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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, He's Going to Transform Your Church

By Eden Casteel

If you give a mouse a cookie, he might ask for a glass of milk. Do you remember reading that story to a kid or grandkid? One small action leads to a series of unbelievable adventures.

Here’s our church’s version of the story: If you book a singer-songwriter to perform at your church, it might revolutionize your church’s entire approach to community building. That happened for us at Kingston Congregational Church (KCC), a 300-year-old congregation based in southern Rhode Island.

Our church building dates to the 1820s and is directly across from the University of Rhode Island. Thousands of people drive past our building to and from classes. Our 200-year-old sanctuary had hosted some outstanding sacred music performances, but like other churches, we’d experienced demographic shifts and the pandemic. Those concerts were in the past; membership declined, and music was rarely heard outside our choir loft. Our 60-year-old Fellowship Hall is a convenient spot for Scouts and for 12-Step meetings, but the attached stage had become a dumping ground for every group’s extra chairs, broken lecterns, and boxes of literature.

What do you do when everyone knows your church is there, but they rarely come inside? And then, almost out of nowhere, Bobby Jo Valentine emailed us.

Valentine is a spiritually grounded, queer singer/songwriter based in Portland, Oregon, who tours extensively. He cold-emailed us asking if he could include our church as a stop on his upcoming New England tour, as he had seen KCC listed as an open and affirming church on gaychurch.org.

We love all kinds of music, but our church’s Sunday worship service features a more traditional blend of choral anthems, hymns, and songs accompanied by piano and organ. We listened to Bobby Jo’s music and fell in love immediately. His songs are thought-provoking, deeply personal, and enjoyable to listen to and sing.

Agreeing to host Bobby Jo was like giving the mouse a cookie — a first step. After booking him, Bobby Jo sent along a helpful guide listing the best (and worst) ways for a church to promote his events. We realized we’d have to upgrade our promotional skills to attract our target audience.

It started with the people in our congregation. Before worship, we played Bobby Jo’s videos on our church’s sanctuary screens. We also played his music on a Bluetooth speaker during coffee hour while selling tickets. We learned and shared social media tricks and marketing fundamentals with the choir members and the church’s Music Board. When a choir member reported that they had sent three emails with concert information to three friends in three days, we cheered him online.

And while we’re at it, what else have we done to demonstrate that our church is more than just these four walls? Let’s have the choir come out of the loft and sing backup on a few of Bobby Jo’s songs. Choir members are delighted to find themselves performing alongside a touring artist. One asks if he can play his guitar along with the headliner.

So, let’s also have the choir sing a couple of Bobby Jo’s heart-opening songs during our worship services. Doing this promotes Bobby Jo’s appearance, of course. It also shows the choir, the church, and our community that we welcome new ideas and experiences.

Bobby Jo’s concert was unforgettable, with songs and stories based on his life experiences. Our choir members beamed as they sang along behind him. The audience was a mix of church members and acoustic music enthusiasts from the surrounding area. Our church members commented with happy astonishment, “We don’t know a lot of these people coming through the doors!” The audience also gave us feedback: “Great acoustics!” “I always wondered what it looked like inside.”

And, of course, the main question: “Why aren’t you using your stage for more concerts?”

BOOM! The mouse ate the cookie and now wants milk! One action led to another. Suddenly, our Fellowship Hall stage was cleared of junk. Now, let’s watch as the trustees find the tallest ladder we have and climb it to readjust the lights in Fellowship Hall so they can illuminate the newly cleaned stage.

What does the mouse want now? We have everything in place to have more concerts in our Hall. So, let’s establish criteria for performers. Performers can reflect or complement the church’s mission or may be local to our area and region, needing a welcoming place to perform. Bonus if they are both.

Suddenly, our concert series featured a blues guitarist with her band, a barbershop quartet that hosted an interactive pun contest between songs, and a local singer-songwriter who had released six albums. A local college band opted to rent the Hall for its psychedelic-inspired album release party.

Can we use these events to collect food for the needy people in our area? Can we also sell concessions and donate the proceeds to university charities across the street? Of course, we can, and we did.

What about up-and-coming players who aren’t ready to play an entire concert? Can we provide them with a place to grow as performers? Are there other church programs or missions that could benefit from musical support?

We began inviting local students and open-mic veterans to perform at our monthly free community meals. Everyone enjoys music while eating at a restaurant, so let’s have music at our church’s restaurant! We play instrumental jazz on a speaker if we don’t have a live player.

And while we’re at it, isn’t the Hall due for some upgrades? The curtains are frayed. The speakers, fried out decades ago, still hang on the walls. We have one electrical outlet for the entire stage. A generous family in our church, whose patriarch had recently passed away, created a fund in his memory, requesting that it support our community music projects. We should probably upgrade the faded signs around the building so that people who have never been here know where to park and enter the building.

Not everything was a success: When I booked a country swing dance band to play, we had a pitifully low turnout from the church and community. And though his first appearance had galvanized us into action, Bobby Jo’s second swing through our town a year later had lower attendance. Lesson: If you give a mouse a cookie, make sure it’s not around Halloween or Homecoming.

So, let’s come up with a catchy name for this concert series. Our church’s nickname in the community is “King Cong.” So, let’s call it “King Cong Concerts.” I’ll create a few graphics on Canva of a guitar-playing gorilla sitting on a church roof next to a steeple. Cute, right? No, not cute at all, said friends who taught us that anything referring to King Kong, even homophonically, could be construed as condescending and racist. We didn’t realize our own nickname went against everything our mission stood for.

Fresh horror: Our church’s URL is www.kingcongchurch.org. We are part of the problem! Let’s purchase more suitable domain names, revamp our website, and officially relaunch at www.kingstonucc.org. And while we’re at it, let’s create a dedicated webpage for the concerts, making it easy to find online.

Is the mouse full yet? Not even close. We have enthusiastic helpers, but they lack organization. We also have members who are creative in non-musical ways, including novelists and poets, dancers, and visual artists. Let’s transform the music-only committee — whose activities were mostly restricted to the choir loft — into the KCC Creative Arts Ministry, celebrating the God-given creative spark in everyone. And while we’re at it, let’s invite local creatives to be part of this ministry, connecting our church to the community.

And while we’re at it, let’s re-examine the purpose and methods of every board in our church. Can we nimbly organize around specific projects and tasks instead of committees, then disband and create other project-based groups? Let’s help our already-stretched volunteers fulfill our mission instead of enduring unneeded board meetings.

Is this the happy ending? We’re not done yet! Every success comes with several failures as we learn what works for our church and community. Our church members connect more and group around projects and events that interest them rather than standing boards. It’s not perfect, but at least we continue to learn and improve. When I shared this with Bobby Jo during his second visit, he smiled and said, “You’re not the first church where this has happened. For some reason, when I do concerts, the churches start to rethink a lot of things.”

The moral of the story: Give the mouse a cookie. One small action can bring about incredible and positive changes.

Eden Casteel is the Minister of Music at Kingston Congregational Church in Kingston, Rhode Island. She is a cabaret performer and creator, songwriter, piano bar entertainer, dueling pianist, and a recovering classical soprano. Learn more about Eden and hear her perform at edencasteel.com.

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