I'm writing from Tokyo. Our church started from a few families
meeting in someone's house 30 years ago, and now has about 130 members,
still meeting in the same house! Just recently we actually purchased
our first building, another house just a few houses down the street
from our present meeting place. Unfortunately, despite paying $1
million in cash, we were not able to get a building that could house
all of us along with the various church ministries, so we are now going
to be using both houses with teleconferencing among five floors in the
two houses. It is a kludge solution but it will work for a few more
years until we grow to the point where we can afford to do more. At
least we will no longer feel like we're taking a rush hour commuter
train when we go to church on Sunday!
About half the church
members are children, and almost all the children are taking music
lessons as part of their formal education, with about half doing so
seriously (serious as in committed for life, but not necessarily as
professionals). A few of the oldest kids are going to seminary,one is
in a local conservatory as a voice and harpsichord major, and a few
more kids will probably be heading into conservatory for voice and
various instruments in a few years.
We would like to get an organ
as soon as it is feasible to do so, but nobody in our congregation
plays organ. My oldest daughter, who plays the harpsichord, has played
the organ at a friend's wedding and says it's a whole different ball of
wax from piano, harpsichord, or electric keyboard, and that it is a
real challenge to lead congregational singing with an organ.
My questions are:
1)
How does a small congregation go about getting a pipe organ into its
church culture for the first time? You need an organist to have an
organ, and you need an organ to have an organist. How can we break into
such a chicken-and-egg cycle?
2) How do we know when an organ is
feasible? Our main worship area still measures only 6.5 meters by
7.5 meters by 2.5 meters --a room size more associated with residences
than with church worship halls.(Remember, our worship services combine
multiple rooms via teleconferencing.) Still, I note that people have
small pipe organs in their homes.Since at some point down the road we
will eventually be getting a larger facility, it would be nice to have
a congregation that is already accustomed to using a pipe organ when
that time comes.
3) If a small pipe organ would be appropriate
(as opposed to a piano, which is what we currently use) what kind of
specs would be appropriate?
We have immediate needs as well as
needs that we are trying to anticipate for 10-20 years down the pike;
that's why we are looking into organs even at our present stage.
Any
advice you could give would be greatly appreciated! Please don't
hesitate to ask questions if you need to know more before you can make
suggestions.
Thanks very much!
Chris
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