Othello pastor-band director recruits instruments

By Marijke Fakasiieiki

For Adam Janes, the pastor of Othello Christian Church, a band instrument can change a life because music opens opportunities and minds.

Since January 2020 and after COVID, the church has hosted a community band for elementary school students.

It's secular, but it's one of the church's outreach ministries.

Adam, who is also the high school marching band instructor, said that when the school superintendent asked the church and community to help when funding for the music program dropped, he saw another opportunity to share his love of music with young people.

"I enjoy seeing students excel at music—more than performing it myself," said Adam, whose three sons have been in the school band.

Because of changes in the school music program, students were not provided instruments.

So Othello Christian Church began a campaign, asking people to donate gently used flutes, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, trombones and percussion instruments and bring them to the church.

They called the campaign, "Liberating as Christ Liberated," because the goal is to remove barriers to students learning music and to give them an opportunity to expand their horizons.

"We don't want families to have to spend $50 a month to rent instruments. We want everyone who wants to play an instrument to be able to learn to play one," he said.

Sixth graders previously had band all year to prepare them to enter the middle and high school band. Now sixth graders have band only one-fourth of the school year, so they were less prepared when they entered seventh grade, Adam said.

That led the church to offer space for a community band to meet to fill the gap.

Adam makes it clear that the church music program is separate from the school band program.

"To have student musicians meet in the church, we assured the school that we use secular, not religious music," Adam said, "although most secular music for that age conveys values.

"I've been in a band since I was 12 years old in sixth grade. I played through high school. In college, I continued in music, because for me music and ministry are intertwined," he said.

Adam's primary instrument was the trombone, but he branched out to play 13 instruments. He can teach almost any band instrument, including flute, clarinet, sax, trumpet, baritone and tuba.

"The instruments are similar, so students can learn one instrument and transfer what they learn to another," he added.

"Music is a gateway for students to move into college and other endeavors," said Adam.

Even if the music is secular, he considers music to be a spiritual expression.

"For our church, the opportunity to provide the instruments and band for students is a justice issue," he said. "Our faith compels us to do what we can to help people have as many opportunities as possible.

"To me, music, especially instrumental music, expands horizons like nothing else," Adam said, explaining that it awakens use of many parts of the brain and provides leadership training that "sets people up for a better future."

Adam sees a false dichotomy between sacred and secular.

"Ancestors in the faith would have had no concept that there could be anything that we do in our lives that isn't connected to the sacred," he observed.

"Music is a language that can give expression to ideas and feelings where words are inadequate," he added, citing from Rom. 8:26, "the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."

Growing up on the Oregon Coast, Adam graduated from high school in Salem. He first felt called to ministry during his sophomore year but decided to study music. In his first year at Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Ore., he felt God calling him to pastor a church.

He earned a joint bachelor's degree in music from Northwest Christian and the University of Oregon.

In 2007, he earned a master of divinity degree with a concentration in Christian care and counseling at Emmanuel School of Religion—now Emmanuel Christian Seminary—at Milligan University in Johnson City, Tenn.

Adam began in ministry in 2008, serving primarily in rural towns, including small towns in Tennessee and Virginia before he came to the Othello Christian Church in July 2016.

He asked to have his profile sent to the Pacific Northwest, because his family are in Oregon. He wanted his children to have a closer relationship with their extended family.

Adam told about other ministries of Othello Christian Church.

The church live streams its Sunday services so homebound members can participate.

"Our ages range from elementary school to elder members with just about every generation represented in the congregation," he said. "We are currently not offering Sunday School classes, so we can focus on other things. We have small discipleship groups."

The church has a praise band and hand bell choir. The praise band includes members, who play for every service, singing a blend of traditional hymns and contemporary praise songs.

"In this congregation, it's easy to incorporate multicultural, international music because my predecessor was also musically inclined. She pushed the congregation musically outside their comfort zone. Now there is no question. We sing a variety of music," he said.

"If music from around the world is done correctly, it gives the congregation the opportunity to understand that no matter how isolated they may feel, they are not alone. We can connect with one another by sharing a variety of worship resources," said Adam.

"It does wonders for rural congregations to introduce music from other parts of the world," he added, noting that the Disciples of Christ hymnal incorporates hymns from around the world.

For example, he has been singing "We are Walking in the Light of God!" since he was 12 years old.

He was introduced to more music from around the world in 2008, when he attended a World Convention of Christian Churches, Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ in Nashville, Tenn. It gathers every four years, rotating its location around the world.

Adam believes the variety of music his church offers moves people to connect more with other outreach ministries and be open to new and unconventional ways of doing ministry in the community.

For other community outreach in Othello, the church has a feeding ministry, taking meals to a homeless encampment for 30 individuals.

The church also collects baby supplies for layettes and provides a new baby kit for families when they return from the hospital.

They make baby and other quilts—keeping a third locally for the hospital or families in need, sending a third to the New Hope women's shelter in Moses Lake and sending the rest to a refugee and immigrant ministry in Tecate, Calif.

For information, call 488-2208 or email pastor@othellochristianchurch.com.