The SHINE Blog

What’s The Big Idea?

This is part two in what will become a series of posts following the creation and evolution of SHINE, a contemporary worship service at Glenwood Presbyterian Church. You can find the table of contents here.

(To be read in overly dramatic fashion:)  When we last left our friends, Kevin had admitted to having at least one idea….A phone call was made, and was followed by this email to Debbie….

To: Debbie
From: Kevin
March 8, 2006

Thanks Debbie. I enjoyed our talk. From a different angle, it occurs to me that what Glenwood might do to “improve” (revitalize) is really no different than what an NFL team might do to improve or revitalize. If the Jets aren’t playing up to snuff, the Jets look to other franchises that are very successful, with the idea of emulating what works for the successful club (if that’s the “west coast offense,” then the Jets consider giving that offense a try, and so on).

And so it is with churches, one imagines.

My thinking with the music is that one feature many highly successful churches seem to have these days is music (and musical instrumentation) beyond a traditional organist. Is this alone the key to their success? Certainly not, and yet “modern Christian music” sure seems to play a vital role in filling the pews and attracting a membership (while beloved “hymns of old” are not completely set aside either, thankfully).
I think this is something that could be attempted very slowly and incrementally, allowing Glenwood to continue to cater principally to its present older membership, but paving the way for the future at the same time (noting that our “older” congregation is not going to be there forever, except of course that WE are going to be the older membership very shortly!). Again, I don’t envision rock’n'roll and bouncing off the walls by any means, but if something like this were to take root and show some promise (and if I could have an opportunity to be involved somehow), you would probably have to beat me with a stick to keep me away. Especially if I could have a hand in some percussion somewhere along the way.
In my heart I cannot help but be intrigued about the possibility of getting involved in a musical project such as this at Glenwood. I’ve thought about this many times. In fact, I have a couple of ideas about how something such as this might be attempted on an experimental basis, maybe “once a quarter” (or maybe even on an occasional Wednesday evening?). It would involve borrowing a couple of musicians to get started.
Is this God giving me a nudge now? I don’t know. But because this idea generates excitement in my heart, and involves Glenwood, I felt “nudged” to mention this to you after your remarks on Sunday. Take that for what’s it worth.
And I’d like to see Sam involved in something like this as well!
Let’s keep praying!
I hope to talk to you or see you soon.
Love,

Kevin (& Jennifer & Sarah)

So the idea was out there.  Could we incorporate contemporary Christian music into the worship of Glenwood Presbyterian Church?  What form would it take?  And who made that long-distance call to Denver on my phone?  These questions and more were still looming.

But soon, the ideas started to take on a more specific shape.  On Sunday, March 19, Brian sang “Word of God Speak” by MercyMe accompanied by Jeana on the piano to begin the morning worship service.  That helped crystallize a plan in Kevin’s mind…

To: Debbie
From: Kevin
March 19, 2006

It was good seeing you this morning. I thought the service today was great. Debbie, that song Brian and Jeana opened with, absolutely fantastic. Maybe they’ve sung that before? If anyone in your family has them performing that on tape, I’ll pay to get a copy. Tell me where to send the money.
At the risk of getting carried away, in many churches a song like that would have the congregation on its feet. Glenwood is a bit stoic, as we know, and it’s an older crowd so that’s okay (just barely could the congregation eek out a smattering of light applause, seeming very self-conscious in doing that much — I hope my loud clapping didn’t cause any heart palpitations). But Brian and Jeana’s performance deserved a standing-O. I glanced back at you and thought you were a bit teary-eyed. Maybe I imagined that last part, but I do believe there is a powerful emotion in that genre of Christian music that younger people (and maybe even us) really identify with, and feel drawn to. If anyone were to ask me, I would say that music, under Brian’s direction, is the future of Glenwood. Five years from now, I see a vibrant church, full of the Holy Spirit, where four or five responsive readings have been eliminated to make room for three more songs like this one; where a younger congregation is beginning to flourish; where you better arrive early if you hope to find a place not to sit, but to stand.

Okay, I’m getting carried away after all. But I was touched when you gave me a hug this morning and told me you “missed our little talks” from a couple of weeks ago (of course I returned your hug on Becky’s recommendation; and I’m beginning to feel a bit faint at that). Seriously, I was so moved by Brian and Jeana’s performance this morning that I had to tell you that it filled me with a vision of great things to come!

Talk to you later,

Kevin

And this one….

To: Brian
From: Kevin
March 20, 2006

Listen, here is what I would like to propose that we do (after much talking about it): Purely as an experiment, let’s plan to put some instrumentation to “Word of God Speak” and just see how it goes. We’ll make it very simple — me, you, Jeana, and a bass player to be named later. It’s a very straight-forward song, and the additional instrumentation should be quite easy to add. I recall you mentioned to Debbie that you didn’t have much experience with “band stuff,” so I will look after these details, if you will of course handle all vocal direction.

For planning purposes, let’s pick a date a few months from now (say, the Sunday evening service June 25th) and debut the song (and our band) during the refreshments. The “audience” will understand that we are just beginning, and only throw the smaller doughnut pieces.

Brian, with your approval to move foward on this, I will see if I can locate a “session” bass player who would be interested in helping us. I will also need to arrange to get (borrow) a very basic drum rig for some light percussion. Hopefully we can have these details in place by May, and thereupon schedule a couple of rehearsals.

And then we’ll just see how it goes. We can make this a one-time thing, or consider taking it to the next level if it seems worthwhile. If we get really ambitious, maybe we could even open a Sunday morning service with our “Christian band” by around Rally Day — and have the choir blend background vocals into the mix? Lots of possibilities with this. But we’ll move very slowly and see how things develop.

Let me know what you think. As far as locating a bass player, I happen to know the Grateful Dead recently broke up, and some of those guys are still looking for work.

-Kevin

So, we now had a tentative date for our first “gig.” There would be some setbacks (the lines about a bass player in that last email are foreshadowing) but there would also be some things that went just right.
In our next installment, we begin the search for a bass player and start to prepare for the band’s very first practice!

December 19th, 2007 Posted by Glenwood Presbyterian | The Evolution of Shine | 2 comments