Music Ministry leaders engage us
In a recent Tidings magazine article, Julia Metcalf describes the role of spiritual disciplines in worship as “Through individual action – prayer, reading scripture, breath work – we enter a quiet place where we hear the voice of God more clearly and are transformed.” When asked more about the role of breath work, Julia adds, “Breath prayer is really simple. You just choose a prayer or a phrase and breathe it in and breathe it out. For example, (breathe in) Holy Spirit, I am here; (breathe out) Holy Spirit you are here.” While breath can animate any phrase a person says, the practice of combining a phrase with breathing invites us to consider singing and music with their pulsing rhythms and belly breaths as spiritual disciplines.
To describe the unique role that music as a spiritual discipline plays in worship, Gretchen Bashforth, associate director of Music Ministries at First Church offers, “Music is how a text becomes imprinted on our hearts, with its repetition, as a discipline.” First Church’s director of Music Ministries, Ron Pearson, adds, “There is discipline, practice, rigorous study, weekly lessons … you have to apply a regimen to that.” They point out that the work of performing music at worship services is, for the most part, done by volunteers. Bashforth elucidates, “For the volunteers who participate in all of our music ministries, there’s repetition involved in simply learning the music, and in that repetition, you’re also imprinting the text and the music to your hearts.” Eric Baird, director of the Contemporary Worship team, finds music to be a ubiquitous element of his personal connection with God. As Baird reflects, “When I think about the times I spend with God privately, music is almost always a part of it whether that’s a song in my head or whether that’s a time I’m intentionally trying to write something, so that takes me to scripture and that takes me to prayer.”
“Music is transcendent. It is oblivious to time zone or language or nationality or race.”
– Ron Pearson
Music, Pearson maintains, deepens our emotional connection with worship and communicates the gospel on a transcendent level. “Music is transcendent. It is oblivious to time zone or language or nationality or race. It has its own way of speaking to people … it is the most direct road to human emotion, to the heart.” The salience of music is not exclusive to worship alone, and music frames everything we do in which we need to be emotionally present. As Baird points out, “There is no circumstance where there is not music involved or there’s not singing involved, whether that’s sports, or a wedding, or war, or whatever … we tend to think of it in the abstract, but the reality is it’s a function of our humanity.” As a function of our humanity, music increases the impact of a text and makes theology memorable. It can be difficult to remember a sermon whereas it can be difficult to get a song out of your head. This facility of music in our memory can be a means for the Holy Spirit to move in us.“When you walk out of the church and maybe on Tuesday you find you’re singing the same song as you were singing on Sunday,” Baird advises, “Ask yourself, what is God trying to tell me?”
For our music ministry leaders, the collaborative production of a Sunday worship service includes working with pastors to bring a specific text to life with music. As Bashforth describes, “We’re pretty intentional, both the three of us and the pastors, on making sure that the music that makes it into a worship service is actually enhancing and elevating the scripture that’s being taught in the service.” Sometimes the music pieces are selected to match the sermon, and sometimes the music selections influence the sermons. Pearson relates, “Many times we submit music and then we discover two days later that the first reading chosen is based on the music we just submitted two days earlier.” In cases where “a text does not lend itself to pairing with a suitable piece of music,” Baird explains, “The structure of a reformed church service, which moves from praise to repentance, to forgiveness, and to the sending out provides a way to connect the music to the other elements of a worship service.” When putting together the pieces of a service’s soundscape, music ministry leaders also consider the liturgical season or the holiday and the ensembles they are working with.
The collaborative nature of the music ministry team means that their work brings together a wide variety of musical styles, instruments and conventions. Bashforth affirms, “The music should reflect your congregation.” Therefore, worship music styles vary as widely as do the musical tastes and traditions of Christ’s followers. While ensuring that their performances adhere to the highest standards of musical ethics, our music ministry team works with the various musical currents moving within our congregation. Before the late 1990s, the only worship music heard at First Church was formal, structured hymns and anthems. In 1998, church leadership formed a task force in response to the spirit moving in the congregation and made the decision to launch a contemporary worship service on Superbowl Sunday in January 1999. Pearson, who led the contemporary worship service at its outset, finds incorporating different styles to be an enriching element of both his own musical practice and of worship.
“Music is how a text becomes imprinted on our hearts, with its repetition, as a discipline.”
– Gretchen Bashforth
The music ministry team points out that every generation reserves the right to praise God in its own way and that worship music is both timeless and everchanging. On any given Sunday, you may hear a 900-year-old Gregorian chant, a hymn written in the last 20 years that is now considered canonic, and lyrics from languages ranging in origin from Europe to the Near East and Africa. Regarding the uplifting of these various styles in worship, Pearson says, “Good music is good in all styles.” And Bashforth adds that for worship, “It needs to be rich in theology.” Rounding out the discussion, Baird says, “‘well done’ doesn't have to mean an achievement of virtuosity, but rather of best efforts of a heart poured out to Jesus.”
Going further, Baird prompts us: “Worship is a position of the heart before God, not an alignment of stylistic preferences or musical tastes. If you are struggling to worship in a given context or style, it's worth examining your heart as to why.” Quoting contemporary hymn-writers Keith and Kristyn Getty’s recent book, “Sing!,” the music ministry team concludes that we are created, commanded, and compelled to sing regardless of whether we are professionally trained or even on-pitch. Baird concludes, “As long as Christ is being exalted, and the Holy Spirit is moving, that is where the core of worship is coming from. And as to the musical trappings of that, just enjoy it.”
“Worship is a position of the heart before God, not an alignment of stylistic preferences or musical tastes.”
– Eric Baird
Ron Pearson assumed the position of organist at First Church in 1974 and became music director in 1996. One of the musical highlights he finds each year is the combination of nostalgia, musical beauty, and spiritual depth that comes at the end of the Christmas Eve service when the Sanctuary lights are dimmed, and everyone lights a candle during the singing of “Silent Night.”
Gretchen Bashforth joined the staff at First Presbyterian in 2011 as director of the Gloria women’s choir and the youth choir, and she became associate director of music in 2018. She was deeply moved when the choir was able to gather again after the hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to rehearse the “Hallelujah Chorus” for the 2021 Easter service.
Eric Baird has served on and led worship teams in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Colorado, Arkansas, and Ireland as a church planter, missionary and worship leader before becoming worship leader at First Presbyterian in 2014. His favorite kind of musical moment is when he can stop playing, back away from the microphone, and witness the congregation carrying a song together as a choir before the Lord.