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Musicians in the Intersection

The Rev. Kevin Armstrong, senior pastor of North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, recently spoke to the Discipleship Ministries's board of directors at the August 2007 meeting in Nashville. He spoke about conflict in the church that results when opposites meet in disagreement. Conflict can result from many opposites meeting in church life, but some of them include: conservative/liberal, homosexual/ heterosexual, joy/lament, contemporary/traditional, young/old, black/white, urban/rural, large/small, clergy/laity, citizen/immigrant, rich/poor, inner city/suburb, judgment/grace, head/heart, and so many others.

Surely we have all experienced this in our churches. People are thrown together and forced to interact out of their opposition, their division. As musicians and worship leaders, think of the many occasions for this:

  • "Awesome God" or "Come, Thou Almighty King"
  • "Holy, Holy, Holy" or "Santo, Santo, Santo"
  • Applause or no applause
  • Seeker worship or believer worship
  • Film clips or imaginative preaching
  • Organ or guitar
  • Robes or no robes
  • Choir or praise team
  • Hymnals or screens
  • Kneeling at the rail or intinction.

Armstrong compellingly made the point that we do not have to allow ourselves and our people to continue in disagreement and conflict. We must help people to see that so many of these oppositions are "false opposites"; that is, they do not have to inevitably lead to conflict. Our job is to see and to help our people see these false oppositions as crossroads or intersections. What we view as opposites in conflict may be turned into diversity and richness that can simultaneously inhabit the same intersection. Just as a north-south road and an east-west road meet together in an intersection and all of a sudden offer us four directional choices rather than two, so can we transform our conflicts and tensions into opportunities for enriching church life and Christian discipleship. We must look for opportunities of transformation and discipleship in the intersections of church life.

Armstrong said, "The intersection of preservation and hospitality is the scene of many bloody battles in the church." We've all been on those battlefields. Some of us have led them, and some of us have been bloodied. We've waged preservation versus hospitality battles over architecture, language, liturgy, worship practice, and certainly music. What would it be like if we committed to and prayed for God's direction in making our churches and sanctuaries the very point of intersection, and if we lived our lives and practiced our craft in that intersection — in the sanctuary, in the choir room, in the Sunday school classroom, in the church meeting, in the pastor's office and our own offices, as well as our homes? The intersection is our opportunity for holy interaction, God's grace, and mercy received and offered.

Make a drawing of your church building, then mark with an "X" the locations that you can help to make intersections for your congregation's faith journey. When the city does it with highways, they bring in road graders, trucks, and road construction people. How do we do it in the church?

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