Collaboration at Faith

Samuel Springer and Cat Goodrich

Cat: This is a conversation I shared with my colleague, Dr. Samuel Springer, the minister of music and organist at Faith, about our worship planning process. Together, we bring a commitment to collaborative worship planning and leadership. For me, that comes from the early days of my ministry as a resident pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta (at the time, a Lilly Foundation-funded, three-year program for new ministers in their first ordained call, actively reflecting on the practices of ministry while serving a congregation). Each week during my tenure there, five pastors and three musicians would gather around a long table in the sunlit choir room to prepare for Sunday’s service and to look two and three weeks out, periodically even a season ahead, to plan and dream of creative ways to join word and song in worship. Faith is my first foray into life as a solo pastor, which makes the weekly collaboration I share with Samuel even more important! Coming together to brainstorm ideas, to process and reflect on the previous week’s service, to look ahead and plan leads to a much more generative and creative place—a stronger service—than if we were to work in isolation. It’s a gift to be part of a team!

We plan worship by looking a few months ahead, season by season, and sharing initial ideas. We identify themes and work from there to build the specific elements of each service, like music, liturgy, art, and preaching. As we move closer to a service, we share specific plans and identify parts of services we still need to complete. In the following conversation, we will bring you along and invite you into a bit of our process.

First, a bit of an introduction. I came to Faith because I was in search of a congregation that understood community needs to be built as much outside church walls as inside, where social justice was a virtue (not a liability!)—a church with an embrace as wide as God’s welcome. When I found Faith, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like coming home. 

Samuel, how did you find your way to Faith?

Samuel: I was working at a United Methodist Church at the time. A member of Faith and a colleague at Morgan State asked if I knew anyone who was interested in the position, and I considered it and applied. The selection process was handled very thoughtfully. I was really impressed, and I was lucky enough to be selected. This has been the best musical and faith-based position I have served. Working here is genuinely about making a faith journey.

Step 1: Getting in the Spirit/Setting the Stage (Initial Meetings)

Cat: Samuel, what do you try to keep in mind as you approach a busy season like Advent? How do you prepare for our initial planning meeting, and what have you found to be helpful for us to think through at the outset?

Samuel: Throughout the year, I keep an eye and ear out for music or themes appropriate for different liturgical seasons. If I find an interesting idea or piece, I file it away for later. As the summer ends, I start putting together a working list of music for Advent. For example, perhaps you want to recognize the Mexican religious festival Las Posadas (a religious festival between December 16 and 24 that remembers the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem) in an Advent service. Are there arrangements of traditional carols or hymns set in Latin rhythms? Do we have a percussionist in our congregation? Is there a school music program nearby that could be invited to contribute?

Cat: I find such joy in the rhythm of the liturgical year. As the days grow shorter and nights lengthen, Advent themes of looking for light in the darkness, lament and longing for change, and holding on to hope for the coming dawn really resonate. To arrive at a theme for the season, I start by reading through the lectionary texts for the Advent season (I am typically a lectionary preacher) and pulling ideas for themes from there. Art and music help carry that theme through the season. It’s also important for me to include an interactive art piece to hold and guide our congregational prayers through special liturgical seasons like Advent and Lent. All year, I look for collaborative art ideas that might be adapted for worship. With my congregations, we’ve made tissue paper stained-glass, origami prayer explosion books(!), ornaments with our prayers to decorate the sanctuary Christmas tree, thematic wreaths, paper lace banners (drawing in part from designs by Hannah Garrity of A Sanctified Art), and more. I try to come to our initial meeting with our worship and arts team with a few possibilities for a collaborative art/prayer piece that could inform our theme and unify the elements of worship throughout the season.

Samuel: At the initial meeting, an idea of a theme is helpful to pull everything together. I get the theme from the worship planning meetings, sometimes from you, Cat, or perhaps there is something going on in the local community that sparks an idea. For example, maybe the children’s pageant includes a discussion about stars. We can draw from this image to choose music. I enjoy fusing traditional and nontraditional elements to respond to a theme and pull it all together, using music or art from different styles or periods. I will sometimes use secular music in a sacred context alongside good arrangements of traditional hymns and carols. Quality is key. Sometimes you pick a challenging piece for the choir and/or congregation. This can be all right. However, you have to ask yourself whether you are doing it for yourself or for the worship experience. The Advent season can be a stressful time for many, so it may be more difficult in this season to succeed with more difficult choral pieces. 

Cat: When we sit down with the worship and arts team in the fall to look ahead towards Advent, all of us come with the ideas we’ve been gathering for what might work for this year. Our committee chairperson has a list of must-dos to keep us on track, and we work through it together. Often, we start with the lighting of the Advent candles. Who do we want to invite into leadership and participation this year? What do we remember working well from years past? What music can provide a thread to tie that piece of the service together through each week of the season, and how might that connect to the theme? We have wonderful resources in the Glory to God hymnal, in our handbells, our chancel choir, and in a congregation that’s open to trying new things. I think my arrival in the early days of the pandemic (August of 2020) also gave us permission to do worship differently since everything was already upended anyway on Zoom. We have tried to keep that spirit of innovation going, a silver lining to those difficult months apart. But, as Samuel points out, it’s important to strike a balance between the new and the familiar. We try to honor the reality that our people find meaning in returning each year to beloved hymns, music, and rituals during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

Step 2: Putting It All Together (Collaborative Planning)

Cat: One gift you bring, Samuel, beyond the depth and breadth of your experience, is your connection to so many gifted students from Morgan State and the Peabody Conservatory. You often act like a bridge, inviting young vocalists and musicians into our worship or to support our choir, and opening our sanctuary to host recitals and fundraisers for Morgan’s opera program, the Urban Choral Arts Society, and more. The same incredible student brass quintet has been part of our Christmas and Easter worship services for three or four years now, and they’ve grown so much in that time! I know our current soloist has shared that Faith has shown her a new and affirming way of being church, too, and helped her in her own journey as a musician and a person of faith. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement! 

Between you, Samuel, our worship and arts folks, and me, we’ve built a team of individuals that trust one another, receive each other’s ideas and suggestions with openness, and share a willingness to experiment. If I bring a response to the benediction from my time as a Young Adult Volunteer that I’d like to incorporate, we give it a try and see how it works. If Samuel has a new piece from a workshop he accompanied, we find a way to include it and give the congregation a chance to learn and respond. Crafting worship in a collaborative way drawing from our own knowledge and experiences enriches and enlivens each service, making the liturgy truly the work of the people, as it should be.

Samuel, I appreciate that you carry with you experiences from different liturgical traditions and cultures—from growing up in an Anglican church in Barbados to studying in London and serving a Methodist church outside of Baltimore, to the excellence of teaching and accompanying the choir at Morgan State University. How does the breadth of those experiences influence how you think about music in worship at Faith?

Samuel: Having encountered many faith traditions, I would say that what I have come away with is a respect for the best of those traditions. One way is not better than the other. If you have a hymn with a Spanish rhythm, try to find a way that pays honor to that tradition. Do some research if you must and be true to the music and what you are trying to make. Ultimately, it is about worship experience. You can have high musical standards and celebrate “controlled chaos,” as an old professor of mine once called it. Diversity is a gift when it is a true manifestation of the theology in the service. Always keep in mind who your congregation is and what you are trying to achieve.

Step 3: Rehearsing and Refining (Ongoing Communication)

Cat: If one thing is true in the post-pandemic church, it’s that we must expect the unexpected. What began as a necessary adaptation to pandemic isolation, Zoom and hybrid worship, has become our norm. We have far-flung participants joining us from across the country and homebound members who faithfully log in each week, so Faith has committed to continuing hybrid worship for the long-term. This means we need to be mindful of how we communicate in worship: how music will translate online, how those joining from home can sing, share communion, participate in prayer stations, pass the peace, and follow the liturgy with the rest of the congregation. It’s a growing edge for us, and we periodically seek feedback from our A/V and Zoom moderator teams to reflect and adjust as needed. Musicians, liturgists, and members of the congregation in the sanctuary must always use a mic so that folks on Zoom will be able to hear them; we’ve worked hard with our sound system to amplify Zoom sound in the sanctuary so that prayer concerns and online liturgists can be heard. It means that our mobile congregation can still stay connected and be part of worship, even while travelling, at swimming and baseball tournaments, or away for other reasons. We don’t always get it perfect. There was a period of time when the sound on Zoom, particularly from the organ, was not great (those online could not hear it at all!). But grace abounds, and most of our folks are very patient with our low-budget production, glad to be able to be connected despite the occasional technology glitch. Our reach online has extended beyond the walls of the church in ways that sometimes surprise me! A trio of young adults attended a Christmas carol sing-along we held at a local brewery—they had caught our worship services occasionally on Facebook during the pandemic and came to celebrate the season with us. 

I’m always impressed with your flexibility, Samuel, as you approach worship. How do you anticipate and plan for unexpected obstacles with the choir and coordinating other musicians? 

Samuel: There is no magic to it. Find music that is within the ability of the choir, some music that you know they would like and some that may challenge. I always have alternate anthems from my “Flexible Anthems” books ready. We have a shared calendar for choir members, so I know their schedule. Preparedness and flexibility are especially important when you have an aging choir. Many people are also retired and travel. Some people would love to join the choir but can’t because of a job or childcare, so I try to find anthems that have recordings, or I record their parts, to give as many people the opportunity to participate as I can. Rehearsals before the service on Sunday mornings allow for more participation if some have been unable to attend rehearsals during the week, and this is important to me. 

It is always vital to have a relationship with the community. I am blessed to have a lot of musical talent in the congregation and in the community. We have a great musician who plays the guitar and composes his own songs, for example, and it is wonderful to incorporate him into worship whenever it is possible. I also have access to singers from the university where I teach, which gives me flexibility and variety. It is all about the worship experience and the community. We cannot have one without the other, and we have to bring flexibility and open-mindedness to worship planning.

Step 4: The Worship Service

Cat: When I think about moments that stand out from previous Advent or Christmas services that were particularly meaningful, I think about Christmas Eve last year, when we invited all the returning college students and young adults—many of whom we hadn’t seen in months—to come forward to light the Advent candle together. We’d designated a couple of people to be prepared to read the liturgy, but we had no idea if others would come forward and take part. It was incredible to see the chancel fill with young people, stepping up without hesitation to lead the responsive reading and singing. To see their beloved, familiar faces lean in to watch the candles take light­—and to see the pride and care of the congregation for them—was not something I’ll soon forget. 

Thankfully, I can’t remember any catastrophes, but I do provide glow sticks for kids on Christmas Eve. I invite them to wave their glow sticks each time they hear the word “light” as a way to keep little ears engaged and as an alternative to candles—ever since my own wiggly three-year-old lit her hair on fire during “Silent Night”! 

Samuel: I cannot remember any real catastrophes. Things happen sometimes for which you did not plan. One Christmas Eve, an eager sextant “polished” my organ keys. They were bright and shiny but also slippery and messy to play. I survived, barely. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is telling us something about perfection. 

Sometimes it all comes together beautifully. The musicians, choir, and bell choir all play and sing well, the lights are dimmed at the right time, as to not incur the steely gaze of certain members. You can “feel the Spirit,” and that all makes it worthwhile. Everything worked—liturgy, music, and art came together as an organic whole.

Step 5: Reflecting and Celebrating

Samuel: You strive for perfection, but ultimately you have to remind yourself that being faithful is what matters. Practice giving your best, but leave room for the Holy Spirit. Your gift is a gift for others and from God. Your position is a calling. Make music as joyously and profoundly as you can. Treat the choir, committee members, clergy, and congregation as you wish to be treated. Be kind but be honest. Remember Elijah—experience God’s presence and pass the spirit on to others. 

Cat: To work with a team invested in creating a meaningful worship experience for God’s people is such a gift! Honor the experience and wisdom that each person brings to the table, reflect on what you’ve learned together, and be open to the movement of the Spirit. A culture of respect and openness to experimentation goes a long way; cultivate that culture, and vibrant, meaningful worship will be the result. 

Postlude

Samuel and Cat: From our team to yours, take time afterwards for self-care. After a season like Advent or Easter, the choir and you will be tired. It is okay to have no anthem or an easy anthem for the next Sunday or take some time off to recharge your batteries. If you are burned out it will not do you or the congregation any good. Take time for yourself. Give yourself permission to enjoy music for you or, as Monty Python would say, “and now for something completely different.”