{"id":283,"date":"2015-04-08T00:35:01","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T00:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/?p=283"},"modified":"2015-04-08T17:02:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T17:02:28","slug":"an-organ-in-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/?p=283","title":{"rendered":"An organ…in CHURCH??????"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an earlier blog is a great article by Mike Harland, Director of LifeWay Worship.\u00a0 He poses the question, “Does the church organ need to go?”<\/strong> This is a real question that I hear time and again.\u00a0 With the multiple conversations and recent articles on the subject, I think\u00a0 I’ll write a few words on the subject.\u00a0 I STILL BELIEVE THE ORGAN HAS A MAJOR ROLE IN THE CHURCH<\/strong>, regardless of musical style.<\/p>\n

Over the past ten years or so I have received a number of emails and seen advertisements, ORGAN FREE FOR THE TAKING.\u00a0 When we were looking for a new organ\u00a0 a few years ago we learned of numbers of disassembled pipe organs that we could have bought for “a song.”\u00a0 True, pipe organs are expensive to maintain, yet the maintenance cost for the most part has not been the reason churches are getting rid of them.<\/p>\n

For some reason there are\u00a0 churches who seem to think that an organ has no place in twenty-first century worship and that the organ is the reason young people don’t come to church.\u00a0 This is silly.\u00a0 The organ is a TOTALLY CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENT!!!!\u00a0 Regardless of the style of music the congregation is singing, the organ strengthens and encourages the crowd to SING. \u00a0One of the most traditional and liturgical churches in the Southeast is filled with young adults each Sunday and yes, the music is organ driven. \u00a0\u00a0 Time and again over the years, brides from ultra worship band driven churches look for a place for their weddings that have huge organs.\u00a0 It seems when the really “important” things in life surface, we want to go back to our roots, to our “traditions”……\u00a0 hmmmmm.<\/p>\n

I don’t get it other than the music leaders lack knowledge or just don’t want to do the work it takes to include the organ.\u00a0 Hear me out.\u00a0 For the sake of discussion, consider the fact that an organ creates the sounds of the orchestra.\u00a0Most of us don’t have full orchestras in our churches.\u00a0 \u00a0 The modern digital organ is like a stack of digital keyboards and has the capability of creating countless sounds, far more than a single or even several keyboards.\u00a0Organs can blow the plaster off the front of the balcony, yet can play the softest sweetest sounds this side of heaven.\u00a0 Talk about versatile.\u00a0 I know the organ console looks ‘old,’ and I accept the fact that the\u00a0 church digital organ doesn’t fit in the back of a Toyota, but why throw out an instrument that can do so many things. (That’s like throwing grandma out because she has grey hair.)<\/p>\n

Every band wants “more bass! ”\u00a0 (It’s all about that….<\/em>. that was too easy.) \u00a0 The organ has at least a 16′ pipe, often a 32′ that will out bass<\/em> the biggest bass guitar and amp\u00a0on the planet. There are more percussion sounds on the new digital organs than the biggest acoustic trap set in the country.\u00a0 Need flutes, clarinets, sax, strings?\u00a0 Traditional or pure sample sounds are a “stop” away and when you want to really fatten the sound with some brass, you can add as much as the room can handle with the touch of one finger or toe.\u00a0 Rock and pop bands have figured this out and have included organ sounds on stage and on their recordings, but the church fears that “young people won’t come if they see, much less hear, the organ.”\u00a0 (As I re-read the previous sentence, I was shaking my head. Are these folks that clueless?)<\/p>\n

This might be a good spot for me to get into trouble.\u00a0<\/strong> Through observation,\u00a0 much of the contemporary movement in established or traditional churches has been pastor driven.\u00a0 Well intended Pastors are <\/strong>“afraid we’ll lose the young people”<\/strong> <\/em>and by pushing their music ministers to attempt to change the DNA of\u00a0 a congregation by throwing out the choir and organ.\u00a0 In so doing they often lose their base and to be honest, have driven some great musicians to guys like me who still believe in the choir and organ. People want to use their God given gifts that they have honed to a skill.\u00a0 They don’t want to sit idle. (I guess I should say, “Thank you.”)\u00a0 I have led music in at least forty states in the US and in ten or more countries and I have never met a person who actually left the church because there was an organ in the room.<\/p>\n

NO, I’m not a dead in the water, closer to seventy than I’ve ever been<\/em>, out of touch bitter old music man.\u00a0 I love what I do, probably more than most. I hope I am still at it at ninety.\u00a0 I love all the marvelous musical languages. \u00a0 I do, however, LOVE THE GREAT HYMNS AND ANTHEMS OF THE FAITH AND SOME OF THEM SCREAM<\/em> FOR THE ORGAN.\u00a0 Still, I often lead my singers to sing\/play far newer music than some of the praise bands sing and play.\u00a0 I love much of the newest praise and worship music. I love praise teams.\u00a0 I love drums, guitars, brass, winds, keyboard, piano, AND the ORGAN. <\/strong>These all can work together, but it does take work.\u00a0 <\/strong>(Where I presently serve in North Georgia it is quite common for me to ask our young adult organist to “Play like we are in church!<\/strong>” “If I don’t have at least one person telling me the organ is too loud, I’m disappointed…” I want blue wigs stuck to the back wall and sleeping old men sitting on the edge of their pews.\u00a0 Our Lord wants and expects His children to praise Him with great energy and volume.\u00a0 “Let EVERYTHING that has breath PRAISE THE LORD.\u00a0 The organ has “breath.”)<\/p>\n

My comments have mostly been directed to existing and more traditional\/blended churches that already have an organ.\u00a0 There are many extremely effective “new” churches that are in newer contemporary style buildings and to purchase an organ isn’t realistic nor the best stewardship for them. <\/strong>This is a totally different issue and situation.\u00a0 I will say, however, these new churches shouldn’t just automatically blow off the idea of the organ.\u00a0\u00a0A new style digital organ creates some great sounds and might be just the accompaniment needed when the band “gets a better gig.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However,\u00a0 my primary comments are for those churches who have an organ; dust it off and discover the\u00a0 wonderful instrument that God has used over the centuries.<\/p>\n

\"Organ\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Praise Him with the timbrel, the dance, the harp……praise Him with LOUD sounding cymbals, praise Him with stringed instruments and ORGANS.”\u00a0<\/strong> (If it makes noise, use it to glorify God! <\/em>from the Coenian version…)<\/p>\n

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In an earlier blog is a great article by Mike Harland, Director of LifeWay Worship.\u00a0 He poses the question, “Does the church organ need to go?” This is a real question that I hear time and again.\u00a0 With the multiple conversations and recent articles on the subject, I think\u00a0 I’ll write a few words on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}