Church Organs

Amybear and I have been having a great visit, but I saw something on the news today that really pushed my buttons. No, its not the latest liberal Social Security policy statement being parroted as fact. I heard that too, but frankly I have come to expect it.

No the story was about a St John's Episcopal Church down here in North Carolina somewhere. They just accepted delivery of a 1.5 million dollar pipe organ. It is being installed in their new building. The two were designed for each other over ten years ago. It is being reassembled on site by factory workers and has over 2000 different pipes that were made to an exacting level of craftsmanship.

Now pipe organs are pretty special. My sister was married in a church with huge one. But frankly, aren't there better things you could do with $1.5 million dollars of God's money than buy a single musical instrument, no matter how heavy or imposing?

And a pipe organ? Yeah I'm sure that'll bring in the kids these days. I can see two denim clad youths sitting around talking about it after the service. "Woah did you hear it when the organist pulled the stops in the last bar of the offertory? It was totally wicked..." No wonder church attendance is dropping in the younger age brackets.

They could have had an incredible audio/visual system at a tenth of the price (because yes worship is important) and then spent the remainder on, you know, MINISTRY! Helping people! Paying off the mortgage on the new building! Being wise stewards of God's freaking resources! Gah!