There are times, Shaun King said, when worship music should be energetic, light or joyful. That’s when instruments like pianos, drums and guitars do the trick.
But then there are times when the sound needs to be “bigger and in your face,” said the senior pastor of College Park Baptist Church, Orlando, Fla. And that’s when you need an organ.
“When there needs to be a bigness that envelops everyone in the room, the organ can do that,” he said. King’s church has had an organ all of its 85 years and today blends it into an integrated worship style that ranges from praise and worship to orchestral.
Experts who play, study and make organs say King’s attitude is becoming increasingly common in churches across the denominational spectrum.
The organ — whether in electric, digital or pipe form — is enjoying a comeback after suffering declines in the 1990s and early 2000s, despite price tags that range from the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
“There are a lot of naysayers who say the organ is dead, but that’s simply not true,” said Frederick Swann, an internationally acclaimed organ master who performed on Crystal Cathedral broadcasts for 16 years.
Swann said interest in the organ waned as modern worship forms surged in the late 1980s. As a result, university organ programs suffered from lack of interest and organists became generally harder to find.
“But they are now burgeoning with students again,” Swann said of the college programs. And organ recitals held by churches are increasingly packed coast to coast, he said.
Swann attributes the turnaround to what he sees as spiritual yearning for inspirational music. “A lot of people feel the organ has a soul, either through its beautiful quietness or enormous volume,” he said. “It’s a very thrilling sound.”
More people apparently are feeling that way outside the church as well, said Brent Beasley, senior pastor at Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas. Beasley’s church hosts the largest pipe organ in Texas and the largest of its specific design in the world, said Swann, who consulted on its installation and played its inaugural recital in 1996.
“We’re seeing a generation who grew up with contemporary worship, and a lot of them are looking for something else,” Beasley said.
David Mikesell, 20, said he’s looking for a balance. He grew up worshipping at College Park Baptist and has come to love the organ in worship. But he also likes the energetic praise-and-worship style at the student services he attends at Florida State University.
That makes him grateful for the way his church integrates both styles, he said.
“There’s an attitude that the organ can be stuffy,” Mikesell said. “But I think Christian music has a long and rich history, and the organ is indispensable.”
(ABP)
To read more related articles, see "No single worship style trumps another, state leaders say" and "'Default standard' contemporary worship style may not be only option for success"
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