Smaller congregations can be disadvantaged in many ways, and often those shortcomings are related to money. Deficiencies in everything from staffing to programming to property improvements can be related to a lack of funds.
Another thing that can certainly be affected by a shortage of dollars is a church’s music ministry. Many small churches don’t have the resources to have an organist, pianist or keyboardist on staff. And because music is such an important part of worship to many, it’s also a key area of the service to which attendees look forward and feel connected.
In the Presbytery of West Virginia, the importance of music in its congregations was confirmed when it reviewed a questionnaire last year. Results showed that smaller churches were looking for ways to improve their music outreach.
“When we did our landscape survey as part of transition work, one of the things that came out was that a number of our smaller churches were struggling with music for worship, particularly hymns,” described Maureen Wright, the Presbytery of West Virginia’s transitional executive presbyter. “That’s not surprising because a church organist or piano player might be some of the most difficult folks to find as far as a church is concerned.”
This information caused concern among the presbytery’s Leadership Team. Wanting to help with this situation, the group discovered that the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks, which covers the northeast portion of Colorado and the Nebraska panhandle, had started a hymn accompaniment project. This program provides churches with public domain hymns from the Glory to God songbook, a package that includes computer-generated organ/piano sound and on-screen music projection.
Plains and Peaks requests a $3 donation from its churches for each song used. It’s also making hymn packages available to churches and presbyteries outside its region. For $500, Plains and Peaks is offering access to the complete catalogue for presbyteries to join the project, funds that will help recoup the expenses of the project. West Virginia used leftover Small Church Grant funds from the Synod of the Trinity to purchase access to the entire recording database. The Presbytery of Redstone has also joined West Virginia in purchasing these hymn recordings from Plains and Peaks.
The entirety of the public domain hymns in Glory to God have not all be completed in this project. Plains and Peaks is creating the accompaniment based on the liturgical calendar, said Denise Pass, the presbytery’s former executive presbyter/acting stated clerk who is the point person for this project. After the project started, Denise was hired as the new executive for Lackawanna and Lehigh Presbyteries but has remains as the contact for the hymn accompaniment project.
“It’s not fully done yet,” Maureen said. “They started with Advent pieces that were considered public domain, and then they moved and added some other pieces. As they got into their project, they started offering it to other presbyteries. If they paid $500, then those presbyteries could use it as they wanted.”
The files for the hymns are kept in a Google drive for easy access. According to the Plains and Peaks website, “Working with a church musician, hymns were recorded in MIDI format and then imported into editing software so that lyrics and backgrounds could be provided. Each hymn is available with white lyrics on a black background, or with white lyrics on a colored background.” For a complete list of the hymns that are in the public domain, including those where only the English lyrics are in the public domain, click here.
Maureen and Jane Lothes, a member of West Virginia’s Leadership Team, are coordinating with the small churches in their presbytery to gather their hymn requests and give access to the finished work from Plains and Peaks to them. Presbytery staff member Chris Alfred is assisting the media technicians at the individual churches on how to use the digital music files.
“I think it started for them out of the same frustration that we were having, which is how do we help our smaller churches have access to music when it’s hard to find someone go out to churches and play?” Maureen said. “This kind of provides – not a perfect solution – but at least some options for smaller churches to have good music in ways that make sense to them and are somewhat easy to use.
“One of the things we felt like it allowed for is for our smallest churches to not have to have someone who can play. Also, purchasing some of the licensing for use of hymns can be a fairly significant outlay for a small church as an annual budget item. We’re just trying to help them in ways that make sense.”
Coming to the aid of their congregations is the goal of a presbytery, and it’s something West Virginia is doing right now through this hymn accompaniment project.
“In some ways it’s a fun project, but it also is a project that can be really meaningful for small churches to have access to music,” Maureen said. “We’re just trying to hear what our churches are saying they need from us and respond in a way that makes sense and makes it easy for all parties.
“One of the things that our Leadership Team is trying to do in this transition is listen. They’ve called it a ‘Season of Discernment,’ and I think one of the things they heard very clearly as our churches say, this is what we need. In the process of discernment God has been very clear that our focus needs to be on supporting our churches and expanding how we answer that question.
“That’s the main way I’ve seen God’s hand at work. It’s a great by-product that they didn’t really think about when they said we’re going to listen for God’s voice – that it would be so clearly tied to the congregations that make up the presbytery.”