Music
 Ministry

Tethered to a Moment...
August, 2016

I would like you to take a moment and think about what some of your favorite songs are. Not just church songs, but any music that has been important to you. Now, think about the moments in your life that made these songs so special. Here are some examples from my own experience: “The River” by Garth Brooks is one of the songs I first sang with my father when I was around 10 or 11 years old on a choir trip. “My Place in This World” by Michael W. Smith was going through my head even as an elementary age kid walking up my driveway questioning what I was supposed to be in life. One of the most powerful for me is the choral arrangement of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” that our college chorale gathered together and sang in the rehearsal room the morning of September 11^th, 2001 during the World Trade Center attack. And most recently “Baby Mine” sung by Alison Krauss (and my wife) as a lullaby for our newborn son, Braeden.

There are countless other songs in my life, as I am sure in yours as well, that are tethered to moments that make these songs very special. Without those moments, the songs have far less meaning to us. This is in part why we all have a hard time connecting to new or different music. The songs are simply not tethered to the moments we recognize or appreciate. When we gather for worship we all bring our experiences of what it means (and more importantly what it feels like) to be together as a worshipful and worshiping community. If the music we play is not tethered to your experience, then it is unlikely to emotionally move you or interest you in the moment. Here is where we have to make a conscious choice. You see, almost every song that is your favorite is likely unintentionally tethered to your moments of importance. The “Mighty Fortress” arrangement I mentioned earlier would have never had the significance for me that it does today without the impact of the 9/11 attacks. The only way we are tethered to our music is by experience, and the only way to become tethered to new or different music is to continue to experience that music. Few of us would disagree that both unity and diversity are important to us all. If that is true, then we must make the choice to experience it, until it becomes tethered to who we are as a community of faith. Before you begin to think this is only for those of us who only love the old standards, the same is true for the songs we think are tired and old. How many times had I sung “A Mighty Fortress” before that day? The music you think you cannot relate to or cannot be a part of is only an experience away. Perhaps the music is tethered to negative experience. It is time, for the sake of unity and community, for us all to sit back and think about becoming tethered to the music of right now.  The music of right now is anything, old or new, that we sing together as a congregation in whatever style, instrumentation, or level of complication it comes to us in. You see, when we all decide to become tethered to the music of right now, we actually become tethered to each other.

In Christ,
Jacob Winslett
Director of Music
Email Jacob
Cell: 770/733-3713