The Epic, Pt. 57

By May of 2009 Takoma Park had been without a choir director for about five months. Pastor DeSilva wanted to put in a new director who would ease the music style of the church away from its traditional roots. There were some within the congregation (not a majority, but some) who were clamoring for more contemporary and/or gospel music within the worship repertoire and Pastor DeSilva believed that he could increase his popularity by catering to this demographic. Earlier in the year he had brought in a potential replacement to guest direct for a Sabbath and it had been a fiasco. (It was discovered as a result of this trial run that the woman couldn’t read music, among other things.)

Pastor DeSilva tried again, presenting his new candidate to the music council when it met on May 2, 2009. He asked for immediate approval of the candidate without either interview or audition. His justification for this omission of due diligence was that the church’s attendance was suffering for lack of choral participation in the worship and that the post needed to be filled immediately in order to turn the situation around. (Lack of a choir director was not the reason attendance had fallen off, but it made a convenient excuse to direct attention away from the real reasons.) Pastor DeSilva also presented an altered job description to the music council. He wanted a full-time "Minister of Music" who would direct the choir, choose all other music to be performed during all worship services, be a backup organist, chair of the music council, and report directly to the senior pastor rather than any elected committee. At that time the music counsel chairmanship was an elected position with an incumbent who would be forced out of office if this new position and job description were approved. After lengthy debate the music counsel voted that they wanted a simple choir director, not this fancy new all-encompassing position. (No action was taken regarding the candidate Pastor DeSilva had put forward.)

At a meeting of the ministries board the next morning (May 3) Pastor DeSilva again brought up the new Minister of Music position he wanted to create. He again made his pitch about the music department being in a "pitiful" state, and how the decision simply couldn't be delayed any longer, despite concerns about the matter being rushed and not given due consideration. The vote of the music counsel was glossed over as an expression of "concern" about the new position heading the music counsel. (The music counsel’s official representative on the ministries board didn’t challenge the pastor’s spin.) The proposed job description for this new position caused some heated debate which Pastor DeSilva arbitrarily cut off. He then called for a vote on the job description for the Minister of Music position. It was approved. Pastor DeSilva also introduced the resume of his candidate for the position, but stated that it was for information only, as the accountability board would be making the final decision.

The accountability board met the next week to interview Pastor DeSilva’s candidate for Minister of Music. Pastor DeSilva was recovering from a medical procedure and couldn’t attend the meeting, so he sent the head elder as his proxy. (Proxies are expressly forbidden by the Church Manual, but Pastor DeSilva sent one anyway.) During the meeting the music counsel chair (who was an invitee at that particular meeting) mentioned that she had another name for consideration. She hadn't put it forward because the pastor's mind seemed made up and it didn't appear that alternate candidates were welcome. The head elder pushed for the immediate hire of Pastor DeSilva's candidate, but the accountability board decided to interview the other one first. It was agreed that the other candidate would be interviewed on the following Monday and that both candidates would be given the opportunity to audition as guest choir directors before a decision would be finalized.

During a business meeting on May 17 the matter of the new Minister of Music position came up in the context of evaluating the annual budget and finding salary for the position. The proposal was that this new position should come with a salary of $20,000 for a six month "trial." (Takoma Park has previously given three month trials, but when the proposed duration was questioned Pastor DeSilva simply claimed that “we’ve always done six month trials.” This wasn’t true, but no one chose to call the pastor a liar in front of the business meeting.) There was extensive discussion about whether or not $20,000 was an appropriate salary for six months of work, but it was finally approved.

When the budget discussions concluded Pastor DeSilva again brought up the Minister of Music position. He wanted action from the meeting on whether to hold an emergency business meeting when the accountability board was ready to recommend a candidate or simply let the accountability board hire someone and bless their decision at the next regularly scheduled business meeting. Pastor DeSilva strongly pushed the second option, citing the “bother” of having an emergency business meeting and the supposed need to fill this new position quickly. He was in such a hurry that he didn’t even want to allow the auditions that the accountability board had decided to give both candidates. He even went so far as to express indignance at the concept, claiming that nothing could be learned from the auditions (a remarkable statement given what was learned from the audition of his first candidate) and that the church didn’t require him to audition before hiring him as pastor. It was ultimately decided to proceed with the auditions and have an emergency business meeting to approve a candidate.

After that matter was decided a member tried to make a motion to amend the proposed job description for the Minister of Music to exclude the part about being chair of the music counsel. Pastor DeSilva refused to acknowledge the motion. He claimed first that because the ministries board had already voted it that the business meeting couldn't change it. Then he changed his argument and said that as senior pastor it was his right to write all job descriptions in the church and that he didn't have to get any approval for them. These two arguments are, of course, both faulty for the same reason. The business meeting is the highest authority in the congregation and has the right to overrule any decision of any other committee or employee, including the pastor. By refusing the motion Pastor DeSilva placed himself above the business meeting, in direct contradiction to the order called for in the Church Manual.

The alternate candidate for the Minister of Music position was interviewed by the accountability board on May 18, 2009. It was discovered that he was not a US citizen and didn't have his work papers in order, so that was the end of that. On Sabbath morning, May 23, Pastor DeSilva announced there would be an emergency business meeting on May 27 to hold a "courtesy vote" to hire the new Minister of Music. Pastor DeSilva got his courtesy vote at the May 27 meeting.

Next: A Word

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