Tom Gunn

Organist  

Music is a language that requires interpretation to make it sound so that people's hearts and minds will be drawn away from worldly things and directed into worship. The Latin motto for The American Guild of Organists is Soli Deo Gloria - Glory to God Alone. That's what it's all about. 

Tom began playing hymns on the piano for Sunday School and for the informal Sunday evening worship services for a North Carolina Methodist congregation when he was in his teens and has enjoyed playing either piano or organ or directing a choir ever since, now almost more years than he can count, but all of them a blessing! There are many references in the Bible to music as part of worship, and for him there is no greater thrill than to play for and accompany the congregation or the choir as they lift their voices in worship to God. He widely attributes this to St. Augustine of Hippo who said that he who sings prays twice - meaning that a person not only puts his or her mind into the words but also gives the full body to proclaim those words and thus makes the hymn or canticle something greater than just the words or the music. For Tom, as an organist it is a joy to support those souls in worship with the melodic and chordal foundations that help the voices soar.