Rebuilt
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The new book that's sweeping the nation's chanceries.
http://rebuiltparish.com/ - Amazon
Spoiler: they endorse Gregorian chant
Double spoiler: you won't like everything else they endorse
Thanked by 1chonak -
I once knew a large Protestant church that hired a smooth PR company to engineer their marketing of themselves in such manner as to attract more (a lot more) members and ensure that they continued to flourish in their particular location (which they did!). This book seems to be a 'how to' for the same sort of marketing with carefully presented selling points... appealing (as you might expect) to the lowest common denominator. Everything in religious life, from spirituality, to music, to creed, needs of any kind, are modified, packaged and delivered just as slickly as in a corporate PR campaign. Nothing has innate or objective value, but only has (or fails to have) appeal to the chosen market. Voila! Religion isn't what you thought it was: it is a commoditiy, its beliefs are sanitised, it's cultural expressions (music, art, et al.) are valued only insofar as they can be altered (savaged) to fit the PR's needs.
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The web site which Chrism linked above has a series of companion videos for the chapters of the book, so that's one way to find out about what the parish is doing.
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Whoa.
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Spoiler: they endorse Gregorian chant
Here's what the book says about chant:
They're all about changing the "culture" of the Church, but they're not so much about changing people to the culture of the tradition of the Church where appropriate. The best culture.Gregorian chant, the music proper to the Roman liturgy, powerfully anchors our weekend experience in our tradition, and we use it for the acclamations of the Eucharistic prayer and sometimes as an introit and counterpoint to the opening or Communion music. It somehow seems to very effectively summon our congregation into the very heart of the mystery we celebrate. Far from turning Tim [their everyman character] and his family off, we've found it can actually bring them into the unfolding action, leading them step-by-step through the progression of the solemnity. Churchworld can look canned or corny or, alternately, showy and insincere to lost people, at least that's the attitude they have coming in the door. Infusing our weekend service with the spirit of mystery inherent in the Roman liturgy, as incomparably expressed in Gregorian chant, can serve as an antidote for the perception.
They have some strange overly broad opinions... no "lost" person ever comes to a Church for the beauty of the building... not possibly true.
They use big projection screens in their Church... justifying it in part by what is seen in St. Patrick's in NYC and St. Peter's in Rome... Churches that have much different visual challenges than their parish appears to.
There's lots of other very problematic stuff in this book as I look through it.
The Yelp reviews are revealing:Confused. This is a Catholic Church but isn't. There are no kneelers. You don't go through the normal stand, kneel, sit routine. Mostly just sit. The music for services is like a Simon and Garfunkle concert. Very mellow but not very pious.
I'd have to say the best feature of this church is the people. It's not like Catholic churches in the city. There are actually young, attractive, single people here. The God stuff is alrite but isn't going to church all about finding that special someone? :-)Thanked by 1Ryan Murphy -
I lived in Baltimore, and I know Fr. White. I played the organ there once in a while as a sub. I will withhold my comments for now and see where this goes.
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Hmmmmm... Chapter 6 talks about music...
I don't have a problem with marketing techniques. We need to use them. In marketing, that is, not at Mass.
What is the "product" we are "selling"? It's Christianity, Church membership. The Mass is a benefit to that, not a "product" in itself.
It'd be like an exclusive country club saying that they need to install dance floors on the members-only golfing green to attract people. You aren't selling the green, you're selling the membership. Make the green for your members, not non-members.
Make the Mass for the seeking, not the lost. -
I'm not sure I'd phrase it in exactly the same way as Gavin, but he has a good point about the Mass. It's called the "Mass of the Faithful" for a reason.
I was recently listenting to Orthodox priest, Fr. John Parker, talk about "Realities of Life in Orthodox Mission Churches," the Orthodox Churches have done some really succesful evangelistic work in recent years. He talked about the advantages of inviting people to Vespers or other events first, rather than Divine Liturgy (read "Mass" for Catholics). -
The endorsement from Cardinal "This isn't about contraception" Dolan is enough for me to pass on it.
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I hesitate to write this, at the risk of damaging my reputation "round these parts" - but I worked as choirmaster at Nativity for a short time January 2007-June 2008, and Fr. White has brought me back (literally flown me in) to do Christmas Eve and Holy Week there ever since.
All I'll say for now is that I have discerned that they have the best of intentions in what they're trying to do, and while I'll allow that many will not agree with the approach they take spiritually, from a management and organizational point of view, it is my experience that there is much that Catholic pastors can learn from the way they run at least that aspect of the parish. -
I think the management and organization strategies they've implemented are all pretty well-documented in the book. I just hope those are turned off by their mega-church model don't miss things they can adopt without embracing that whole model (or really even coming close).
Particularly with regard to Nativity, I'm thinking about the way they've encouraged their congregation to volunteer in taking care of so many operational details around the parish so the staff and clergy can focus on the things that only the staff and clergy can do. They call it ministry, but what those things are and what you name it aside, I've seen too many parishes with small, "martyr mentality" staffs trying to do everything when there are congregation members who would love to come in and do it and just need a system to effect it. It seems it really needs to be a parish-wide system and the system needs to be built, not adopted by asking this group or that group to help. Of course, it takes one staff-member to manage this system of volunteers, but in the end, you're hiring one person to get dozens (maybe hundreds) of extra hands to help in a responsible, organized manner.
I also greatly admire the way that the staff there collaborates professionally in meetings and the way in which Fr. White delegates and trusts his staff with details, and every idea gets a place at the table, but in the end there are firm intentional decisions, prayerfully made. It's just so awkward to watch a pastors try and lead by absolute consensus of the whole congregation or even council (which usually just mean the loudest win) or absolute authority without any attempt to explain their decisions (even though I know they are under no obligation to do so). Spiritually they may be shepherds, but organizationally, I think the metaphor of a ship's captain would be even better. Except, it seems, when the leader is poor, there's no Catholic mutiny... people just, unfortunately, jump ship.
Anyhow, I don't want to ramble, but I know if at least these two facets of Nativity's operations were extended to every parish in the US, it would be one big step forward.Thanked by 1ghmus7 -
SkirpR
I understand totally what you are saying.
The fly (elephant) in the ointment is that the management and administrative decisions of REBUIT ALSO displace the very nature of the Mass as a Sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. It has NOTHING to do with appealing to the lost, and the other aspects that are being introduced. It has nothing to do with entertaining Timonium Tim so he shows up and gives money and buys coffee. The Mass is not a product, and mass goers are not consumers. -
The fly (elephant) in the ointment is that the management and administrative decisions of REBUIT ALSO displace the very nature of the Mass as a Sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. It has NOTHING to do with appealing to the lost, and the other aspects that are being introduced. It has nothing to do with entertaining Timonium Tim so he shows up and gives money and buys coffee. The Mass is not a product, and mass goers are not consumers.
I disagree with none of what you say. But just as in music there's something to learn from listening to any performance, good, poor, or mixed, I would encourage people to be open to learning and growing from what Nativity's done and written about, even if they believe Nativity may have put the cart in front of the horse. -
I guess this leaves me a little unclear about what is here that's worth imitating.
It seems that their method for making decisions has led them to decide to set up a Church at odds with much of Catholic theology, spirituality, and disciplinary practice. I don't see how another kind of "loudest" hasn't won here?Thanked by 1Spriggo -
It seems that their method for making decisions has led them to decide to set up a Church at odds with much of Catholic theology, spirituality, and disciplinary practice. I don't see how another kind of "loudest" haven't won here?
Perhaps I should clarify that the decision-making process to which I was giving some praise above was mostly referring to day-to-day matters. I think it's a big logical jump to say that implementing a respectful, streamlined management style leads directly and exclusively to being at odds with Catholic theology.
If someone is convinced that every paragraph could be a near occasion of sin, and there's nothing anyone could possibly learn from it, then by all means, excercise your own best judgment and/or consult with your spiritual director to do what you feel is best for your soul before reading the book. (Perhaps a slight hint of purple sarcasm for this last paragraph.) -
How to have a conversation on MusicaSacra, 2013 Edition, redux.
Person:
Something something something. Something. OMG It's terrible.
Another Person:
So, I really agree with all of the things Person said. And I'm not endorsing all of the bad Somethings, which truly are terrible. But, if I may- I'd like to point out that we can actually learn something useful, if we look at Something with discernment, and realize that there are some good things happening there.
Some Other Person:
Another Person:
But, really, I mean...
Some Other Person:
Another Person:
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I guess this leaves me a little unclear about what is here that's worth imitating.
Well, there's the rub. If you start out with the view that their efforts produce no benefit at all, then you'll conclude there's nothing to imitate.
On the other hand, if you believe that their efforts are partly beneficial to somebody, then it becomes logical to examine their practices more closely, in order to understand just what is correct and what is erroneous about them.
Of course, not everyone is inclined to such a task of studying and making distinctions. -
OK... half way through book. Eye opening. The section I am reading now is on music, 'Music is Water'. Let me tell you... the LOST isn't Timonium Tim, it's the church itself. Basically in a nutshell, the AmChurch is trying to reinvent itself based on nothing of tradition or history, or organic growth. Sad, sad, sad. Will expound on details soon. And this is the 'exciting new wave' that is sweeping the country? More like a plague.
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But it wasn't all their fault by any means [speaking about the musician they had hired... and fired]. We were to blame too, because when it came to music, like so many things, we didn't know what we were doing anyway."
and this is why you don't hire a 'good musician' who is not a liturgical (Catholic) musician to the core. In their case they went from bad to worse. (subtitled in the book, Bad to Worse)...We wanted an effective music program, but we had no conception about what that meant.
It is amazing to me (but I guess I shouldn't be amazed in the wake of VII) that the church itself is so confused about the very basic elements of liturgy (aka, music), it is lost to its own imaginings. And I guess the documents, history and tradition of music in the church are not the things we turn to for consultation or guide?
As Spock once exhibited:
http://youtu.be/37lobi0DGwc?t=16s
...and as Dr. McCoy declared:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4fU0Ajo4RM -
I see no issue in the above excerpts. Too many music programs, ESPECIALLY Catholic ones, have no idea what they're doing. Chant? Hymns? Choirs? They just show up, pull 4 hymns out of the OCP magazine (or Cantica Nova - that's no better), and play.
Be hot or be cold, as our Lord says. Same goes with music - whatever you do, know what it is and do it well. Half-assing it is unworthy of the liturgy.Thanked by 1SkirpR -
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Quotes from the book that try to communicate their vision of liturgical music.
The musical battles we had -and boy did we have battles - were all about personal preferences with consumers and suppliers fighting over the product lines each preferred. But what we still didn't get, even after all our effort, was that neither the elitist music of the musical professionals nor the sweet and comfortable choices of our congregants would ever attract "Tim."...
...There was another problem with some of our more contemporary music as Thomas day, and his very insightful book, why Catholics can't sing, describes, there is an issue that takes the discussion out of the arena of "mere taste"... (talks about congregation singing in first person God language)
...In other words, not all of our music was worship music. We worked hard to build a music program, and we intuitively understood how important it is, but despite our best efforts we couldn't get it right...
...We had a music program, first a bad one and then a better one and eventually a great one. We had a music program; what we needed was a worship program...
...The point isn't about building a music program anyway. It's about moving the congregation beyond the position of musical consumers, who are either delighted or comforted or bored or offended by the music, and helping them become worshipers...
...At the same time, it's about growing musicians from performers with a "gig" mentality into worship leaders. And, it's about worship through song...
...Looking at our program today, we have five nearly identical services led by Al and the band he has built and, more recently, a second band led by Rob...
...Both bands include drummers, keyboards, bassists, and various others as needed from mass to mass and week to week...
...Typically the bands play current "praise and worship" music because that's a style of music we found is attractive and engaging to Tim and his family...
..."Praise and worship" music is a kind of adult alternative rock with Christian lyrics. Is it appropriate? We think so in our setting, and we think we're on solid ground liturgically, too...
...We are not advocating any particular style of music. And the multi-cultural reality that is American Catholicism that would be absurd. Besides, in Catholic worship the Novus Ordo can accommodate many different musical styles as long as the music fills three basic criteria as outlined by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Now Pope Benedict the 16th:
(three points listed)
Beyond that, it's just about discovering the music that works in your community – not the personal preference of the pastor and the music director, not the demands from the pews, not even the stated preferences of the majority. The music must be all about attracting the lost and growing disciples through worship. -
...The point isn't about building a music program anyway. It's about moving the congregation beyond the position of musical consumers, who are either delighted or comforted or bored or offended by the music, and helping them become worshipers...
I would concur with this and apply the same criterion the the musicians too if they are in fact treating the Mass as a performance. There certainly is that natural tendency. Most Americans are music consumers and most of the music they consume is not wholesome.
Most trained musicians are in fact trained as performers--myself included. And yet I don't feel like I'm performing at Mass when I'm singing chant, I feel like I'm praying. When I am forced to play P&W band music, I feel like I'm performing and that's what I find most unsettling about it. It would be fine to perform that music at a parish festival or such, but as an act of worship?
Then there's that whole class of music that predominates the mainstream resources which is neither worthy of prayer or performance--which leaves me feeling detached from anything.
Of course there I go sharing my feelings and emoting. Not very becoming, I know. ;)
But back the original quote, I would say, yes, we need to form our conscience, learn the Faith and be formed in the manner in which the Church teaches us to worship.Thanked by 1Chrism -
Earl
You are certainly becoming something, we're just not sure what! (JK)...
It is amazing to me also. Praise and Worship music is the most performance centered music of all the styles I have ever seen in church, so what they say and what they do are conflicting realities.Thanked by 1Chrism -
...Typically the bands play current "praise and worship" music because that's a style of music we found is attractive and engaging to Tim and his family...
Apparently "every-man Tim" and I are not related....We are not advocating any particular style of music. And the multi-cultural reality that is American Catholicism that would be absurd. Besides, in Catholic worship the Novus Ordo can accommodate many different musical styles as long as the music fills three basic criteria as outlined by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Now Pope Benedict the 16th
I thought the documents were pretty clear about what music Mother Church desires for her liturgies. That being the case, if we were to stick with the original sources we wouldn't have to look to other books such as this.Thanked by 1eft94530 -
JT hits the subject of P&W from another slant here:
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/is-inculturation-an-excuse-for-pop-music-at-mass -
I don't see a need to get worked up about any of this, and agree with most of it. Obviously I can't condone their use of P&W, but neither is it my place to condemn it - that's the job of the bishop.
"We had a music program, first a bad one and then a better one and eventually a great one. We had a music program; what we needed was a worship program..."
This, however, I take serious issue with. The biggest problem facing 99% of churches isn't music vs. worship, it's a lack of musical quality altogether! I have recently come across a few churches (non-Catholic) where yes, the music program is so much a focus that their purpose of leading worship is missing. But usually by "worship instead of performance," many seem to impose some sort of bland mediocrity, in a puritanical fear that the music not "excite the masses."Thanked by 1chonak -
...At the same time, it's about growing musicians from performers with a "gig" mentality into worship leaders. And, it's about worship through song...
NB: Purple text:
I presume by this he means we should sing the Solemn High Mass from the Graduale Romanum and assist at the public sung celebrations of the Major Hours of the Divine Office on Sundays and Holy Days. -
NB: Purple text:
I presume by this he means we should sing the Solemn High Mass from the Graduale Romanum and assist at the public sung celebrations of the Major Hours of the Divine Office on Sundays and Holy Days.
He doesn't, anymore. But if it helps (or only confuses things), when I was there as choirmaster 2007-2008, while there was still a Sunday choir Mass, he instructed me to have the choir perpare and sing all of the Gregorian propers each Sunday. That I did, and it's how I learned about and fell in love with chant. -
No, that was my predecessor, who led a pretty impressive choir of men and boys there. When he left, I was brought on part-time to hire some young paid singers to form a mixed choir to keep the traditional music going on a smaller scale. Ultimately when I decided to leave Baltimore to further my education, they went completely to the "worship" program model they endorse now.
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Two months ago, our DRE at Saint Peter's in Columbia returned from her continuing ed trip to Baltimore with "Rebuilt" in hand and read excerpts of it to the parish staff at our monthly meeting. I read the sections on music, which were a great compilations of anecdotal half-truths, with a mixture of emotions and a flood of memories.
I came to Nativity in Timonium as Music Director and Organist in July of 1998 following three and a half years at Saint John's Episcopal Church, Huntingdon (now styled as Saint John's in the Village) in Baltimore where I had served as Organist & Master of the Choirs since January 1995. It was my first full-time Catholic Church position and where I was received in full communion. From my years at Saint John's and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, I had a network of fine professional singers that I enlisted to sing with a very well-intentioned parish choir that hadn't done more than GIA rep in octavo form. A Sister of Mercy, with a Masters from Notre Dame, was my predecessor and had been there from the beginning of the parish. She'd installed two manual 12 rank Schlicker organ that was her pride and joy.
A community chorus I directed, the Ridgely Consort, sang Fauré's "Requiem" and Poulenc's "Litanies a la Vierge Noire," with orchestra, my first fall there, and Monteverdi's "Vespers of 1610" the summer of 1999, both of which were underwritten by a personal friend of mine whom I had met from my time at Saint John's (a retired Baltimore City School teacher who saved very wisely). We sang Lessons and Carols each of my two years there; I've attached a PDF of the combined choirs [about 60 singers] from 1998: not bad after only 6 months on the job, and only four months working with a mixed children's choir that started from ground zero. The Parish Choir would go on to sing the better part of Mozart's "Coronation Mass." And our Ash Wednesday and Good Friday liturgies were with professional choirs singing chant and polyphony. Each of these events filled the church; I'm not sure if Tim was among the persons in attendance or not.
My successor and his choir of men and boys began in June of 2000; My assistant, my parish choir and the girls of my boys and girls choir were dismissed shortly after I left in May of that year (side bar: one of my former girl choristers is one of Fr. White's assistants and has done very well under his mentorship). The whole experience was rather Machiavellian, but that, too, was my introduction to the shadow side of church employment, which can read like a script lifted directly from an episode of "The Sopranos." Meeting Richard Skirpan rehearsing for one of his doctoral conducting recitals in Miami back, when, 2009 or so? falls under the category of "it's a small world after all." Rich does wonderful work and has a much more compatible temperament in dealing with an ego the size of Fr. White's.
With thirteen years worth of distance from this most painful professional relationship, I am much more aware of my own limitations, and shy away from positions in suburban parishes with multi-million dollar budgets: I know I'm likely not cut out to work for the man who commands that kind of power. I'll stick to my 1000 family parish in the middle of a small but historic diocese in a state where Catholics are in the minority. We treat each other better here and don't take our gifts for granted.
Nativity 1998.pdf103K -
Quoted from above, I think from the book itself:
"The musical battles we had -and boy did we have battles - were all about personal preferences with consumers and suppliers fighting over the product lines each preferred. But what we still didn't get, even after all our effort, was that neither the elitist music of the musical professionals nor the sweet and comfortable choices of our congregants would ever attract "Tim."... "
So - the 64,000 dollar question - In your memory, did you have battles? Were you constantly fighting while you were there for your vision?
On a side note, how very elitist to CALL OTHER PEOPLE elitist ... I love this argument ... after all, when my arteries are clogged, I want neither the "elitist treatments of the medical professionals nor the sweet and comfortable homeopathic choices of folk doctors," I want my own vision of what will heal me ... right?
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One of the things I would try to clear with clergy when we interview each other is what the deal-breakers were. At that point in the game, Fr. White didn't realize his strong aversion to 20th Century French music: it's something I dearly loved and still do, and I realize it's not for everybody. Once he expressed his preference for Mozart, I was glad to oblige. He also liked Britten's "Missa Brevis" - go figure. A happier memory of was what a visual person Fr. White was: he was Cardinal Keeler's assistant for the longest time and had an active voice in the restoration of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption in Baltimore: American's first Cathedral, the grandest design of Benjamin Latrobe. I gifted him with a print of the Cathedral (as it was known) from the turn of the 20th Century, which revealed sky-lights in the dome, which, incredibly, weren't known to anyone on the restoration team until he received that print.
Despite the lace, working for the Church isn't for sissies, that's for sure.Thanked by 1CHGiffen -
Despite the lace, working for the Church isn't for sissies, that's for sure.
You got that one right! I know many in the corporate world who would fold and crumple if they were subjected to the rigors of church music.
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