Keep the BeatSample

DAY 6: THE CONDUCTOR

My high school band director would stand on a large platform at the front of our rehearsal space waving his hands in rhythm to keep us playing together. But every so often, he would bang his baton on his music stand, and shout, “stop, stop, stop!” until the room had quieted.

“I thought that we were all Americans,” he would exclaim, “but someone in the trumpet section is Russian.” (This was his dad joke way of chiding us for playing too fast, i.e., “rushing.”)

My band director helped me discover my passion for music. He taught me to play the instruments that I loved most. Like all good conductors, he followed the composer’s directions in leading a body of differing people, instruments, and sounds to create something artful and beautiful. He cultivated unity and helped us to keep the beat.

I liked rehearsing solo pieces on my saxophone for competition, but nothing beat playing in the band. Whether marching with my alto sax on the football field or serenading with my tenor sax in the jazz ensemble, the band community was at the heart of it all. A musician without a band is like a child without a family.

We will never be fully formed outside of community. Therefore, it is my habit to go to church every Sunday.

I know the criticisms of the Church. I’ve listened to the stories of friends. I’ve read the books and downloaded the podcasts. Yes, there has been abuse and corruption and greed and moral failure and hypocrisy. But don’t quit church, find a new one. Don’t give up on shepherds, find a better one.

If I eat at a restaurant and I don’t like the food or I don’t like the service, I don’t quit on food. I find somewhere else to eat next time.

Being a part of the Church is about belonging. The early Church saw salvation as a communal experience. Baptism was an initiation into a community. We are saved from our sins, but we are saved into a community.

There are those who will go to church to get something. They go "ready to receive" or to “get fed.” This sometimes leads us to say, “I didn’t really get anything out of church today," but that reflects the consumerist mentality that plagues the modern church. The early Church didn't gather to get anything.

There are those who will go to give. They pursue opportunities to serve, to pour out, to be a blessing.

I often get something when I go to church. I often give something when I go to church.

But I go neither to get nor to give. I go to belong.

Join a people who are working together to make something artful and beautiful. Find a conductor who will encourage you in living a life in rhythm. Find a church community where you can belong.

Sabbath creates the margin.

Scripture reveals the mystery.

Worship provides the ministry.

Prayer unveils the mystical.

Church produces the motivation.

And we need them all.

REFLECTION

Being a part of the Church is about belonging. How could the right local church community help you to live your life in rhythm?