The Ecclesia Collective

In late 1980, two young men started a record label in Washington DC called Dischord Records. Since that fateful day Dischord Records has released over 150 albums from a variety of Washington DC-based artists. The label has never entered into an agreement with a major record label and has remained fiercely independent to this day.

One of the label’s two founders is Ian MacKaye. MacKaye was a member of the band that provided Dischord its first release, Teen Idles – a DC hardcore, straight edge, punk band. Not long after the demise of Teen Idles, MacKaye formed a new group, Minor Threat. For three intense years, Minor Threat played countless shows, touring across the nation and spreading their straight edge message. Straight edge, an ideal that grew rapidly during the 80’s era of punk and hardcore, encouraged abstinence from sex, drugs, smoking and alcohol. The proponents of straight edge encouraged punks to think clearly about social responsibility and personal development.

Four years after Minor Threat split up, Ian formed a new group, Fugazi. Labeled as a “post-punk” group, fusing elements of punk, dub and jazz, Fugazi has released seven albums, and toured extensively both nationally and internationally. Along the way, Fugazi and its label Dischord Records have defined words such “punk” and “indie” before they were trendy. Even with their great success, Fugazi has always charged only five dollars a ticket for a show. Dischord has consistently ensured that the bands on their label make a fair share of profits and provided fairly for record label staff. In a time when record prices soared, Dischord always sought to be frugal and fiscally responsible in order to keep their prices as low as possible so that young people with little money could afford their releases.

For the entire music industry (and beyond) Ian Mackaye has helped redefined success by refusing to tread the well-worn path. Through his identity as a musician and a business owner, Mackaye has defied market principles and creative definition. As Mackaye cries out during the refrain of “Merchandise,” the fourth track of Fugazi’s fifth release, Repeater, “You are not what you own!” Throughout his musical career, MacKaye has railed against the common consumer capitalist assumptions that many within Western culture depend upon.

But more than simply critiquing the system, Ian Mackaye has also created alternatives to it. We, as followers of Christ, could learn a thing or two from MacKaye’s example. Sometimes, we need to pause and ask ourselves, “What would Ian do?”

A Different Economy
More and more of us are realizing that our current economic paradigm of Newer! Bigger! Faster! is not working for most. And yet, at the same time, many Western churches seem to still exalt the “more is better” mentality that Bill McKibben critiques in his book, Deep Economy (Times Books, 2007). We live in a time when most function on a modality of scarcity. We collect more and more because we have been convinced that there is never enough.

In the Book of Acts, Saint Luke writes of the early church, “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” Instead of scarcity, the Early Church practiced generosity, putting into practice the Jubilee and Sabbath principles that Jesus echoed at the inception of his ministry from Isaiah. They functioned on an economic paradigm of abundance. They were determined to make sure all had access to what they needed.

As MacKaye writes in his history of Dischord Records:

In the beginning it was basically a volunteer arrangement as there was no money to pay anyone, but by the early ’90s we were not only able to pay everyone, but also able to provide them with health insurance and other benefits. I’ve always considered this one of our most important achievements. Most businesses, including record labels, have used profits (or at least the fear of losing profits) as their guideline for operations. Because we have tried to approach the label as a mission of documentation as well as a community-based entity, we have managed to avoid many of the industry-standard practices. The fact that we are able to help support the people who work for us as well as pay royalties to the bands seems to be proof that such an approach is possible.

We must ask ourselves why this small punk record label’s version of economics looks more like the picture Scripture paints than ours does as the Church. Perhaps MacKaye’s example can help us, as followers of Christ, re-imagine what success looks like and help us reclaim the heritage of the Early Church.

Go Local
From its beginnings, Dischord Records has been deeply involved in its local community of Washington DC. For over 25 years, the label has documented the Washington DC music scene – including a new generation of punk kids whose formative years were spent listening to the original Dischord roster. Dischord has raised money for various local causes and concerns and has been involved in many DC area benefits and protests.

Working alongside like-minded people in their local community has been part of the Dischord ethos from their early days. Instead of competing with other record labels and artists, they focused instead on collaboration. This collaborative attitude has created a generative community; for example, Dischord provided the business model and even distribution for local DC label Simple Machines. In turn, Simple Machines published and sent out 10,000 copies of their Introductory Mechanic’s Guide to Putting out Records - a DIY how-to guide that explains the record manufacturing process in simple language.

As socially responsible people of faith, we are often concerned with the plight of people in need around the world – and rightfully so. But, at the same time, how are we actively pursuing the betterment of the neighborhood’s in which we live? As Rob Bell asked at the “Isn’t She Beautiful” local church conference, If your church disappeared tomorrow, who would protest? And, are we collaborating or competing with other local communities of faith?

Do It Yourself
When Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson started Dischord Records over two decades ago, they were just out of high school and lacked a college education. They did not wait for permission to promote what they saw as good music with an important message. Along the way, they assisted to empower other young people to pursue their passions as musicians, artists, activists, promoters, and writers. In the punk scene of Washington DC, and across the country, punk fanatics saw it as their duty to participate in whatever fashion they could.

The aforementioned Introductory Mechanic’s Guide to Putting out Records was originally part of a larger booklet released in conjunction with Dischord and Positive Force DC (a DC-area activist group that works for social change and youth empowerment) called You Can Do It, which covered topics such as how to organize an activist group or put on a show. The Mechanic’s Guide has been influential in a number of other ways, as described in the introduction:

This booklet is just a basic blueprint, and even though we write about putting out records or CDs, a lot of this is common sense. We know people who have used this kind of information to do everything from putting out a 7″ to starting an independent clothing label to opening recording studios, record stores, cafes, microbreweries, thrift shops, bookshops, and now thousands of start-up internet companies. Some friends have even used similar skills to organize political campaigns and rehabilitative vocational programs offering services to youth offenders in DC.

In the Western church, we have become painfully dependent upon a spiritual hierarchy. We have professionalized the idea of ministry – with the amateurs sitting back passively and watching the ordained professionals “do ministry” for them. It has been grossly misused by paid ministers and has been the excuse of many to treat discipleship to Christ as a casual hobby.

Author and environmental activist, Derrick Jensen has repeatedly said, “We need it all!” From elementary school teachers to activists willing to engage in civil disobedience, everyone is needed with their particular gifts and abilities in order to fight for their ecological cause. In 1 Peter 2, we are told that, as a people belonging to God, all of us are part of a “royal priesthood”. How do we as Christians need to reconsider our primary vocation of seeking the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus prayed, as our primary vocation? And like the early punk scene, find a place for everyone to contribute so that the church becomes a dynamic, creative force for good in our local communities, rather than simply a destination to consume religious goods and services.

Out of Step
In the same passage mentioned above from 1 Peter 2, Christians are titled, “strangers and aliens”, or what Rodney Clapp has called, “a peculiar people.” But if you walk into most religious bookstores you will more likely find symbols of our attempts to blur the lines between Christians and the majority of consumer culture participants. MacKaye has never had illusions of being just like any other artist and record label owner. He has shown confidence in what may be perceived as limitations: strictly about Washington DC, independent music. Christians would be wise to consider MacKaye’s posture with music to determine how we might follow the “narrow path” today.

The question many have asked is whether music can make a difference. Certainly, it can and does. For some of us that grew up in two camps that often seemed diametrically opposed to each other – punk rock and Christianity – without our musical roots, we have lost our faith. Individuals such as MacKaye and others within the national punk rock scene helped us redefine what it meant to be a follower of a First Century radical and gave us an imagination of how to live out our faith today.