This episode is a discussion of why we like to attend the Good Shepherd Institute. GSI is a conference for pastors, church musicians, and others involved in ecclesiastical arts. Held in early November at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, GSI is a wonderful opportunity to hear glorious church music, listen to first-class presentations on church music and pastoral theology, and interact with ecclesiastical artists and their work. Listeners will hear St. Paul’s Director of Parish Music, Allison Mackie, back on the program, and note our enthusiasm for what we encountered, and what an encouragement it was for our daily work leading the congregation in Word, Sacrament, and song. For more information about the Good Shepherd Institute, look it up on the seminary’s site: www.ctsfw.edu.
[00:00:00] in parts nonetheless. In parts nonetheless. But that's not, but that's not what this podcast
[00:00:06] is about. See, and that's the kind of fun stuff that happens when you leave the two of us alone
[00:00:09] for a while. Or leave the two of you in a car with me for a few hours. Hey, we didn't get to
[00:00:17] accents until four hours into the trip. Right.
[00:01:31] Welcome listeners to another episode of Christ in All Things. My name is Pastor Jason Schachmann. And I'm Pastor Lance O'Donnell. And I'm Allison Mackie. She's our Director of Parish Music
[00:01:36] here at St. Paul's. We want to church music or theology in the arts of the church, but music in particular. And it was such a valuable time for us. We came back from that conference and said, this needs to be an annual and we need to
[00:03:00] take Allison with us.
[00:03:02] Now we had intended on taking Allison last year.
[00:03:05] That didn't work out.
[00:03:06] It did this year and we were really glad during the academic year. So from September through May, kind of beer and theology event at Bruffinity in O'Conanwalk on the third Sunday called Reformation Tap Society. And at the end of, so we had a regular attender who made a suggestion to us. He said, my son who lives in Tennessee or something.
[00:04:21] He sings this song at the pub, you guys should do that.
[00:04:24] And we thought, that's a great idea,
[00:04:26] but we're just not gonna sing a pub song. few hours. Hey, we didn't get to accents until four hours into the trip. Right. Just pointing that out. So we have found it to be not only worthwhile to go, but the journey to get there has been worthwhile for us as well. As we share in this ministry, in this work together in the church, the parting glass song came out
[00:05:42] of it. So first, first of all week in November toward the German word, we call it a winkle. And I was just talking about it with one of the pastors this morning about what a glory it is to hear beautiful church music. And we're recalling, this is one of my takeaways, to hear that chapel, which is acoustically amazing,
[00:07:01] filled with people and with respect
[00:07:05] with a lot of men singing. Allison, my organist Nancy, I forget what she did for a living, but on the side, she was a hockey player. And I can't say the name of the hockey team because it was a little off-color in Aspen, but she was on the same hockey team as the tennis great, Martina Naverto Lova, who was
[00:08:21] on that team with her Nancy played organ.
[00:08:24] And we had this lovely little congregation of 50 people, and then we did the best we
[00:08:27] could. absolutely rang in there. Big beautiful pipe organ, a hundred person choir that had been assembled for this. I mean, orchestra was up there in the balcony. I mean, it was fantastic. And we sang hymns through the liturgical seasons of the church year.
[00:09:40] Yeah, with a little commentary here and there.
[00:09:42] Yeah, and it was really,
[00:09:43] I thought it was to do anything.
[00:11:02] And there's something really filling about that.
[00:11:05] Yes.
[00:11:07] I don't have to seen this music before. It's brand new. And so sight reading is here's your music, find your part, keep up with the notes for your part as best as you can, as we together as a Insta choir sing.
[00:12:21] Insta choir with Pastor Jason Schachmann.
[00:12:23] It's scary.
[00:12:25] Sing these pieces of music that are beautiful. Oh, okay, the benefits I think are huge, but you join your voice to the song of the church and you are surrounded by those who confess the faith with you in song and you carry one another along. You learn to be what it means to be a part of the body
[00:13:42] of Christ.
[00:13:43] Not every voice is as strong as the voice beside of it.
[00:13:46] And so you lean on one another. Largely it wasn't pastors and a few and a few interested. Yeah, and a few interested lay people. Sorry. My technology is beeping at me The first time we sang through it with those 20 people or so It was amazing Most of the people in the room room musicians they knew their parts or their their voice they knew where their voice fit
[00:16:04] The second time through, there were less people in the room. There were still some talented vocalists in the room,
[00:16:08] but it wasn't as full.
[00:16:11] And Alison, you were in there with the second time.
[00:16:15] I was the only soprano. There were lots of soprano notes we did not get.
[00:16:19] Yeah, but nonetheless, we still Whereas if you have 10 kids that are singing and they're singing. And if you have a choir of 10 kids and they're all singing, it's great. And it sounds like 10. Now imagine if you had 15 and they were all singing. Right. So there is a line at which you kind of have diminishing returns.
[00:17:44] Right. to the people next to you if you don't want to. So says the introvert. Yeah. If you want to be an introvert, you can remain as such. Church choir. And what a choir adds to the life of a congregation in worship is wonderful. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:19:00] Shameless book.
[00:19:01] Well, not not shameless.
[00:19:03] No, not at all.
[00:19:03] But it.
[00:19:05] It's certainly it certainly flows from it. Well, I'm standing up here in front of all you very capable and skilled church musicians. I don't really know what I have to add here, but it was a really good opportunity for some of us to talk through some things and, you know, oh, I've noticed this in my church and I have to do this differently in my current congregation than I have had to anywhere else because of,
[00:20:24] you know, different congregations sing differently stewardship, and I talked about this in the sectional, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I should say the life and death
[00:21:40] and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
[00:21:43] inspires passion unlike anything with each other, but when you sing these hymns, these have been sung sometimes hundreds of years before. A couple of them were much newer, and we were singing with the church across time. And we don't do that in the culture very much. It's one thing to sing in Elvis Tune at karaoke with your grandma and grandpa or something like that. But it's not the same.
[00:23:01] It's not the same. No, it is not. make it happen, because some of the artwork that we looked at was from incredibly skilled visual artists. That doesn't just happen. And somebody's got to pay them.
[00:24:21] I mean, one, you've got to go through all the training.
[00:24:25] And then somebody's got to pay you to spend some of these pieces. skill and what he masterfully shows us in this piece of art Is wonderful right at the same time we looked at another painting of the altar piece of I forget that one again no the
[00:25:45] Seeing anne jillows the whatever of the resurrection and the new life and that this would come to an end. So on top of all of this wonder, there's also things that are presented at the Good Shepherd Institute. One was a paper about the Lutheran hymnal,
[00:27:03] the old red one.
[00:27:05] That was by Dr. Paul Graham,
[00:27:06] who's the dean of in the Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod will find this valuable. The presentation, I hope the video is available because there was some chuckling in the room and it was really well done for certain a high point. But one of the things for me was, I've always liked that hymnal in many respects,
[00:28:25] hymn wise, but not liked it as much liturgically. and did a paper on the theology of mercy in what he called termed based on some his study, Demiurgic Humanism, which is a, which is what is Demiurgic being pastoral. Well, it's, the thesis was basically that we're in a unique place in history where we are our own gods believing our,
[00:29:43] so it's not, we're not in,
[00:30:52] Right. The, the, the, the, the ergic part is the part that I never nailed down. Uh, but he identified it this way is a secular humanism is the whole, I think therefore I am.
[00:30:59] Right. Demiurgic humanism is identity itself is self orienting. is that this conference is pastoral theology and the arts in the church, in particular church music, and was invigorating in almost every kind of way, in well worth the trip to Fort Wayne and Parton.
[00:32:24] Well worth sleeping on the mattresses.
[00:32:26] And even worth it for Allison to deal with For show notes and other information about Christ in All Things, visit Christinallthings.org. Comments may be emailed to comments at Christinallthings.org. We're thankful to provide Christ in All Things to you as a gift, but it's not free to produce and distribute.
[00:33:41] So if you'd like to help us make Christ in All Things a self-supporting show and have
[00:33:45] a little fun in the process, please click the Street in O'Connell, Wisconsin. For more information about St. Paul's, visit splco.org. Email us at info at splco.org or The Old Fashion Way, give us a call, 262-567-5001.
[00:35:01] Intro and outro music, setting by Joseph Hurrell.
[00:35:03] Copyright 1998, Concordia Publishing House,
[00:35:06] used with permission.