#072: What Music Will Young People Sing? (with the One Call Institute)

OCI participants at the end-of-week concert.

This past summer saw the second iteration of the One Call Institute for young pastoral musicians and their advocates. We are well on our way to planning next summer’s program, and we’re excited about new opportunities on the horizon. Specifically, we are pleased to offer short, local programs to train and form young people and those who work with young people in addition to our week-long summer institute.

In fact, a week ago, the first day-long One Call Institute was presented at a combined gathering of the Kansas City, Kansas and Kansans City, Missouri NPM chapters. There will also be a special pre-convention One Call experience for youth and adults this coming summer at the NPM convention in Louisville, Kentucky. If you are interested in finding out more about the One Call summer program, or about bringing One Call to your home community, you can visit the program website, onecallinstitute.org. 

One of the most common questions we get asked is, “what music appeals to young people?” To address this question, we’re sharing with you today the music of One Call. The Open Your Hymnal podcast produced a special episode that explored the variety of musical styles and genres used at the 2019 summer program. You’ll hear much of the music used at prayer, at the end-of-week concert, and at the Sunday liturgy. In exploring this repertoire, we hope you’ll come to realize that the musical tastes of young people are wide and varied, from chant to contemporary, and hymnody to praise and worship. The common threads, however, are intentionality, relevance, and authenticity.

SHOW NOTES

For more information about the One Call Institute, visit www.onecallinstitute.org.

You can learn more about the Open Your Hymnal podcast and listen to past episodes by visiting www.openyourhymnal.com.

The recording of "Now Thank We All Our God" (NUNN DANKET) was produced by Liturgical Press.

Visit NPM's digital resource library, referenced at the end of the episode. 

All content of this podcast is property of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians or its content suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws. For information about the podcast and its use, please contact us.

#071: Ministering in a Time of Tragedy (with Peter Kolar)

Peter Kolar

Today’s episode is about ministering in times of tragedy. In the past year, too many communities have been torn apart by violence, injustice, natural disaster, or other devastating events. In these times, words fail. No matter how well our liturgy or Scripture classes have prepared us, we can feel like we don’t know what to do. Yet, it is at these times that music can be the most transformative.

Today, we’ll hear from Peter Kolar. An accomplished pastoral musician and composer, Peter shares with us today his experience ministering in the aftermath of the recent mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. 

SHOW NOTES

For more information about Peter Kolar and his compositions, visit his biography pages at World Library Publications and GIA Publications. 

You can access Peter’s full article by visiting the “Sing, Amen!” blog post from August 24, 2019.

The recordings of "The Cloud’s Veil" (Liam Lawton), instrumental piano “The Cloud’s Veil” (arr. Paul Tate), “Nada te Turbe” (arr. Marty Haugen), and “Go, Silent Friend/In Paradisum” (arr. Steve Petrunak) were produced by GIA Publications.

Visit NPM's digital resource library, referenced at the end of the episode. 

All content of this podcast is property of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians or its content suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws. For information about the podcast and its use, please contact us.

#070: Understanding Liturgical Assessment (REPLAY)

Mike Novak

This is a special rebroadcast of our episode from July, 2018.

In last week’s episode, we explored the concept of operational development with Kathy Bartlett. In that conversation, we examined how we in pastoral ministry should apply a strategic, organizational lens to the way we view our work in order to be both efficient and effective. 

Today, we are continuing this thread of practical, strategic, and professional topics by discussing the concept of liturgical assessment. Now, before you hit the “skip” button or push “pause,” consider this question for a moment. How effective are your parish liturgies? If your response was negative, what high impact steps can your community take to address this ineffectiveness? If your response was positive, what objective evidence can you point to in order to back up your claim? 

Liturgical assessment is NOT about imposing or challenging musical or aesthetic taste, it is NOT about evaluating the personal worth of you or your volunteer ministers, and it certainly isn’t about the style wars. It is about giving good, accurate, real information about the experience of those who participate in your liturgies so that you know what your community does well and so that you know exactly what to do about those things your community doesn’t do so well. To help us understand the process, we’ll speak with assessment expert Mike Novak.

SHOW NOTES

For more information about Mike Novak, visit his biography page at World Library Publications. 

You can download the three resources mentioned in the conversation using the links below. NOTE: These were created by Mike Novak and are his intellectual property. The files are included here for your reference and your professional use. Please ensure that you properly credit the source of these resources. 

Handout 1: Overview of the Parish Liturgy Assessment Process

Handout 2: Liturgy Assessment Tool

Handout 3: Sample Assessment Report

The recordings of "They'll Know We Are Christians" was produced by World Library Publications. "Give Us Peace" was produced by GIA Publications.

Visit NPM's digital resource library, referenced at the end of the episode. 

All content of this podcast is property of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians or its content suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws. For information about the podcast and its use, please contact us.