DESCRIPTION OF COMMUNITY

A Church Music Program Needs Assessment Gone Awry? Jana M. Borchardt LI 811 Emporia State University December 11, 2001 Running Head: A CHURCH MUSIC PROGRAM NEEDS ASSESSMENT GONE AWRY? A Church Music Program Needs Assessment Gone Awry? Especially during the Medieval and Renaissance periods (1100-1600) the church displayed the glory of God through a rich and productive musical life. Churches like St. Mark’s in Venice (See cover), St. Peter’s in Rome, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and even the Baroque era St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, employed the most renounced composers who in turn taught the younger musicians and produced a vast array of choral cantatas, church sonatas, masses, passions, as well as instrumental music. The church was also a storehouse to this wealth of music. Though music today is still a vital part of worship in the church, the church’s creating, teaching and archiving ventures have been relegated to music publishing companies and Christian colleges and universities. Some larger churches occasionally commission composers and attempt to organize the music they frequently perform; yet in this author’s opinion there has not been enough done to systematically collect the church’s masterpieces nor even organize the simpler and smaller music collections of individual churches. With this historical perspective, the author engaged in a community analysis of the church music program at Colonial Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Yes, these celebrated precedents existed in the distant past, but what kind of service or system was relevant and needed in today’s more fast-paced and perhaps more practical religious organization? Idealizing and longing for the glorious days of the church’s musical past, unduly influenced the author in this activity of assessing the Colonial community and its system. In addition the author had to overcome her subjectivity in regard to a change in the style of music being used in the worship services themselves. Could this subjectivity be subdued, and would the community’s real needs speak loud enough to break through the author’s hopes for an involved and committed musical community? This paper will hopefully answer these questions; yet more importantly it will summarize the community and system analysis process for this project, propose a system base upon the project’s findings, and along the way discuss preferred steps that will ensure a better analysis the next time the author engages in one. BEGINNING My interest in doing a Needs Assessment for Colonial’s music department began June 2001 after a job interview with Jeff Martin, the choir director. The open position focused on organizing people and coordinating the details of the four church services, whereas my interest was in organizing the worship resources themselves and developing a web page for communicating with the participants. At the conclusion of the interview Martin had suggested I consider writing a proposal to do some contract work on these issues. With this in mind, I enthusiastically began the task of exploring the needs of the music department community hoping to have a successful project to turn in for my fall semester LI 811 Inquiry and Analysis class, as well as a proposal to submit to Martin. The project has indeed been a great learning experience, yet disappointedly due to difficulties in communicating with Martin and his assistant Kathy Dishman I don’t expect that there will be a proposal for further work at Colonial. As one reads through the assessment process it will be clear that there were several problems making further collaboration uncomfortable. DESCRIPTION OF COMMUNITY Although it started from humble beginnings in the 1920s as a church of post WW I believers desirous to see God do something in their community, now Colonial Presbyterian Church is one of the largest evangelical churches in the Kansas City area. There are 1,500 members in the church, (which doesn’t include those regular attendees that have never officially joined), including a large percentage of couples in their 30-40s with children and older adults. In addition, with a vision for outreach, the church broke ground on a second site last fall which will expand their ministry to two campuses - the original site on 95th and Wornall in Kansas City, Missouri and a new complex at 135th and Quivira in Overland Park, Kansas expected to be completed in the Fall of 2002. Until the Quivira site is completed, the services for the second site are being held at the St. Thomas Aquinas High School at College Boulevard and Pflumm. See the map below taken from the Colonial website www.colonialkc.org for locations of the two sites: With two very good locations in the heart of the Kansas City, Missouri area and the newly expanding and fairly affluent Overland Park area, the church is potentially headed on an exciting venture. However, this has also been a time of great transition, and it is important to set the stage for this analysis by explaining how the church has experienced some dramatic and difficult changes over the past year. Besides the challenges involved with starting a second campus that essentially has split the congregation in two, the church’s long-time head pastor of twenty-five years, Ted Nissan, retired last fall only to die of a sudden heart attack on March 1st, 2001. He was not only a prominent leader within the Presbyterian domination and Kansas City faith community, but he had been instrumental in leading the vision for the second site; the 127 acres of land for the new site was actually purchased in 1997. Only months before his death, Pastor Nissan had jointly led the congregation in the groundbreaking ceremony/service with the new senior pastor, Doug Rumford. The fact that the congregation also has four ministers in addition to the new head pastor has helped to stabilize what could have become an even more difficult situation. For a few years now the church, operating in its two locations, has had four worship services on any given Sunday morning, and each of these services offered different music styles. They were intentionally marketing each service toward a different constituency and had been very successful in attracting and keeping a large membership. There was a traditional service, a contemporary Praise & Worship Service, a Generation X acoustic service, and a blended worship service. However in an effort to simplify things six months ago the church administration eliminated these four unique services, instead offering one traditional service and three blended services. As a result of this and other changes (Sunday school classes were offered at conflicting times), people were displaced, and a few have left the church or are considering leaving. According to my conversations with music participants and the choir director (Jeff Martin) himself, I believe these changes were made based upon Martin’s desire to be in charge of everything and his resultant time constraints, rather than on the desires of the congregation or choir members. Furthermore, since Martin had essentially eliminated the contemporary Praise and Worship team – a group that had a long history and arguably drew in the largest crowds on Sunday mornings – this whole issue of musical preference was of importance to many members of the music ministry. As I’ll soon explain it was one of the two issues upon which I focused the first part of my assessment; yet, ironically at a congregational meeting on Sunday, November 4th they announced the return to the four musically unique worship services as well as an additional Sunday evening service, which meant the new senior pastor would preach at the Overland Park location three of four Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings at the 95th Street location. The music ministry itself has several different groups: Chancel Choir, High Praises, Psalm 150, Chancel Ringers, Crosspoint, and Kingdom Rockers. The later two are for the teenagers and younger kids respectively and the first two were the ones upon which I based my assessment. The chancel choir has seventy people on its roster, yet this likely includes the people involved with the “Once-a-Month Club,” which Martin started to get more people who would be willing to at least commit to one rehearsal and one Sunday a month. More common is to have 30-40 people involved on a given Sunday morning at the 95th Street 11:45 service. The High Praises on the other hand consists of two groups of around ten vocalists and six instrumentalists (Psalm 150) that provide leadership for the 9:00 services at both 95th Street and St. Thomas Aquinas. In the end this focus may have been too limited because I know from being a member of this church for years that there are many artistically inclined individuals. For instance they have a very active youth program and this age group is typically interested in music and socializing around music in ways adults are not. See the picture below taken from the youth website at http://www.colonial712.org that shows both the large youth intern staff hired last summer to work with the youth as well as view of the church at the 95th and Wornall campus. From the youths to the adults there are people with talents in the dramatic arts (acting and choreography), visual arts (cartoonists, artists, photographers), literary arts (poets and skit writers), and musical arts (performers and composers). However, I had mistakenly set out on a mission to save the church in their folly and therefore my initial concern was discerning what styles of music people preferred and how knowledge of this could shape the administration’s future program decisions. It was the beginning of a needs assessment gone awry. PROCESS AND CHOSEN METHODOLOGY While reading parts of Belle Ruth Witkin and James Altschuld’s book “Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide,” I began designing my elaborate plan that included the types of questions I wanted to ask my key informants as well as questions that might be good on a survey. I also defined my community, the worship and arts system, by the 3 needs levels mentioned in the book: level 1 included the choir participants and potentially the church community as a whole; level 2 was the director and his assistant; and level 3 was the church as a system with its various programs and relationships to other churches in the area. Based on some casual conversations and my knowledge as a recent insider, my next step was to determine the following list of key needs: Improve worship Improve involvement Improve resources Improve communication Improve use of gifts/utilize people Improve organization of materials Although this list is arguably the items of major importance to any church music program, narrowing down to one or two that were most relevant would have been a very beneficial result of the pre-assessment. Instead the actual pre-assessment phase loftily grew from all of these goals and never allowed the assessment to be as focused as it could have been. Since I liked the three stage approach in the Witkin and Altschuld book – Pre-assessment, Assessment, and Post-assessment – I will structure my discussion based upon these terms, although there is some overlap in the way I actually proceeded regarding the pre-assessment versus the assessment stages. PRE-ASSESSMENT The main methodology I used during this stage was observation and casual conversations with acquaintances. A first step was to merely visit with the choir director and get his approval for the idea of doing the assessment, yet since he was out on leave for two weeks when I wanted to begin the project I just asked him in passing on a Sunday after church. He said basically that this would be great, “yes, study us.” Unfortunately his busyness as well as his assistant’s, Kathy Dishman’s, remained a problem throughout the course of this project. A next step was to see what kinds of resources were available to me in terms of demographics and any previous studies. Since I knew the church secretary, Sally Ferguson, I met with her and found out some of the people I’d need to speak with regarding these archival data sources. There is unfortunately no yearly report available, yet there is a database composed of member information, available from when people go through the membership classes. I even met a lady that knew this database and could pull reports; however since she was getting ready to quit, I opted for working with a general overview of the demographics rather than asking for elaborate reports. In case I wanted to explore the church’s history I also got the name of a charter member and the number for the Presbytery’s local library. Before leaving I couldn’t resist asking Sally what she knew regarding the church music programs and specifically the recent changes that had eliminated the Praise group. According to her, Martin and Rumford have been praying to have an openness to God’s will regarding the worship style, yet at the same time they don’t really want all the work that having four unique services creates. A second important pre-assessment conversation took place with Brad Reed, one of the two main leaders of the High Praises. Brad confirmed my suspicions regarding the discontent among former Praise team members who were now a part of the bigger entity, the High Praises chorus. Since Martin’s return as choir director this spring after a three-year hiatus, everything has been in a state of flux, and Brad hinted that there were likely going to be more changes at the beginning of the year. The unfortunate result of this is that people have been leaving because they are unhappy that their worship style was changed and because as I mentioned earlier the 9:00 hour in which the Praise Service occurs also became the time for most Sunday School classes. In fairness to Martin, he has improved transitions between songs, yet the High Praises members want more freedom on song selections. This request is not unrealistic since Martin himself has been spending most of his time at the two St. Thomas Aquinas services, while Brad and another singer/guitarist alternately lead the High Praises worship at 9:00 at 95th Street, while two other women help with the Chancel Choir at 10:45 traditional service. Since much of what I needed to understand was who the choir members were, what they needed in terms of resources, and how they interacted I observed three chancel choir rehearsals, one High Praises Rehearsal and several of both the different church services. All observations were made however at the 95th Street location. From my observation of the Chancel Choir there were usually between 25-30 women in attendance and 10-16 men, and besides one teenage girl all appeared to be from 30-60 years old. Besides one African American man these were Caucasians and given something as simple as observing the cars people drove and again my insider information I know that these are middle to upper-middle class individuals with fairly conservative Evangelical beliefs. These same demographics hold true for the High Praises Group, except that as seen in the survey the median age is ten years younger. Interestingly every time I attended they had a different choir director leading them, reflecting again the challenging time of transition the church was facing. ASSESSMENT After the pre-assessment stage my plan was to focus on what I thought were two key need areas, yet in reality it was more convoluted and unfocused. The two areas in my mind at the time were: 1) the organization of resources or the potential need for a music resource center, and 2) the overall effectiveness of the program. The first area would include finding out what resource needs people had, how they are meeting these needs, and whether they would be interested in a resource center at the church. The second area would mean finding out if people were satisfied with: 1) their participation level; 2) the musical style used in worship; 3) their social connections; 4) the communication channels utilized by leaders; and 5) the sense that their musical giftedness was being utilized in worship to God. Even though the assessment wanted to avoid a systems approach, the first area was a given since the choir director himself had said that a resource center was something he really wanted. The far-reaching and all-encompassing nature of the second area really made these issues more the content of pre-assessment than assessment. In addition my bias regarding the elimination of the Praise Team had caused me to want to include such questions to prove through the survey that the administration should consider returning to the old program structure where people were satisfied with the style of music being used and felt that their musical gifts were being best utilized. My preference from the start had been to do a survey, since I mistakenly believed I would get a full range of opinions from all members of the music ministry. This would have only been possible had I gotten a one hundred percent response rate, but the response instead was only around 45%. I also confess that this was an easier methodology on me emotionally, given I didn’t personally know many of the members and didn’t want to become a nuisance in my endeavor. This was a real fear since by the time I handed out the survey I wasn’t getting much more than a nod of almost reluctant support from the administration. They were busy and I hadn’t gotten across the vision of what this assessment could do to help the community and them personally. FIRST SURVEY Hours were spent crafting the first survey, yet after Martin reviewed it he said he wanted me to eliminate questions 5-14. (See Appendix 1) Our previous brief conversations were based on simply whether I could do a survey and he had exhibited neither interest nor ideas regarding the content. Once he saw my proposed survey, he did take the time to explain the reason for his disapproval. He already knew how people felt and basically didn’t want the survey to become a place where people vented all their frustrations nor be misinterpreted as an indication that things would change as the result of people’s answers. Yes, I knew the church was in a time of transition, but I didn’t realize just how much my survey was hitting upon what must have been the key areas of discontent in which Martin was already quite aware. Given our lack of communication it is not surprising that these questions had to be eliminated and I had to start over. With hindsight I know that I was much too biased to be objective doing this project and that much of the first survey’s content could have been better answered through interviews or focus groups before the assessment stage. I can’t blame his response, though it did mean more work for me in drafting another survey. SECOND SURVEY Since it was the end of October I quickly prepared a second survey (Appendix II) in order to give response time and then get them back in time to examine them, determine some possible system improvements, and finish the project. Since the Chancel choir was on Wednesday evening and High Praises on Thursday I went to both in order to share my vision and hopefully get people more interested in completing the survey. While driving to the church I planned out my five-minute spiel. Firstly I wanted to let them know who I was, as they would likely know me from my past trumpet playing in services or from my involvement in the Singles Career class before I left to become a church choir director elsewhere and then eventually a student in Lawrence. Secondly I wanted to state the purpose of the survey and that though this is primarily for my Library School Inquiry and Analysis Class at Emporia State it could be used to help plan for a music resource center. Lastly I assured them that all the information was confidential, encouraged them to call me if they had questions, and explained how they needed to return the completed survey to Greg Bridges, the official pianist for both groups and my accomplice. I even had a clear purple envelope that would hold the completed surveys that I called my passion folder since it was my passion to help church music programs organize their resources. The focus was now simply the idea of a music resource center and the type of resources people might like to see if a music resource center was built. Because the choir director didn’t want the assessment to address what I had determined to be a key issue – the unpopular elimination of the Praise team and the four distinctly customized music styles – the assessment became more of a systems-centered approach in which we were seeing if people wanted the system that both the choir director and I wanted. I would have preferred that the survey had more questions regarding the satisfaction with the current system of music organization or would have addressed the less controversial need of the communication channels utilized by the music participants, but in my haste I unfortunately threw out a part of the first survey (Appendix I, questions 5-11 on the second page) that would have helped assess such topics, including people’s use of the Internet and if this technology could help organize information regarding the program, announcements, resources available, etc. The second survey also didn’t have the two critical incident questions that I had hoped would elicit some great responses; yet given the lack of responses to my open-ended questions on the second survey maybe it would have been unrealistic to really have expected that much. INTERPRETATION OF DATA Out of 60 surveys handed out to both the Chancel Choir (CC) and the High Praises (HP) group on November 7th and 8th 2001 I received 20 from CC and 8 from HP. This response was about a third of the regular membership of each group; however, I still believe the information gathered has some practical implications for a system proposal. Appendix III shows a tally of most of the questions on the surveys, although the following four questions are not tallied on this final draft: 1) In what area one resides was so open-ended that it was difficult to figure this; 2) question 7 regarding how often music resources were utilized or purchased would have included extensive lines on the table; 3) question 9 regarding potential music resources in the library also would have been extensive to tally; and 4) question 14 regarding how people would like to access types of materials was tallied, yet the results were very obvious and I decided I could just report on this without including in the table. What follows is a table that simply presents some of the key findings of the survey. FACTORS CHANCEL CHOIR HIGH PRAISES IMPLICATIONS Age 42 or under 3/20 3/7 (one didn’t answer) The median age in the HP is 10 years or so lower than in the CC. Age 43 or over 17/20 (9 at 43-54, 7 at 55+, 1 at 65+ 4/7 (3 at 43-54, 1 at 55+, 0 at 65+) Marital Status Fairly similar between the two groups, although I do remember with the old Praise Team that single adults were over 50% of the participants whereas here they account for 43% of the participants in both groups. Time Involved 42% at 5 years or less 50% at 5 years or less More CC members have been involved greater length of time Other instruments 5 1 More HP members are play or at least are willing to play other instruments in worship. Why Involved? Both groups answered similarly #1 Service, #2 Musical Challenge & #3 Social Connections a close third. 13 people wrote in love to sing, worship, and serve Lord. Satisfaction with program based upon Both groups answered similarly. #1 Type of Music (#1-10x & #2-6x), #2 Gifts used a close second (#1-6x & #2-8x), #3 Social was often marked (16 times) but not as #1 How provided for resources Both groups answered similarly. #1 Christian stores (16x), #2 Discount store (4) & Concerts (4), #3 Mail (2) & Internet (2). Olathe Christian B&G mentioned 4x Resource Interests #1 CDs (4) tied w/ Accomp Tracks (4) #1 CDs (4), #2 P&W Songbooks (3) In addition to the #1 & 2 items, somewhat was a frequent answer for piano music & CCM Artist songbooks CD/tape Exchange Maybe Yes Both groups open to the idea, but HP more enthusiastic Musical Preference #1 Classical #2 Praise & Worship #3 Hymns #4 Gospel / CCM #1 Contemp Christ (CCM) #2 Praise & Worship #3 Alternative / Gospel #4 Hymns / Classical Besides sharing a similar interest Praise & Worship, the preferences were basically reversed Preferred Access to a catalog of resources Those that responded to this question overwhelming voted for online access, (11x), yet 2 CC members gave print #1 while one HP person wrote print was not practical. Interest 47% 64% Although respondents didn’t show an overwhelming interest, clearly the HP are more interested When interpreting this results of this comparison between the answers given by the Chancel Choir survey participants (20 members) versus the High Praises survey participants (8 members), it is important to note that those who participated may not be representative of the group as a whole. In particular, I question that 43% of the chancel choir are single adults. Nonetheless, most of the results were not surprising to me; except I was surprised that only 10 people put their names on the surveys and that the men had written more comments in the two open-ended questions at the end than the woman. The one person who stated she wanted tapes of the services needs to be informed that these are in fact available. I will try to do address this as well as make available this chart and maybe even appendix III in case people do in fact want to see the more detailed results of the survey. Brad, who at one time was going to help proofread and evaluate the survey, believed that they would. SYSTEM ANALYSIS This was an especially challenging task since the two key administrators, who were the keepers of the system knowledge, (Level II – Key informants) did not have the time to meet with me. Although I had set up two appointments with Kathy Dishman she cancelled both, which meant my only conversations with her occurred over the phone. During these short exchanges she hinted that the important issues in her mind were: 1) the development of more effective communication regarding the details of the worship services including who’s involved where and what’s happening in general, and 2) the problem of people loosing music. I would have liked to ask about their music organizational needs, about the church music ministry goals, and other systems related questions, but I could only push so hard. It is the Advent Season and given Martin’s request at a choir rehearsal for volunteers to assist Dishman for a couple of hours a week, I should be more understanding. She is still in fact fairly new to the job and must not know Power Point, since Martin made a specific reference to finding someone with this to help. In the absence of administrative interaction, my back-up methodologies were a walk-around in the music storage area, an interview with a fairly knowledgeable volunteer, and an examination of the current music cataloguing and worship organization software on a demo disk provided by Dishman. Though I don’t have official numbers on the amount of items in the Church’s music collection, during my unaccompanied walk-around and observation I gathered some basic numbers. Although there are Praise and Worship songbooks, hymnals, CDs, magazines and reference books in Martin’s and Dishman’s offices, most of the music is stored in a fairly small and narrow “Robe room” right next to the sanctuary. Shelved along the walls of this narrow room are 1,026 boxes of octavos (individual pieces) and 202 cantatas. There are also three large 4-drawer file cabinets that have an array of organ and carillon music, most of which was stamped from the library of Janice Riggs, the current church organist. Beside the cabinets are five boxes full of unorganized music and one imagines organizational duties are an often-neglected aspect of the church music program. This room is very cluttered and messy, since this is also where the choir robes hang and people gather their belongings before and after services. There are in fact thirty slots available for choir folders, yet they are unused since people are encouraged to take their music packet home to practice and listen. An array of other items – white gloves for the bell choir, empty boxes, a big gray tub labeled “STA Worship Music and Recycled Tapes,” someone’s bag of clothes, a sponge, etc. – add to the clutter. As for choir communication, there is also a board where people have tacked up choir member correspondences, pictures, and a thank you letter to the choir, which surprisingly were fairly recent. It is unclear who is responsible for this room, yet it could definitely be more appealing and better utilized. As alluded to, the “Robe Room” is mainly used to store the Chancel Choir music and the assorted miscellany. Although the High Praises have sound equipment stored in this area, most of the music used for the Praise services is copied from the songbooks the church owns. The songbooks themselves are in Martin’s office whereas the photocopies are available in a file cabinet in Dishman’s office. There used to be a mobile file of photocopies that the Praise team moved from place to place, but it sounds as if Dishman is playing more of an organizational role, even for the more independently led Praise group. Martin in fact orders the music in both the Praise Genre and Traditional Choral genres on subscription from Word Choral Club, yet sometimes the High Praises leaders pass out copies of their own choosing. Dishman also sometimes pulls photocopies from the file cabinet for the leaders to pass out at rehearsals, or sometimes participants pick up a worship packet from Hal Hoffman. Hal Hoffman, known unofficially as the Chancel Choir Librarian was very willing to discuss the work he has been doing as a volunteer for the church music program. Most people in the Chancel Choir know of Happy Hal’s Music Resource Center, and this fall he has also apparently started assisting Dishman in organizing the music for the High Praises. The details regarding how the music for High Praises is handled are not clear, yet I believe this is due to the fact that different leaders follow different procedures. What was clear is that in an attempt to keep the church from losing 5-10% of its music upon a performance, the choir participants are for the first time being required to come into the church from 5:00-7:00 on a designated week to pick up their bag of music. Each gallon-size bag contains one set of music and a practice CD of the songs that are available on recording. Hal keeps a list of all the participants and marks off the names as people collect and return their bags. They had a music package for September and November that was dropped off at the end of November, at which time they picked up their new Christmas season music packet. The expectation is that people will listen to the CDs and practice their parts as well as not loose as much of the music; yet since everyone is encouraged to take home their music and organize it as they wish, this expectation may not be realistic. Lastly, I knew I needed to see the software the church was using to organize their resources so had arranged to talk with Kathy about how she used it. When she left me a message that she would leave me a demo disk I was disappointed and left her a message asking if I could just come by and look at the software itself. Well, to shorten the story she didn’t return my call so I called Martin who said Dishman knows the answers to my questions and he would ask her to call me. Then five minutes later, Martin called me back himself saying that the best they could do was leave the demo disk for me, because it was just too busy for both of them right now. Needless to say I felt I couldn’t ask any further questions, so although I don’t know exactly how they use the software I have learned about its capabilities. The product, Worship Software 3.0 from Integrity Music Products is a multi-faceted and extremely powerful tool for church musicians and staff. It can help an individual find a song concerned with a given topic or scripture verse, print off sheet music, lead sheets or overheads for resources in the database, listen to audio files of pieces, plan the music events for an entire liturgical year, track copyright fees, and so much more. The main menu has six different tabs: 1) Music and worship resources, 2) Groups and members, 3) Planning and scheduling events, 4) Equipment, 5) Utilities, and 6) Set-up. When one buys the software one gets a database of almost all of the songs from Integrity Music’s twelve songbooks and the capacity to add one’s own praise and worship songs, choral octavos, orchestral pieces, CDs, etc. This is like purchasing a Net library of music resources in print and audio format and then being able to scan in and add one’s own resources. Again, I don’t know how many of these features are being utilized, yet from what I’ve observed this product is a key to organizing the music ministry as it faces a time of transition and opportunity. After having used some deductive reasoning and verifying my conclusions with others, I believe that Dishman is unfortunately overwhelmed with using this product and with the other organizational duties of her job. I could be wrong, but I believe that effectively utilizing this software would greatly reduce the stress she is experiencing and allow the worship to be more enjoyable for those involved directly and indirectly. RECOMMENDATIONS Since Colonial has recently announced the return to four uniquely customized worship services, organizing the resources and the people involved in these services will be crucial to the church’s success as they operate from two sites. In addition the music program must consider how it is meeting the needs of its participants as well as building a sustainable community of worshippers within the church as well as without. Though this project has only scratched the surface on many issues and though the process did not progress as I had hoped, I actually do believe that the following two recommendations will help Colonial both better organize their resources and people and build a sustainable community. Improve the organization of worship programming and existing worship resources using Integrity’s Worship Software, which the church currently owns. The worship experience will be enhanced if the church knows what they own by a specific theme and if they can communicate clearly with participants regarding their roles and responsibilities. This goal can be attained by taking some very practical steps. Provide more extensive Worship Software training for Kathy Dishman, Hal Hoffman, and the new administrative assistant once this person is hired. Since there are no workshops, they should figure out how each person best learns and work collaboratively or by hiring an outside expert to advise them. Dishman would focus mostly on the “planning and scheduling events” and the “groups and members” functionality of the program, whereas Hal Hoffman and the new administrative assistant or another volunteer would look mostly at the “music and resources” functionality, especially regarding “music loans” and cataloging new items into the database. Simultaneous to this training, time should be invested in cleaning out the “Robe Room.” Specifically an area should be cleared for and devoted to music packet drop-off and pick-up, since people resent coming in to check out the music and Hoffman is spending unnecessary time. Once he starts using the Worship Software to check out the pieces, he may have extra time to help catalog and organize those five boxes of materials in the Robe Room, enhance the topic headings of the currently catalogued octavos, and clean up the overflowing tub of cassettes and other miscellany cluttering up the choir’s home. Finally although I am not recommending a full-fledged music resource center at this time, once the administrative assistant is hired or once there are volunteers it will be important to get the CDs and Praise & Worship materials in Martin’s office added to the database. These items are of interest to the High Praises leaders now and if Martin is willing these part-time worship leaders can help in selecting music and shaping the worship as they have expressed an interest in doing. Plus if a resource center is developed down the road these songbooks and resources were of interest to people, unlike the reference books and worship magazines in Martin’s office. Secondarily involve the youth and in developing a CD/tape Exchange. Although I admittedly didn’t assess the actual interest of the youth in a survey, after a bit more assessment to qualify my intuition, others’ comments, and mere observations, I believe this would be a very successful venture in building up a sustainable community. Although the choir members weren’t overwhelmingly in favor of a music resource center, there was an expressed interest in the CD/tape Exchange idea, including vocal accompaniment tracks. This project would link music lovers throughout the church and could perhaps be expanded to a video collection idea, which the church already has in a limited sense. Although I’ve seen stands I’d recommend for displaying the CDs at ALA and have some ideas regarding using the church and youth Internet sights to create a community for sharing ideas on favorite artists and recommended CDs I will not elaborate at this time. The first proposal is really the crucial issue at this moment, although the later recommendation, pending further assessment, would be an exciting step toward forging a sustainable and even contagious community spirit. One large church in the area could serve as a role mode – Church of the Resurrection, which has a heavily used video library. Yes, given the many people that frequent Christian bookstores and discount stores for their resources, one could argue that there are enough systems that provide service to this community of more middle to upper class individuals. Yet, with the church expanding into Johnson County with its second site, some rumor has circulated that the 95th Street location needs to reach out to the lower income and African American community right at its doorsteps. If this were to transpire, this new community of people would likely be interested in a service that seeks to share Christian music in all its various genres. Despite the tension I currently feel between the music staff at Colonial and myself, I do plan on sharing the two recommendations above with Jeff Martin, the choir director at Colonial Presbyterian Church. In addition I will make a small handout of the survey results available to choir members, as some may have an interest. A resource center was all Martin really wanted from the start, not my trying to give him advise on how to run his music program or on what type of music people preferred. Fortunately the assessment didn’t totally go awry, since the information from the survey will help him discern what resources are and aren’t important to those in the choir, at least those who completed a survey. In addition I may yet offer to do some contract work with them, if only to work with the Integrity Worship Software and help them begin to utilize all its capabilities. POST-ASSESSMENT Given the false start I made with this project and the way my subjectivity hampered my progress, these post-assessment reflections will mainly be a list of suggestions for an improved needs assessment the next time around. In essence if I were to do this over again I would start with a pre-assessment consisting of key informant interviews at Level I and then move to the Level II interviews with Jeff Martin and Kathy Dishman. Before I do another needs assessment I will refer to this list of suggestions for improvement: Due to personality bias and weakness, it is more effective to have a duo or team NA effort Pre-assessment is imperative – talk in-depth with more individuals before doing a blanket survey. Share the vision and build trust with leadership. Lack of communication with and support from the administration, specifically the church choir director and his assistant worship coordinator unduly frustrated the process. Lack of time is a hindrance, as is doing an assessment in a time of transition, especially if you do not have support and are not in a position of authority. Don’t get discouraged too easily. Even though my first survey was rejected I rushed too quickly to put together a new one that left out important factors, idea of a Website not investigated as a result, nor did I delve into communication patterns and the possibility of improving this aspect of the system, or whether there was a desire for small music groups that meet more often informally. Didn’t utilize Brad’s feedback and expertise, which could have been very positive given he has worked in drafting surveys as a marketing professional at Cerner. Archival Data – more access to choir member data, since never got Praise roster and at the end the music staff were unwilling to give me much of anything. With enough data and time, one could even use GIS technology to visually show results. Originally I had even planned to do a pre-assessment by phone, interviewing key informants, yet this never occurred. I had even written at the top of the page labeled “Pre-assessment Interviews with Key Informants” to use open ended questions to explore issues, areas of unmet needs in the organization and the system, and to evoke critical incidents. The content in part is like the first survey proposed. The purpose would have been threefold 1) to assess the current program, 2) assess the possible need for a music resource center, and 3) help me construct a more specific survey. If I had done more level I interviews or focus groups before the survey, then the survey really could have pinpointed the most effective way to organize the resources and program. The questions I had listed for Level I Key Informants were: What is the extent of your involvement in Colonial’s Music Ministry? How long have you been involved in Colonial’s Music Ministry? Why are you involved in Colonial’s Music Ministry activities? Describe a recent positive experience connected to your involvement with the Music Ministry? Describe a recent challenge related to your involvement with the Music Ministry? What are the main needs and issues of the moment for the music ministry? Or what issues seem to be most pressing at this moment in order for the worship to be glorifying to God and for participants to feel involved and appreciated? (For example what is most important - to improve worship, involvement, resources, organization of resources, communication, utilization of individuals’ gifts, connectedness between participants?) How do you organize your music and learn it? Have you ever lost music and what could be improved to help this situation? What are your music resource needs and how do you meet those needs? Have you ever borrowed or thought to borrow music from the church’s music collection? What kinds of info would be helpful to have online if choir had a website? On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being completely satisfied and 1 being not at all satisfied, how do you rank your satisfaction with the following: Participation level in terms of time Participation level in terms of your talents being fully utilized Musical challenge Musical style being used in worship? Social connections Spiritual dimension Communication of music ministry goals and other basic information The following are some questions I’d planned for interviews with the Level II informants at Colonial – Jeff Martin and Kathy Dishman. JEFF – Is there a written mission statement for the Colonial Worship and Arts program? What are your stated or implicit goals and your personal goals even if unstated for the program? I.e. - What goals do you have for the various choirs? What goals do you have for a “music resource center?” Name some current challenges the CMM is facing? What is being done to address these challenges? Comment on the following in terms of their importance as possible goals: Building up individuals in their gifts Providing worshipful experience for choir and congregation Positively effecting those outside the church Building social/fellowship connections among participants Educating individuals in music theory, vocal techniques, worship How do you perceive participant satisfaction and why? KATHY - What are her computer-related skills – Internet, communication via email, Worship Software, PowerPoint, html Web, (Could she maintain a web page and change it weekly with who is where and what is being done at each site?)? How do you communicate with people in the groups? Do people like email, phone calls or another method of communication? If a catalogue where organized, where should the computer be located? Where are ya’ll moving when new church opens? Volunteer support. Could someone help with the cataloguing, web maintenance? How much time does Hal Hoffman volunteer? (Jeff had asked for volunteers who knew Power Point did anyone volunteer.) How many people do help? Paid staff? How active are the Chancel Ringers? (Sunday 12:30-1:30 rehearsal?) Kingdom Rockers? (grades 1-6, spring musical) Crosspoint? (Jr. Sr. high group acoustic – sing for services, special events and produces a summer recording project.) Who coordinates the Drama and other Arts ministries? Are they coordinated through Jeff or others? What about the Harvester’s fundraiser, Rock in Roll show? Worship software – Review what it can and can’t do. What is in there now? Is there a way to transport the current records into another system? Like the ever-evolving process Sarling and Tassel talk about in their article, “Community Analysis: Research That Matters to a North-Central Denver Community,” I found that the more I investigated the community and system, the more questions I had and the above lists of unanswered questions are a testimonial to this fact. A quote from Witkin and Altschuld is quite relevant at this point: “The best NA is conducted without preconceived ideas about solutions, and the criteria for appropriate solutions should arise from an analysis of the needs and their causes.”(66) In summary, although I made use of a variety of methodologies, namely the informal interview, observation, and survey, the assessment lacked focus and support from the administration. Had I even had one open conversation with Jeff Martin, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time writing the first survey which focused unduly on assessing people’s satisfaction with the current program. I would have realized it was a very sensitive time for the church and the survey needed to be a help rather than a hindrance to building basic trust between participants and leadership. During one of my many casual conversations, one choir participant said her felt need was simply for encouragement, which given the present difficulties within the church could be a more wide spread need than one would initially think. Judge for yourself however, whether this Assessment went totally awry. CLOSING Although churches are no longer placed architecturally or figuratively in the center of the city square, there are many churches that are seeking to remain prominent and culturally relevant. Colonial Presbyterian has been such a church in many ways and hopefully the music program will recognize its importance in this endeavor and begin by assessing its community and reaching out to meet needs inside and outside the church doors. It is this author’s argument that the church can still serve as an information agency for today’s Christian community, for instance offering programs, resources, and a communication portal, or even serving as a creator, disseminator, educator, or archivist of valuable information sources. Churches must learn from each other, utilizing the technology available to them, either through a Worship Software program or through researching the Internet to learn what their peer institutions are doing in similar metropolitan settings, with similar demographics, and similar challenges. APPENDIX I Colonial Music Ministry (CCM) Needs Assessment Although the results of the survey will be made available, your individual answers will be confidential. Therefore, please be as honest as you can and feel free to elaborate on answers in the margin as necessary. The purpose of this survey is twofold: 1) to assess your satisfaction with the current music and worship programs at Colonial which could assist the church in future planning, and 2) to determine the types of music resource needs you have as well as their extent in order to help with the design of a church music resource center. Name: (optional) ________________________ Gender: Male Female Age: 10-18 19-25 26-32 33-42 43-54 55-65 66+ Marital Status: Divorced Married Single Widowed In what area do you reside: 1) How long have you been involved in Colonial’s Music Ministry? 0-1 year 1-3 years 3-5 years 5-9 years 10+ years 2) What is the extent of your current involvement in Colonial’s Music Ministry? (check all that apply) Chancel Choir Praise Chorus Praise Band Vocal Soloist Other _______________ 3) What instruments do you play that you would consider using in worship? 4) What instruments do your family members play that they would consider using in worship? 5) Why are you involved in Colonial’s Music Ministry activities? (Rank all that apply 1 – 5 or however many you list) Social ___ Musical Challenge ___ Service Opportunity ___ Other ______________ ___ Other _____________ ___ 6) Describe a recent positive experience connected to your involvement with the Colonial Music Ministry (CMM)? 7) Describe a recent challenge related to your involvement with the CMM? 8) What percentage of the time are you satisfied with your overall involvement in the CMM? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Not at all satisfied Very satisfied 9) What percentage of the time are you satisfied that your musical gifts are being best utilized and improved? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Not at all satisfied Very satisfied 10) What percentage of the time are you satisfied with the type of music being used in worship? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Not at all satisfied Very satisfied 11) What percentage of the time are you satisfied with the social connections you have in the CMM? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Not at all satisfied Very satisfied 12) What percentage of the time are you satisfied with the CMM communication channels? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Not at all satisfied Very satisfied 13) Why are some percentages lower and do you have any possible suggestions for improvement? 14) Rank the importance of the following (1-5) as they relate to your satisfaction with the program: Musical gifts being best utilized and improved _____ Type of music being used in worship _____ CMM Social connections _____ Effective CMM communication channels _____ Other ____________________ _____ 1) How often do you and your family purchase or make use of the following music resources? Christian Audio (CDs/tapes) never occasionally often daily Classical Piano Music never occasionally often daily Sacred Piano Music never occasionally often daily Classical Vocal Music never occasionally often daily Sacred Vocal Music never occasionally often daily Sacred Song Books never occasionally often daily Books on music (please elaborate) never occasionally often daily Other ____________ never occasionally often daily 2) How do you provide for these needs? (I.e. Who recommends and where to do purchase or borrow?) 3) Rank the following styles according to your “Christian” music listening preferences: Contemporary Christian Pop _____ Praise and Worship _____ Hymns _____ Classical _____ Christian Alternative _____ Gospel _____ Other _____________ _____ Other _______________ _____ 4) Of these same styles which do you prefer being used in corporate worship? Contemporary Christian Pop _____ Praise and Worship _____ Hymns _____ Classical _____ Christian Alternative _____ Gospel _____ Other _____________ _____ Other _______________ _____ 5) Have you ever borrowed music from the church’s “music library”? Yes No 6) Do you have online access? Yes No 7) Do you have access to MS Word? Yes No 8) Do you have access to MS Excel? Yes No 9) Do you have online access? Yes No 10) Do you use the Church website? Yes No 11) Do you get the Colonial Columns via email? Yes No 11) Do you regularly make us of computer technology? Yes No APPENDIX II Colonial Worship and Arts Program - Needs Assessment The purpose of this survey is to determine the types of music resource needs you have as well as the extent of your need. This information will assist me in an Inquiry and Analysis project I have through Emporia State’s Masters in Library Science Program and may possibly be utilized in the implementation and design of a church music resource center. Your individual answers will be kept confidential while the cumulated results of the survey will be made available. Thank you in advance for your participation. Please turn this survey in to Greg Bridges ASAP or at the latest by November 18th. QUESTIONS? Call or email Jana Borchardt at 785-842-7192, 816-678-7615, borchardtjana@hotmail.com Name: (optional) ________________________ Email: (optional) ________________________ Gender: Male Female Age: 10-18 19-25 26-32 33-42 43-54 55-65 66+ Marital Status: Divorced Married Single Widowed At which campus do you primarily attend or have more of a commitment? 95th & Wornall St. Thomas Aquinas Both locations equally In what area do you reside: _____________ How many minutes does it take you to get to church? _____________ 1) How long have you been involved in Colonial’s Music Ministry? 0-1 year 1-3 years 3-5 years 5-9 years 10+ years 2) What is the extent of your current involvement in Colonial’s Music Ministry? (check all that apply) Chancel Choir High Praises Praise Band Vocal Soloist Once-A Month Club Other _____________ 3) What instruments do you play that you would consider using in worship? 4) What instruments do your family members play that they would consider using in worship? 5) Why are you involved in Colonial’s Music Ministry activities? (Rank all that apply 1 – 5 or however many you list) Social ___ Musical Challenge ___ Service Opportunity ___ Other ______________ ___ Other ____________ ___ 6) Rank the importance of the following (1-5) as they relate to your satisfaction with the program: Musical gifts being best utilized and improved _____ Type of music being used in worship _____ CMM Social connections _____ Effective CMM communication channels _____ Other ____________________ _____ 7) How often do you and your family purchase or make use of the following music resources? Christian Audio (CDs) never occasionally often daily Christian Audio (tapes) never occasionally often daily Classical Piano Music never occasionally often daily Sacred Piano Music never occasionally often daily Classical Vocal Music never occasionally often daily Sacred Vocal Music never occasionally often daily Sacred Song Books never occasionally often daily Other Instrumental Music never occasionally often daily ____________ (please elaborate) Books on music never occasionally often daily ____________ (please elaborate) Other __________________ never occasionally often daily 8) How do you provide for the needs listed in Question 7? (I.e. Where do you purchase or borrow and why?) 9) If a music resource center were established how interested would you be in the following? Contemporary Christian Artist Songbooks Very much Somewhat Not at all Praise and Worship Songbooks Very much Somewhat Not at all CDs Very much Somewhat Not at all Tapes Very much Somewhat Not at all Vocal Accompaniment Tracks Very much Somewhat Not at all Instrumental Music (please specify) _______________ Very much Somewhat Not at all Books on Worship Very much Somewhat Not at all Magazines on Music & Worship Very much Somewhat Not at all Other (please specify) __________________________ Very much Somewhat Not at all 10) If the church were to start a CD/tape exchange, would you be willing to donate items? Yes No Maybe 11) If the church had a CD/tape exchange, would you be willing to lend items for a limited time? Yes No Maybe 12) If the church had a CD/tape exchange would you be interested in borrowing items? Yes No Maybe 13) Rank the following styles according to your “Christian” music listening preferences: Contemporary Christian Pop _____ Praise and Worship _____ Hymns _____ Classical _____ Christian Alternative _____ Gospel _____ Other _____________ _____ Other _______________ _____ 14) If a list/catalogue of the music resources were made available how would you prefer to access this? (Rank the following) Downloadable Access Database File ____ Downloadable Excel Spreadsheet File ____ Downloadable MS Word File ____ Online Website List ____ Online Website with searchable database ____ Printed catalog ____ 15) How interested are you in a church music resource center? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Not at all interested Very interested 16) Is there any other resource, music or other wise, that you would wish to see offered? 17) Are there additional comments that would help clarify your answers or that you want to voice? Appendix III Colonial Music Ministry Survey Results Fall 2001 Chancel Women Chancel Total High Praises Chancel Men ALL Surveys 8 15 5 20 28 Male 4 0 5 5 9 Female 3 15 0 15 18 ? (not answered) 1 0 0 0 1 Age 26-32 0 1 0 1 1 33-42 3 2 0 2 5 43-54 3 6 3 9 12 55-65 1 5 2 7 8 66+ 0 1 0 1 2 Marital D 1 4 0 5 6 M 4 8 4 12 16 S 2 3 1 4 6 Distance from church 15 11.4 13 11.8 13 Time Involved 0-1 years 1 0 0 0 1 1-3 0 3 0 3 3 3-5 3 2 3 5 8 5-9 1 5 0 5 6 10+ 3 4 2 6 9 Other Instruments Self 5 (1) 1 1 6 flute /trumpet,guitar/ trumpet/ trumpet piano /aveo-harp-bowded psalter/ Family violin piano Why Involved Answers were to be from 1 - 5 with 1 being most important & 5 being least important, yet there was some confusion. Therefore on the questions where people just placed a check I mark in (3) how many people (in this example three) who checked this without ranking it. The tally is for how many marked 1, 2, 3, or 4+ Social 1 1 (3) (2) (5) 1(5) 2 1 3 1 4 5 3 1 3 0 3 4 4+ 2 2 0 2 4 Music 1 1 2(2) (2) 2(4) 3(4) 2 0 2 1 3 3 3 3 5 1 6 9 4+ 1 0 0 0 1 Service 1 2(2) 5(4) 2(3) 7(7) 9(9) 2 2 4 0 4 6 3 1 1 0 1 5 4+ 1 0 0 0 1 Other Worship 1 3 0 3 4 Love to Sing 2 3 0 3 5 Serve Lord 3 1 0 1 4 Satisfaction based upon Gifts used 1 2(1) 4(4) 0 4(4) 6(5) 2 3 2 3(2) 5(2) 8(2) 3 1 1 0 1 2 4+ 0 0 0 0 0 type music 1 4(1) 4(3) 2(1) 6(4) 10(5) 2 1 4 1 5 6 3 0 1 (1) 1(1) 1(1) 4+ 0 0 0 0 0 Social 1 (1) (1) (1) (2) (3) 2 0 (1) (1) (2) (2) 3 3 2 2 4 7 4+ 1 3 0 3 4 Communication 1 (1) (1) (1) (2) (3) 2 1 0 0 0 1 3 1 2(3) 1(1) 3(4) 4(4) 4+ 2 1 1 2 4 Other Organization 1 0 0 0 1 Provide for resources via: Olathe B&G 1 3 0 3 4 Christian stores 4 6 2 8 12 Discount stores 2 1 1 2 4 Internet 0 1(amazon.com 1(download) 2 2 Mail 1 0 1 (convenience) 1 2 Colonial 1 1 1 (choir folder) 2 3 Concerts 0 3 1 4 4 Radio, Luybens Music, Conference CD Exchange Donate Yes 5 2 2 4 7 No 1 2 0 2 3 Maybe 2 9 3 12 14 Loan Yes 5 3 1 4 7 No 0 2 0 2 2 Maybe 3 7 4 11 14 Borrow Yes 7 2 1 3 8 No 0 2 0 2 2 Maybe 1 7 4 11 12 Styles CCM 1 4 1(1) 0 1(1) 5(1) 2 2 2 0 2 4 3 0 2 1 3 3 4+ 0 2 2 4 4 P&W 1 3 (1) 4(1) 1 5(1) 8(2) 2 2 3 3 6 8 3 1 2 0 2 3 4+ 1 2 0 2 3 Hymns 1 (1) 1(3) 1 2(3) 2(3) 2 0 3 2 5 5 3 1 4 2 6 7 4+ 3 2 0 2 5 Classical 1 0 5(2) 2 7(2) 7(2) 2 1 1 0 1 2 3 0 2 2 4 4 4+ 2 2 1 3 5 Alternative 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 1 4+ 3 4 2 6 9 Gospel 1 0 (1) 1 1(1) 1(1) 2 1 2 0 2 3 3 2 1 0 1 3 4+ 2 5 4 9 11 Interest 62 48.5 46 47.8 52 Comments & Recommendations High Praises Women 1) Tape of Service 2) Since in choir am provided w/CDs & tapes containing great music Men 3) Finale Music Software Chancel 4) "Other issues more immediate" Women 5) Musical performance & technique instruction Men 6) Books - histories of music composers 7) Hymns in braille - Lutheran church has them 8) "I expect I might make a little use of a resource center, but probably not much." REFERENCES Anderson, J. & Ham, D. (1982). Developing a church music library. USA: Convention Press. McMichael, B. (1998). The church librarian’s handbook: a complete guide for the library and resource center in Christian education. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Sarling, J. H. & Van Tassel, D. S. (1999). Community analysis: Research that matters to a north-central Denver community. Library & Information Science Research, 21, 1, 7-29. Smith, R. S. (1994). Setting up a library: how to begin or begin again. Portland, OR: Church and Synagogue Library Association. Winckler, C. E. (1984). How to set up and maintain a church music library: a handbook for choir directors, ministers of music and choir librarians in all churches, regardless of size. Franklin, TN: Franklin House Publishing. Witkin, B. R. & Altschuld, J. W. (1995). Planning and conducting needs assessments: a practical guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Assessment Gone Awry? 31 Assessment Gone Awry? 1