After 15 years of preparing music for Sunday worship, it is amazing to think, here we are at our final one! Believe it or not, I do not have an original final sermon – what I have is the middle movement of a speech I gave at the retirement party Marcia Sobek and her committee gave for us in May. It was a section that I left out since Marilyn’s speech was so good and I decided to skip over it. So here it is. 

Marilyn and I have been Church Musicians for over 40 years. We have spent that time fulfilling both halves of that title – CHURCH AND MUSICIAN. And this is what I mean by that. 

To be a church MUSICIAN means that we have had the privilege of good training in a music school, and we have continually sharpened our skills and gained new ones through various means. You take all of this into your church work.   To be a CHURCH MUSICIAN means you have a special use, purpose, and focus for your musicianship. The distinction between performers and listeners is not as clear in the worship space as it is in the concert hall. 

Congregational song, in spite of all its musical “imperfections,” is of primary importance. Everyone in the room – and in the world outside – is royalty. We have tried to choose the musical repertoire not to highlight virtuosity or for good programming but to fulfill roles in the liturgy, to communicate, to minister. We have also tried to be involved enough in other non-musical aspects of church life so that it is not “their church” but “our church.” 

Putting CHURCH in front of MUSICIAN does not dilute it, weaken it, or negate it. But it does water it down because it baptizes it for a special purpose and places upon it a divine blessing. 

Marilyn and I have been so blessed to be at Pinnacle and to work with all of you. We pray that the coming months will run smoothly and that the search committees will be guided by God’s hand. Fall will come, and once again, the music program will be off to the races, headed towards great and glorious musical moments bringing you face to face with the God almighty.

Thank you for your support and prayers.
Soli Deo Gloria,

Brent & Marilyn

For the last fifty-one years I have been playing the organ for worship in some church “out there”!  And during most of those years I have heard clergy begin their sermons with the Psalm 19 passage “let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” I am certain for many of you this verse triggers similar memories as you have listened to preachers open their sermon with this passage.

For many Sunday services of worship more words are sung in worship than are spoken, so this verse also fits for those who sing (and also for those whose wordless message comes through music). In this age when so many congregations are experimenting with new forms for worship, new tunes, new texts, and new instruments for accompanying the singing, or providing music, the question often is raised, “What is acceptable?” 

Often the objectives that are raised have to do with what may or may not be acceptable to a given congregation in a given circumstance. Seldom do we hear serious questions about what may or may not be acceptable to God! Those who plead for clinging to the “old masters” and the tried and true, need to remember that God’s ears are very contemporary. The reverse is also true. God is long-memoried, and no doubt found worthy expressions of praise in every century. God is most concerned about the hearts of those who make their offering, and the expressions of hearts centered in the grace of God will get an acceptable hearing.

As we make our journey through Lent let us all pray that our words and music be acceptable to God.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Brent Hylton