Things I’ve loved about the lockdown: compulsory time with family; rediscovering my Rubik’s Snake; the Q2 cycle route through Hackney.
I’m writing this article in April, but it will be published in late May, so I write not knowing whether we’ll have been allowed back into our church buildings by then (now!). It’s safe to say, however, that this season of change has challenged church musicians in very new ways. Expectations have changed almost overnight, so that now we need to be technologically savvy enough to create mixes of sounds remotely – sounds that have been recorded by varying qualities of phone microphones in kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms. We also have to be visually engaging on a screen, thinking about backgrounds, lighting and different instruments to create variety – preferably splitting many screens on one screen. And now our musical efforts are on much more public display. I have been thrown very far out of my comfort zone.
For this reason I’d like to give a huge heartfelt thank you to all the tech crews who have worked into the small hours fiddling around with recordings and videos sent in so many different formats. In general, church musicians tend to under-appreciate the PA team as they’re the ones ‘just pushing buttons’, while we ‘create the beauty’. That is simply not true! If anything, I have always felt more reliant on a PA. operator than most, because I’m dubious about the beauty of what I’m producing!
These months under lockdown have stressed to me again the importance of the whole body of Christ: ‘Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good’ (1 Cor. 12:4–7). The Lord gives us all equally valuable – and equally spiritual – gifts in order to build up the whole body of Christ, and it’s at times like this where some of the more under-appreciated gifts are brought into view. It’s also highlighted the need for musicians themselves to work as a body too – everything needs to be uniform rhythmically, so that individual ‘performances’ become obsolete.
So, being pushed out of one’s comfort zone can have a positive outcome – one of the good things I’ll be continuing to do is to send recordings of our sermons down the phone to my 95-year-old dad who lives on his own. But at the same time we should have a right discomfort about these changes. The experience of many churches which don’t have a great deal of technological capability is that they feel second-rate, as if that could ever be the case for Christ’s body! I count myself as someone with that sentiment, even though I work for a church that has lots of technological wizardry! Also, the end product of a song video may be satisfying, but the many hours that these projects take trouble me when there are people dying – not just of a virus, but more seriously because of the rejection of their Creator. We must never take our eyes off Jesus’ main concern – to save souls and make disciples. It’s easier sometimes to fine-tune a recording or video than get on the phone to someone who needs to bow their knee to Jesus. Finally, with the very public nature of the changes, people’s subjective tastes and views have come to light as fast and as various as they do for Netflix reviews. How many stars did you get for your final hymn on Easter day? How many views? How many likes?
Even if the video only contained the preacher singing out of tune (with not even a kazoo as musical accompaniment), and was only downloaded by his granny and her cat, then (as long as he has preached and sung the truth faithfully): ★★★★★(God). The only like that counts is the Lord’s.
We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but God who tests our hearts (1 Thess.2:4 ).
