all of these events, I would like to place an ABLAZE (TM) logo on the bulletin or announcement flyer, etc, and send it to my district office. What if I produced a Bach Cantata concert at my church? I could do that. Would this not be considered valid by the Synod as an ABLAZE (TM) initiative? Why should we not get funds to do that? After all, Bach sets forth the Gospel very clearly in all of his cantatas, right? And we would get attendance at such an event. I could slap an ABLAZE (TM) logo on the concert program and send that to the district office. And I could go on and on.

I have said all this and yet, my parish practices closed communion. We sing Divine Service 3 every week. We use LSB and sing substantive hymns from our Lutheran heritage. My pastor wears a chasuble every week. He chants the liturgy everywhere the rubrics suggest. He genuflects at the altar. He elevates the host and chalice. We’re also a small parish. We’re in New York State, where most people would have to look up the word Lutheran in the dictionary to find out what it means–– and they still would not really know.

Is there any valid reason why the LC–MS would consider us anything less than “ablaze” for the Gospel? Since when are all the things I listed not concerned with Gospel proclamation? Do they not serve our neighbor and ingratiate our community? Do we not welcome our visitors? Are we not ministering to our people and our little township? Of course we are! Are not your churches similar to mine? I know what ABLAZE (TM) is really about in the minds of the Synodical bureaucrats. I get that they have drunk the cool aid of the church growth movement. But honestly, if they were honest, our church (and probably yours also) is just as "ablaze" for the gospel as any one of their model churches–– I would argue, even more!

"Life * and then you die.......?"

2009-08-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

A pastor I once worked for used the following statement to sum up (in his opinion) the nature of Paul Gerhardt’s hymn, “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?" His assessment was as follows: “This hymn basically says, 'life sucks*, then you die, but you get to go to heaven so it’s all OK.'” After my complete shock and utter disappointment that a Lutheran pastor could speak so superficially about this great hymn, I really got to thinking even more deeply about what this hymn means.

We’re studying the book of Job in Bible class at my parish. There’s a great deal of richness in that book, but I want to focus on one thing: God sends suffering. God uses suffering. The problem is that we want to know how and why he does it. Therefore, we offer excuses for God, telling the sufferer that everything will work out just fine and that God works all for good. In reality, though, we do not know how God will use that suffering, do we? The only thing we know is that he sends our trials, pain, and crosses. He does so for his own reasons to help up grow and trust in him. I think this to be a very valuable thing for all people to know. Hymns like, “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?” express this very notion. There’s a lot of richness in the hymn but spend a little time contemplating the second and third stanzas:

1. Why should cross and trial grieve me?
Christ is near
With his cheer;
They will not defeat me.
Who can rob me of the heaven
That God’s Son
For me won
When his life was given?

2. When life’s troubles rise to meet me,
Though their weight
May be great
They will not defeat me.
God, my loving shepherd sends them;
He who knows
All my woes
Knows how best to end them.

3. God gives me my days of gladness,
And I will
Trust Him still
When He sends me sadness.
God is good; His love attends me
Day by day,
Come what may,
Guides me and defends me.

4. From God’s joy can nothing sever,
For I am
His dear lamb,
He, my Shepherd ever.
I am his because He gave me
His own blood
For my good
By His death to save me.

5. Now in Christ, death cannot slay me,
Though it might,
Day and night,
Trouble and dismay me.
Christ has made my death a portal
From the strife
Of this life
To His joy immortal!

The pastor I mentioned earlier, at core, really has contempt for the theology of the cross and for his peoples’ need to understand it. This hymn would be forever banned from use at that parish because of its serious text (however comforting it may be) and because of its musical “remoteness,” even though it is no more remote that any other hymn in the hymnal.

I contend that our people need to sing hymns like this one. If they do not know any really strong theology of the cross hymns, this should be first on the list. How it will aid them in their lives, only God will know. But we are told to consider it joy when we encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance. Knowing this hymn will go a long way to helping us find that joy.

*Putting the best construction on things, we are confident that the pastor used this colloquialism in the athletic sense of "suck wind" (as in "easily winded/out of shape"), rather than something else.

Lutheran Identity in Worship

2009-08-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

We hear a lot of criticism in our confessional Lutheran corners about contemporary worship trends–– and there is a lot to criticize! But I’d like to spend a moment talking about good old traditional Lutheran Worship practices and why, I, as a former evangelical protestant (essentially Baptist), ran away from those worship practices.

The Liturgy – The Liturgy speaks of Christ and gives us God’s own words that we might speak them back to Him. We learn the parlance of faith and the rhythm of our spiritual lives from the liturgy, i.e., remember our baptism, confess our sins, receive the gracious gifts of God in His absolution, His word and His holy supper. We repeat the words of the liturgy, without modifying them or making them more “relevant.” This is so that throughout our lives and the end of our days we will not forget them. We use ceremony, ritual and reverence in the Liturgy because our Lord comes to us in his veritable body and blood. This is not a figurative visitation. It’s not wishful thinking. It is real, bodily and spiritual at the same time. I wonder how many Christians, if they really understood this would find it necessary to alter their casual, cool, and cutting edge worship. Somehow reverence seems to be the natural response to “God with us.”

Hymns and music – Our hymns too, give us Christ and teach us about sin, grace, and the baptismal life. In Confessional Lutheranism, there are certain important doctrines that are not as readily focused upon in other denominations: the theology of the cross (as opposed to a theology of glory), original sin, a particularly Lutheran breed of Christology and a distinctively Lutheran sacramentology. We also have a very well honed understanding of justification and the role of works in the life of faith. These are doctrines that are found in every denomination but Lutherans have always understood them in very specific ways. Our hymns tend to reflect very well the historic, classical teaching of the faith. This is what Luther intended and it is what makes the Lutheran heritage unique amongst Christian expressions.

When I finally came to Lutheranism, I learned quickly that Lutherans read scripture differently than evangelical protestants. It took a little more time to understand the nuances of that and I am still learning. But I do know this: Our hymns express our heritage and reflect what the confessions teach. Using hymnody from other protestant sources, e.g. Watts, Wesley. etc. is fine, but we must recognize that these poets did not write with the same sacramental and Christological orientation of Luther, Gerhardt, Starke and a host of other Lutheran poets. Some of our Lutherans are interested in singing favorite old standards that come squarely from the protestant hymn repertoire. Fine, but if that diet is too heavy, we will miss the distinctively Lutheran sacramental, confessional, and Christological identity so richly present throughout the Lutheran hymn corpus.

Worship the "Waffle House Way"

2009-08-02T17:14:00.001-07:00

This morning I had breakfast at Waffle House. I hadn't been there in a few years, due to a couple of bad experiences, but one of their restaurants was right across the street from our hotel, and the parking lot was full of local plates, so my son & I took a chance and went in. We had a great breakfast, in a clean restaurant full of friendly workers. It brought back fond memories of my youth, when I used to cook at a Waffle House and learned the importance of doing things "The Waffle House Way".

Those who currently run the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod could benefit from considering the benefits of "The Waffle House Way". They should be open to this, acutally, because they are much enamored of the "church growth movement" and tend to appreciate corporate lingo. They may not be so crass as to speak of "market share", but the overall emphasis on "growing the church" using marketing, mission, and "outreach" techniques means synod & district officials and reports usually have much more talk about marketing strategies than, say, justification or the sacraments.

So let's take a look at what the brand "LCMS" means to folks as if LCMS were in the restaurant business. Working with the "church growth" analogies like this can actually be quite instructive.

First, what LCMS is doing now obscures what the "brand" LCMS means. The Ablaze! initiative, with its focus on adding new "products" such as new worship formats, new worship soundtracks, house churches/small groups, thrift shops, day care centers, and "intentional conversation teams", has resulted in a church body that trumpets not what it is supposedly about - Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins - but rather extols new "add-ons". This would be fine up to a point if there were consistency and if everything flowed from the Divine Serivce (for example, for decades we were known for having an excellent parochial school system, centered on the teaching of Christian doctrine). But the emphasis on various local congregational "ministries" rather than the Lord's Ministry makes it hard for the LCMS to maintain a cohesive identity. And, few people go to a restaurant for the side dishes on any regular basis. (I'm reminded of the old Wendy's ads from the 80's, which asked, "Where's the beef?")

And the problem is even worse than that. For the situation today is not that everyone is selling, say, waffles, but then adding additional but varying "sides" to their menus - which does make sense when the "sides" vary according to regional taste. No, what we have are some churches serving chicken while others serve fish and others serve beef. Our congregations have become like chocolates in Forrest Gump's box: "You never know which one you are going to get!"

Now I can hear the mission execs saying: "But, Cantor, these things are all adiaphora! What's important is the Gospel, and all this is about the Gospel!" Well, leaving aside for a moment the argument that much of what is being promoted is not about the Gospel, let's just assume that it is and again look at this from Waffle House's perspective. If a bunch of WH's were selling fish and another bunch were selling chickens it wouldn't matter if some were still selling waffles. There is absolutely NO WAY the company would say "But, people, these things don't matter. What's important is the protein. All of our restaurants are in the nutrition business and they all sell protein - just different kinds."

Some of the adiaphora that divides us is indeed adiaphora, and so cannot really be condemned. But are we really about promoting our church when we allow such diversity? Wouldn't it be better for people to know what to expect when they see the letters LCMS on a church sign? Certainly the Lutheran fathers and the founders of the LCMS thought so. Luther argued for regional uniformity (so presumably different 'side dishes' in one region verses another were fine); the LCMS constitution prescribes that all congregations adopt "exclusive use" of orthodox liturgies, hymnals, and agendae. Walther wrote about how the hymnal was "a flag by which an orthodox congregation is recognized."

Those who attended our grandfathers' church didn't have Waffle Houses to go to after the Divine Service. But they had the common horse sense to know the importance of a Waffle House doing things "The Waffle House Way". May we again have bishops and overseers in the church who appreciate who we really are and who we are supposed to be. And may we return promoting our congregations accordingly.

We've Got Issues!

2009-07-28T05:59:00.001-07:00

We just wanted to let you know that Cantor Magness is on Issues, Etc. this week. Todd Wilken will be interviewing Phillip on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 3:30pm to continue their conversation about worship. Not a good time for you? No problem: just go to the site and download the podcasts.

Cantor Magness promises that he will not be referring to himself in the third person on the program.

Sing the Faith Indeed!

2009-07-20T13:03:00.001-07:00

Last year, CPH published a set of songs I composed for singing Luther's small catechism. The collection is titled, appropriately, Sing the Faith, and it is available as a songbook and also as a CD. The reason I like the title of this collection of songs so much is because it points to how the songs sing about the objective faith by which we are saved, known by theologians as the "fides quae", as opposed to the experiential songs that subjectively express personal experiences of saving faith, otherwise known as the "fides qua". For further edification on this difference, Pastor Klemet Preus recently wrote an excellent article over at the "Johnny Steadfast" website (Brothers of John the Steadfast) discussing the distinction between fides quae and fides qua.

These terms have many implications beyond worship. But like most everything doctrinal, the distinctives of 'fides quae' and 'fides qua' have enormous implications on the Divine Service. I believe these distinctions take us to the heart of the "worship wars" in our churches.

Over the years, as I have worked with amateur musicians who want to "do" contemporary worship and talked with parishioners who thirst for "real contemporary worship" (as opposed to a modern-sounding Divine Service with orthodox hymnody, led by piano, keyboards, guitars, & woodwinds), I have noted consistently that they are all about expressing the fides qua and think music is basically for that purpose alone. I've concluded that at its core, expressing one's "fides qua" is what the 'praise movement' is all about. This is why the texts of almost all the songs in the 'contemporary worship' repertoire lean in direction of expressing one's faith experience and/or the individual's personal devotion to God. By contrast, the great chorales and most of the appointed liturgical texts from Scripture sing the fides quae.

In plainer English, pop praise sings about saving faith, while traditional Lutheran music sings of the faith by which we are saved. This is why there is conflict even when traditioanl music is done creatively and well with the most modern instrumentations, rhythms, and harmonies. You see, the sturdy, objective character of our music just doesn't "move" those who just want to sing about "the faith within their heart". They want to sing about the faith they have (fides qua), not the faith by which we are saved (fides quae). And those musics have differing characteristsics no matter what genre in which they are composed.

Now certainly there is room for fides qua expressions in hymnody. I happen to think that a certain amount of it is essential. Great hymn writers like Gerhardt do a great job of incorporating the subjective experience alongside the objective truth extolled and confessed in our hymnody. Faith moves us to sing and it is salutary to extol one's heartfelt adoration of our Lord. But the music of fides qua alone can't sing faith into other people's hearts, because it doesn't "sing the story of God's love and proclaim His faithfulness." (Ps. 89:1) So its use for corporate worship is especially limited because it doesn't allow us to "address one another" and build each other up as Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 instruct us to do with our music.

I have found it helpful in the Lord's ministry to encourage people to use THE as much as possible instead of MY when they talk about expressing faith. Sure, it's not wrong to sing a simple song of praise. There's certainly room for Psalm 150 expressions in the church. But we have a whole psalter of faith to sing about, and the riches of God's grace far surpass our own personal experiences of it, however inspiring they may be at times.

Ironically, those who promote the fides qua repertoire of contemporary worship often claim that such music is necessary in the Divine Service for the sake of "outreach". Yet there is often very little that is overtly Christian in these subjective songs of praise. So how can it truly be evangelical? Listening to someone sing about their great love for God can certainly make an impression, but, at the end of the day, the impression is going to be about the singer. The truly evangelical music is the song that sings not of the singer's faith, but rather the music that sings THE faith. Only through fides quae proclamation can music magnify the Word and thereby sing faith into people's hearts.

So how much fides quae is in your congregation's song? Let us all - pastors and laymen; teachers, musicians, and poets; members of Voters' Assemblies, worship committees, and Ministry Councils - do what we can to encourage one another to sing THE faith.

A VISITOR COMMENTS ON OUR HYMNS

2009-07-13T07:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday a middle-aged couple came up to me after the Divine Service to compliment me on the music at Bethany. One of our choir members, Elise B. Calhoon, had sung parts of the liturgy and provided some of the attendant music, and so I was expecting to discuss her beautiful singing. However, the wife instead focused on the hymnody. They reported that they were not Lutheran, and had come for the baptism held at the service. They had visited several other Lutheran churches with their relatives in the past but had never liked the music. But she thought the hymns we sang were great!

What did we sing? "O Holy Spirit, Enter In" (Entrance Hymn), "If Christ Himself Be For Me" (all 10 stanzas, Hymn of the Day); "Have No Fear, Little Flock" (Hymn before the Rite of Holy Baptism); "I Know My Faith Is Founded" (Offertory Hymn); "Saints, See the Cloud of Witnesses" (just the last two stanzas as a closing hymn).

Let's see: 3 chorales, and 2 modern hymns that are probably unique to Lutheran hymnals. Folks, our hymnody isn't a problem. It's a blessisng! People can sing our hymnody - provided, like any hymnody, that it be ably led. And there are no better texts to be found!

What to Expect from Liturgy Solutions

2009-07-11T19:11:00.001-07:00

Phillip Magness and I are working hard on the Liturgy Solutions web site, which has been restored after a disastrous loss of data from our former host company's server. We are open for business, but realize that several user friendly features are not yet available. They will be soon.

So the first thing you can expect, likely by the end of this month, is a new feature that enables you to view the first pages of our musical products. You will be able to go to any product page where it says: "product details." On those pages you will be able to click the musical image after which a PDF file of the first page of the piece will emerge on your computer. This will allow you to see the beginning of any piece you may be considering for purchase. We are working on the nuts and bolts of that feature this month and hope to have it operating before the end of July.

The other thing you can expect throughout the summer are more products in the catalog and more musical resources such as concertatos, instrumental accompaniments, anthems, motets, service music, psalm anthems and other similar works. I believe that Phillip will make available his setting of the liturgy as well. We hope that these additions will make Liturgy Solutions a place you will visit often to seek music that enhances the Lord's song in your parishes.

Please keep us in mind, visit us often, and let us know how we can better assist you as you guide the worship of your parishes through music.

A FINE EXAMPLE

2009-06-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

This past Friday my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Erica Grass and Rev. Stephen Rosebrock at St. John's Lutheran Church in Wheaton, IL. It was a beautiful wedding, and a fine example of how a wedding can truly be a Christ-centered, cross-focused service of worship. Of course, given who got married and where, I'm sure none of our regular readers are surprised to read this!

But in the performance of the liturgy itself there was a fine example of liturgy-as-pastoral-care I would like to share. We were blessed with the Lord's Supper at this particular wedding, and so I had a chance to experience how one of the the local pastors, Rev. Joshua Genig, presides over the Eucharist. His pacing was exquisite: unhurried but never stodgy, with clear diction and reverent tone. It was literally a musical experience to hear him offer the Eucharistic Prayer (a.k.a. "Prayer of Thanksgiving"). Then, after the Lord's Prayer, he chanted the Words of Institution beautifully, pausing to reverence each kind and then holding up the host and the chalice to present our Lord's body and blood to the congregation as he shared the Peace.

In so many Lutheran parishes - even confessional ones! - pastors hurry through the communion liturgy. Perhaps they are worried about time. Perhaps the familiarity of it makes them less careful. Or perhaps they just think it is long. And yet what message do pastors send when they preside in a hurried way? Is it really worth the extra 30-40 seconds they might pick up by taking a faster 'clip' through this part of the service? I think not.

And, ironically, people are more likely to feel like things are going long when the pastor speeds up - whether in the Prayer of the Church or in the communion liturgy. When pastors act like they are running out of time, the assembly gets the message and grows impatient. Far better to keep cool, and keep focused on what is really going on.

May all pastors savor the moment and allow the church's liturgy to serve the people well. And thank you, Pastor Genig, for letting the living voice of the Gospel in the liturgy have its way with us.

Isn't It Great When They Sing?

2009-06-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

A different "they" this time. This time I'm thinking about the people in our parishes who don't get very involved and may not even come every Sunday. If we the British Parliament, we'd call them "the back benchers". Generally they don't sing much.

But I must say one of the things that give me the greatest satisfaction as a Cantor is when I see and hear these folks singing the liturgy and the hymns. I just love it! Every parish has her singers, but a parish that has lots of 'ordinary folk' singing the Lord's song is one that cherishes music as integral to our life together in the Gospel. Sure, a percentage of stereotypical 'back benchers' would do so without a cantor's service in the Lord's ministry, but the percentage has gotten higher at Bethany and, observing many of these same folks over the years, I can see how the Lord has used the cantoral office to help the Word dwell richly in many people who'd never even think of joining a choir.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Here are a few examples:

1 - The 8th grade boy who'd been coming more often to church with his family because he was headed to confirmation. Hymnal was open for every hymn, including the communion hymns. He was sitting up straight and singing right along on all the stanzas.

2 - Pastor noting several times this year how much he enjoys the acolyte's singing. That's right: most of our acolytes sing out, even though they are not seated next to parishioners who might give them "the security of numbers". Last Sunday he mentioned how much he enjoyed a couple of them singing harmony with him.

3 - Visiting Pacific Hills in Omaha many years ago (1994) and hearing a visibly blue collar mother & two teenage daughters sing the liturgy robustly behind me with untrained, yet sincere voices. They clearly had a Lutheran piety. My chat with them afterwards confirmed that they considered themselves in no way to be candidates for any involvement in church choir or anything. They just sing the Lord's song because of the faith the Lord has given them. (Ably nurtured in this by the organist there at the time, Charles Ore).

Yes, faith sings. Isn't it great to hear it?!

The Bulletins They Drop Off

2009-06-03T09:11:00.001-07:00

For our friends who are cantors and pastors, I'm sure you find in your office mailbox periodically a 'gift' that I receive every few weeks myself: the bulletin from another church. Now, sometimes it is dropped off by people who know your intellectual interest in worship planning. And, as Bethany has become more confessional that is pretty much what I get these days. But often in my first years here and during my years in Peoria, you'd get the "bulletin with an agenda": the bulletin intended to show you about that 'perfectly good LCMS church' that does things in a way that is "so much more" (insert word of choice here). And, cantor, you are such a fine musician so can't you see how we could be doing these (insert word) things here at our church if we didn't insist on doing the same things week after week?!

I won't go into the details on the latest one, from a large LCMS church in the Minneapolis area. Suffice to say it is the same old thing the Ablaze! synod-within-synod gets week after week: confessions of sin that focus on one little sin that may or may not apply to everyone; absolutions that include penance (now go and do...); lay readers reading the Gospel; one or two readings; 75% CCLI music; Choir singing Gaither music; "Children's Ministry Video Montage", little communion liturgy; a 'worshippers exchange greetings' rather than the sharing of the Peace.
And no such homespun liturgy would be complete without a clunky innovation meant to show how 'relevant' they are in their creativity: the second Gospel acclamation was changed to "Praise to You, O resurrected Christ!" (Just to make sure people are paying attention, I guess. Had to make sure they knew it was still Eastertide. How special!)

At least this service preserved the four-fold shape of Preperation, Word, Sacrament, Blessing. And they actually said the Apostles' Creed (no time for the Nicene, evidently) instead of some newfangled "Affirmation of Faith". And the service conluded with an Aaronic Benediction. So, in the world of LCMS Ablaze!, these are the liturgical conservatives.

The LCMS is in desperate need of ecclesiastical supervision.

A Birthday Ambush

2009-05-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Fine Tuning readers! This post comes to you not from Phillip or Stephen, but from Phillip's wife Cheryl. I am boldly co-opting my husband's blog in order to wish him a very happy birthday! I invite you to offer him your best birthday wishes as well, either here or at my blog, where if you do visit you will be rewarded with a pictorial look at Phillip through the ages.

To my dear husband: SURPRISE! And happy birthday! (I love you.)

More About Youth

2009-05-30T04:23:00.000-07:00

I have had the pleasure of engaging children in music making many times over my years as a church musician (and I still do as a music teacher). When there is time and ability to teach them, they can learn just about anything and sing it with a good deal of success. Kids do not identify music as "difficult" unless you or their parents tell them it is. Despite the many success stories about the high level singing of children, parents still have a hankering to hear their kids sing their favorite praise and worship choruses or songs that are known as "typical" kids songs. I won't start to name titles, but there's a lot of nauseating music out there written "just for children."

A pastor friend lamented the fact that, after successful efforts to engage his youth in learning the hymn, "All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall," a parent came out with this line: "They're only children. Can't they just sing 'Jesus Loves Me?'" I have observed that often the thing that comes between children getting good exposure to the catechetical hymnody of our Lutheran heritage are their parents and Sunday school teachers. It does not matter that the kids were having no trouble with "All Mankind Fell...". It does not matter that the pastor has proven the kids to have been be successful singing substantive music on several occasions previously. The parents cannot seem to wrap their mind around the salutary effects of this.

Folks, this is just wrong. Kids have NO TROUBLE learning music that adults may find daunting. The scholarly evidence is abundant and well documented, as is the anecdotal evidence. The resultant success of teaching young children substantive hymns is everywhere if one bothers to look. I can tell you stories as can many pastors and church musicians. Many have written eloquently on the subject. You find this phenomenon occurs across denominational barriers. You find it as a foregone conclusion in secular music education as well. Yet, despite the overwhelming testimony and even when successes occur in the parish, parents and teachers often resist this activity. There are many reasons for this and they are not pretty. One may be that the Sunday school teacher or the parent is not familiar with the music the pastor wants the kids to learn, so they are intimidated to teach it. Another may be that they do not like the song, so their personal preference stands in the way of the kids’ catechesis. Or, they are far more interested in seeing little Barbie or Billy up there in front of the congregation, so entertainment becomes the objective. Or they just want to "celebrate," or "recognize" the children in the service. There is much more to say, but, maybe another time.

Parents and Sunday school teachers need to quit imposing their pet tastes on the children entrusted to them. Let pastors and church musicians catechize these young people using, among other things, the music and texts of our rich Lutheran hymn heritage as it was always intended. Our young people these days are going to have many distractions that would threaten to get in the way of their catechesis. Parents, teachers, don't you be one of them!

The Liturgy Solutions Setback

2009-05-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, Liturgy Solutions has suffered a setback that was totally unpredictable. There has been a message on our home page in an attempt to bring our clients up to speed about what our future plans are. Our database on the server that was our host was lost by the host company. There have been no back up files made available to us. We are now on a new host company, our site having been transferred there by our web master. We are poised to load up all our product files on the new database. We were happy to discover that the product files themselves were not lost, but rather the database that organized them. This will save us some time as we get our site up and running again. Without explaining every detail, it would have been worse if we had to rebuild the site from files in our respective computers. The fact that they could be transferred to a new server assists us, perhaps only a little, but we'll take what we can get.

Now it is up to Phillip and me to get things going again. We may get this done quickly, but with our respective schedules it may take us a little time. Either way, we hope all our clients will be patient with us and be assured of our commitment to providing you with all the fine music we have brought you these past few years and much new in the years to come! Thank you all for your support of Liturgy Solutions!

Speaking of Youth

2009-05-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

By the way, that last Sunday I blogged about (with much music provided for the congregation by our youth ensemble) resulted in an interesting report from a parent.

It seems her 8th-grade boy came into church and noticed the three microphones, the guitar, the monitor, and the small amp for the bass guitar, and got his mother's attention. Now before I tell you what he said, let me share with you that this young man is one whom our ecclesiastical advisers at the synod and district offices would tell us to LISTEN TO: he's public school, Hispanic, dresses in a hip but not outlandish way, is not super-involved in the youth group, and carries himself in a cool, detached way.

But his response was not what the Baby Boomers who run Ablaze! (the LCMS church growth initiative) expect. He looked at the guitars, the kids, and the mics, turned to his mother and said: "We're not going to become like Uncle Ben's church, are we?!"

Frankly, I'm not surprised. The research on youth & worship music confirms this: young people understand the difference between what is appropriate for different occasions, and don't expect every part of their life to have the same soundtrack. Just like the rest of us wear different clothing and eat different foods at different occasions, so do young people understand that the Divine Service is not a place for entertainment, but a place for reverence.

Once we had the service, mom reported that her son was no longer concerned. Church was still church. Our piety didn't change. As I wrote in my last post, Bethany doesn't become a different congregation just becasue our youth sing or because a guitar gets plugged in.

And yet the LCMS as an institution doesn't understand this. They think that somehow we have to change our piety if we're going to 'reach people for Christ'. Why don't they understnad that there is nothing in our piety that works against evangelism or missions or nurturing the faith in the next generation?

Frankly, I think the real obstacle here are pastors, parents, and teachers who don't embrace who we are. Anyone who works with kids knows that if you are positive and sincere in your joy about something, the students will buy into it.

No, the problem isn't the kids. The problem is church leaders. They either are deceived into thinking that somehow Lutheranism is incompatible with youth - or maybe some of them just don't believe in it themselves.

YOUTH SERVICE

2009-05-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Many parishes periodically have something called a "youth service." In my last parish, in the 90s, one of my staff responsibilities was to work with the DCE (Director of Christian Education) to prepare a "youth service" once a quarter. This meant that praise songs and other 'contemporary' music was expected to be sung, that youth would read the lessons and take other, 'creative' roles in the liturgy, and, above all, that the sermon would be replaced by a dramatic presentation from the youth. Over time, I was able to make the "youth service" more like our normal Divine Services, and we did do them less often before I left, but, in the end, the congregation's idea that there needed to be a "youth service" remained - as well as the idea that the youth needed to do "youth things" at such services.

On Easter 3 this year, some might say we had a "youth service" at Bethany, because of all the teenagers who were involved. But it wasn't anything like the youth services promoted by Synod, Inc. Instead, it just happened to be a service where the musicians of the day were a youth ensemble, and a couple of the ushers on the assigned usher team were high school students as well (not to mention our acolytes). There was no need for a cutesy morality play or entertaining skit, nor was there some sort of ersatz confession & "forgiveness" led by the kids before worship. The pastors played their roles like they always do, and they just happened to be assisted in the Lord's ministry by a whole bunch of young people doing the things that lay volunteers do in the service.

And the musicians in this group were not "the youth group", but were simply a group of youth who already participate in the music program at Bethany, and are drawn together every other month or so to make music by themselves - just as I draw other groups of musicians out of the regular groups to form special ensembles. Of the 8 kids who sing in the group, 6 sing in one of our choirs; of the 5 instrumentalists, 3 play with another liturgical ensemble and 3 ring in the handbell choir. And so we had 9 youth sing and play in various combinations, accompanied at different times by various instruments: clarinet, flute, bass, guitar, piano, synth, and organ.*

But our congregation's piety and customs did not change due to their involvement. So it wasn't a "youth service", just lots of youth serving. And this is how it should be. We don't need to change the church in order to involve young people, we just need to make room for them and make use of their talents just like we do with the talents of our adults. This approach may be less "fun and exciting" as doing something "special with the kids" might seem. But the youth enjoy this more, because this approach treats them as the mature adults they aspire to be.

The more we give both children and youth things they can grow into, rather than grow out of, the more connected they will remain to the Church. And the experiences they have as students will shape their piety for the rest of their lives. Why not make them liturgically Lutheran?

*My custom with these groups is to keep about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the music played by the organist of the day. This particular Sunday the youth ensemble played the Canticle of Praise, sang the psalm antiphon and led the chanting of the Psalm of the Day, sang the Verse of the Day, presented an anthem as the offerings were received, played one of the communion hymns, and led the singing of another Canticle at the end of the Lord's Supper. For those interested, here's the breakdown:

Canticle of Praise: "Now the Feast and Celebration", Marty Haugen; congregation sang refrain, three singers sang the verses and sang a descant on the refrian. Accompaniment was guitar, bass, flute, clarinet, synth, and piano.

Psalm: Psalm 4 from Liturgy Solutions. SATB a capella antiphon used as a refrain. Kids sang the antiphon first, but then the congregation sang it between certain verses.

Verse: Verse for Easter 3 C from Litury solutions. Accompanied by organ. Congregation has the alleluias (VICTORY), and the Verse for the Sundays of Eastertide (Romans 6:9); choir then sang the proper Verse for Easter 3.

Voluntary: I arranged Stuart Townsend's "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" for 3 voices, flute, clarinet, bass, synth, and guitar.

Communion Hymn: The congregation sang "Stay with Us" accompanied by the ensemble playing out of the LSB Guitar edition, with clarinet & flute playing melody at first, and then descants I composed for the occasion.

Closing Canticle: Instead of "Thank the Lord" at the end of the Lord's Supper, the youth ensemble led the congregation in singing David Haas' "We Have Been Told".

So how do you involve the youth of your parish in leading the Lord's song? Feel free to share your comments

WITH HIGH DELIGHT

2009-04-25T08:48:00.001-07:00

The Hymn of the Day this weekend is not one that necessarily jumps off parishioners' lips when asked about their favorite Eastertide hymnody, yet it is one through which I can illustrate how well good hymns serve the Church. Though the rhythm can be a bit tricky for singers new to the tune, and though this is a hymn many congregations only sing once a year (like "On Jordan's Bank"), this song has endeared itself to many. Let me share two examples of this:

When I was a young Cantor at Trinity-Peoria, my children's choir was scheduled to sing the Third Sunday of Easter, so I proceeded to teach them the Hymn of the Day, so that they would prepare their own stanza for the Divine Service. Not "knowing" what the typical self-appointed expert "knows" about children & song (i.e. the non-singing parents and FedEd-influenced teachers who think that kids just need camp songs and pop ditties so that they can 'have fun' and 'build community'), I had the choristers singing this hymn quite boisterously in short order, and soon their beautiful headtone was projecting nicely across the sanctuary. When Sunday came, I remember a young boy named Jonathan who was so excited about this hymn that he literally was bouncing around when he sang the third line of the second stanza: "'And yours shall be like victory O'er death and grave,' said He, who gave His life for us, life renewing."

Later in the Lord's ministry at that parish, I wrote a trumpet & trombone duet on the tune (MIT FREUDEN ZART) for a couple of high school kids who then were after me the next three years asking if we could sing the hymn more often so they could play it again. The point: kids like what they know, and if they are taught good stuff, they will like good stuff. Of course, to successfully teach them good stuff the teacher also has to know and like good stuff, but that is a topic for another day. But kids do not come into the choir loft or the classroom with a repertoire of schlock. They are blank slates. It is up to us to instill in them a love for the best the church has to offer.

My other story regards a gentleman who travelled on business to Germany and attended a congregation of our sister synod there, the SELK. He doesn't speak much German, but reported that he really enjoyed going to church over there because he could follow the liturgy. That point has been made many times: that a common liturgy unites Christians and allows them to worship together despite Babel. But an additional layer of Lutheran catholicity was enjoyed by my friend because he just happened to be in Germany for the Third Sunday of Easter and the parish he attended that Sunday sang Mit Freuden Zart! So he was able not only to say the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in English while the congregants spoke in German, and understand the sung parts of the liturgy such as the Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, he was also able to sing "With High Delight" along with the congregation. (Granted, he admitted that he didn't know all the words of this hymn, but he knew a few and could hum the tune and keep in his mind the meaning of the words being sung.) And so my friend Ken was connected more deeply with his fellow Lutheran Christians in a far away land by virtue not only of our common liturgy, but also of our common hymnody.

Joy in the hearts of children and youth. A common bond between Lutherans who speak different languages. A song that passes from generation to generation and spans across the seas, manifesting the unity we have in the Lord, and sharing the joy of His resurrection. I hope you enjoy this wonderful hymn this Lord's Day. Let us be glad that we have songs like this to teach our children, and to share with the holy Church throughout all the world.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

2009-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

With apologies to my Wisconsin Synod friends who are expecting me to resume my series on the Three-Year Worship Plan this week, I'm going to hold off a couple more days on my next installment in order to bring to the readers' attention some important information for all members of LCMS congregations. We at Liturgy Solutions do intend on keeping this a site for discussing church music, but trust our readers will appreciate the import of the following news.

Are you all aware of something called the Blue Ribbon Task Force in the LCMS? I wasn't - until recently. I admit I have a lot more to learn about this, but let me suggest that you do too if you are a member of a congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Otherwise, you may be surprised next year when the name of our church body gets changed or your congregation starts getting less representation than the megachurch across town.

Basically, the task force is something put together by the Kieschnick administration in order to reform our synod's governing structure. There are pros and cons to this approach to reform. On the one hand, I can certainly see where some reforms might be needed, and the use of commission or task force recommendations is a common political tool for getting difficult things done. Indeed, I remember the US Congress using this approach to close obsolete military bases in this country. They couldn't shut them down one-at-a-time because of the power of local congressmen. But, realizing they all needed to bite the bullet, they set up a commission and then had an up-or-down vote on the commission's recommendations, so that each congressman had some "cover" when they voted to shut the bases down.

However, the same approach also leads to things like earmarks, "poison pills", and other problems. Sometimes I think most of the bad that comes out of Washington comes to us via things tucked into those omnibus bills they give names to like "The Love Your Mother, Fight the Terrorists, Feed the Hungry, and Protect the Puppies Act of 2007". So, while I appreciate that things like special commissions for omnibus bills or task force recommendations can be good and useful, I also see that these tools can be used to bring about things those in government want that the people don't want.

So these task forces or commissions can be good or bad. The real question, then, is what are they proposing? So we can all see for ourselves what this Blue Ribbon Task Force is proposing to our district conventions, and have an opportunity to let our own voices be heard, our own Stephen Johnson has joined with some fellow laymen to make the Task Force's survey available to the church-at-large. They will forward the results to the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance, who to their credit have been promoting "broad-based input" in an effort to reach "consensus". I suspect they will be thankful to our friends for helping them do their job, as it seems to me that they should have been doing polling like this months ago on this if they really want people to accept sweeping changes in our church body in little over a year.

So I encourage all members of LCMS congregations to click here and take the survey. It is presented in the same form as given to the delegates at our district conventions, with all of the Task Force's reasons and rationales for their proposals. For balance, additional commentary gleaned from various pastoral sources on the internet is also provided. It is clearly printed in blue type so as not to be confused with the Task Force text.

Personally, I think some of the proposals are good, some not so good, and some pretty bad. So I hope they get voted on separately, and that only those that earn solid majorities are enacted. There is enough division in our church over serious issues ("wine, women, and song"). The last thing we need to do is throw fuel to the fire and add ecclesiastical changes that would be unnecessarily divisive.

Easter On the Road

2009-04-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

No, this isn't a post about Emmaus, but many brothers and sisters do find themselves on the road over the Easter holiday, and so our friends over at Johnny Steadfast decided to run one of my travelogues from the BJS Quarterly's "Not Your Grandfathers' Church" series.

Here's an excerpt:

Most of us worship in our own congregations or in the congregations of family members who attend churches similar to ours. It is easy therefore to dismiss concerns about others’ worship practices as conservative over-reaction to a guitar or an unfamiliar setting of the liturgy. Certainly some confessional Lutherans are repristinators at heart, and so their complaints aren’t taken very seriously by average churchgoers who simply don’t share their passion for the culture of 1950’s Wisconsin or 1580’s Wittenberg. But these articles are written so that you may know indeed that today’s LCMS is not your grandfathers’ church, and that it is going to take the work of some truly courageous leaders to restore unity to our communion. Whether these things are going on in your church or not, you, the laymen of the evangelical Lutheran Church, can provide the leadership we need. “Ecclesiastical Supervision” is everyone’s responsibility! We need change from above and from below–and lay leadership is key.

Certainly nobody can put a stop to a congregation doing whatever it wants to do. But we can appeal to their consciences to return to the fold. And, if they refuse, we can and should stop them from hanging the LCMS sign outside their door. We did not create this conflict, but our decision as to whether we will confront it or avoid it will determine whether or not this synod prevails. Think about it: how long would Subway last if they allowed hundreds of their stores to stop selling sandwiches and offered only pastries instead?

The report was about I service I attended while on sabbatical last year doing research for the book I am working on. But it was a service like that attended by many of us who happened to be on the road visiting family this past weekend. It included a heterodox "affirmation of faith" in place of a historic Creed, open communion with "altar call style" invitation for non-members to join in at the Lord's Table, and a liturgical emphasis on sanctification apart from justification. Some of us even suffer through such things in our home congregations!

What do you encounter when you come across "blended" worship? Are some of these practices finding their way into your home congregation? What do you think about all this?

GOOD FRIDAY

2009-04-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Liturgy Solutions wishes all of our friends a blessed Holy Week. As we are now into the "Great Three Days", we pray that all your work in service of the Lord's ministry will be blessed by the Spirit, and used by Him to enlighten the hearts of all who worship with you. May the blessings that flow from the cross be with you and all whom you serve.

Cantor Magness plans on resuming his series on the Bethany Three-Year Plan next week. We apologize that the blog has lapsed these past few months. Cantor's father became seriously ill in January, and then passed into eternity a few minutes before Ash Wednesday. His mother and mother-in-law have also been hospitalized over the past few weeks. Cantor's family lives in Texas, and so time has been spent travelling as well. By God's grace, both mothers are now at home and are improving in health. With Cantor getting caught up on his primary vocational duties at Bethany, Liturgy Solutions will more actively offer not only discussion via this blog, but also new resources on - and further improvements to - the website.

We are especially pleased to offer a wide variety of settings for the Verses for Eastertide, including a new set of pieces by Jeffrey Blersch, which you can purchase individually or as a collection. We invite you to check these out as we renew our baptismal journey with Jesus from death to life as we celebrate His death and resurrection.

He has done this all for us. And for this we say, "Good Friday."

A SAMPLE

2009-02-14T06:31:00.000-08:00

The "Three-Year Worship Plan" (or "Our Quest for Authenticity in a Lutheran Parish") continues with a flash-forward: a link to a worship service held last night at Bethany. This is offered as a sample of what we do. I'm fond of quoting the great jazz pianist Thelonius Monk's observation that "talking about music is like dancing about architecture," and so offer this so that you can get a glimpse of where Bethany headed musically. I offer this because music is such an intrinsic part of the liturgical experience, and hope the sounds will inform your understanding of these ongoing conversation. The link also gives a few photos, so you can see not only our sanctuary, but other things that will be talked about this series of articles.

The service was Vespers last night at the Brothers of John the Steadfast convention being held here in Naperville. The congregation was only about 80 folks, but yet gave a sound that reflects what we do on Sunday services with fuller attendance. This is instructive because the members of the assembly were mostly visitors to our parish. And so it shows that true authenticity is not parochial, but catholic. Neither parochial extreme is in evidence here (congregationalism or denominational ism). Though a local setting was used, it was not a service that enabled only the 'regulars' to participate. Though the denominational hymnbook was used, the robust singing was not simply because the vernacular service held most in common by members of the denomination was used. (i.e. it wasn't DS III for LCMS Lutherans or the Haugen Mass for American Roman Catholics, etc.) The two hymns were not brand-new, but one was not in TLH and one was neither in TLH or LW - so certainly there was new music for much of the congregation to sing.

So scroll down the link, give the Vespers a click and fast-forward as your time demands. You'll hear how the church's liturgy and hymnody serve the church so well when the local musicians invest in it, the local pastors are devoted to it, and when those who assemble cherish it for the good gifts it brings: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

http://steadfastlutherans.org/blog/?p=3454

And, many thanks go to the musicians who served last night: the men of Proclaim (Bethany's choir), Chris Johnson on guitar, and Trevor Magness (my son) on the synthesizer. Tomorrow about half of Proclaim will sing, and we'll be joined by Erich Keller on trumpet and Linda Komes on French horn. Hopefully I'll get that link up also. (I think the readers have surmised by the pace of posts that I'm either very lazy or very busy. Trust me: it's the latter!)

And of the First in the Series

2009-01-30T18:06:00.000-08:00

As I prepare to write the next installment on this series of articles on Bethany's three-year plan to 'nurture authentic worship' in the Lutheran parish, I thought these wordles would give me some perspective. So the previous 'wordle' was made from the article about the second phase of the plan, "Liturgical Dialog". Here's one of the first: "The Drama of Liturgy":

A Wordle of the Last Post

2009-01-30T18:02:00.001-08:00

Liturgical Dialog

2009-01-20T13:15:00.000-08:00

The second phase of Bethany's three-year plan was entitled, "Liturgical Dialog". Building on first phase, "The Drama of Liturgy", we proceeded quite logically to exploring the speaking parts that the pastors, assisting liturgists (ordained or lay), and the congregation have in the Divine Service. We wanted to invite people into more active participation in the 'conversation' of worship, which is nothing less than the eternal conversation about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This conversation is the subject of true worship (Luke 9:31b), and is the story the Church is called to proclaim (Is. 12:4).

During this time, we taught the meaning and purposes of various congregational responses in the liturgy. Many of these responses had been cut from the service in the 80's and 90's out of a zeal to reduce the length of worship services. (Indeed, I was shocked that the first time I was introduced to Bethany, the non-communion service that morning lasted only 42 minutes!). This was done ostensibly because of parking problems at the previous site, necessitating a need for more 'exchange time' in the parking lot. So we told people that, having been at our new campus for over three years, there was no need to deny ourselves of the rich opportunities the liturgy provides us for rehearsing godly language on our lips. So we restored saying 'Thanks be to God" after the readings, the acclamations before and after the Gospel, the congregational cadences at the ends of each petition in the Prayer of the Church ("Lord, have mercy" or "Hear our prayer"), and other dialogs.

Most of the folk either liked or had no objections to these changes. After all, they are in the hymnal! And the older crowd appreciated singing 'Amen' after doxological hymn stanzas and after the concluding stanzas of some hymns that are especially prayerful. Sure, some wanted an Amen after every hymn, but we explained that hymns are often proclamation and catechesis, and so we'd let the text and context determine whether or not the organist would cue an Amen. A couple of people objected to becoming "too catholic" at this point, and we did lose three families during this time over the new worship direction, but overall most people liked recovering things that had been taken out of the service and also appreciated the teaching we were doing.

One prominent member in the congregation did object, though, to the prayer cadences. He pointed to Jesus' admonition against "vain repetitions" (Matthew 6:7) and argued that people really weren't praying when they would respond to a pastor's bid by saying "Lord, have mercy" but rather were just being mindlessly conditioned. His position was that truly pious thing to do was for everyone to listen to the pastor pray at length, and then whisper a quiet "Amen" if they wished. I attempted to show him from Scripture that Jesus was talking about the babbling of the Gentiles, who thought that by their efforts to repeat what they thought to be god-pleasing words was somehow meritorious before God. I agreed that the context of this passage would seem to include the "showy" practices of the hypocrites in the synagogue, but I doubt I was ever to get him to see that the problem was not the repeating of a versicle, but rather the vanity of an ungodly heart. This gentleman did not leave the congregation over this, but eventually decided that we were too liberal (!) and is now worshipping elsewhere.

We also began at this time to rehearse another dialog provided for in liturgical worship: that of a psalm refrain or antiphon. Psalms were already being done this way on occasion at Bethany, but we decided that congregational refrains were overall a good thing to do on most Sundays because they contextualize the psalm and also help the congregation learn and meditate on God's Word. As the old Latin proverb says: Repetitio est mater studorium. And what better way to let the Word dwell in you richly that a little music to accompany that repetition, right? Isn't this how we all learned our ABC's? And so during this time we also taught what Paul has to say about "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" in two of the few passages the New Testament has to say about worship (Eph. 3:15; Col. 3:16). We encouraged people to invest themselves more in the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in the liturgy, and also to sing them at home as well. The psalm refrains have proven to be very popular, and I commend them as a first step for any parish seeking worship renewal.

This phase of the plan ended in May of 2001, the end of my first full academic year at Bethany. It was a good choir season for both the senior and the children's choirs, and I used the talent of the choirs and some of our instrumental groups to ornament and enliven the psalms and canticles of the liturgy. In the years before I came to Bethany, most of the music - especially the instrumental music - was "special music' played as preludes or meditations. Sure there were hymn concertati on festival Sundays, but the choir mostly sang texts of various devotional qualities as a prelude to the service or as music during distribution, and most of the handbell and brass music was not hymn-tuned based. So there was a considerable shift in the direction of the music itself at this time, to highlight the new direction we were going as we had handbell choirs ornament the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei and play hymn introductions and descants, instrumental soloists play Voluntaries based on the Hymn of the Day and add descants to psalm refrains, and began using choral settings of the proper Verse of the Day.

Personally, I didn't think this was so radical. In fact, I still don't. We were just being Lutheran. Indeed, we were just reclaiming a basic liturgical spirituality that has characterized orthodox Christianity since its inception: the practice of magnifying the Word of God by singing it, that it may dwell in us richly. But some would find this "new way" to be "cold" and "too formal" and "stale". They wanted worship that would "move" them.

Summer was upon us, and so things would remain quiet for a few months, but in the fall these voices would begin to influence some members of the Ministry Council and also bend the ear of one of our pastors. Though all but one council member supported the plan in the beginning, and all the pastors and program staff participated in its development and promotion, some would view any amount of dissent or disagreement as a failure of the plan.

I learned in the beginning that some would view any actual teaching about liturgy as a problem in the first place. I now began to learn that some of those who advocated teaching above all else would conclude that if any fellow brother or sister in Christ were to reject the teaching and therefore be 'unhappy' with what we were doing, we should therefore stop doing whatever it is they would object to until such time as the teaching might convince them. And yet the teaching never would convince them - either because they objected to the very concept of instruction in worship in the first place or because they simply would reject either all or part of the many practices and customs which characterize Lutheran piety.

The Drama of Liturgy

2009-01-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

And so now we really begin to walk through Bethany's "Three-Year Plan" for nurturing authentic worship (2001-3) in the Lutheran parish.

The first three-month phase was called "The Drama of Liturgy". We thought this a good way to open up our teaching about the Divine Service as a whole, in order to get the congregation focused on the overarching themes of the Divine Service and of the Church Year. It also worked rather nicely that the customs to be refined during this first 3-month phase of the plan involved the Entrance Rite, that is, that time of prayer & praise between Confession & Absolution and the Service of the Word, during which the celebrants enter the chancel area to conduct the service.

Bethany already had some established customs for this part of the service. The cross was processed in during the Entrance Hymn, and "This Is the Feast" was generally sung whenever there was a full Divine Service (i.e. with the Lord's Supper). But there was little pattern to when the Kyrie would be used, the opening liturgy was often supplanted by a generic song of praise as a matter of convenience rather than as something intentional for the day, and there was little exploration of other possibilities for this time of the service, such as Introits or other Canticles.

So we did three main things at this time: instituted a general practice of praying the Kyrie during Lent, Advent, and all feast days, taught the people that processions of the cross at the beginning of the service served not to highlight the pastors and acolytes but to remind people that their salvation comes to them extra nos (i.e. outside of themselves, as a free gift from the cross), and also taught the people that the Kyrie in the liturgy is a petition for blessings - not a repetition of Confession. We reminded the folk that we are all "beggars before God" (Luther) and let them know that, in the drama of the liturgy, the people who have received the forgiveness of sins now boldly petition their King for additional blessings. We are able to do this because we are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6), but instead members of the Royal Priesthood - whom Christ calls 'friends'. (John 15) But we are still trapped in our flesh and so remain sinners even while we are made saints, and so approach the Lord in all humility, knowing that we receive His gifts only by his mercy, praying, "Lord, have mercy." (Kyrie eleison!)

During these three months, there was little reaction from the congregation that reached my ears or my desk. But over the course of the 2001, I was to discover something interesting: while there was little objection to the actual changes being made, people took issue with the teaching about worship. The very thing that was supposed to make the changes go over better - "explain things to people before you do it so that they'll understand and accept and not think we're just doing some kind of empty rituals" - actually proved to be what was provocative! It has taken me years to figure out why this is so, but I think I have a handle on it now: for those who want liturgy to make no other claims than simply a utilitarian benefit for the sake of order teaching about the liturgy is precisely what offends!

You see, if one has a low view of the liturgy, it's OK to change it, expand it, shorten it, flatten it, or stretch it, just so long as one doesn't make any claims for it. So, for these folk, it doesn't matter whether you have a Kyrie or not, or whether a cross goes down the aisle with the pastor, or whether you sing the Gloria or an alternative Canticle. It's all just a matter of taste. Just do what "works", i.e. what is most popular, or, at least, take turns doing what different people like. But don't start talking about processing the cross being an intrinsically good thing to do, or telling people what "Lord, have mercy" means. Let people think whatever they want. And let them sing what they want, too. They don't want to hear that one Canticle is more appropriate for one time of a year than another.

And so it began. Three of the roughest years of my life. While the majority of the congregation would give the plan high marks in the end, the minority was vocal. And it turned out that many in that minority were in positions of power in the congregation.

Developing "The Plan"

2009-01-03T10:36:00.001-08:00

And now, with the new year, I plan on being much more regular in my postings, and have motivation to do so as I now embark on the chronicle of liturgical renewal at Bethany I have been promising. As I have mentioned, my first year at Bethany was consumed with the development of a "Three-Year Plan" for nurturing the liturgy. The need for education, development, and consistency in this area was identified by the congregation in 1999, and was integral to broadening the position of "music director" to that of "Cantor" as I was brought on board. As the new "Cantor", I had to then work through the details of what all this meant. By bringing everybody on board, the thinking went, we would have smooth sailing as we inaugurated changes and enhancements to Bethany's worship customs and practices. The final document that came out of this was called, "Nurturing Lutheran Worship at Bethany: the Three-Year Plan". It was mailed out to every congregation member, accompanied by a nice introductory letter from Pastor Rossow. It was not called "The Plan" at the time, but for the sake of brevity I'll now start referring it to such in this series. "The Plan" itself was formulated via a series of open questions in worship that were brought to the worship committee and to the program staff. Members of both groups added their own questions to the list, and over the first five months of my cantorate over a dozen meetings were held in which these two groups shared their responses to the questions and systematized their areas of agreement into a vision of where we wanted to go as a congregation. I then assessed where Bethany was and where we wanted to go, and marked out a path to getting there over three years. Once a path was laid out, a new series of meetings began so that we could review and revise the plan and come to agreement on exactly what we were going to do. Once there was agreement between the program staff and the worship committee, a final draft was sent to the Ministry Council, which then sent the plan back for further revisions. Finally, after almost a full year of discussions, The Plan was approved, with the unanimous support of the worship committee and the program staff, and by a 9-1 vote of the Ministry Council. The plan had 12 stages, each guiding a 3-month focus on different aspects of the liturgy. Most but not all of these stages also introduced either a change or an addition to Bethany's customs. The first stage of The Plan was entitled "The Drama of the Liturgy" and, among other things, explained the Entrance Rite to the congregation. No real changes were introduced, but more consistent customs were agreed upon, explained, and established. But before we look at each of the 12 stages, we should take time to look at the Introduction to the Plan and the Worship Statement that was introduced to the congregation as The Plan began in December, 2000. So, if you want to know how we explained the need for The Plan to the congregation in the first place......head on to the next post!

Introducing "The Plan"

2009-01-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

"Nurturing Lutheran Worship at Bethany: The Three-Year Plan" (herewith referred to simply as "The Plan") was mailed out to all congregation members and introduced via pastoral letter, announcements in the parish newsletter and weekly bulletin, and in various sermon illustrations in the weeks surrounding the beginning of its implementation. Repeated in print were a Purpose Statement and a Worship Statement, the latter of which still appears (in revised form) in our weekly newsletter and on our website. It gives a general outline of worship of Bethany and serves to inform guests and visitors about our general practices. The Purpose Statement was specifically for the introduction of The Plan and explained to the congregation why we were embarking on our liturgical renewal effort. It read:

PURPOSE STATEMENT
As Christians have been called to be 'in the world' but not 'of the world,' (2 Cor. 10:3; John 15:19) so the Divine Service has come to be known among Lutherans as 'the unchanging feast in a fast-changing world.' Though we are citizens of heaven by virtue of Holy Baptism, we are also still citizens of this fallen world, which accompanies our sinful nature to God's house even as the saint within us is drawn by the Spirit to worship God in Christ. Hence, God's unchanging forgiveness is ministered to us in the context of our culture.

Because worship connects an eternal God to his ever-changing people, the liturgy and music of the Church must always address this relationship so that the Word is effectively and convincingly proclaimed. Static music, liturgy, and ceremony risk disconnecting Christ from his people by becoming incomprehensible, ritualistic, and meaningless. Music and ceremony that moves beyond the grasp of the average worshipper carries a similar risk. The task of Christian worship, therefore, is to assure that the eternal truths of God are effectively proclaimed to the assembly. This requires both education so that Christians understand and appreciate the liturgy and hymnody of the Church, and also reformation, so that what has become artifact can be replaced by art that is truly able to perform its functions of adorning and proclaiming the Word.

Above all, it is important to remember that though practice may be changed according to the culture of the congregation, the substance as even style of worship remains consistent according to the confessions of the Lutheran Church. Lutherans worship as Lutherans believe. Confessional Lutheran liturgy is always centered on the means of grace: Baptism, Absolution, the proclamation of the Word, and the Lord's Supper. The problem of man remains sin, and God's solution remains Christ crucified for sinners. By Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Scripture Alone, salvation is applied to us in the Divine Service. As God's chosen people, we are built up in our understanding of both sin and grace by the proper distinction of Law and Gospel, which is essential to Lutheran doctrine and practice.

Bethany's devotion to providing worship that achieves these noble ends is expressed in our worship mission statement. This statement explains both what is essential to Christian liturgy and seeks to transcend stylistic labels by affirming that Lutheran worship embraces yet transcends both tradition and contemporary culture:

"Christian worship begins with the crucified Christ, who comes to us in Word and Sacrament. He brings to the people of God forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We in turn extol these gifts with joyful thanksgiving an praise, proclaiming the story of God's love through His Word. This celebration is done in concert with the Church throughout the world, and finds its expression in the liturgy. Lutheran worship is traditional in that it is part of the timeless culture of the Church, and contemporary in that it effectively communicates the Gospel to the assembly. Worship is the vocation of all baptized Christians. The Divine Service at Bethany is therefore designed to involve all who gather here in the name of the Lord."

Because worship that is truly confessional and evangelical cannot be static, and because congregations need to be educated about liturgy and worship that they may better know the riches they have received as members of the body of Christ, the program staff, the worship committee, and Ministry Council have designed the following three-year plan to nurture Lutheran worship in our parish. This plan takes the form of a series of strategic educational foci, which are accompanied by specific ceremonial, liturgical, or musical emphases designed to enrich the Divine Service at Bethany, that all who attend worship here may be more strongly connected to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through His means of grace.

---
So, "there it is". Looking back eight years later I can see some things that could have been said better, such as referring to "customs" that may be changed rather than "practices", since "practices" best refers to essentials such as baptizing and communing and absolving and so "customs" is a better word to describe adiophoric approaches as to how such things may best be done in a given cultural context. But enough of what I think. What do you think?

The Power of Hymns

2008-12-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! It has been a busy month as I have focused on rehearsing musicians and preparing Advent and Christmas liturgies. In the near future I will be returning to my series on liturgical renewal. But in the meantime, don't miss this excellent article on hymnody at the Brothers of John the Steadfast.

"If I Were the Devil" by Pastor Klemet Preus

What I Found

2008-12-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

So, before we get into the "Three-Year Plan" that we implemented at Bethany to "nurture authentic worship," I think it best to take a look at what things were like at Bethany when I first arrived there. What was the state of worship in 1999 that led Bethany to call their first Cantor? Some knowledge of what liturgical life was like when I arrived will be helpful to understanding the need for a comprehensive plan for liturgical renewal, as the scope of what we undertook over the course of four years was thorough and significant--and therefore required a patient and deliberate approach.

When I arrived at Bethany, she was being served by three confessional pastors, two of whom had been there for several years, and one who had been added just a few months prior to my arrival. The DCE and principal were theologically conservative, and the call committee which had interviewed me was vocal in their support for our Lutheran liturgical heritage and our hymnody. I even noted during the interview process the wonderful absence of flags in the chancel and was told they had been placed at the exit to the narthex a couple of years before following congregational deliberation on the matter. So I was greatly encouraged that I'd be serving a solidly Lutheran parish and was looking forward to serving people who were unified on worship matters.

Only they weren't. Not by a long shot. Sure, the program staff and the call committee shared a vision of traditional Lutheran liturgy supported by a strong and creative music program, but I soon saw that there was much work to be done--and learned very quickly that there were some who either wanted no changes at all (for various reasons) and others who wanted Bethany to move in a totally different direction.

Certainly good things were going on. The preaching was and remains excellent. But liturgically I entered an environment where the following was the norm:

1 - Cutting of hymn stanzas and omitting of parts of the liturgy so that services without communion were but 45 minutes long. (And communion was only once-a-month at that time!)

2 - Two praise teams that "led worship" at all Sunday morning services: one group once a month; another, made mostly of non-members, once or twice a quarter.

3 - Little use of the chorales for hymnody.

4 - Little use of the excellent new hymns and liturgical resources that were in common use in sister churches (such as from HS 98).

5 - Very little ceremony; a high degree of informality in how the ministers conducted the service.

6 - An expectation that children's choirs were for pre-service entertainment.

7 - A general view of instrumental and even choral music for worship as being "special music" of general devotional content rather than as a means for proclaiming the Gospel.

You get the picture. More specific details will come out over the course of this series, but this is enough to give you a feel of the disconnect between the theology being preached and the liturgical customs of the parish. And, let's be clear: I'm not complaining. I was brought in to "improve the field" at Bethany, and was aware that the leadership was seeking a musical and liturgical life that would match the theological depth of Bethany's preaching and teaching. I just didn't realize the size of the gap until I got there. Having served previously in parishes with fairly rich worship traditions, I was unaware that large congregations within Lutheranism could have such "low church" traditions. And I was also unprepared for the number of folk who were actually opposed to the pastors' and lay leaders' vision for worship as well. In previous parishes, there were staff who wanted more "evangelical" or "entertaining" worship, but the people pretty much wanted Lutheran hymns and liturgy. At Bethany, many of the people wanted "contemporary worship", but the staff was opposed.

So it was into this environment I was installed as Cantor in January of 2000. Over the next 11 months, working with the pastors, a worship committee, and a "Ministry Council," we would draw up a document called the "Three-Year Plan" that would guide Bethany's liturgical renewal from 2001-2004. We did this because we believed that a significant amount of teaching would be necessary in order to lead the congregation to embracing a more Lutheran approach to music, liturgy, and ceremony, and so took the time to get the full leadership of the congregation on board and took the care to be fully transparent with the congregation about our plans.

Over the next few weeks, I'll share the plan with you, and let you know how things turned out!

Nurturing Authentic Worship

2008-12-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

Nine years ago, my life changed dramatically. I accepted the call to serve as Cantor at Bethany Lutheran Church and School in Naperville, Illinois, leaving my previous cantorate at Trinity Lutheran Church in Peoria. This was a move to a larger church. Little beknownst to me at the time, I was not only going to assume more responsibilities - that much I knew - but I was also about to be embroiled in the "worship wars" that have permeated the Church these past few decades. My experiences in leading the Lord's song in previous parishes prepared me somewhat for the stresses that lay ahead, but the first few years at Bethany were to give me a most thorough education in teaching congregations, nurturing traditions, and implementing change.

The last couple of posts, "Learning By Doing" and "Letting It Happen", were not originally intended to lead into a review of my first years at Bethany, but the discussion that followed made me realize that they are the perfect introduction to a series of articles on those years, because during that time I did more explaining, teaching, and communicating about music & liturgy than at any other time in my 19 years as a church musician. I discovered that being proactive is often the best strategy - but that sometimes the wisest move is to simply act and answer questions and, if necessary, make apologies later. I learned that while teaching the congregation more about music and worship is a good thing, there is a limit to what they can reasonably be expected to learn, and so often earning trust can be more important than good communication. And sometimes, because "talking about music is like dancing about architecture" (Thelonius Monk), congregations need to learn by experiencing things the Elders or Worship Committee might never approve if proposed abstractly to them in advance.

Now certainly church politics comes into play with all of this. Whether a congregation is getting along or is in conflict, there is a congregational power structure, pastoral leaderhsip styles, and congregational culture and history to navigate. And then there are personalities on committees. Sometimes they are like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates! So the overall prinicples I've learned have to be applied in the context of a given situation. But, regardless of church politics, I think the story of my first four years at Bethany reveal effective strategies for nurturing authentic worship in a parish, and so I will share this experience with you over the next several posts.

Coming up: Developing a Three-Year Plan for Liturgical Renewal at Bethany

Letting It Happen

2008-11-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

OK, so perhaps the examples I cited in the last post may have seemed like "straw men" - but then again, perhaps not. Sure most of us don't have to get our organ playing ideas approved by a committee and then explained to the congregation, but, believe it or not, in some parishes elders or worship committee time IS taken up with discussing whether or not the organist should be allowed to drop out on a stanza for a cappella singing. And while good spontaneity can and does happen in the liturgy, having an improvisation flow into the congregation's standing and singing the final refrain of a song takes planning and coordination between pastor & musician. So sometimes we think we should be able to do something w/o discussion, only to discover the opposite; other times things may appear to "just happen", but they are the result of discussion and planning.

So how are we to know when to run something through "the process", and when do we go with our inspiration? Truth be told, there are no "8 Simple Rules" on this one. Such judgments are more of an art than a science. But here are some guidelines:

1 - Does the innovation effect just you, or the pastor, or the whole assembly? People are more accepting of novelty that others do; more resistent to anything that would affect their accustomed pattern of worship.

2 - Does the innovation serve the text in an overt way, or is it more subltle? When people are surpirized by something obvious, they "get it" and think it is cool that it just "happened". If the innovation is more sublte, though, the people need some teaching lest you want them to think you are promoting change for the sake of change. (!)

3 - Will the innovation be done well? This may seem obvious, but sometimes it is not. Sure, the first time conga drums are played, they best be played well if there is to be no backlash, but do we always remember to similarly prepare things like the first time the children's choir chants a part of the liturgy, the first time handbells play a free ring on a doxological stanza, or the first time the acolytes do a Gospel procession? Ideally these things would always be well done, but, in my experience, I've seen too often that these good ideas are poorly implemeneted, and so an opportunity to promote an enriched liturgical life in a congregation is lost because people don't respond well to anything poorly planned or poorly executed. The children need to memorize that part of the liturgy, and thoroughly reheasrse doing it in the context of what comes right beforehand in the service. The bells need to know exactly how the director is going to get them in and out of the free ring, particularly how they are to dampen their bells at the end. And why can't district worship services ever seem to get a Gospel procession right? Because sufficient time is rarely put into doing such things well.

Over the next few posts, I'll share a few examples of how meaninful innovations were either successfully "sprung" or successful planned and prepared. Maybe you've got some stories to share too!

Learning By Doing

2008-11-15T07:41:00.001-08:00

Our Lutheran culture is big on "knowing what we are doing" - at least, supposedly, about worship. Suggest doing something liturgical and a predictable reaction will be "well, we might want to do that, but let's be sure to instruct and explain before we do it." Now, there is some healthy conservatism in that approach, and certainly we do want to catechize. But sometimes the liturgy itself teaches us, and our fear of "moving beyond" the level of the "average laymen" prevents us from doing just that. This strikes me as ironic, since the average layman doesn't know much about what we are doing in worship to begin with, and so is "learning by doing" all the time!

I'm going to break this down into more than one post - I've figured out that my posts have been too long! - but, to get everyone thinking, consider the following statements:

"Playing an introduction to the hymn of the day that is in the tempo of the hymn, establishes its mood, and reinforces melodic ideas of the tune might very well improve singing - but let's be sure to explain what you are doing to everyone before you do it."

"Using the proper invitatory would be cool. It certianly reinforces the season of the church year. But visitors would get lost because it's not in the hymnal. But I guess we could do that on a special Sunday if you announced it!"

"So you'd like to sing the last refrain of that hymn at the end of communion distribution with everyone standing. Yes, that would literally be 'uplifting' now, wouldn't it? And you've done that in other parishes, too? But I don't know. We wouldn't do that every Sunday. How would people know when or if to stand? Seems a bit too spontaneous to me. People might get confused."

How do these thoughts sound to you? Next I plan on sharing some examples of where people were prepared for something new and where people simply experienced something new as it happened - with both successful and unsucessful results with each approach.

REAL MUSIC FOR A REAL MESSAGE

2008-11-06T07:02:00.001-08:00

I apologize for the lack of posts in recent weeks. The recent election was rather totalizing!

But we "trust not in rulers; they are but mortal. Earth-born they are and soon decay." (LSB 797:2) We need to be reminded to that no matter who governs us. And as our leaders prepare to increase taxes and regulations on us, let us also sing "and take they our life, Good, fame, child, and wife, Though these all be gone, Our victory has been won; The Kingdom our remaineth." (LSB 656:4) God is indeed our fortress; we shall never be shaken!

So, turning back to things eternal, I thought we all could use something a little lighter, and so I point you over to my latest post over at the Johnny Steadfast website. It shares a fun little video Stephen sent me that I'm sure will brighten up your day.

Here's part of a follow-up comment I posted over there. I'm quoting it here to pique your interest and perhaps stimulate some more serious discussion regarding the art of church music:

"For late 70's, it was fairly cutting-edge New Wave. And I do give them credit for being tight. (musician slang for being in sync rhythmically and not hitting any wrong notes) And one has to admit that there is a certain catchiness to the whole thing.

But now I think this illustrates an even stronger point: even if the Church can succeed in being "hip" for a moment, the world will move "hip" immediately somewhere else. And so looking back such efforts will always seem comical, at best. (I have had similar riots singing some of the religious pop sheet music in a Sinatra style by well-intentioned Anglicans in the 50's, and have had a real fun time singing some religious pop from the 1920s.) So I think people will look back at LCMS "praise teams" in 30 years and get similar chuckles. It's just the way of our "fast changing world", to quote Dr. Barry.

The core problem with ALL of this is that the music is driven by a desired sound. It may be the beat of the Charleston, the lush chords of the jazz era, or the punky grooves of New Age. So the text is then contrived to "fit" into the prescribed sound, and deemed OK as long as the sentiments are judged to be religious and sincere. Music is valued for its psychological effects, not for its ability to magnify the Word.

A good text may actually find its musical form in a peppy beat ("Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia"), pick up some jazzy chords ("How Clear Is Our Vocation, Lord"), or even be hip for a moment ("Gabriel's Message" as sung by Sting, for example). But such music succeeds over time in the Church - and is valued as good art even by secular musicians - because it is driven by the words, not by the beat or the harmony.

Jesus is indeed our Friend. The great Good News is that He calls us friends, even though we are unworthy servants. But without the primacy of the lyric element, music cannot proclaim that message. At best it might be able to carry it along in an obscured way; at worst it is simply a diversion."

TUNES FOR THE TIMES

2008-10-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

One of the resources to which I subscribe is the Cantus Novus "list-serv" provided by Pastor Stefanski's "CAT-41" site. (CAT-41= 'Confess and Teach for One'). Recently, a poster asked the folks on the list to share their customs regarding the use of the various settings of the liturgy. Responses confirm that some parishes use just one or two settings, others more. Each situation is different, given the liturgical history of a congregation and the average musical literacy of its members, but most parishes do some rotation of musical settings.

I think it is usually a good thing for a parish to have variety in its musical practice of the liturgy, though certainly some situations may call for the use of but one setting. I'll give specific reasons for some of the kinds of variety I advocate below, but before we get to that I think it best to point out that the liturgical principle itself is the establishment of a pattern around which meaningful variety and creativity can form. Indeed, good patterns such as one has with the order of the historic liturgy (or the rules of counterpoint, or the laws of harmonic motion, or the rules of rhetoric) allow greater freedom and creativity than we ever could have without them.

Because the liturgy uses the idea of variety-within-pattern with its balance of ordinary and proper texts (i.e. texts which are the same and texts which are appointed for a given day), and has simplifications and elaborations around its basic form (such as omitting the Gloria during Lent, a longer Verse with more alleluias during Easter, etc.), judicious and intentional selection of tunes for the liturgy serve to highlight liturgical form, amplify its simplifications and elaborations, and allow the overall shapes and forms of the liturgy to resonate more clearly. I am convinced that such use of the art of music can add meaning and sustain interest in the hearts and minds of worshippers, letting the Word dwell in them more richly.

Let us know what your custom is. Perhaps our conversation may enrich our mutual practice. Meanwhile, here's how a suburban congregation in Chicagoland makes full use of the resources of LSB:

MUSIC FOR THE LITURGIES AT BETHANY-NAPERVILLE

ADVENT - LSB II
CHRISTMASTIDE AND EPIPHANY - LSB IV
GREEN SUNDAYS OF EPIPHANY - special setting, using Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei from Haugen's "Mass of Creation" (we have OneLicense), Celtic Alleluia, and Nunc D from LSB III.
LENT - LSB III*
EASTER & EASTERTIDE - LSB I
PENTECOST through JUNE - LSB II
JULY & AUGUST - a local setting (composed by the local Cantor, soon to be available for download via Liturgy Solutions!)
RALLY DAY through CHRIST THE KING* - LSB I

*In October we take a break from LSB I and either do LSB III or LSB V for Reformation (and some of the prior weeks). We alternate between these each year. When we do LSB V in October, we set it up by singing various hymns from the Deutche Messe throughout the year. (e.g. by singing "Kyrie, God Father" as the Kyrie during Lent).

MUSIC FOR THE NON-COMMUNION SERVICES
We have the Lord's Supper twice a month at each of our four service times. The most popular service times, 9:00 & 11:15am, commune a third time whenever there is a fifth Sunday. We also add extra communion services on feast days.

When we do not have the Lord's Supper, we use one of the prayer offices (such as Matins or Evening Prayer most of the time, but do use "antecommunion" (the Divine Service w/o the Service of the Sacrament) on first and second Sundays. Antecommunion provides us some good opportunities to use some of the alternative Canticles or other options for the Entrance Rite (such as a hymn paraphrase of the Gloria). Our day school chapel services on Wednesday mornings use either Morning Prayer or the Service of Prayer and Preaching.

Our rotations on the prayer & preaching offices are as follows:

Advent, Lent, Summertime, October in the AM- Matins
Christmas, Epiphany, Eastertide, September, and November in the AM - Morning Prayer
Wednesday Lenten Services - Matins in the AM; Evening Prayer in the PM
Wednesday Advent Services (PM only) - Evening Prayer w/ Taizé music.
Saturday 5PM Services - When the sun is up, Vespers; in the dead of Chicagoland winter, when the sun is down, Evening Prayer!

Why do we do this?

The advantages of seasonal rotations are considerable:

1 - Everyone gets to "settle in" to a particular setting over several weeks' time. This is especially important for young people learning the settings, and even more important for catechumens and visitors.

2 - It reinforces the primacy of the TEXTS over the tunes. Many Lutherans unfortunately think of "the liturgy" as a particular set of melodies w/ texts in a book, rather than the historic prayers and patterns of prayer of the Church.

3 - Seasonal rotations, when done consistently over several years, highlight the seasons of the Church Year. It is common in parishes with this practice for people to voice hopeful expectations toward specific seasons when their favorite versions of various Canticles might be sung (ex. "I can't wait until Easter when we sing 'This is the Feast' again," and "Isn't Epiphany when we get to do the Haugen 'Glory to God in the Highest'?").

4 - Using a few different settings also improves the music literacy of the congregation, thereby strengthening their hymn singing. No, it doesn't make sight-singers out of them, but the use of varied settings and various options on the Canticles, Alleluias, and responses makes people pay attention to the notes and helps their music reading at a fundamental level.

5 - Having at least two settings guards against the false idea that there is some uniquely holy setting of the liturgy (all settings are of human construction and therefore fall under the Judgement!), and helps preserve us from vain repetitions of the service. To be sure, vain repetitions come from the heart of man and so can and will occur no matter how much variety there may be in a parish. The problem is not the repetitions (otherwise the Lord's Prayer would be settings us up!), but in the vanity of man. However, providing at least some variety does communicate to the parish that their performance of any given set of tunes is not a meritorious work.

6 - Variety also defends the liturgy against charges of being 'boring'. Let's face it, though it is extremely rare for someone to complain about saying the Lord's Prayer every week, people do get tired of singing the same tunes ad infinitim. Even the best music gets tiresome over time, even music composed for such a purpose (like good liturgical music). Rotation of settings maintains interest and inoculates against liturgical burnout.

On a personal note, I want to add that this last point has been proven in several parishses, including the last two where I have served. In these cases, where there was little liturgical variety, many folks were clamoring for 'contemporary' worship; however, when greater liturgical variety became the custom in the parish, most of those expressing dissatisfaction with the liturgy became satisfied and moved from saying that the worship music was boring to saying that the worship music was something to which they were looking forward! Care must be taken to provide the right amount of variety, and to introduce new things at a deliberate pace, so as not to overwhelm the congregation, but the practical lesson in such cases is clear: it is not that the liturgy has been tried and found wanting, it is that the liturgy in all its fullness has not actually been tried!

So there you have it: "how we do it" at Bethany. I certainly don't think our rich and varied practice should be normative, but I offer it as an example of the customs of a singing parish that mines the riches of LSB and avoids the "worship wars" that plague so many parishes today.

All Kids Can Sing

2008-10-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

I am a music teacher. I teach at a Catholic high school in the Bronx, NY and have about 120 students this semester consisting of freshmen and seniors. The music program at the school is underdeveloped, which is why they had me come in. They want to cultivate a singing culture at the school. They want the kids to sing in the liturgies and to build a good choral program. My classes have several components. I teach voice pedagogy and basic theory as well as music history. And we sing – a lot.

I started by just singing at the kids. You know, singing the announcements, instructions, etc. Their first assignment was to come to class the next day and sing me a greeting. They thought I was out of my mind. Like anything else, these kids have gotten used to the antics of Mr. J. So, my singing is now to be expected, as is the daily regimen of song in which my students must participate.

The other day, I was listening to small groups sing canons (for a grade). One senior was having a hard time with pitch (well, several do, but this one in particular). It so happened that I could hear a couple of pitches that he was singing in tune. He was singing way too low (trying to sing an octave below where the men sing the canon). That means that his lowest notes were really unsingable, with rare exception. When he got to the upper notes he hit the “D” below middle “C”. When I asked him to do that again, he did and, after a little coaching, began singing the canon in the right octave and, by in large, on the right pitch. I asked him if he understood what had just happened and he kind of shyly grinned. I asked if he had every done that before and he admitted no. It was a breakthrough for him! I learned something and so did he – but so did the class. Their lack of skill in singing is not due to an inherent inability to do so, but because they have not used their voices in such a way since they were little children. When they have time and someone to teach them those voices come back! There are more examples of this but time and space prevent me from sharing them just now.

In the church, parents, Sunday school teachers, DCEs and pastors become the gatekeepers of what children sing. It is often believed that they cannot sing things perceived to be too difficult for them. But when there is time and someone to teach them they can, do and are even enthusiastic about learning difficult hymns. I have proven this over and over in my work with the church. So has my wife, who had worked with children on songs like “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” at Christmas time with complete success. The kids sang it as well or better than anything else on the program that day.

Experts would not be surprised and would likely stand in unanimity about the abilities of children to sing music adults perceive as too difficult. Still, even after more than one such example of the abilities of kids to comprehend musical substance and execute it, parishes still resort to canned music for events like VBS and Sunday school Christmas programs with superficial tunes and lyrics, depriving the children of early exposure to rich spiritual food contained in hymns of the Lutheran heritage and building a comprehensive musical vocabulary. Ironically, the church musician is often the last person who it is believed has credibility on such matters. I guess it is hard for people to believe that the musician would actually know something about the teaching and learning of music.

There is good news for you pastors and church workers who wonder whether your kids can embrace, sing and enjoy the Lutheran hymn heritage. The answer is a resounding YES! Find the time to teach them with a competent teacher and you will find success. It may be a little intimidating for the parents, though, when the kids sing hymns with ease that give their folks trouble. But maybe the kids can then teach their parents!

SPROUTING

2008-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Fall is fast approaching, and here in the Northern Hemisphere that means harvest time - agriculturally speaking. But in the Church, most of us have just gotten a bunch of programs started that correspond to the academic year, and so while the fields around us are being harvested, things are just starting to sprout in our various plots of the Lord's vineyard.

True, we've had a summer full of "green" Sundays - i.e. when the paraments are green to reflect the liturgical season of the Sundays after Pentecost, known as the "Time of the Church". This is a season of growth, and the readings focus on sanctification, fellowship, vocation, and trust. Certainly we have grown as the body of Christ as the Spirit nurtured us in God's words and promises. But the programs of the Church are on a different "growth pattern" as they are by necessity more in sync with the academic calendar than the pericopes of the Church Year. And so our program years are just now getting off the ground.

How is your garden growing? Here at Liturgy Solutions, I am pleased to report that things are going very well at Bethany. The "fishing for choristers" expedition went exceedingly well. We're up to 24 kids in the parish children's choir, with three more expected to come after soccer season. Meanwhile our day school junior high choir has grown from about 30 kids to 56! We did have a couple of adult choir members move away - but we have picked up 3 new members and are holding steady at 36. Our contemporary and youth ensembles remain strong, as do our bell and brass groups, and new things are happening as well: a new bell choir for beginners is forming, and our day school music teacher is discipling new youth brass & wind ensembles in addition to his school band program. All in all, 148 people participate regularly in music ministry at Bethany - not bad for a congregation that averages about 575 in worship!

Certainly this all happens by the Lord's hand. His Spirit has given us a singing faith, and the people of Bethany love His song. But He uses us to bring forth the harvest, and this talent would not be manifesting itself so abundantly were it not for the faithful service and support of our pastors, our staff and the many, many volunteers who do over-and-above things to make things happen.

All this does not happen in a vacuum. We give God the glory for assembling such a great team, and for granting us the wisdom and resources to build a quality program. Some of this wisdom is associated with some of the topics we have already blogged about here at Liturgy Solutions. The E-fast was inspired by Dr. MacDaniels address at the Institute, and was part of a congregational renewal campaign that brought forward many volunteers. The "fishing for choristers" expedition used several resources, including the "Singing the Faith" video I picked up at the Institute. And there are so many resources available today to help a congregation build a program.

The Lord has similarly blessed you with people and resources for leading His song in a way that is most appropriate for your parish. Success requires your dedication, your labor, your passion, and your perseverance, but He has given you a song to sing, and faith to sing it. We at Liturgy Solutions are here to provide additional resources and our collective wisdom to assist pastors and musicians as they plant and nurture programs for worship and music.

We rejoice that things are sprouting up here at Bethany, and pray that your garden is growing as well. If things are not, and you think you could use a little help tilling the soil, casting seed, or otherwise caring for the liturgical harvest, consider our consulting services. Conferences are great, and books can be very helpful, but sometimes the voice of experience can best address your particular situation. Let us know if we can help!