Adagio for a Pastor: Toward Closer Staff Harmony
I saw him coming. Like a runaway locomotive with steam billowing in all directions, he broke through the line of departing parishioners and screeched to a halt in front of me. "What's the idea of changing the closing hymn this morning without telling me?" he demanded in a fortissimo voice. "I work so hard to plan the music and coordinate the service, then you have the nerve to throw that clinker in at the last minute." "Clinker?" I responded weakly, trying to appear calm before the startled people around me. I was a young pastor; he was a talented musician. He was several years older than I, but we had never directly clashed before. "That last hymn was a clinker! A terrible selection. The congregation couldn't sing it. The organist couldn't play it. And I didn't like it. It didn't fit at all. Never, never, do that again." He turned abruptly and strode off, leaving me stunned as I mumbled something about the stress of ministry to the curious bystanders still in the hallway. Fumbling my way to the refuge of my office, the blessing of the morning quickly faded. What began as bewilderment at the surprise attack turned rapidly to seething defensiveness. Who does he think he is anyway? I thought angrily. I have a right to do what's best for the worship service. After all, who's in charge here? I don't care if he has been at the church longer. Besides, that wasn't such a bad hymn. We used to sing it in seminary chapel all the time. He should talk. The choir's been eating into my preaching time the past seven Sundays, yet he still says we need two anthems. No wonder we get out late. Makes you wonder if a music ministry is worth it. Sound familiar? Whether you sympathize with my self-righteous indignation or my musical colleague's vocal ...
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