Finding God in the tunes

Young Chang

Henry Kogler’s life goal is to serve God through music, but the

task isn’t as simple as hitting the right notes.

The new minister of music at Christ Lutheran Church has made it

his full-time job to make sure that worship services help people get

“closer to God.”

“Our goal in this is so that when people leave a worship service

here as a member or visitor, that they will be able to say that they

have been able to be in touch, I guess, with God,” said Kogler, who

joined the Costa Mesa church last month. “Music is a very powerful

tool in helping to do that.”

The minister moved to Costa Mesa recently from Southgate, Mich.,

to take his new job. He wanted to leave his Michigan church, where he

said he enjoyed much success, because he’s one to take on the

challenge of building programs more than he is one to maintain them.

Christ Lutheran, which has been without a minister of music for eight

years, hired a full-time person in the position to replace the many

volunteers who had alternated in the role.

“Worship is a very important ingredient,” said Steven Hayes, lay

minister at Christ Lutheran. “We felt the need to enhance our

worship. Henry will bring it to life.”

The 51-year-old Kogler joins the church during a time of

renovation. The congregation now worships in a gymnasium because the

worship facility is being remodeled -- a project that will last

another six to nine months -- and updated with a better sound system

and video technology.

Kogler began joining music and ministry when he was a young boy at

a Christian elementary school in San Diego. It was a phase that

influenced the rest of his life and one that introduced him to the

teacher he most admired.

“I think every child going through school has a teacher that seems

to really connect with them as this one did for me, and because of

his strong interest in music and my love for music, I felt like what

I wanted to do was use my musical ability in a church ministry

setting and do that as a career,” the minister said.

He learned to play the piano as an elementary school student and

then the organ during high school. He studied music, including

specifics in choral directing and church music, in college. In the

mid-1980s, he earned a master’s degree in church music.

Between then and now, Kogler has served at a church in St. Louis,

Mo., and at the one in Michigan, where he says he could have stayed

indefinitely.

“Another draw for me was that both myself and my wife have

extended family and our family roots are all here in California,” he

said. “It gave us a chance to move back home again.”

The minister’s goal here is to meet with the pastors on a weekly

basis, talk about the themes and Scriptures for each service and then

to find music that coordinates with the message at hand. He also

wants to make the church’s services more visitor friendly by offering

two different styles of music -- the more traditional kind led

primarily by pianos and organs, and the more contemporary style led

primarily by guitars.

“Another way we’ll do that is by having the kind of instruments

and singers that [congregants] would feel most comfortable with,”

Kogler said. “And we’ll use children and high school youth as much as

we can so that it’ll have a family atmosphere to the service.”

He believes strongly in the power of music to sway hearts. Citing

examples of Christian radio stations, Kogler said many have reported

that listeners acquainted with the music alone have gotten to know

God.

“We try and play music that would accomplish that here in a church

setting too,” he said.