Church musicians agree the organ may be down but it’s not out in Alabama Baptist churches. With the contemporary worship trend bringing drums, multiple guitars and keyboards to the forefront of church music, the organ has quietly faded into the background in some settings.
It is often draped and pushed into a forgotten corner — until a wedding revives it — and suspiciously absent from building committee budgets for new sanctuaries. Yet, many musicians are finding ways to include the instrument in all types of modern worship environments, and many feel it is due for a comeback.
Ron Rainer has served 15 years as minister of music at Central Baptist Church, Decatur, and has seen their worship style evolve from the traditional to a more blended style.
But in spite of including more praise choruses and contemporary songs in their services, the church’s beautiful pipe organ has not been overlooked. Rainer explained that even in modern music, “the pipe organ really helps us out.
“It gives a unique sound that can be really contemporary,” he said. “I’ve been amazed at how well it works in some songs.”
A recent worship service at Central Church underscores Rainer’s quest for diver-sity in music. Congregational singing began with four praise choruses and included two hymns from the Baptist Hymnal. Also featured in the service were a Sacred Harp offertory piece played on the organ; a choir, band and organ arrangement of “It Is Well” (an arrangement using “It is Well with My Soul”) and trumpet solos of “Amazing Grace” and “Blessed Assurance.”
A church that makes a tremendous financial as well as emotional investment in an instrument as treasured as a pipe organ expects to see it used.
Rainer said the key to keeping the service truly blended with the elements of traditional and contemporary worship present but not at war with each other, is to not make the pipe organ the center of the service.
“Some songs may feature the piano or another instrument,” he said. “Some contemporary rhythms would never work on that pipe organ.”
Don Campbell, minister of music at First Baptist Church, Birmingham, agreed that more blended worship services tend to use the pipe organ in contemporary pieces.
“Some musicals are fairly contemporary, such as ‘Experiencing God,’ and it uses the organ quite a bit,” Campbell said. “The organ can strengthen contemporary music. It strengthens the entire sound and supports people’s voices.”
He added that the church organist at First, Birmingham, Sandra Watwood, is key in using the instrument for contemporary pieces.
“She has been wonderful in transposing some contemporary pieces for the organ, and she’s great at transitioning between classical hymns and contemporary songs,” Campbell said.
Unfortunately some churches that would like to use the organ in services lack the personnel to do so. At Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, minister of music Greg Crane has been without a full-time organist for over a year.
A part-time organist is filling in for one of the two morning services at the church. He blames the organ’s decline in popularity, in part, on the lack of trained organists.
He said, “Unless schools like Samford [University] and [the University of] Alabama begin to train more students, we will lose the organ in our churches. It’s too easy with modern technology to work a keyboard than to learn to use your feet and hands on an organ.”
Betty Sue Shepherd, Samford piano professor and pipe organist for Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, agrees that the lack of organ students has naturally caused a drop in organ use.
“There’s a shortage of organists countrywide,” she noted. “It’s difficult to make a living as an organist.”
Even the custom-built, renowned pipe organ at Calvary Baptist Church, which is nestled on the campus of the University of Alabama (UA), isn’t encouraging students to study the art.
Faythe Freese, professor of organ at UA, said only one student majored in organ last year, but she is actively recruiting more. There are currently three students majoring in organ. Freese believes the organ will regain popularity because many students are seeking that deeper religious experience that the organ conveys in worship.
According to Brett Dollar, worship associate at NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, the organ has traditionally been known as the king of instruments to musicians. Known for his keyboard acrobatics on the piano, Dollar also harbors a passion for the organ, which was his college minor. “Whenever I play the pipe organ, I feel like I am sitting right by the throne of God,” Dollar noted.
He said the key to featuring the organ again in church music is creativity.
“Creativity will help overcome the organ’s image as a solemn instrument,” he explained. “The organ’s image has suffered because most people equate organ music with solemnity and quiet. In the past, under-trained organists have been afraid to play the organ loud and push the instrument to its full and powerful potential. Ultimately, creativity is the key in the use of any instrument.”
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