Once upon a time...

There was a Sunday that special music was on the schedule. Bach, two services.

The sanctuary was packed. He found a seat in a pew well to the back of the church - with a fine view of the choir, the orchestra, the back of the conductor, and Jesus, represented in stained glass above on the south window wall.

We all bring baggage to church. His included a recent music degree, a drinking problem, a new business just down the street, a new baby girl, and a long-time love affair with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

He'd been to FUMC some with his spouse during the decade it took to gain his diploma. He was familiar with this church that would do Bach on a Sunday. This event was not to be missed, even if it took sneaking away from the store for an hour.

The reward was spectacular. Musical genius, devoted to God and shared, almost 400 years on, with us.

Even the weather cooperated. Wind-blown clouds seemed to obey the conductor's baton, showing us the stained glass above suddenly sunlit, then shaded, the robes and the face of Christ that glowed, then faded, up there on the south window.

That day, reverence felt for Bach's music was extended to the place he now privately thought of as Bach's church. It's what got him here.

* * *

So: If I wrote a history of the last 50 years of FUMC, it would be about the music. It's not only what got me here, but also what sustained me. While on the road, I compared the music at every church I visited to ours.

Now, we've endured, and enjoyed, many moments of enlightenment during this Fruitful Congregations learning experience. I learned to pray daily, which is a pretty big change. It's truly been a year full.

Then an especially dazzling "a-ha" moment nailed me just last week.

As we contemplated a 50-year history of this congregation - one being prepared by folks who are more than musicians, and far more active in the life of our congregation than I - the sudden awareness came to me:

Most of us don't share this deep interest in the music of the church, whether that of Bach or any composer. Music is just one part of what we do here. And the realization that follows: Our congregation isn't the church I thought I loved. Our congregation is far more than I thought it was. It isn't here so I can enjoy Bach. The vast array of faith, talent, energy, and resources that our congregation hosts comes together for more important, more profound reasons.

Reasons that are described by Jesus.

We know that most of the folks who will write the next 50-year history of the congregation of FUMC aren't here yet. Just as we do, these believers on the way will bring their own needs, tastes, styles - in music, as well as everything else. We live with the uncomfortable realization that the changes we're seeing in our church echo those we see outside our walls in our society, and are unending.

I believe that being a Fruitful congregation is making ourselves ready to host change.

It's using our talents and dedication to Christ to answer Jesus' call:

That call which often means looking outside our walls, outside ourselves, beyond our own interests, our preferences, our group.

That call to be an externally-focused servant community.

- Chuck Macklin