For the past 18 months I have been involved in a process toward being a Commissioned Minister of the United Church of Christ, through music. In June 2016, I present Part One of my commissioning paper to the Committee on Ministry of the Central Association of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC, as I begin the final steps of the journey. Part One calls for my theological perspective, prompting me to tailor it to my “What It Means to Me” series. This is a working copy of the paper.
It’s been well-stated that I can suffer from a distracted mind. I focus on “what’s next” and how quickly I can get through the current activity or task. Sometimes that is to my great advantage. I’ve been heralded by every supervisor I’ve ever had for being the “most efficient” employee each has ever seen. And I don’t doubt that’s true. At work, one of my greatest strengths is being able to live with an existing system for a certain period of time, before I instinctively determine what is essential, and what can be altered. Soon enough I have a new workflow which may reduce production time (and headaches) several-fold. Then, I get to enjoy the task of seeing what else can be crammed into a work day that previously had seemed like it had too few hours.
“For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
Another clause in the Lord’s Prayer which requires me to break it down into ordinary speech if I’m to have any chance of grasping its meaning. “The kingdom, power and glory are yours for ever, [God].”
“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”
How is it that “temptation” and “evil” end up in the same clause, here? On a daily basis, I feel like the only things that tempt me are snacks, both decadent and humdrum, and the lure of staying up later than I should, if I hope to attack the following day with a cheerful attitude. Meanwhile, “evil” is a term that I tend to reserve exclusively for only the worst of fictional characters.
“Give us this daily our daily bread.”
Daily bread. What a throw-away line. To me, it’s fathomable that if The Lord’s Prayer were brought to an editor’s desk in modern-day America, this clause would be marked for deletion.
I participated in a roundtable discussion on “Saving the World Through Singing” at the American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division‘s biannual conference in February 2016. The following is a recollection of my opening statement, following the conversation.
I prepared a session on “Empowering the Volunteer Choir with Technology” for the American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division‘s biannual conference in February 2016. In it, I was able to highlight many of the initiatives I’ve explored with my church choir at Edwards Church United Church of Christ in Framingham, Massachusetts. (I also participated in a roundtable.)
“Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
When I was fresh out of grad school, I gave a sermon on Jesus’ second coming. I felt at the time, that there had been a great deal of interest in the potential for the “end times” to be upon us sooner than later.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name”
A church musician considers the Bible in terms of lyrics of hymns and anthems, not simply as spoken verses to be memorized. One of the beauties of our trade, in fact, is the truth that we have committed to memory hundreds of verses over our careers (whether paid or volunteer), often in multiple languages, and more often than not, without even realizing it.
Anyone who’s read anything on this site has seen that I have been involved with a massive listening project, which has entered its fifth year this January. In the course of the past four years, I have given myself the assignment of getting to know new music, in an effort to explore, find new loves, and avoid complacency in my playlists.
