the best intentions

I've been in Michigan for over a year now, and haven't yet joined a church--way too long to have been away from the communion of the earthly, earthy saints. My method for choosing a church has always been that you go to the church of your chosen or inherited denomination that is closest to home, unless some very compelling reasons force one to range farther. Sort of a nod to the catholic parish system, and an acknowledgement that the church and the community have benificial and inextricable connections. I attended this "closest" church today. This church had been my first reject when I moved here; surely I could find a church with a better organ (actually, any sort of organ), more polished musicians, more attention to the details of worship and a presiding minister that did not feel compelled to remind the congregation on what page of the worship folder they were to be reading/singing at every step of the way.

I came back to this "closest" church a year later, humbled, convinced that a church of which I can express admiration and approval of its worship practices is simply not within reasonable driving distance, and open to what this body might have for me, and what gifts I might bring to it.

The Lutheran churches in this area of Detroit that I found to take worship practices and music seriously and to do them well turned out to be the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod bodies, and it turned out that unless I wanted to jump through a lot of hoops, and pretty much recant my extensively busy (and rather impressive) ELCA background, they didn't want me. From the many folks at today's church that not only introduced themselves to me, but found time to chat, I came away with the impression that I won't have to go through a doctrinal grilling to be accepted.

So one of this church's best intentions is obviously to make visitors feel like family, and they seem to be succeeding at this. A less successful ministry was that of having a group of worship leaders/asst ministers lead the singing in a non ostentatious way, the good intention here being the avoidance of the performance oriented type of "Praise Teams". (I'm treading carefully here, because this church is currently meeting in their 2nd temporary worship space since their new, permanent location went into its construction phase, and room acoustics may have been as much the problem as the musicians. There's also the ugly possibility that they have lurking in the wings a performance oriented praise team, complete with a leader who shouts "OK now, sing it!," and team members who sing with their eyes closed in ecstasy and wave their hands around over their heads). A group of singers and instrumentalists lined up on the left (gospel) side of the ersatz nave, and it was obvious that their intent was to support and give confidence to the congregational hymn and service music singing. In spite of the fact that they all had microphones (unnecessary in a room this small and acoustically lively) and seemed to have known all of the music in advance, the assistance they provided was minimal. Perhaps they had not been educated about why they were there, and perhaps the congregants hadn't been told to look to them for help, but there simply wasn't symbiosis happening, nor was any contagious enthusiasm spilling over from the leaders to the laity (or vice versa). The group included a keyboardist, who seemed to be spreading her skills between two keyboards/synthesizers, who could have contributed to successful singing much by simply giving her "registration" a lot more oomph. "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending" and "Wake, Awake for Night is Flying", while perfectly good, sanctioned-by-"Sundays and Seasons"-hymns for this first Sunday of Advent cry for an organ, and had I been unable to give the congregation the underpinning of sound that these hymns need with my available tools, would have chosen different, more manageable hymns. Yes I do see much that I can contribute here. More after next visit.