Unless I slept walked through it, I never had the chance to see Andraé Crouch perform live. I heard plenty of his music. But I was never in his presence. I have been places where he performed, but only years after he was there. I was never able to catch up with him. I remain grateful for his legendary contributions to Christian gospel music.
I can simply at this point continue to appreciate the gifts of God that were expressed by his life. That is enough. That is non-negotiable.
One of the times I encountered a place where Crouch had been was in a struggling church in a major city. I attended worship there one Sunday. It was a small building with a small worship center that perhaps held 60 or so people. Around 20 people were present that day.
At the front of the church was a gorgeous German-built piano by craftsmen of whom I had never heard. I could immediately tell it was a high quality and likely an expensive piano. The sound of joy it made during worship was delightful.
After worship I walked around the church. I noticed a picture of the piano as part of a newspaper article posted on a bulletin board. The piano had come from a financial gift to the church by a family connected with the church. The size of the gift was greater than the annual income of the church.
Because of the high cost of the piano, the company selling it had a contract with Andraé Crouch to present a dedicatory concert. Wow! Talk about pack-the-pew Sunday. I’m not sure where they put all the people.
At the same time, I could not then and cannot now get beyond the tragedy of this type of expense in the midst of overall kingdom priorities. It is not that this church was unworthy of beautiful music. It is simply wonderment about the rightness of this priority. Who did it serve? Certainly God loves beautiful music.
I do not fault the church. It is unlikely they asked for this level of gift to purchase the piano. I just want to challenge the Christ-like mindset–or lack thereof–that leads anyone to say this is how God can best use our abundance. If it was just in this one church where misplaced priority happens, that would be one thing. The challenge is such misplaced priorities are everywhere.
One church has a sanctuary seating capacity of over 2,000 that in the 50 years since it was built has only been full twice. The day it opened and was dedicated was one time, and the other was when a favorite son of the church contributed a concert grand piano and came to play a dedicatory concert. The chandelier in this sanctuary is larger than the internal dimensions of the average church worship center. A congregation of less than 300 gathers for worship weekly.
Or, there is the church that has one of the 25 largest organs in the world, an $8 million endowment to support the facilities and the organ, and an average attendance of under 60. Certainly they can have great organ concerts for years. Is that all there is?
Don’t get me wrong. I love music. I really love great piano and organ music. I took lessons as a boy in playing both instruments. I am simply struck by how out of proportion these illustrations are. Amazingly none of the illustrations are about empty cathedrals in Europe. They are about our own emerging empty church monuments in North America.
What is the defense for these situations? Do you have one to offer? Does your defense point to a proactive positive vision out of these situations? Or, is it a rationale that seeks to explain them?
I will offer you one. Few, if any, of the situations where there is an out-of-proportion investment in musical instruments, facilities, decorations, and other expenses ever anticipated their church would not always be vital and vibrant. In fact, they thought the gift of tangible assets of expensive items would bolster the church and guarantee its long-term success. They felt people would come to the church because of what they were enabling the church to purchase.
Their motives were generally good. Their priorities were misplaced.
Oh, and about Andraé Crouch? Praise God for the music and worship gifts he expressed. We need more like him. May he be adding a great dimension to the worship and praise of God among the heavenly hosts.