So you want to sing MMC style regularly, locally? Or how could I start a local MMC community singing gathering?

We asked several local group leaders to share how and what they have been doing when things work. Spencer Foon from Chicago and Sylvia Miller-Mutia spent an hour with us. Board member Nancy Willbanks provides this summary of what they shared.

1)  How did you get started?

Spencer: The Chicago group formed in 2018 because we got tired of the more than one-hour drive to the location in the western suburbs during rush hour. (The Chicago western suburbs group has not re-emerged since the pandemic.)

Sylvia: So David and I tried to get a song circle, MMC Style, going many years ago. I've been in Albuquerque 9 years now. And it never really got off the ground. But then post- COVID, David said, Let's do this, and we had a retreat. So we had some renewed energy and a renewed cohort of people to say, let's see if we can follow up on this. And that has been really, quite surprisingly successful the last couple of years. 

2) Location? 

It can be one fixed accessible/convenient location (Chicago) or it can be 3-4 or more rotating locations (Albuquerque). Most groups meet in a church because they have associations with leaders who can get the space for free. The Brownsburg, IN group meets in a pub, and encourages participants to tip the servers.

3) Leadership?

Shared musical leadership with a principal administrative contact. Each group had several, i.e. 3 or more, people who were willing to lead songs each time they met. Each group had one person who collects email addresses and sends out reminders. 

4) Best time to meet? Whatever time works best for the location and the shared leadership.

5) What’s in a name?

Chicago just kept the label practice group after they split off from the western suburb group. Albuquerque consciously chose singing circle because they didn’t want to limit the scope to people who just wanted to hone their song leading skills. Minneapolis-St. Paul (just starting) is calling it a community singing gathering.

6) How many people do you need to make this work?

In both Albuquerque and Chicago they have 8-10 regulars and another 8-10 people who come more sporadically. 

In Albuquerque: “our lifeline to sanity, that is, what do we need to do to keep it going? is having 4 core leaders, plus another 4 who are very competent and very committed, means that there's enough center of gravity that there will be a group and that can be hospitable to whatever additional people show up.”

[Author’s note: In the pre-pandemic local practice group that I was in, we sometimes only had 3-4 people, and that wasn’t sustainable.]

7) Who comes?

For Chicago: folks involved in church in some manner, whether as ministers of music, pastors, lay people, and following an MMC workshop focused on peace and justice, there are people who continue to sing who first came to that workshop, and who may not have a church affiliation. Ages vary from 30-60.  

In Albuquerque, some people are more apt to come when their church is hosting, and while it’s people who love to sing, it may often be people who can’t or don’t participate in church choirs. Ages can range from 20-80. Because one of the sponsoring churches is Roman Catholic, ABQ gets more Latinx folks, and often features some Spanish language music. Church musicians and other pastors come sporadically but are interested in being on the mailing list.

8) What happens?

In Chicago: at the beginning of the year we adopted a new format for our group where there's a beginning, middle, and end, and the beginning is 3 of us will sing songs with just a little bit of silence in between. It's sort of creating the space, of listening, of singing, of silence.

And then, after that's done every month we sing, what we need is here. That's sort of our unofficial anthem. And it's wonderful the way that's turned out. Because at this point everybody's figured out where the harmonies are. Yeah, that's just a beautiful sound that comes out.

And then we do a “What did you notice?” for the 3 songs and for “what we need is here” and then at that point I might do some introductions. If there are new people there, I have people introduce themselves, and then we start a part where anybody can share a song. And we do typically do What did you Notice? after each song, after some silence. Then we'll end up at the very end with some announcements, and then we'll do a final song together. Sometimes. It's a repeat of song that we've already done that that night, or it might be a new song.

In Albuquerque: We always start with a welcome song and some kind of singing our names, because it's always a rotating group. Then, whoever is the geographical host for the day says, Welcome on behalf of that community, and tells people where the bathrooms and the water are, and then we just throw it wide open. 

Again, I'm delighted at the fact that it doesn't take any coaxing to get even first time participants to share almost every time which I think is so cool in a culture, where there are so many impediments to offering a song that somehow, by virtue of singing, you are welcome. People aren't trying to decipher “what are the rules in this secret club?” They just take us at our word that we're here to share songs, to learn from each other, to teach each other, to sing together, to listen. And they're like, Oh! And again, it's very sweet. It's often like a song from childhood, from camp or Sunday school or something, and so that's cool, because I feel like in so many contexts, that's the biggest hurdle to overcome is to just get people to be willing to take a risk, and it doesn't seem to take any prodding or coercion at all for people to get that memo that Oh, this is a place where everybody is welcome!

9) Do you consciously teach MMC practices or new songs?

In Albuquerque: we don't do a lot of teaching, in terms of explicitly introducing people to MMC Pedagogy or coaching people or trying to make them do it right. 

In Chicago: I'll say that Charles often brings music that's different. One time he brought something in 5/4 time. which was great, and it actually turned out to be this old Harry Belafonte song, and he's always bringing quite a few instruments with him. He's always bringing his shruti box. Sometimes the guitar, drums, and a bunch of small percussion instruments that people can play so it's great to have having Charles there to kind of mix things up.

10) How could MMC help you? How do you connect people to MMC?

In Chicago: One of the formative things that happened for us was last October, we invited Conie to come down to do 2 sessions, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and they were in 2 different venues. The 1st one was an Advent preparation workshop, and that was at the church that we usually meet, but for the afternoon one, we met at a pizza restaurant that happened not to be open until 5 o'clock on Fridays or Saturdays and It's a great space.

We were targeting 2 different audiences. The 1st one was folks involved in church in some manner, whether as ministers of music, pastors, lay people.

The second one was a much broader audience, and the theme was peace and justice. And we ended up with actually 2 different audiences. And I thought that was great the way it turned out.  And since then we've had people from both the morning session and afternoon session attend our monthly Wednesday sessions, some of them regularly, some of them every once in a while, but it's been great to see we've had both folks from both populations.

I invite people to join both our local mailing list and the MMC mailing list.

In Albuquerque: I was so glad to have Conie and Adam with us the other day (for another retreat/community fundraiser), because it expands our repertoire, even though we've got lots of leaders from really different kind of backgrounds with different interests. But often we are singing the same 12 songs because they are our favorite. And now we'll sing the same 12 songs again, which is kind of fun. But it’s also super exciting and energizing to learn some new songs. 

I think the community fundraiser was also quite helpful, because whoever is getting invited and coming cheerfully along to sing songs doesn't have a connection or a knowledge of the larger body of MMC.

If you are interested in starting a local MMC community singing gathering, and want to get support for that effort, such as postings on the MMC calendar or connections to other local leaders, email [email protected].

Click HERE to listen to the whole interview with Spencer and Sylvia.  (Passcode: Gpsc43=@)

Nancy Willbanks has been attending Music that Makes Community events since 2017 and local practice groups since 2018, and during the pandemic has been a regular at Monday Morning Grounding, Heart Songs, and the My Grandmother’s Hands book group and follow-up gatherings. A second career minister, Nancy was ordained in 2011 and served as Minister to Youth and Families at Old Cambridge Baptist Church from 2011-15. From 2017-2023, she was the Pastor (half-time) at the First Baptist Church of Littleton. During her ministry in Littleton the church revised their 1980's by-laws and governance structure, voted to become a Welcoming and Affirming Congregation, completed a $100,000 Capital Campaign for renovations to the sanctuary and bathrooms, pivoted to a very interactive Zoom worship during the pandemic, and then to hybrid worship, and in 2022, the congregation celebrated its Bicentennial year. She also served as the President of the Greater Littleton Interfaith Council for 2021-2022, and, since January 2022, has been the treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Conference of Baptist Ministers in Massachusetts. In 2023, Nancy is transitioning her ministry to focus on both to write (after writing daily reflections during the pandemic for 2+ years) and to create/be a part of worshipful, intersectional, healthy community gatherings that provide space for people, especially those who work on Sunday mornings—like pastors and church musicians—to be nourished, to worship, to learn, and to re-fill their wells.  (To see Nancy's complete bio, click here)

We invite you to join us in this transformative work by considering a gift of $100 or more toward our "Championing Brave Community" Campaign. Our fundraising goal is $50,000 by the end of the year. We invite you to join us with a gift of any size— all contributions make a difference in our ability to provide programming throughout the United States and Canada -- and then invite others by sharing your stories of deep spiritual connection and brave shared leadership that sparks the possibility of transformation in our world.