The pipe organ in Messiah Lutheran Church, Germantown Maryland, was build by Flentrop Orgelbouw (Organbuilders) in Zaandam, the Netherlands, and was dedicated April 21, 1991. The action of the instrument is entirely mechanical. By pulling a stop, the player sets up a mechanical series of levers, rollers, stickers, trackers, pallets, and other devices that actually connect the keys with the chosen sets of pipes. By pressing keys, the player activates this mechanical series to let air flow into the chosen pipes. The only use of electricity is to run a blower that maintains a supply of air in a reservoir. Pipe organs have been built this way ever since they were invented, more than two thousand years ago.

Many modern instruments have a different kind of action that uses electricity to connect the player with the pipes and removes all limits on the size and location of an organ. The sound and purpose of instruments with electrical action is often very different from those that are purely mechanical. Electricity can be exploited even further, eliminating even the pipes of the organ.

The Flentrop organ in Messiah Lutheran Church adheres to the older of these two traditions. Bach would find it familiar and comfortable. The case of an organ is like the body of a violin, insofar as both structures focus and project the sound, as do the walls of the room in which the instrument is sounding. Organ-cases tend to become works of at themselves, combining the techniques of woodcarving, cabinet-making, and metal-working. The ideal location of pipe organ, both aurally and visually, is in a balcony. The instrument at Messiah Lutheran Church is an ideal combination of all these qualities.

America has led the world in exploiting electric action and had therefore forgotten mechanical action. Two forces abruptly returned the country to mechanical action: first, through American armed forces encountering baroque mechanical organs in France and Germany, and through their use by the concert organist E. Power Biggs, who felt that Flentrop organs were the best ever built.

Hendrik Wicher Flentrop had established the Organbuilders in the Netherlands in 1903. Dirk Andries Flentrop had taken over the firm in 1940, sending instruments all over the world. Antonio Johannes Steketee succeeded Mr. Flentrop in 1976. The Messiah instrument was built under his direction.

It has three keyboards, two for the hands and one for the feet, and twenty-three stops of many different pitches that are a function of the size of the pipes, 16' (sixteen foot) being low in pitch and 2' high. The lower manual keyboard is called the Hoofdwerk (Great), the upper one the Bovenwerk (Swell), and the one for the feet the Pedal. The keyboards can be combined, some keys actually pulling down other keys without appearing to be touched. Only the Pedal can play all three keyboards at once. The case and most of the action are made of oak, though some mechanical parts use cedar and mahogany. Most of the pipes are made of a mixture of tin and lead, though two pedal ranks are made of mahogany.

The organ has two purposes, prayer and praise, which it serves by three functions, namely, to lead congregational singing; to accompany choirs and soloists, and to perform independently. It is one of the most noble creations of human genius and art.