TIPS FOR SMALL CONGREGATIONS
At the TENS Conference (The Episcopal Network for Stewardship) last week in Tennessee, my counterpart for the Diocese of North Carolina, Bill Renn, made some comments on small congregations that I find worthy of passing along. Bill says that it is really easier for a small congregation to become a healthy congregation than it is for a large one: fewer people to get transformed! A congregation becomes a healthy congregation, he says, when its member know and embrace their mission, and take it as their ministry to accomplish it (gee, that sounds familiar—but remember, this is from Bill!)
“Don’t do bad liturgy!” he warns. If you have a choir of three, and they don’t sound so good, don’t have a choir! (See why I’m quoting him by name here?) If there are twelve in the congregation and the quality of their singing ranges from inaudible to wish-it-were-inaudible, then don’t sing hymns! If your organist sounds like the funeral parlor musician she is, complete with that out-of-control base pedal, then don’t have an organist! It is better to have no music at all than to have bad music.
How do we have an effective liturgy, then, without music to fall back on? With careful planning and execution, that’s how. First, anyone who is to read scripture must be selected for their skill, not just their willingness. Both the prayers and the lessons must be delivered clearly and distinctly, and with some expression. If the liturgy does not sound like it has any meaning to the readers, then it won’t to the listeners, either. The judicious use of silence is a great substitute for music, too. What would be wrong with providing the opportunity for private prayer in worship? An appropriate poem or dramatic reading, well selected and well presented, could easily take the place of music. And how about the worship space itself? A piece of art for the occasion, or an arrangement of significant objects, in a place where they could be viewed by the congregation, could contribute significantly to worship. Even moving furnishings around (horrors!) to emphasize a season or a point from a lesson could be meaningful. Rote worship can be thrown together in minutes with little planning and no practice, but good and meaningful worship takes time and planning. Yet it is the responsibility of all worship leaders to provide spiritually enriching worship experiences every time we invite people to gather at the church.
At the bottom of it, the point is that small churches should not strain to act like big churches. Why have a “procession” consisting of the priest carrying the processional cross, and nobody following, just because the one enrolled acolyte slept in that morning? A procession is not a requirement for Episcopal worship, and it is a device for moving numbers of people into the worship space. If we don’t have the numbers, we don’t need the device.
Small congregations can be wonderful communities, rich in relationships and spiritual depth. They just need to know and claim who they are, and give up trying to be what they are not.
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8 comments:
from Beth Hamrick:
You've struck a nerve.
For many years, the St. Ambrose choir at St. John's Charleston went to choir camp (various places throughout the state from Sandscrest to Lost River to Pence Springs) and learned much of our sacred music for the year and ate and got to know each other very well.
It is my dream to have a diocesan choir camp, and I have even talked with the former organist/choir master at the National Cathedral about coming to direct.
This summer Brenda Vanderford and I are hoping to attend the music program at Sewanee, and then I plan to follow through on my dream for the diocese.
St. John's has a repertoire of music from chant to modern. However, our services do not include some forms of music that might be do-able for smaller congregations, such as gospel singing with a single guitar. The Chapel on the Mount at Snowshoe has brought this kind of music to services recently, and it has been well received.
Taize was received so well at the diocesan convention that our group has been invited to don our traveling clothes and instruments to play in other venues.
In other words, a small congregation does not preclude use of music in worship: in my opinion, the music needs to reflect and enhance the congregation and its worship. There are many kinds of wonderful music (although rap is my least favorite, it, too, might find some young listeners).
However, I do agree bad music needs to change or be eliminated.
from Harold Stewart:
I certainly agree with what is being said here and I like the silence at specific places in the service. I also like it when the liturgy is paced and delivered so, as has been said, that it is presented with feeling and not just something we read. There needs to be time for reflectiion even if it is the same thing we do every Sunday. When the priest finishes his sermon or the layreader finishes reading his/hers and announces the creed and starts reading and when the congregation catches up they are halfway through the creed that is going too fast. When everything is done at a rapid pace it makes me feel like it is a chore for whoever is doing it and they want to get it over with as soon as possible.
There are times we get ourselves in situations that are very hard to get out of simply because we didn't give enough thought to what we were asking the person to do and if they truly had the skill to do it.
I agree with the Canon's Volley but I do know it would be hard to stop some of the traditional things in small congregations, that are no longer effective, in fear of losing someone.
from Hal Foss:
You know there is some real content here that's easy to miss. I know I missed it with the first couple of responses. The Canon's friend spoke in terms of creating a healthy congregation by focusing on a defined (hopefully through a prayer driven process) mission. A congregation that loses members because of minor changes in tradition would not fit this definition of "healthy". I think what Bill Renn is saying is that the important thing is to take to time to make sure the congregation knows what God wants them doing, and then slowly eliminate the distractions, like bad choirs, missing acolytes, and cherished traditions that have no relevance to the newly defined mission. Great advice for any size church, not just small ones. Sure am glad that I'm not a priest that has to actually deliver a message like this. That's why they make the big bucks, I guess.
Hal Foss
from Sue Doohan:
I could not agree more. Speaking safely from the perspective of someone whose financial well-being does not depend on the approval of parishioners …
You know that design credo “form follows function” … we Episcopalians are not in the habit of evaluating the functionality of our “forms”. Some evidence of that is amusing, like the pall functioning originally to keep the flies out of the wine and altar rails originally the means of keeping dogs from peeing on altars, but some of it is quite sad. Some of us resist silence because we don’t understand how silence is not “empty”, we don’t experience song as a profound motivator of the soul, we feel oppressed by the notion of pursuing excellence in all we do because we define “excellence” in terms of form instead of in terms of function, we equate respect for privacy with not knowing each other’s inward environment. Because there are paychecks involved, clergy and congregations can forget the “employer” is Jesus and the “service” is discipleship. If people are not finding within our walls that which radically transforms their activity and experience outside our walls, our “form” is not “functioning” to carry out the great commission or the two great commandments. You know that other line “be careful what you pray for” … when we pray for “transFORMation”, I wonder how much we mean that.
Sue
from Ann Luzader:
I speak from personal experience when I say that flies in the chalice are NOT necessarily a thing of the past. But then I digress...
or maybe I don't. A fly in the chalice would be no more repugnant than thanking that organist or trio for their sixty years of unfailing devotion in service to their church, gifting with some placque or memento, and letting them know, however gently, that their particular form of ministry is no longer required or desired. It's a tough place to be, trying to reach out to the community in need of Christ, without devastating those who have been so faithful for so long. The Church owes ministry to the faithful as well as those yet to be reached.
from Hal Foss:
Ann's example seems to have a ring of personal experience. She is, of course, correct when she says "The Church owes ministry to the faithful as well as to those yet to be reached." Unfortunately, it is equally true that sometimes long standing ministries are no longer required or desired. Change is one of the inevitable features of life, and it sometimes amazes me how strongly organizations, especially the church, oppose it.
What this really reminds me of is how fortunate I was to not be called by God to the ordained ministry. How fortunate we are that there are those people, who actually knowingly deal with this kind of situation. The more I understand what a Rector actually does, it amazes me that anyone would be willing to take such an assignment. I guess the answer is that hardly anyone does willingly take such an assignment, they have to be called.
Thank you Donald for your thought provoking e-mails. You pose a problem, the answer seems so obvious, and then someone presents a side of the issue that you had never considered. Your e-mails remind me of pilot training. Both my son and my son-in-law are pilots. At least annually, they must undergo flight training. In flight training they have to deal with incredible situations that seldom occur, like an engine failure in a thunderstorm with flaps deployed for landing. It forces them to think about infrequent and unusual, but real situations. Maybe your e-mails are part of our spiritual pilot training.
Hal
from Sue Doohan:
Great metaphor … flight training. Right also, about the role of being “called’ to this often darned if you do, darned if you don’t vocation. I can’t quite remember the quote, but wasn’t it C.S. Lewis, maybe in Mere Christianity, who implied Jesus was either truly who he said he was, or crazy like someone who claimed to be a poached egg. H-m-m-m, come to think of it, at times “poached egg” might be an appropriate metaphor for the role of clergy … fulfilling your nutritive purpose by floating in boiling water.
I wonder what gifts the choir trio or the organist might be able to offer a congregation if given the opportunity to share with the members what their favorite pieces are and why and invited to engage in a reflective study of the words we set to music in our hymns and how they support the words of the day’s lessons and serve to set our minds open to God.
Sue
Whether a church is large or small, the people that attend it come primarily for one reason. They want to be nearer to God, find comfort in the prayers and service, and worship Him in their own way.
Coming from a small church, where the congregation averages 25, it is easy to discern the reasons people come to church. All are in need of spiritual food. For some people, gratification comes through helping others; for others, it comes from supporting their mission and faith; and for others it is their mere presence in God’s house that provides them with the hope and love and comfort they seek.
If the tired, scratchy singing voices of the elderly don’t sound like a fine-tuned instrument, that’s okay. The elderly person is practicing his/her faith and enjoying their participation.
If the worn, arthritic hands of the organist, hit a few wrong keys, that's okay. She/he still is contributing and takes pride in his/her participation in the service.
If the priest wants to process down the aisle with one acolyte, it lends the ritual pomp associated with the service and announces the beginning of it.
For those in the church who want to help it grow, they are involved in doing so.
For those in the church who want extra activities, they organize them and attend them.
For those in the church who want to change the service, add a prayer, offer a thought, move
a piece of furniture, add an extra candle, they are allowed to do it.
Are we blessed? No. We believe in God’s love. That all things done in His honor are okay.
Beatitudes for Friends of the Aged
Blessed are they that understand
My faltering step and palsied hand.
Blessed are they that know my ears today
Must strain to catch what they say.
Blessed are they who seem to know
That my eyes are dim and my wits are slow.
Blessed are they that look away
When the coffee spilled at the table today.
Blessed are they with a cheery smile
Who stop to chat for a little while.
Blessed are they who never say
“You’ve told that story twice today“.
Blessed are they who find the way
To bring back memories of yesterday.
Blessed are they who make it known
That I’m loved and not alone.
Blessed are they who ease the days
On my journey home in loving ways.
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