Listening to the Music

By Rusty Edwards

A couple years ago, my church received a request from the Music Department at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), our neighbor just a couple blocks to the north. They needed a place to host their end-of-semester strings honors recital. I cannot recall all the details regarding why they needed a new venue, nor do I remember how exactly it is that we discovered the honors recital is a pretty big deal to students.

Each semester they form chamber groups of two to four students and compete for one of five spaces in the honors recital. I do not remember how is the church learned that in previous years the University offered small monetary prizes to heighten the competition but that due to new regulations they could no longer provide these.

All I recall is that a couple of years ago we eagerly opened the doors of our sanctuary, planned a reception to immediately follow, and threw in the funds so prizes could be offered. I also recall the brilliant music that filled our sanctuary during that first recital as well as a discovery many of us at University Baptist Church (UBC) made for the first time—most of the students competing were international students, mainly from Central and South America.

Since that first recital, we have had opportunity to perfect the reception (we know the chicken from Cane’s goes fast, order more of that) and to hear magnificent music from student musicians. But this year, on the Thursday evening before Thanksgiving, as everyone made it into the UBC Art Gallery to await the announcement of the winners while enjoying the reception, I heard the most beautiful music yet. A trio of students, with smiles on their faces, came marching in with a viola and violins under chin as they played “Happy Birthday.” They came to serenade UBC’s Associate Minister, Kathryn Spangler.

You see, I’m blessed to serve a church that has a knack for noticing. The night of the very first recital, we noticed not just the music but the musicians. That noticing led to conversations, first with faculty, then with students. Who were these mostly Latino/Latina students? How did they get to Southern Mississippi? Was anyone in our larger community claiming these students as their neighbors?

Over the last couple of years, we have kept asking those questions and made a lot of interesting discoveries. It turns out, USM has the nation’s second oldest English Language Institute, which means that students can be admitted to the University prior to passing proficiency tests in English—they can come and learn the language, but can only take classes that do not require English proficiency while mastering the language (in other words, they can take music classes).

We also learned of an interesting relationship that formed between the Director of USM’s symphony and strings programs in inner cities throughout Central and South America—programs that served children and youth with modest financial means. We learned of extensive endowments that provide scholarships to these youth to cover all their educational expenses, but none of their costs for living.

We kept hosting recitals, and we also kept learning. More importantly, our learning turned into relationships that are just starting to blossom among us. Our college committee, which has been looking for meaningful ways to engage students at the university for years now, suddenly has great work to do. They have organized a Wednesday evening book discussion to help with English proficiency held just after many of the students join us for our weekly potluck dinner.

Twice a week members transport students to Wal-Mart so they don’t have to walk or ride their bikes several blocks while balancing groceries. The students have also blessed our church life, whether playing their instruments in our monthly Celtic service, or sharing life around tables in our homes. Indeed, after providing a bike for a student a couple of weeks ago, he asked if he could play us a song on the piano as an offering of thanks—an impromptu addition to our annual Thanksgiving meal, and wow, the music was stunningly beautiful.

 I could go on-and-on about the new relationships forming, the ways our congregational life is being enriched (the ways my own family life is being enriched—several students have taken interest in my own daughter’s quest to become a musician and cheered her on for her recent rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”). I could also tell you we are still asking questions, how it is we might partner with the community to provide better housing situations and to make sure these neighbors and friends of ours have access to nutritional food.

 But today, I’m just thankful for a church that notices its neighbors and then asks questions. I think that’s really how some of the best new works of God among us begin—open doors of hospitality and taking notice.

 “Happy Birthday,” that was perhaps one of the most beautiful musical offerings I’ve heard at UBC, and that’s saying a lot.

Rusty Edwards is senior pastor at University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partner congregation.