"This is how church used to be!"

If we had a dollar for each time one of us has heard this phrase, we’d all be rich by now, right? I had to submit my budget last week, in order for the vestry to review it well before the start of 2025. I approached the task the same way I have for the past 20 (has it been 20??) years working at churches. Step one: identify the bare minimum needed for the music program. Step two: attach dollar signs. Step three: get a pat on the back for doing my best to identify the bare minimum. (Okay, step three doesn’t always happen but that’s what I imagine.)

Certainly, there is value to being frugal. It’s part of our care of creation, i.e. let’s not buy more and more stuff to eventually fill our landfills! It’s part of our stewardship of church resources,

i.e. let’s make the best use of the money all of you have given to this church out of your desire to see St. Andrew’s thrive and be a force for good in our community. As a church staff member, assembling a budget and spending church money has always been a very humbling task.

I found, though, that outlining a bare-minimum budget was also causing me to envision our musical future at the bare minimum. My goal was the status quo. It was a theology of scarcity rather than abundance. But good Christian theology tells us that God’s love is abundant! Good theology tells us there is always room for one more at the table, that there’s no limit to forgiveness or generosity.

After Evensong the evening of October 6th, someone came up to me and said, “Now THAT is how church used to be!” And for once I didn’t hear it as bitter or pessimistic. The church was not full, but everyone was singing their hearts out to the extent that the voices, combined with the organ, filled every crevice of the sanctuary. According to multiple people I spoke with, it was transporting. We felt our bodies literally lift up. Our hearts were so full that tears felt ready to fall. It was a combination of beauty and togetherness that reminded us that God is real. God must be real; he was certainly present at Evensong on October 6th!

That experience is not something you can force, but it is something we can strive for. After Evensong and before I submitted my budget, I added a few big-picture, pie-in-the-sky dreams for us and our worship service. And I made a commitment to pray more often, asking God to help me hold these two seemingly paradoxical ideas equally: that I can be a practical steward of the church’s money and dream big when I think about the future of our church music program. With God’s help, we can do both!

And the church said: Amen!

- Ginny Chilton, Minister of Music