We’ll start gathering at 5:30 pm. After the meal, members of Girls’ Club and Cadets will go to their first meeting and will later rejoin the group around the campfire. Let’s eat, relax and sing together as one big family! Questions? Please call the church office, 956-7611.

Classes begin the week of Sept. 12 on the following schedule:

• Tuesday and Wednesday mornings: 10-11:30 am
• Tuesday and Thursday evenings: 6-8 pm

All classes are held at the church building. New students are warmly welcome! For more information, please call the church office, 956-7611.

For more information, contact Rebecca Jordan Heys at the church office, 956-7611, extension 34.

For further information, contact Stephen Monsma at svmonsma@sbcglobal.net.  Letters of application and resumes should be sent to Monsma at his email address or 2605 Golfridge Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

Church of the Servant CRC

Job Description

Position Title: Minister of Church Administration (MA)

FTE: 0.5

Duration: Initially, a three-year appointment, subject to renewal.

Position Description:

The Minister of Administration oversees the entire administration of the church.  This oversight serves ultimately to implement the church’s vision of making disciples as articulated by the Council and Senior Pastor.

The MA encourages, organizes, manages, and assists staff, ministry teams, committees, and all others involved in the work of the church to enable them to do their work competently, efficiently, creatively, and collaboratively.  The MA furthermore seeks to guide new initiatives into the appropriate channels of authority so as to ensure proper order and cohesion in the church’s ministry.  The MA, finally, encourages not only creative collaborations among the ministries of the church but also creative connections between the ministries of the church and programs outside the church.

Position Qualifications:

The position is both managerial and relational, requiring fiscal, organizational, and leadership abilities, coupled with interpersonal skills and the skills needed to communicate well in writing and in speaking, whether one-on-one, in small groups, or in large meetings.  Beyond having strong managerial and relational skills, the MA needs to be biblically and theologically sensitive as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and able to grasp imaginatively and to implement creatively the vision of the church.  In this regard, it is critical that the MA be able to interact sympathetically, in an ongoing way, with the Senior Pastor, each being proactively responsive to the concerns of the other for the good of the church.  The MA must become a member of the Church of the Servant.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Collaborate closely with the Senior Pastor and the Council to ascertain and implement their vision for the church and its ministries.
2. Manage and support the ministerial staff, being responsive to the voices and concerns of the staff and encouraging responsibility, creativity, and ongoing collaboration in their work.
3. As part of the oversight of ministerial staff, the MA will, together with the HR committee, begin a discernment process that will lead to a full 360º performance review of staff.  The MA in collaboration with ministry staff will develop a detailed organizational chart and full job descriptions for the ministerial staff, recommending to Council any steps to take regarding staffing.
4. Manage and support the office staff and the Facility Coordinator, ensuring order, competence, and professionalism in their work and responsiveness to their concerns.
5. Keep all staff job descriptions updated and conduct annual staff evaluations, with ongoing reviews as needed throughout the year.
6. Facilitate the ongoing relationship between the ministerial staff and the Council, in particular the elders, ensuring mutual concern and accountability.
7. In conversation with the Senior Pastor and Council, encourage, coordinate, and oversee the various existing ministries of the church, supporting the supervision of the designated staff minister and other appointed leaders.
8. In conversation with the Senior Pastor and Council, encourage appropriate new initiatives in the church, guiding them into the proper channels in the church.
9. Encourage connections between the ministries of the church and appropriate programs outside the church.
10. Encourage, coordinate, and channel volunteerism in the congregation as part of fostering congregational participation generally in the life of the church.
11. Encourage and coordinate the work of the committees of the church and facilitate the relation between the committees and ministerial staff.
12. In collaboration with the HR committee, oversee all the church’s administrative functions and procedures, implementing or recommending changes where needed.
13. Encourage the various efforts in the church to meet its financial challenges.
14. Monitor the various logistical needs of the church offices and facility, being responsive to the needs of the office staff and facility coordinator.
15. Spearhead the exploration of better electronic communication at COS, both within the congregation and beyond.
16. Help to guide the church through the transitions that will come with the retirement of any staff members.

Position Accountability:

The MA is accountable to Council.

Applying for the Position

Letters of application and resumes should be sent to the chair of the search committee, Mr. Stephen Monsma at svmonsma@sbcglobal.net or 2605 Golfridge Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

This contest is made possible by a generous donation in memory of  Ben Fackler, who loved all things musical.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

• A congregational song based on a Psalm or a significant portion of a Psalm.
• Any musical style or lyrical form.
• Settings may include cantor, choir, readers, and instrumentalists, as long as the congregation is given a significant role. Available musicians include piano (no organ), choir, cantors/vocal soloists, a variety of advanced instrumentalists, string ensemble, Joyful Noise Orchestra (small orchestra), Guitarchestra (folk ensemble of guitars, fiddle, accordion, etc), and hand percussion; More information about the church’s worship can be found at http://www.churchoftheservantcrc.org/ministries/worship.
• Under-represented Psalms and settings that include Psalm 73:26 are especially welcome.
• Texts without music will be considered; text-only submissions should include tune suggestions.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Submissions may be emailed as PDF attachments to greg.scheer@churchoftheservantcrc.org or mailed to New Psalm Contest, Church of the Servant, 3835 Burton St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.
• Do not print your name or identifying marks on the music itself. Instead, include all contact info in the body of the email or in a cover letter.
• No more than two submissions per person.
• The contest is open to everyone (except the judges).
• Only unpublished songs that have received no awards may be submitted.
• If a submission is co-authored or uses copyrighted material, proof of permission must be included.
• Submissions will not be returned. Please do not send original copies.
• All submissions must be emailed or postmarked by October 1, 2010.

JUDGING

• Submissions will be judged on their quality and usability at Church of the Servant.
• $250 will be awarded the winner. Judges have the right to award no winner or divide the award money as they see fit.
• Contest results will be made public by November 31, 2010.
• Premiere will take place in worship at Church of the Servant on January 30, 2011. The winning composer is welcome to attend, but travel funds are not available.

FINE PRINT

• Composer retains all rights to the song and is encouraged to seek publication.
• All future dissemination of the song will include the phrase “Winner of the Church of the Servant 2010 New Psalm Contest, in memory of Ben Fackler.”
• Winner grants Church of the Servant the right to use the song in its worship and publicize his/her name.

(A printable PDF document of these contest guidelines is also available.) Questions should be directed to Greg Scheer (greg.scheer@churchoftheservantcrc.org; 616-956-7611).

For more information, call the church office at 956-7611.

Be Not Afraid (Bruce Benedict)

What the Lord Has Done in Me/Confession (Reuben Morgan)

Santo (Guatemala)

Holy Spirit, Guide Me (Rory Noland)

This service celebrates the historic merger of the Reformed Ecumenical Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches into the World Communion of Reformed Churches. The Uniting General Council takes place June 18-26 on the campus of Calvin College. To volunteer to sing in the ecumenical choir for the June 20 service, contact Cindy De Boer; to serve communion, contact Kristen Verhulst. For general information, go to www.reformedchurches.org.

Forty or fifty years ago, there wasn’t much question of what one would find when opening a hymnal: congregational songs displayed in four-part harmony. Ah…glorious SATB! There is nothing like the sound of a congregation raising its praise in a robust balance of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Many of the best singing congregations in Reformed, Mennonite and Lutheran traditions don’t even need the support of organ or piano to complete their harmonies.

It is no understatement to say that hymnody in 2010 is substantially more fragmented. One of the biggest complaints about recent changes in hymnody is that many songs are no longer shown in four parts. Some people see this as a dumbing down of church music—reducing a song to melody limits a congregation’s musical options, stretches basses out of their comfort zone, and leads to musical illiteracy. And don’t get them started on projection screens!

One the one hand, I’m extremely sympathetic to this point of view—I sometimes wonder if the modern Church has sold its birthright for whatever scintillating pot of porridge our insatiable souls encounter. On the other hand, a four-part-fits-all approach doesn’t do justice to the magnificent variety of singing in God’s Kingdom. Four-part singing is just one of the ways groups sing together; we should be open to exploring other ways of joining our voices in worship.

All music is made up of some combination of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Each music style emphasizes some of these elements while diminishing others, and every music style distributes the elements differently. For example, a Bach chorale features wonderfully sophisticated harmonies, but its rhythms are bland compared to Salsa. The austere balance of Chinese melodies or Gregorian chant comes at the expense of rhythm and harmony.

It is tempting to champion our own culture’s songs as the perfect blend of musical elements. Some go so far as to argue that their own music is somehow more biblical than other possibilities. Many in the 19^th century did just that, elevating Western hymnody while demonizing local music expressions of worship. But today we are coming to realize that the diversity of musical styles in Christ’s Church is actually a precious gift.

If we are to sing everything from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Thomas Dorsey to Chris Tomlin (and we should) then a four-part vocal structure won’t always work. For example, in Black Gospel, Latin American Coritos, and the Praise & Worship genre, there is a clear melody/accompaniment musical texture. Forcing these styles into SATB vocal parts straightjackets their natural beauty. Taizé chants and African choruses call for musical flexibility as the leader and people respond to each other with variations of text and melody. These are sung effectively “off the page”—learned by rote and developed in the moment using call-and-response.

Even within historic Western hymnody, there are examples of music that are most appropriately sung melody only: Gregorian chant, Genevan Psalms, early Lutheran hymnody. These often appear in our hymnals in four-part arrangements, but were originally intended for unison singing. Churches that sing them in their original forms will be blessed by their profound simplicity.

Hymnals and church bulletins should match the appropriate printed format to each vocal style. Use the traditional four-part, two-stave format whenever appropriate, but also make ample use of unison or two-part notation as style dictates. I would go so far as to suggest that showing only the text is the right decision for some types of syncopated music—it’s too daunting to sight-read from the page and works better when you simply sing it like you’d speak it.

Every congregation should develop, maintain, and delight in the discipline of four-part singing from a hymnal. But they should also develop the ability to confidently sing an unadorned unison line, improvise harmonies, and respond to a leader’s cues. This isn’t dumbing down. It is simply acknowledging that God’s song—just like God’s people—come in many different shapes and sizes. Now that’s perfect harmony.

Can’t tell a unison melody from a soprano solo? Contact Greg Scheer.