Philosophy

Why the Debate between Contemporary and Traditional Worship Styles is Bogus

July 30, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

A Tale of Two Camps

This is a story about the knots we tie ourselves into when we ask the wrong questions about worship styles.

“We used to be really close with them, but then they started going to the contemporary service.”

A longtime church member said this to me, in reference to a family she used to worship with every week. I was serving as interim organist for a congregation while they searched for a permanent replacement over the summer. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that something peculiar had happened at this church.

Three Lies You’re Telling Yourself about Church Work

July 23, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

woman looking through glass with paint over face

Everyone tells lies. Don’t believe me? You are probably forgetting about one of the most common kinds of lies: the kind you tell yourself. We lie to ourselves all the time, because it’s one of the ways we cope with a complicated and demanding world. Church musicians are just as susceptible to getting caught in our own lies as anyone else. This article outlines three lies that I feel are most destructive to those who serve the church, plus my ideas for how to push back at them.

Three Relationships to Make Your Worship Music Program Indispensable

July 9, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

We musicians sometimes fall victim to destructive lines of thinking once we set foot in a church. Musicians are a passionate group, and I would hope that we all believe steadfastly in the value of worship music in church life. However, that belief sometimes leads us to assume that the music itself will keep everyone engaged. In other words, we assume that our worship music programs are indispensable by their very nature.

Worshippers and program volunteers engage with their church through their leaders, and we through them. The relationship is interdependent. It is incumbent on us as leaders to engage with our people and build positive relationships with them. We shape the course of our church’s development by taking responsibility (but not blame) for everything that happens on our watch. Being smart about the relationships we form is the key to making worship music indispensable.

Rethinking Job Security

July 2, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

I remember the horror of telling my friends and family that I was going to study music in college. Their sincerest wishes for my success were usually tempered with grave expressions of caution or doubt. “That’s great!” they would say, followed by an uncomfortably long pause. “But don’t you worry about not being able to pay your bills?” This, in a nutshell, is the perception of job security in music. If you work in any field in the humanities—literature, language, fine arts, etc.—you have probably at some point faced these sentiments from well-meaning parents, relatives, and colleagues. If so, I want to challenge you to redefine what job security really means.

Saying No is Hard to Do: A guide for people who care about their work

June 27, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

red hand indicating stop at crosswalk

I said “no.” I declined an opportunity that theoretically, maybe, someday, would prove to be good for me and good for my community. And it was painful, even though the stakes were low. Did I do something wrong? Should others’ disappointment give me pause? Should I reconsider my decision? Saying no is indeed a hard thing to do.

All of this mental noise motivates me to send a message to the world, and it’s a message that’s hard to communicate. But it needs to be said. In any profession, perhaps especially in the nonprofit space, we have terrible incentives to say no, even when we know it’s the right thing to do.

Philosophy

A Tale of Two Camps

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