New Beginnings: Part 1

New Beginnings

Ethnomusicology and the Local Church

This is part one in a series on beginning a new ministry. While this series focuses on a music ministry, the information can also be translated into other ministry areas.

     The Dream

A new beginning, a new church, new programs, new people! Now is the time for changes. Now is the perfect opportunity to shape this new, fresh, spotless group into the perfect instrument for worship. They are putty in my hands. I have absolute power to mold them into any musical image I desire. I can teach them to like what I like, to want what I want, to sing and play exactly the way I tell them. The possibilities are limitless. [cue evil laugh]

     The Reality

Unless you have been at the same church for fifty years, you will understand the desire to mold and shape the music program of your local church in a way that meets your own criteria for worship and education. This is not something that is reserved only for ministers of music. It is a normal process seen in virtually every aspect of life. We feel most comfortable when things are designed according to our personal insight and understanding of just how things should be. But what we want or perceive to be right is not always what the church body needs, and it is rarely the same thing that the average church member wants.

Good musicians have an insatiable need for perfection that has been ingrained in their very soul from years of dedicated practice. This driving force is far above anything seen in other fields—most areas of life provide an allowance for errors. Add to this the Christian drive for perfection and creativity, and what emerges is a creature totally bent on providing the absolutely most perfect anthem, solo, cantata, or ensemble performance possible with their heart focused intently on God.

It is only natural then for a musician in the music and worship ministries of a church to steer the entire program toward directions that must have been divinely inspired. After years of private lessons, band and choral experience, college, graduate school or seminary, and possibly even post-graduate school, it is easy to feel that the only qualified person to understand the musical needs of the local church body is . . .well . . .ME. Why else would the church have asked for a professional if they did not want the advice and leadership of one?

It is true that the minister of music should be the most qualified to determine the musical needs of the local body based on their academic training, spiritual calling, and humble commitment to the service of God and His children. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many ministers leave their academic training with little understanding of how to deal with individuals in real life situations. It is easy to forget the needs of the church body when striving to provide the best possible atmosphere for worship of God. 

Many churches have grown to a level of musical quality that actually excludes the praise and worship offerings of the average church member. These less qualified musicians need an outlet for their gifts also: the high school trumpet player who feels intimidated to use her gift at church because hired professionals from the local symphonic orchestra were used for the Christmas and Easter programs; the bashful tenor in the congregation who decides not to join choir because the director auditions for membership, and he would feel out of place stuck between Placido Domingo and David Phelps; or the timid, elderly pianist who feels inadequate to substitute as the choral accompanist because the anthems used would require someone with a master's degree in piano performance. When it comes to worship: reality is not a show.

So how is it possible to provide for all of the needs and desires of the local church body? We can always fall back on the old cop-out, "You can't please all of the people all of the time," but we would miss what lies between the lines of this proverb—"You CAN please all of the people some of the time." We could say, "I'm only human," or, "I'm not perfect," but that only proves why we should strive to include everyone in our grand scheme of things. They also are only human and just as imperfect.

When a minister of music begins service at a new church, he is entering a strange and foreign field. He would be wise to begin by making a list of short term and long-term goals, but these goals must be partly based on the needs, abilities, and visions of the people. We all have differing needs and abilities. How do we discover what these are? It is not something that can be accomplished during the first two weeks at a new church. Perhaps not even during the first two years.

The minister must remember that he is the outsider. He is the foreigner with many foreign ideas bursting forth from a seminary, graduate school, or classical education. Eager and gung-ho, his tendency may be to act exactly as the early foreign missionaries of the colonial times: convert the heathens; put "proper" clothing on them; teach them to use and appreciate a "proper" language; and show them how they can be "proper" members of society. This does not address their needs. This does not take advantage of their abilities.

Thus enters the idea of using the study of Ethnomusicology in the local church.

Ethnomusicology is a study of music that usually focuses on non-Western musical cultures. The basic principles used in these studies require that the observer does not influence the culture—this is a type of "prime directive" for the musician. This allows the observer the opportunity to see, hear, and experience the musical culture firsthand without adding his own bias. It is an excellent method for learning the needs and abilities of a musical culture that is foreign to us—in this case, the local church body.

What better example can be found for the new minister, whether in music or any other ministry? Instead of charging into a foreign land with its countless oddities and attempting to bring the natives up to his social level, he begins his ministry with that which they are accustomed. As he grows to accept their ways, their styles, and their understanding, he can better know how to help them grow to accept new ways, new styles, and gain new understandings. But none of this can be accomplished if the new minister stubbornly drags a plateaued country gospel church kicking and screaming onto a classical, High-Church or modern praise and worship plateau.

Read the next post in this series: The Background.