Visioning

[Logan30]

I’m starting this post here as most of us ‘organists’ have church gigs as well. If I have the wrong area - let me know.
I have been trying to do some visioning about what my job as a Director of Music at a main-line Christian denomination church will look like in 10 years (provided I stick with this career path). Now, I do work for a very liberal, modern and ‘cutting edge’ (so we think so) denomination. We are building a new church right now and yes the pipe organ has been put into storage for re-installation at a later date and yes we still have choirs but things are “a-changin”! I have already experimented with pipe organ and heavy-metal rock guitar – went well. I will be exploring world percussion and pipe organ this fall with a professional percussionist (local opera company orchestra) who is a member of my congregation. Our plan is to incorporate members of the congregation who might like to play and blend this all into our main Sunday service music. I’m not sure where the choirs are going as the only growth I have experienced last year is with the kid’s choir that is directed by a wonderful, retired music teacher/singer in the congregation and my Taize choir (we sing much more than Taize – Palestrina, Russian Orthadox music, contemporary classical).
I’m trying to see my position as a ministry much more than a guy who programs the music I like. I live in a large city where there are few ‘traditional’ music programs left and very few viable programs at the smaller churches. The large programs are all located in the very affluent areas of the city that can afford paid choir leads and guest orchestras. I attend their events but I don’t see myself ever working in those churches. I’m a little bit to much of a gen-x-er to conform. I would rather invent.
What are you inventing or dreaming about. What do you see in the crystal ball for church music, the pipe organ, your job? L.

[Logan30]

I guess I posted this in the wrong place. Sorry.
L.