In short, I had a shocker.
Did you know that there are two hymn tunes that have the same meter, are in the same key, and what’s more, start with exactly the same five notes?
My meltdown
For what it’s worth, the tunes are called Hanover and Paderborn. Well, I only found this out as I played the intro to You servants of God, your Master proclaim on a recent Sunday morning. I opened Hymns for Today’s Church at number 520 and plonked it on the organ music stand. The first five notes and their chords were fine, but when I read the sixth note, it bore no resemblance to what I was expecting to play (or that the 450 people below wanted to sing). So, with all those people set to sing their hearts out, I did what any normal person would do – my mind went into meltdown, and my fingers followed suit. I made up the rest of the intro going through a set of chords that I could only describe as garden shed jazz.
Then I took the decision to try and remember the tune I was supposed to play, and made up the chords for the next four verses. I’m not the strongest at playing by ear, so the next three minutes were some of the most lonely and humbling I can remember in my organ-playing career.
Do it in writing
After lots of belly-button gazing, I came to the conclusion that it was time to design a self-assessment form (so I could gaze at my belly-button a little more officially). It may be a useful exercise for any church musician, so here we go.
1 Do you care more about whether people think you’re a good musician, or whether you have been made perfect by the blood of Jesus?
2 How would you react if you were asked not to help with the church music because of the quality of your playing/singing?
3 Why do you trust a hymn book index more than using your brain?
4 How much have you insured your fingers for?
5 Do you take yourself a little too seriously sometimes? Why?
6 Do you struggle with pride? What makes you think that you have anything to be proud about?
7 How much do you think you need to practise every week? What needs to change so that this can happen?
8 Do you know the difference between practise and practice?
9 How much time do you spend praying for humility every day?
10 Do you come to church because you think you have something to offer to God, or to listen to God’s Word and build others up in the truth?
11 Do you think that the Holy Spirit is dependent on you to play the right chord in order for him to act? If so, what measures need to be put in place so that you can listen more carefully to the promptings of the Spirit as the Bible is opened and explained?
12 Do you think that you are indispensable? If not, who have you trained up to take over if you were run over by a bus?
13 What practical steps will you take so that you can show your appreciation to those who serve the congregation in a less prominent way than you?
14 Do you love and pray for the other musicians in the church, or do you consider them to be rivals?
15 Are you involved with personal evangelism, or do you consider that doing the music is enough? Why would you (ever) think that?
16 Are you giving money sacrificially to church and to Christian work, or do you consider that doing the music is enough? Why would you (ever) think that?
17 How easy do you find it to do what your pastor asks gladly without even the slightest whinge?
18 Are you reading your Bible?
19 Are you saying your prayers?
20 Is there anything in your life that, if it became public, would bring the gospel into disrepute?
Clearly I went for order of ‘flow-for-the-sake-of-a-coherent-evangelicals-now-article’ rather than order of importance, but hopefully it’ll help us church musos focus a little more on listening to and pleasing the only one whose assessment matters.
