Oh Geez thanks that makes me feel so much better! LOL Hey listen I'm primarily considering this to make the people happy, not looking to change the world or have any debates, so when I ask what I'm getting into its a genuine question. Whether or not I will actually have time for this depends on what is involved (hence asking the question here where people might have good advice)...

Well I do think the rosary and scapular are great ideas but I work at a Presbyterian church, not sure how they will feel lol! I'll do it before everyone else arrives, I'm always early...
My so-called faith in fiddles pays me less than $400 a month before taxes, I'm not a stranger to local food banks and have been on public assistance before. Yeah I could get another job but I chose happiness and peace of mind over things and money...When it comes to music I will try anything at least once, because yes I am that stupid.
So how awful is the organ lol...

SO, open up a hymnbook, sit at the instrument and play. Explore the sounds, put a foot on a pedal. See what you think, If you enjoyed the experience go back another time. Most of what gets played in church on organs is not Organ music per se, but vocal parts and instrumental reductions. Try to stay away from pieces with arpeggiated, pianistic, damper pedal styles. Lessons would open up real organ repertoire if you're classically minded and want to play such pieces, point out more of the differences between organ and piano keyboard styles, if you're not able to figure them out yourself and make you practice at the pedals. Don't expect to accomplish it all in a few months and tell yourself you're a different person than our friend Mr francis there. YMMV

I have a big thing for Muffat organ works and am working on his Toccata Undecima at the moment for a recital in spring.

This guy plays it well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srvKsvAf_JA

I didn't notice a price on this one. Any idea what they are asking?

Any experience/info on earlier Rodgers instruments? As I said I am not sure, but was told they got it when the church was built in the 50s...I also looked at their website..

Others can speak more authoritatively than I about possible instruments. All I can say is that when I really knuckled down to organ lessons as an adult, I saved up for a bottom-of-the-range Johannus digital instrument for home practice sessions.

The Johannus had a problem: the pedal-board stopped at D above middle C. (It is amazing how often even pieces intended for beginners require higher pedal notes than that.) Yet it was broadly helpful. Later I traded it in for a bigger, better, and costlier Allan instrument, with a full pedal-board compass, and have never regretted the choice. I still use that Allan every day at home.

Earlier on this thread, Flor Peeters was mentioned. Nobody should overlook the value of Sir John Stainer's organ primer, called with characteristic straightforwardness The Organ (and probably downloadable for free online by now; certainly widely available secondhand).

I have heard various amateur players, more notable for pretentiousness than for anything resembling talent, break out in snickers at the very mention of this book. They are insane to do so. It is still of great value. Some of the exercises Stainer supplies will give even the most hardened professional a workout. And as well as being a significant composer Stainer was a master educator, so his prose is deliberately designed to keep readers awake.

Thanks so much everyone! I will try to get more information about the organ at Wed rehearsal.

I acquired my copy of the Stainer back in the bad old days before we had eBay, Amazon, Abebooks, and so forth. When I was starting out, I needed to obtain the book from the State Library of Victoria and (how charmingly démodé this procedure seems now) photocopy it. No great photocopying expense was involved, since the book is quite short. Of course it has long since fallen into the public domain, like everything else of Stainer's.

At one point, Stainer gave me real comfort. For two unforgettable years I edited a quarterly magazine called Organ Australia. If ever there existed confirmation of Clive James's Rochefoucaldian epigram "The arts attract the insane," then that editorship was it.

Unless you have occupied such a job (and preferably occupied such a job in the antipodes at that), you have not the smallest conception of how many Walter Mitty types there are out there, most of whom suppose themselves to be musicians and even organists, in spite of all objective indications to the contrary. Attempting to reason with such types reminded me of FDR's verdict on his youthful Navy experiences:

"To change anything in the Na-a-vy is like punching a feather bed. You punch it with your right and you punch it with your left until you are finally exhausted, and then you find the damn bed just as it was before you started punching."

So when it became obvious that I would lose the imminent and inevitable showdown with those fantasists who occupied positions of power, I found the attached Stainer quotation and put it just under the relevant OA issue's editorial. Approximately five minutes before what would have been my dismissal from the post, I resigned. It is still a quotation which I treasure.

I just bought the 1937 John & Harker Stainer edition from an Amazon used book vendor. I hope it is as good or better than the original.

BTW, I learned with the Gleason book - damn him! LOL.

Let me explain a bit, Jackson. I had polio in that last big epidemic before the vaccine became available. The lingering effects are, that my eyes don't converge properly and my left foot doesn't play well with those Gleason pedal techniques. I work around the foot thing and do a lot of toe work. With the eyes, I have 5 pairs of glasses for different functions, since it is impossible to adjust one pair to compensate for the convergence problem. It all works out, thankfully.

I will mention that several of my fellow organ students in college agreed that a burning of the Gleason book after graduation could only be a good thing. LOL.

Yes, a decent teacher is a must. Kenstb is right.

In the search for finding adequate tuition, due diligence, almost absurdly simple in our own wired epoch, is your ally. What are Teacher X’s formal qualifications? Can Teacher Y boast AGO membership? Is Teacher Z on the police department's sex offenders’ list?

The process scarcely counts as rocket science, particularly if you live in a large or even middle-sized city. If you live (as many Americans, though rather few non-Americans, do) in a city where the local college's music department offers organ-playing, you are still better off for recommendations. In addition, sympathetic members of the clergy will often know relevant names.

I worry about that very thing, Charles. In fact I've been spending a lot of time with piano stuff that doesn't require pedal and trying to wean myself off using it so much. And then I spend two hours this morning indulging myself with Debussy...pedal withdrawal perhaps?
@RJ: The organ professor at my university has not, to my knowledge, had any female students in recent memory and is a notorious misogynist. I have zero desire to study with him. I will most likely be taking lessons with the organist who retired from the position I hold now, and possibly the organist at my own church.

I never realized that one could become a full-time church musician/organist after spending "6 months doing nothing but practicing and soaking in all of the knowledge you can."

I guess I did it wrong. Those years in school: a complete waste of time and money.

One has to start somewhere. And not everyone has the time and money to spend four or more years in school.

Would six months of intense study in organ, chant, hymnody, and liturgy turn someone into a world class church musician? No. Would it make them more practically qualified than a good number of people currently employed as full time church musicians? Most definitely.

I'm not sure what coffee-fetching would teach, though. Perhaps it would help future Music Directors learn to live with the capriciousness and stupidity of some of the people men they might find themselves working for.

Do you prefer high-end coffee, or sleazy gas-station coffee?

Having wandered from the original question....

With the prospect of not really making any money and being saddled with 5 to 6 Masses a weekend, making less than a Protestant organist makes for one service...only learn to play the organ if you really like playing the organ, like many of us do.

6 months of study with an energetic student with music reading ability and keyboard skills and teacher who is bright and supportive can produce an organist who is way beyond competent.

There is an air about us organists that we are doing something very difficult with secrets of the craft passed along very sparingly.

An air made up of hot air.

The majority of organists playing competently each Sunday in the US have an average of six months of lessons behind them.