Peter in Print and in the News
From "We Refused to Lead a Dying Church" by Paul M. Nixon
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Christmas Eve 2006, Peter Johnson (sic) came to sub on the organ. He was at the time, administrator of a larger Church in Boston. Wollaston needed help with music, and with publications and social media. They also needed someone to unlock the door for activities and groups and interface with them on behalf of the church. Peter came on staff part - time in 2007 to do a mix of these tasks - all areas where he is gifted and addition he writes grants, in fact, Peter points out, that all staff persons at Wollaston are expected to write grants
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Prior to Peter's coming members of the church assisted Mary Lou and secure and for $20,000 from the Calvin Institute, a grant for worship renewal. This made it possible to bring in top-notch speakers and artists across the years time to a group of local churches one of these speakers was Thomas Long, author of Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship (Alban, 2001) Tom opened the congregation up two possibilities about how they could develop greater artfulness in their worship. It was on Peter's first full weekend of working at Wollaston that he had the pleasure of escorting Doctor Long back and forth from the hotel and learning a great deal about congregational singing.
In 2009 Mary Lou published the turnaround Church, drawing significantly from the experience of the Wollaston rebirth. Tom Long wrote the forward. The book relies heavily on interviews with 10 of the folks who've made this journey with her. If the Wollaston story piques your interest or seems particularly relevant to your church, you can learn directly from Mary Lou there. Today, Wollaston gathers between seventy-five to ninety folks in worship, Young children abound. The church pulled off a Christmas cantata in 2010 for the first time in nearly thirty years. Drawing together a seasonal choir of twenty people, most of whom did not read music. They treated it as worship rather than performance. They built sets. They sewed costumes. Lots of folks pitched in. The church was packed and they report "not a dry eye in the house."
From "The Turnaround Church" by Rev. Dr. Mary Louise Gifford
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Five music directors led our worship music between 2003 and 2008. They ranged from reluctant church members to a very fine organist to a wonderful pianist. We learned a valuable lesson from the string of music directors with varying gifts; it cannot be assumed that because a person is a talented pianist or organist he or she can direct, teach, or lead others and singing. Our current minister of Music, Peter Johnston, is gifted in playing the organ, the piano, and the guitar. He also leads us in congregational singing. Today, our worship music is a blend of traditional and contemporary Styles and includes children and adult voices as well as frequent guest musicians
Through a very generous grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, (funded through the Lilly endowment) for the Year 2007 - 2008, our church has had the privilege to study with and learn from Thomas long who spent a full weekend with our congregation and September We have studied his book Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship with him and in small book discussion groups.
Music and worship are so important that they emerged as a main topic of the study groups. Peter Johnston, our Minister of Music, engaged in several conversations with Tom on this topic. And the opening of his book Tom writes about a visit to a congregation and an older church building, much like ours, where he was surprised to see a red drum set in the middle of the chancel. Our minister of Music surprised Tom with a (borrowed) set of red drums in our Sanctuary when it came to worship with us because so many of us had read this story and Tom's book having the drums that day was fun for him and for us.
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HANOVER—Members of the First Congregational Church of Hanover spent this week collecting donations, making meals and delivering coats, food and more to two South Shore towns that were recently surprised by the arrival of nearly 100 people experiencing homelessness on the South Shore. Over the past two weeks, state authorities placed people and families in Kingston and Plymouth hotels, among others.
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Officials at a press conference last week would not immediately comment on who was being relocated or why, but state representatives for the town suggested that the economy and the housing crisis were to blame. Among the displaced people are Haitian migrants who fled violence and poverty in their home country, and many are undocumented immigrants who speak little or no English.
“There was no question that we would immediately assemble and help," the Rev. Peter Johnston, lead pastor of the Hanover church, said. "We serve as a community that welcomes all, and this was an opportunity to fulfill that commitment, ignite compassion and propel our faith into action.”
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Johnston said the assistance request originated from the United Church of Christ’s Southern New England Conference, of which First Congregational Church of Hanover is a member parish. He was informed that people were relocated to temporary locations, with 27 families diverted to Kingston and 12 to Plymouth. With the region’s established shelters full and services tapped due to high demand for housing, those transported were in immediate need of meals, clothing and diapers.
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He immediately took action, reaching out to five First Congregational Church parishioners who jumped at the opportunity to assist.
A food pantry pickup of donated groceries and coats was immediately coordinated, and volunteers soon gathered in the church’s kitchen to transform the groceries into hot means of barbecue chicken, rice, corn and freshly baked cookies. The group loaded the food and coats into cars and headed to the Plymouth site and days later prepared, packaged and delivered 50 lunches. Another local United Church of Christ parish coordinated meals for the Kingston group.
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“Our efforts have just begun. We’ve been in contact with other Southern New England Conference churches and are coordinating lunches and hot dinners to be delivered through Sunday night,” Johnston said. “Jesus didn’t feed people based on their life circumstances, Jesus fed people because they were hungry.”
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The Patriot Ledger, November 4, 2022
