When John was baptizing in the Jordan he was preparing his followers to encounter Jesus, the Promised One.

Music ministers (directors, coordinators, whathaveyou) are called to prepare assemblies to encounter Jesus, the Promised One, in the music of the liturgy. And just as John’s responsibility to his followers didn’t end with their baptism, neither do the music ministers’ responsibilities to the assembly end with showing up and playing the notes. If the assembly doesn’t sing—especially if something we’re doing interferes with their sung prayer—we might as well hang up our organ shoes and tiptoe away to find a job with more reasonable hours and better pay.

Remember, music school doesn’t teach you how to get people to sing. They may teach you how to sing or play to a passive audience, but assembly members are not an audience. They are participants, and the difference is crucial.

Here’s a closely kept secret: most church communities already have sufficient music resources to get through an entire liturgical year without buying new music. The recent introduction of the new Roman Missal, with the extraordinary expense of buying ritual books and the revised music to support the new texts, has probably blown the budget to smithereens anyhow. Don’t worry about it. You can get through an entire year with what you already have—and improve the assembly’s sung participation while you’re at it.