Posted May 9, 2007

Greetings from the Choir Room!

I am happy to announce the official unveiling of HVBC’s first Worship Team. This new committee will function, in effect, as “Ken’s Kitchen Kabinet”. To serve on this committee I have invited a number of church members who represent various age groups and varying points of view about how we should conduct our worship services. I will announce their names as soon as I have heard back from everyone asked to join. (And if any of you would like to sign on, it’s not too late. Let me know.)

The worship team will in no way be doing my job for me. I reserve the right to exercise my own judgment in the final formulation our services. But this committee will provide me a means of communicating with the congregation. I have written here several times that I need to know what you are thinking and feeling about how the services are going. I need to know what works for you and what does not – what encourages worshipful, meaningful receiving of the Spirit during our services and what does not. Of course, I can generally feel during the service what is effective and what is not; but I am not always right. I need your feed-back.

I also need your ideas. (I love to steal great ideas from other people. As a stage director, I did it all the time!) If you have a terrific suggestion for enhancing the worshipfulness of our services, I want to hear it. I have wanted to hear your suggestions! But – guess what? When I have called for input or feed-back, I have gotten almost no reaction. Oh, I have heard about some complaints and dissatisfaction – but only via second and third parties. Almost never directly from the source. It seems that most of you have just not felt comfortable telling me what you think.

Now, this committee – oops! I mean this team – will provide a easy pathway for us to communicate! I will request from my members not only their own ideas and reactions – but those of others in the congregation to whom they have spoken or from whom they have heard. I will ask them to seek out your opinions and bring them back to me. Again, I do not intend to abdicate my duties and responsibilities as your Minister of Worship; nor will I allow them to be usurped from me by anyone. But I will certainly listen to what you have to say and consider it very carefully in my planning.

The most important thing is that you will all have the opportunity to become involved in the process of planning how we worship! And that’s how it should be – especially among a group of free-thinking and independent Baptists (and boy, does HVBC ever qualify in that department!)

I know not everyone is going to be happy with everything that happens during worship no matter what we do. We are all going to have to compromise our personal ideal of what the perfect worship service should be - because each of us has an ideal that is a little different from anyone else’s. But I am certain we can come up with a plan that will satisfy most of our needs most of the time. And that would be a pretty significant achievement.

I realize that the order of service – particularly at 11:00 – keeps changing. I am not doing that just to fill in my time sheet or to keep you all guessing; I am experimenting, if you will – searching for the format that best suits our needs as a congregation – that most successfully opens us to the Holy Presence during worship. The only way that search can bear fruit is if I get feedback from you via the Worship Team or directly to Yours Truly: “Ken, I just loved the way you had the piano playing softly under the Invocation last Sunday. It inspired me. Can we do that every Sunday?” or “Ken. I hate having the piano banging away during prayer. It’s distracting. Do we have to do that again?” – just for instance.

I hope this will not all seem trivial to you. Worship methodology should never outweigh the main event- and we all know what that is. In the long-run, none of these frills should really matter. I remind you again of how our Lord worshipped in a field or under a tree. He and His congregations sang hymns together without benefit of organ or piano or 30-piece orchestra. In my best friend’s church – the Greek Orthodox – the only music allowed is that of the un-accompanied human voice – solo cantor or congregation – chanting hymnody as old as the Christian Church itself – perhaps even melodies our Lord Himself sang. And, as I have also previously mentioned here, the original Society of Friends would sit in silence listening for the Voice of God and waiting to feel His Presence – uttering a sound only when so moved by that Presence.

That for me is the essence of worship! But I know that music and the spoken word and ceremony and even dance can add great power to the Message; I know that these “frills” can help us focus on the real purpose of our time in the sanctuary. It is my job to use such tools wisely, effectively and reverently to help you worship. And now I will have access to your help in accomplishing that task. I am very excited at the prospects.

We have recently lost some valuable members of our congregation and this has made us all very sad. I am particularly grieved that one of my staunchest supporters when I first arrived here is among those to go. But we can only wish them well in their spiritual quests and send them all our love as they join their new congregations. We are all after the same thing, after all – a closer journey with Christ through this life and into the next one. I think having bid them “Farewell” we need to turn back to our own spiritual journey – as individual Christians and as one family in Christ. Many wonderful things have happened and continue to happen here at HVBC. We have reason to walk tall as we continue our Journey. I am proud and happy to be walking with you.

Love,
Ken