42: Stories of HOPE: How Music Shapes Our Experience of Community with Libby Baumann

Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope.

Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online.

We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others.

Welcome to Hope.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Meet Hope podcast.

My name is Andrew Barber and I am your host today.

And today we have a guest.

We have Libby Baumann with us.

Libby, thanks so much for hanging out.

I'm glad to be here.

Well, before we get started, why don't you just talk a little bit about yourself for the others of you?

She is in the worship team.

She is a fantastic bass player.

She plays piano, she plays guitar.

She's kind of like the.

I'm pretty sure if I said, hey, libby, would you play drums next week, you'd figure it out.

Oh, yeah, yeah, between now and then.

Yeah, that is you too, Tibby.

Just tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your family.

Just give us a synopsis real quick.

Okay, I'm married to Jim.

We met in architecture school.

We have three sons who were grown up.

They brought three delightful women into our lives and I started as an architect with the federal agency that takes care of federal buildings the government's landlord.

So no joke, that's serious work, oh no it's serious work.

I worked there for 40 years.

As you know, I retired.

Yes, that was going to say that.

That was the.

I felt like there was a countdown clock in the worship area it was.

I had one on my phone for a long time.

And then so when did you start at Hope?

Like, how long have you been here?

Yeah, where?

What was your?

What's your hope?

Origin story.

Let's see, we came the first time to see Tony Campo, a special speaker, speak, and we came back a couple of years later.

So, like 25 years ago, we've been here Basically just yesterday.

Yeah, just a day before yeah.

Oh, that's very cool.

Yeah, like we said, you play music when.

When did music start for you?

When did you start playing music?

My father was a pastor.

He had been in one too many churches where there was no piano player, so he swore that his daughters would learn to play.

And I started piano when I was eight.

I was smitten and I still play, and yeah.

Nice Been great.

That's cool.

So I always, I always am curious to know who was like the influence of the part of how you started to play music.

It sounds like it's your dad.

Were there any other people that kind of kept you going along the way?

Are you like right from the back, Just like?

Nope, I'm, I'm all in.

Yeah, I was all in.

And you have a good teacher.

I did.

Uh, I had Mrs Bolton.

Mm, hmm, and she's still out there in the world somewhere yeah.

And then, how did you get involved with worship music at the church?

I mean you, yeah.

How did that happen?

Um well, I started playing some other instruments.

You play a bunch I've, or you and I know you have a bunch.

Do you have a?

Can you list off your instruments that you have?

I certainly can.

I have a mandolin, a banjo, a riquento, which is a classical guitar, small soprano.

Um, I have a dulcimer and I played the church organ at some other churches.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Church organ scares me with the feet and the hands.

I'm it's an intimidating thing.

That's pretty cool that you can.

Oh, that's awesome.

You got it with all my yeah, so then see, I so sorry, go back.

So you were.

So you started playing at church with another.

What was your first instrument that you started playing, first instrument was piano.

Very cool I started the guitar not long after that, nice.

Nice and now you play.

I mean, I feel like Libby, you play bass like every other week.

I yeah, I started the bass about 20 years ago.

And you know why.

It's because no one else played it.

That's.

I have a very similar origin story for me that I got handed a bass one time.

I played guitar and they said hey, andrew, you need.

I was like 14 years old.

Hey, you need to play bass next Sunday because our bass player is going to college.

And I said okay, and I've.

Yeah, that is so funny that we just kind of just get something put in your lap and then I mean that changed my world, they sort of that.

So that's, that's pretty About 20 minutes.

20 minutes later, about you know, three or four other people showed up who could play the bass, so that was the end of mine, you know you're back.

Ordered that market.

Yeah, well, what so?

What type of music now?

And not just, not speaking specifically, church music, but like, what type of music, would you say, speaks to you the most?

My first crush was the carpenters.

Great first crush.

That's a good place to be.

I, I love them and like the seventh and the eighth grade, and the thing that got me there was the tight vocals the piano, of course, and then the other instruments like start and I'm willing to take a part they were doing.

That was.

I always appreciate a musician when you say, like, what's your favorite, and they can always give you a really good reason where someone that just like just loves music.

I was like, well, just makes me feel a certain way.

But I I too that there are certain bands that I really love and it's for a very specific reason, and you know that they.

You know the lyricalness and the way that they play, so that's, that's pretty cool.

Has your music Love like?

So?

You said your first crush was your carpenters.

Do you still feel the same way about the carpenters now that you do back then, or has it kind of evolved and your music tastes?

Has it changed over the years?

Um, my attraction to them partly was that there were a small ensemble group and the albums that I had grown up, or like Peter Paul and Mary the fifth dimension, the seekers.

I had a pointer system to album Um Manhattan, transfer the weavers, so some of those kind of folky.

but also tight kind of what is it about, just music?

And I ask I love asking musicians this question but like, what is it about?

Look, what is it about music that there's something so on you can't even describe.

You know what music does to a person, but like, what is it about music that, like, just it's.

It's a lifelong passion you've had, but what is that that?

That's been the thing that's kept you going and kept your music for as long as you have.

Yeah, so the way I view the world, my sort of obsession with the world is what are the parts, how do they make up the whole?

And for me music is a cohesive whole of integrated parts, so it really scratches that itch for me in a way that you know your ears kind of side, they kind of bypass your brain, right?

so that's such an Architectural response to that question.

That's really interesting.

I love that.

And then, I guess, in the same way so, music as an expression of faith.

Like when we are playing at church on a Sunday morning, we're not just playing for the fun of it, we have a job in mind and that's to lead the congregation in worship.

But what, what for you personally?

How is music an expression of your faith?

Like what do you use music to get closer to God?

Or like what or what is that?

Yeah, what is what is music for you as it relates to your faith?

I guess is the question.

Yeah, I think from the beginning of the church, the, we've always used music to Understand more about God and to give voice to what our relationship with God is.

You know, generations of people have learned theology from the church.

In my faith tradition, hymns were a really big deal and I learned a lot about God from from hymns.

You like to say that, the power of the gospel right, so that's, that's a place that you know that fits.

I was thinking about some songs that we've done recently that you know give examples of that.

So Phil Wickham song, living hope yeah, that's a great song, it's.

It's like a song.

It tells what God did to bring us back to himself.

I just like Rita, you know, go for it.

Yeah, okay.

So how great the chasm that lays between us.

How high the mountain I could not climb.

We were separated From God by sin.

In desperation I turned to heaven.

I called out to God Through through the darkness.

Your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul.

He rescued me.

Yep, the work is finished.

The end is written.

Jesus Christ, my living hope, christ sacrifice.

You know, that was our path back, and I think that's interesting, that, like I could read.

I could read a scripture that says that oh yeah, but, but for me, and this is this is a me thing.

I don't this might not be true for everyone that when I sing it, there's something that, because I'm using, like I'm using my ears, I'm using my brain and using my book, like it is a multi sensory thing, that, like I am connecting to it in a different way.

You reference that.

Something that I say a lot is that you know, I say that we're going to share the gospel and I talk about it, and I say to the worship team that we're going to, we're going to preach the gospel with, with everything that we are, so not just in our words but in our actions, our attitudes and our deeds, and and that's an obscure concept but that when we sing, we portray this sort of surrender to God, because I think that part of the gospel is the sort of surrendering to, to our salvation and the promise that he has from us and that we can, we can sort of illustrate a surrender in the way that we worship.

So sometimes, when we raise hands, we're doing that as in the sort of like we're reaching out to God.

It's not a, it's not a parlor trick, it's not just it's, it's a response.

So I, I love that and I love that using that song as a great example, that the first part and then the second, the chorus, you know, hallelujah, praise the one who sent me free, like that's the proclamation that we're kind of we're singing to, I'm singing to somebody else, hey, you know we're singing to.

I'm singing to somebody else, hey, god sent me free and I want you to hear about this.

He's my living hope.

Um.

I would say that one of the songs we're going to do this week Um, I thank God.

Maverick City, that's like the paul in the road to damascus experience.

Yeah he picked me up, he turned me around, change my name, you know yeah, and I think that and that song it's a great tune by maverick city, that song Not only you know that, specifically those words you did, he picked me up.

You turn me around, like I.

When I sing that and I play it, I have this visual image and experience of like, yeah, like that.

It means so much more than when I just say it.

It's like when I'm singing I literally want to like, spin around because it's the sort of I'm putting on my new self, as you know, as I'm, as I'm saying this kind of this reminder.

So I, I agree, I think that's such a great, I love that song.

Congregation love that song.

But there's something For me that when I lead it, I get something very personal out of it.

That's yeah, that's really cool, that's really cool, I like that.

So what?

So?

See, we just talked about some of the songs that you kind of like and you respond to Are there music?

Is there music today that you find that like it really speaks to you, or that you feel like in your own personal time, that we, that you get stuff out of like.

What kind of music are you listening to when you're not Preparing for a Sunday morning?

I'm listening to Modern hymns, listening to some of the older Narrative songwriters.

I'm thinking about Keith and Kristen Getty, who are modern hymn writers.

I have a Phil Wickham, amy Grant, you know I have folks like that.

It is interesting, phil.

Wickham is a.

He's a modern day hymnist like and it is totally yeah and it and to his detriment sometimes, because I feel like he writes is very there.

He he has a couple of songs that are like living hope, that are that are it's a modern day hymn.

Very beefy and it is, but it's still.

He makes it so accessible.

And what about playing in a band?

Because I think that's something I love, playing with music with others, and you know we were talking about it before we started.

Even that, what.

What about in a, in a live setting, when you're playing with people like what?

What is special about that for you?

I'm listening to.

I mean obviously the meaning of the music, but the layers down from that.

I'm listening to the vocals and how they go together.

You know, it's like a mix of layers and harmony and then sort of a counterpoint that the instruments play.

Yeah, yeah and it's To me.

I mean, I was just before you got here today.

I was in my office and I was practicing for tonight and there's something like I'm like, okay, this is fun, I enjoy this.

But I was very much so like oh, I need to stop what I'm doing because I want to finish this thought when I'm with other people.

Yeah, because I had this idea, but I was like I don't want to flesh it out too much, I'd rather flesh it out in a group.

But I mean, I know you pretty well and I would say that you are more of an introvert.

So I think that where you recharge is Is when you're alone.

I mean, is that fair to say that you?

You know you've that you value your alone time.

You value that time.

But what is it about?

Because I know, for me, playing in a group does things, and I think you're the same way that I can't necessarily get on my own.

Um, what about that for you?

Is it's just an interesting dichotomy that I really do see you getting so filled when we're playing in a community together.

Yeah, it's, the community is a big part of that and then what I was saying before I that sort of bypasses your conscious brain and yeah.

Yeah, one of the things I like about Band and and what we're doing right now.

I feel like people should see somebody on the platform who's worshiping like they are.

You know and it gives them permission to I don't know twirl or jump like Like you do or like me staying in the back.

Yeah.

I'm feeling what I'm feeling, but I'm not, you know mm-hmm.

People would yeah, no, I'm gonna jump and they're gonna totally freak out.

And I think, I think and that's something that, as a worship team, we talk a lot about that we are often modeling the worship stands and that, and that we're not all doing it the same way.

Not everybody worships so I worship, or how you worship, you know, and that there's somewhere in between and and that that's through line, that of community, like when we worship in a community where a we're worshiping together, which is really cool, but we're also worshiping in different ways, but we're worshiping the same God.

Yeah, and I think that there's really power in that that.

I always love to say that God created each and every one of us differently and and and we're all unique, but also, at the same time, he knows every single hair on every single one of our heads and like what a powerful God, that God is Big enough to and smart enough to create us all as individuals, so that we all have our unique Experiences but can use each and every one of us, and and that that your experiences versus my experiences versus Susie's Experiences versus Chris, like all of those people, like we all come together and we create something greater than the sum of our own parts.

Absolutely yeah that's really cool.

Well, I mean, before we get out of here today, is there any?

We were just talking about music and your love for music.

Are there any?

Any music recommendations that you'd like to share with who's listening today?

Well, folks, I mentioned before, I like the gettys.

They're like um, you know in the buying album stage.

Yeah, amy Grant, my secret crush, bill Wickham doesn't have to be a secret crush.

I mean probably Chris she was kind of had a bubblegum stage you know, but she's well past that now yeah.

Nicole Norman.

I like her a lot.

I listen to early pentatonic sometimes.

You know the same kind of harmony thing.

Yeah, I like the Martins, another Christian country.

Yeah, Well, I'm definitely gonna check that out and yeah, well, thanks for hanging out with us and listening to the meat hope podcast.

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A great week.

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