Leadership Journal

The sanctuary is packed. Ushers wedge latecomers into the few empty seats scattered across the long, low room. When those seats are full, they open clattering doors to overflow rooms on the sides. There's no holy hush in this place. Even the quiet moments are accompanied by electronic instruments and punctuated by whispers.

At times the service is more like the Promise Keepers rallies that have brought Joseph Garlington to prominence (he led worship at the mammoth 1998 Stand in the Gap event in Washington, D.C.).

The congregation cheers as people approach the altar area to signify their commitment to Christ, and (amazingly) they cheered just as enthusiastically when it was time to pass the offering baskets ("It's a privilege to give!"). But throughout was a sense that something holy—sometimes exuberant, sometimes tender, always spontaneous—something holy is happening here.

Welcome to Covenant Church of Pittsburgh, where Garlington is pastor and, as he puts it, "lead worshiper." He guides worshipers through a seamless mix of praying and singing, old songs and new sounds. It's a style that draws on his eclectic background.

His congregation is multi-racial—60 percent African-American—and so is the staff. Over the heads of this gathering are colorful flags from many nations, banners festooned with the names of Jesus, and signs bearing the word and definition of Garlington's present emphasis in worship—"repristinate."

The day after this service, Leadership editors Marshall Shelley and Eric Reed sat with Pastor Garlington to talk about leading people into an awareness of God's presence.

I found this concept in a book on leadership, Certain Trumpets by Garry Wills. In order for a tradition to be worth passing to another generation, Wills says, you must repristinate it, "restore it to its original state or condition."

He quotes G.K. Chesterton: "Conservativism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone, you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone, you leave it to a torrent of changes. If you leave a white (fence) post alone, it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white, you must be always painting it again. Briefly, if you want the old white post, you must have a new white post."

What people celebrate as tradition is usually a thing that's been blackened by time. "All things that resist change are changed by that resistance in ways undesired and undesirable," says Wills. "The tradition must be repristinated if it is to be worth following."

This really had an impact on me—the church must not move through life without repristinating what we hand down.

We were selecting songs for an upcoming PK album. The musicians were telling me that one of the songs college groups are singing all around the country is "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

The composer ...