Mass Hysteria Band

…But Mass attendance is suffering

I recently read an article that said faith is strong among the young in the Catholic Chruch, based upon a survey given by the American Bishops just prior to the Pope Benedict’s visit to the US. That article also brushed upon a general lack of observance of Catholics for going to weekly Mass. The survey reported that those who don’t attend Mass regularly believe they can be good Catholics without going to Mass. Then, in response to the survey, the Archbishop of San Francisco claimed that Catholics need more instruction in “what it means to be Catholic.” With all due respect to the esteemed bishop, more instruction is the last thing we Catholics need. We already have a Catechesis that covers practically every aspect of living a Catholic life. Do we actually need more instruction?

If Catholics identify themselves as being Catholic and living a Catholic life, but don’t feel that it’s necessary to go to Mass to be a good Catholic, no amount of instruction is going to compel them to go to Mass.

Don’t get me wrong. I go to Mass weekly, not just because I happen to play music at Mass, but because I love the Mass. I love the rites and the traditions, and the sacred mystery of the transmutation of the bread and wine. But I can honestly say, without being boastful, that I’m an exception to the rule.

So why do many Catholics feel that they can be good Catholics without going to Mass? Well, having worked with young adults and teens for most of my life, I can tell you it’s not due to a lack of instruction in “Catholic-ness.” It’s due to a lack of context. For too many years, the Church has operated on an unsaid tenet of patronizing its constituents; that is, “Let me tell you what’s good for you.” Unfortunately, most of the people who are saying this are decades older than the young people they’re saying it to, and their values are also decades old. So let’s face it: The young people aren’t buying it. So it’s no surprise to me that Mass attendance among teens and young adults has dropped.\

Some leaders use analogy to compel participation in Mass. One great one I heard came from the pastor of my parish. He related that when we go to Mass, we form the Body of Christ. When someone is missing, it’s akin to having a part of the body missing. Great analogy, but still not compelling enough to get young people to go to Mass. Why? Simply because it’s just a gentler way of expressing CGS, or “Catholic Guilt Syndrome.”

In this day and age, with all the outside distractions and activities with which to compete, Church leaders and parents are hard-pressed to find ways to get their kids to attend Mass. Instruction will bore them; guilt will anger them; and forcing them will just make them resentful. In my mind, there’s only one thing that will get kids and young adults to attend Mass: Inspire them.

A major step in getting our young people inspired to go to Mass involves providing the active promotion of opportunities for them to participate in the parish liturgical and service community. The thought is that if they’re involved and feel like part of the community, they’ll be inspired to be an active member, and that includes going to Mass. Mind you, you can’t limit the opportunities just because they’re a certain age. For instance, my son Liam was recently confirmed. Prior to that, he and his classmates attended a confirmation retreat to help them prepare. At the end of the retreat, they were handed out surveys of ministries in which they could participate. The survey only had two choices: Eucharistic Ministry and Usher. Where was Music Ministry? Where was Visitation to the Sick? Where was Parish Life Group? Where was Youth Ministry? Give me a break!

I know that I’m sounding like I’m picking on my own parish. But bear in mind that my parish isn’t the only one at fault of this. It almost seems as if most of the American Catholic Church as a whole doesn’t have enough trust in its younger members to provide them with avenues to participate in their very own communities, so it’s no small wonder that our young people don’t feel part of theirs.

Notice that I didn’t mention that churches should play music that’s more in line with what young people like. While this has some significance, it’s still not enough to get them to go to Mass regularly. It’ll appeal to some, but it still won’t be enough. I also believe that creating a Mass just for young people is the wrong approach because in this case all a parish is doing is pigeonholing the young people into a Mass of their own. Indeed, there are a lot of positives to this, but if that’s the only opportunity you give them to participate in the parish community, you’re just not getting it, and ultimately, it you’ll fail in growing their numbers.

But besides providing opportunities, there’s one important thing we all have to change that I believe will have a positive effect not only on youth and young adults but on all age groups as a whole, and that is simply taking a more holistic view of our parish and try to avoid age stratification as much as possible. For instance, over the years, I’ve heard many people say that youth and young adults are “the future of the Church.” Know this: They ARE NOT the future. They ARE the Church. WE are the Church! “We” doesn’t just mean the adults. It has to mean EVERYONE TOGETHER!

By taking a more holistic approach to their communities, parishes can avoid a lot of the alienation that occurs as a result of catering to specific age groups, or in the case of youth and young adults, not providing context for them. It’s not an easy task, but parish leadership needs to learn how to embrace and include the entire community as a whole. Even though I mildly bashed my parish above, I love the fact that at my own parish we’ve begun to take steps toward this, by making First Holy Communion a part of the regular Mass schedule over the course of a couple of weekends, with different groups of kids, and not done at a “special” Mass. This very act reinforces the idea that our kids are part of the community. I applaud our new pastor for recognizing the need to do this. Was there some grumbling on the part of those who didn’t have kids making their First Holy Communion? Sure there was, but as this will be a regular, yearly event, they’ll get used to it eventually, and will hopefully understand the importance of doing First Holy Communion in this manner.

Admittedly, none of what I’ve suggested will be easy. Inertia, especially in organizations as long-lived as our beloved Church, is not an easy thing to break. But if our Church leadership wants more participation, they need to stop trying to instruct and start inspiring. Once you get people inspired and attending you can instruct them all you want.

The one thing that annoys me about many church based music groups is the group members’ reliance on their music - especially the singers. How many services have you been to where the music is really good, but you don’t feel very engaged because the group members have their faces practically buried in their music? As far as my own group is concerned, that is the one thing that I’ve been trying to break of both our musicians and singers.

Really now, how can you expect to do effective music ministry when you don’t even make eye contact with your assembly? How can you facilitate their participation when you’re more focused on your sheet music and not them? The difference between a singer, and a SINGer is that the SINGer establishes a relationship with their assembly. A singer just transposes words and notes into music. Boring, to say the least.

It rankles me to no end when I see this in my group because I established the band not as music group, but as a Liturgical Music Ministry. There’s a huge difference between being a musician and being a music minister. Being a minister implies having a certain responsibility to minister the Word of God through song. It implies consciously reaching out to and placing yourself within your assembly to compel them to participate. You can’t do that when your face is buried in your music. When you do that, you lose any chance of enhancing the worship experience. You might as well just play a recording through the room’s PA.

Engaging your assembly doesn’t mean that you jump around on stage and be a showboat. I’ve seen this as well, and it can come off as foolish. That’s not to say that it’s bad to do this. But as a minister you have to be sensitive to the overall energy of the assembly. You really have to gauge when you can and can’t do that.

But despite that, the easiest way to engage your assembly is to simply make eye contact and sweep your eyes across the pews - regularly. No problem glancing down at your music now and then; even I do that to make sure I’m in the right place (and singing the right verse ). But your focus has to always be on the assembly. Period.

Now, all that said, this isn’t an easy habit to break, and it requires time and patience to develop. It’s especially hard for musicians because it’s not always easy to remember chord progressions. But practice makes perfect, and eventually, you’ll get it.

As I’ve been getting geared up to try to get a record deal, I’ve been listening to a lot of contemporary Christian music on K-LOVE to get a taste of what’s being played across the airwaves. This isn’t so much that I want to write what’s similar, but more out of curiosity than anything else. After a few days, I’ve come to a very sobering conclusion: I’m not sure if my music will ever get air time. Why do I say this? Simply because the difference between stuff that’s being played on the radio and my own music is so totally different, I’m not sure if he A&R guys will pick it up.

I’ve gone kind of the blues/rock route with sparse instrumentation; usually just a couple of guitars, a bass, piano or organ, and drums. I made the conscious choice of not using synthesizers because I thought they’d take away from the “raw” sound that I wanted to present. My music is no-frills and straight-up, with the intent of providing a big sound from just a few instruments. In a way, it has been tougher to go this route because I’ve had to completely rely on my instrumental and vocal technique (or sometimes lack thereof) to get the sound that I want. I didn’t want to hide behind pads and shimmers and effects.

On the other hand, a lot of the Christian contemporary music being played seems to be produced by the same producer, with heavy use of background synthesizers, and pseudo-tech rhythm loops. Song structures are also fairly similar between the songs. A telling thing for me was that my son Bennie asked me after one song, “Dad, is that the same song with a girl singing it this time?” Ouch! It appears that the music industry has even homogenized this area of music as well, which leads me to what this article is about, and what I think is the problem with the music industry in general.

Because the industry has to sell as many records as possible to maximize the profit on their investments, it seems that as soon as they find a musical style that’s popular, they fill it with as many bands that do similar stuff, so they can sell more records. The net result is that what you get all sounds the same. For proof, just turn on your local pop radio station. No doubt the songs are different with respect to the singers, but I defy you to say there’s any ground-breaking stuff out there. It’s just new acts with the same tired sound.

With the widespread use of the Internet as a way to discover and buy music (thanks iTunes!), people now have a choice over what they want to hear. Because they have a choice, they’re not limiting themselves to a narrow band of music. They can reach out and explore, and discover new sounds that move them. The record companies, of course, have fought this tooth and nail, and the recent, highly publicized spate of lawsuits to prevent people from downloading and sharing music is clear evidence that they’re losing their foothold on the industry. But it’s also clear evidence that their formula for limiting choice to maximize their profits is unraveling before their very eyes.

I don’t know where the music industry is headed. Hopefully it will be in a direction where everyone wins. But as a budding artist, I’m hoping to break through in some way… Time will only tell…

A couple of years ago, I had a great conversation with Tom Booth. I just called him one day out of the blue, left a message on his answering machine, and amazingly enough, he called me back a couple of days later! For those of you who have never had the chance to meet him, Tom’s not only an incredibly talented and gifted artist, he’s just an all-around nice guy, and he had a lot of advice to offer me.  I originally called him to ask him about how he went about putting his first album together, and how much did he spend in studio time. His answer actually surprised me.

“Well,” he said, “My latest album actually cost quite a bit, but if you’re just starting out with your first album, don’t spend the money on studio time. Spend your money on the best equipment you can get, then only go into the studio when you’ve got your songs completely down.” The conversation when on for awhile touching other subject not related to this article, but I got a lot valuable insight from Tom, and for that, I thank him.

Based on that conversation, I went out and spent roughly $10,000 on recording equipment and new guitar gear, then went about the arduous task of learning DigiDesign’s ProTools LE. That was a lesson in frustration. Without a doubt, ProTools is pretty much the standard when  it comes to recording. But for home recording, it was an absolutely daunting task trying to learn the ins and outs of the software. It’s not that it’s particularly difficult to use. There’s just so much to it, that I found that I was spend more time on learning the software, than getting my songs onto disc! So I actually gave up recording for about a year. I just kept writing songs. As time went by, close friends kept on urging me to get my songs out, but I explained my frustration, and said that I was waiting for God to present me with a solution.

A couple of months went by, and I found myself out of a job again as the start-up I joined completely imploded. In spite of that, I had the feeling that this was going to set me up with a new, even better opportunity, and more importantly, help me find a solution to getting my songs recorded. As a result of my company folding, I was able to purchase a couple of G5 iMacs that I would set up and give to my kids. Little did I know that that purchase of $600 for the both of them would completely change my life!

I brought the computers home and set them up. By chance, one of the computers had iLife installed on it, and I just happened to discover a little unassuming program called GarageBand. I ended up playing with it for over 6 hours! I discovered that my DAW (an MBox2) could be used with GarageBand, so I hooked it up and started recording tracks. I was amazed to be able to record You Stir My Soul, the title track to my demo in less than an hour! Granted, it’s only two guitar parts and three vocal parts, but it would’ve taken me days to do it ProTools! I spent the next week recording a few more songs like Great God, I Will Sing of Your Salvation, and We Sing with Joy! whose project files I unfortunately lost due to a hard drive failure, but I now had the recording bug back!

Going back to what Tom had advised, I still totally agree that you should buy gear. But I’ll qualify it… Buy gear that you will use for recording; that is, good-quality instruments - in case you’re in need to fill up gaps in things you’re missing instrument-wise. For recording gear, get a good DAW like an MBox or Presonus DAW. Then make sure you have a program that can interface with your DAW. Keep in mind that you’re putting together a demo, not a fully mastered production-quality collection of music. The idea is to get it good enough to turn heads, but with the understanding that you’ll do the real recording in a studio where you have a sound engineer.

Here’s the amazing thing I’ve found about using GarageBand for the past year. It has got some great mastering tools in it, so you can get your songs very close to a finished state. But even more amazing is that it’s so easy to use, you can concentrate more on getting your music recorded than futzing about with the software. Does it have it’s shortcomings? Sure it does. For instance, you only have a 1 meaure count-in for re-recording a region. That can be a real pain, especially if the song has a fast tempo. You barely have time to click the recording button then start singing or playing. But in spite of its shortcomings, the general ease getting your songs down far outweighs the negatives.

This past week, I played one funeral Mass and have been asked to “stand by” for another family whose father is on the brink of passing. These events have prompted me to think about the season of Christmas and how it relates to my life.Despite the commercialism associated with this season, Christmas is about giving; and not just giving physical gifts, but spiritual ones as well. It’s a time where we give of ourselves. Admittedly, I’ve forgotten that at times, so I’m now resolved to rectify that.In the memorial Mass I recently played, one of the eulogists remarked (I’m paraphrasing here), “…we need to cherish every moment of every day we have with each other.” He even admitted that it’s easier said than done. But still, even though we may get angry with each other, it’s important to remember the love we have for each other - and never forget that… 

After many long years trying to find my “sound,” I’m finally in a place where I feel comfortable with the music I’m writing. A lot of this has to do with being able to write a lot of different kinds of music. For years, a lot of my writing centered around a single genre; one that I was interested in at the time.

But with age comes experience, and now I feel I can tap into all my different musical experiences and write different kinds of music, or even cross-pollinate different genres into a single song. It’s really refreshing.

by Brendan Delumpa

To me, worship music is worshiping God through song. Sounds obvious, right? But to me it’s not so simple. There are a lot of contemporary Christian songs whose lyrics simply turn me off. So the one thing that I think about when writing music is that the message that I’m inspired to share revolves around an aspect of praise; and more importantly, is magnified when many people sing the song together.

Personally, I have a real problem with lyrics that are self-centered with messages like: I’m a sinner. I’m nothing, and only you can save me. To me, that’s a given - we all have our weaknesses and limitations - so our praise should be focused on glorifying the Lord, on gratitude for the wonderful gifts he has given us, and on relishing the infinite, constant love that He shares with us. Worship is our recognition and acknowledgment of God’s blessings - it’s not to debase ourselves and knock ourselves down.
Why do I feel so strongly about this? Primarily because lamenting about our weaknesses puts the focus of the message on us, and not the Father. Furthermore, it removes our responsibility to redeem ourselves. Yes, I believe Jesus Christ is my personal savior. Absolutely. But I have also been given a free will, and I MUST CHOOSE TO DO RIGHT, and not wait for someone to come along and lift me up. And there’s nothing less motivating than a posture where I feel like crap! So lyrics where this is done really bug me.

From a more theological standpoint, there is the concept of atonement, or “at-one-ment” of which we are entirely responsible. When we sin, WE are responsible to atone for those sins. WE have to make good with God again. Look at it this way (for those of you who are parents): When your child does something wrong, you don’t love them any less, and usually you’re quick to forgive. But that doesn’t necessarily excuse the wrongdoing. The child must make up for that. It’s the same with our relationship with God. Yes, we might be forgiven, we might be saved, but we still have to be responsible for our sins. There’s no way around this.

So when I hear lyrics in “worship” songs that are me-focused, and essentially take away the responsibility from us to do what’s right by God, I check those songs off my list of songs that my band will perform. Some songs have really catchy hooks, and are musically pleasing, but to me, their messages have to be uplifting.