The Music Exchange

It’s wonderful that God has been sending evangelicals into churches that for generations have been starved of good Bible teaching. It’s less heartening to hear of the problems that accompany the change in emphasis.

More often than not, evangelicals move into parishes that have been focused on the traditional elements of liturgy and choral music. In this tradition the organist is in a very powerful position. Though the ‘priest’ provides the words of the liturgy, the organist provides the spirit of the liturgy by his/her playing and the music of the choir. Much of the choir’s repertoire will be almost Catholic in its theology, but emphasis is less on theology, more on the musical interpretation of the liturgy.

Starting a long way back

The evangelical preacher, therefore, has to start a long way back, and will inevitably face painful conflict when the gospel he preaches begins to challenge the traditions and ambitions of musicians. Also, there are very few people in the country who are skilled in playing the organ, so it’s likely that the organist has been part of the congregation for many years. He or she will be a very valued member of the community, and as such will have the ears not only of the congregation, but of the parish as a whole.

Organ donors?

We’re all well aware of the conflicts that ensue — many evangelical pastors (and their families) feel a complete sense of relief when their organist resigns or retires. I’ve attempted to approach these tensions in previous articles. The issue I want to approach today is what to do musically after the dust has settled. The problem is that the evangelical pastor may be able to sort out issues of personnel, but traditions all come with paraphernalia. Put simply, the organist may have gone, but the organ’s still there. It’s massive, historically very important and must have regular maintenance and use to keep it from rotting away. Not only that, but Ned Griffiths (whoever he is) has also given 20 grand in his will for its restoration (20 grand is just too little to make any serious impact, but too much to ignore!).

No candidates

What to do? The most obvious solution is that a new organist is needed. It’s at this point that I get rung up asking if I know any Christians who can play the organ, while also being able to introduce more contemporary songs (in effect, someone who is Anglo-Catholic by background, stylistically sympathetic to more charismatic music, but thoroughly evangelical by conviction!). I’m always gutted not to be able to reel off a list of possible candidates, especially after adverts in the evangelical press invariably receive no applications at all.

The trouble is that the jobs which pay enough for it to be worth someone relocating are all found in cathedrals or one or two bigger churches, whose musical activities warrant more than two days’ paid work. Other Christian organists have such busy lives that, though they can play occasionally, they don’t feel able to commit to running the choir as well. This all means that we often end up settling for an enthusiastic organist who, we pray, we’ll be able to get ‘on side’ in time.

This got me thinking — with the lack of soundly-converted organists around, should we be looking to employ organists at all? Is there any future for the organ in the evangelical church? And what about that 20 grand? Surely just 20 pence would be enough for a box of matches and some paraffin?

Many questions

As ever, I have lots of questions, but not many answers. The main issue is: should we invest in training Christian organists? If so, will there be jobs for them to do in ten years’ time? If not, what do we do about the instruments that are left rotting in our church buildings?

On the first question (on training Christian organists), of the organ scholars who were Christians when I was at Cambridge, one is in a cathedral, one is teaching full-time and a recitalist, one turned away from Jesus, one is a barrister and the other one is me. Definitely pray for young organists to be converted, but even with a mini organ scholar revival like we had, we’re unlikely to fulfil the musical needs of our churches.

Personally, I’m not sold on the organ, though I’m an organist myself. The organ is great at Christmas, and for certain hymns (if it’s played well), but it does seem to be increasingly redundant, especially as, in God’s wonderful grace, so many more young people are being saved today.

Other than that, I’m going to be frustratingly non-committal! What I will say, though, is that if we have no organist, then we need to have a high enough standard of music to convince the organ-lovers that there may be (just may be) another way.

Richard Simpkin

© Evangelicals Now - January 2008
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