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Eileen Guenther, like most good church organists, has thousands of sounds in her fingertips.

"Like sonic painters," Guenther said, with palates of sound, organists can craft art that enables people to see into the soul of God. But all the beautiful noise in the world won't make a difference if it's not touching people on a from-the-heart, to-the- heart basis, she said.

To this end, Guenther, the new president of the American Guild of Organists, and the guild's 20,000

members in 300 local chapters, are advancing the historic and evolving roles of the organ, working to promote its glory, grandeur and grace.

"The organ is cool," she said. "I was trained as a pianist first, and once I started playing the organ, my mom couldn't peel me off the bench."

A classically trained musician, Guenther is a featured artist on several recordings; she hosted the award-winning radio program, The Royal Instrument; is an international organ recitalist; was minister of music and liturgy at Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years;

and is currently an associate professor of church music at Wesley Theological Seminary and a professional lecturer in music at George Washington University in Washington.

At Foundry, Guenther designed and oversaw the installation of a 60-rank Casavant organ. While it may seem like churches are moving away from pipe organs, she points out that there are approximately 100 new organs built each year in the United States.

"That may not sound like a lot, but they're custom-designed. They are the most labor intensive and material intensive instruments you can imagine," she said.

Guenther dismisses those who predict the organ's demise, calling on church musicians and worship leaders to use their imaginations and creativity.

"Add, don't subtract," she advised. "Don't take something out, add something else to it. Add your djambes, or your African percussion instruments, or your Bolivian flute, whatever."

Since leaving Foundry UMC in 2007, Guenther has had her Sunday mornings free to travel to other churches. She has been profoundly disappointed in some of the worship she's encountered and sometimes finds herself wondering "why people are even here.

"What I've found is a lot of, if I was going to be mean, I'd say, ‘boredom.' I'll just say, ‘same-old, same-old.' I find pastors who don't preach as if they have any conviction, who celebrate the Eucharist as if they've done it 42,000 times and don't convey a sense of the power of the most magnificent story in the world," Guenther said.

"I think passion is one of the things that's really lacking," she added. "It's very interesting, when you observe someone who has passion about something, you almost can't help but mirror that yourself."

One of the ways organists might do this, Guenther said, is to turn around, face the congregation, and share a little of the story of the music they're playing - the composers, and the origins and impact of the hymn.

She points to the hymn, "Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore," which was sung by the people of Guatemala when their friends and relatives were being "disappeared" during a 12-year war. "Sometimes bodies were found, most of the time they weren't. This is the song that comforted those people when there were no other words for comfort," Guenther said. "We pray with people when we sing their songs."

Knowing the story of a hymn allows people to experience it differently. This act of experiencing, and not just being spectators, is a trend the church needs to pursue more fervently, Guenther said.

"In worship, we tend to think that the more we talk, and the better we talk, the more people will get what we're wanting them to get. But that's not the whole story," she said, citing the work of Howard Gardner in "The Multiple Intelligences." People might receive God's Word from a painting, or stained glass, or drama, or a gesture in liturgical dance.

"Assuming that people only get the message of the Gospel through speaking is really a limiting thing," Guenther said. "It's just putting people in a box."

For Guenther, one of the most powerful gifts church musicians can provide is an experience of feeling the music "heart-to-heart."

She finds this transcendent experience tends to happen less with traditional hymns, which she loves as a form of "portable theology."

Rather, deeper spiritual connections seem to be made with World Music - simple melodies of just a few words, like the South African Freedom songs or refrains from the Taizé community in France.

This simple music, with "low text loads," doesn't bypass the mind, Guenther said. "But there is an extra level of communication.

"It's cyclic," Guenther continued "It repeats, and as it repeats, you change. You breathe differently. Your body relaxes and relates to the sound and the sense of it; and the community changes. It's not just mindless repetition, which people tend to think. The group is not the same when you have allowed the Holy Spirit to come in through that music."

Having recently returned from a music mission trip in Cote D'Ivoire in West Africa, and planning for another music and theology immersion experience in South Africa, the songs and stories of people struggling in faith with oppression and poverty are fresh in her mind.

For Guenther, Africa is a place where she "learns to be a Christian." For her, the one piece of music that consistently speaks directly to her heart is "Siyabonga," which she learned at a Watch Night service in a township in South Africa. The three-word stanzas translate "Thank you Jesus, Amen."

"There is something about it. I can not put words on it. It just grabs you," she said.

This feeling that goes beyond words, and wakes Guenther up at 4 a.m. with a song in her head, is one of the things that gives her hope.

When she was directing the music program at Foundry UMC, Guenther would conduct an annual conference for people living with HIV/AIDS. Over the course of a few years, the concerts raised $600,000.

She looks back on those concerts as an illustration of the power of music. The Foundry Choir, which she directed, also performed at the White House on several occasions and President Bill Clinton often attended worship at the church.

One Sunday, the choir sang "Prayer of Dedication." Later that week, Clinton quoted from the song at the funeral of former President Richard Nixon.

"In the higher things we are all one," he said.

For Guenther this rings true. From the grandeur of Brahm's "Requiem" blasting forth from an orchestra, to a praise song sung a capella by a crowd of people in the night, it is the soul of the music that matters. That's what rests in her fingertips.