Issues in Church Music and Worship: Six Articles

I have previously posted links to four of these articles on Anglicans Ablaze. If you have read the articles, I recommend that you read them again.

Why They Don’t Sing on Sunday Anymore

Looking around the church last Sunday I noticed that the majority weren’t singing. And most of those who were singing barely moved their lips. The only voices I actually heard were those on stage with microphones.

That’s been the case for years now–in churches large and small. What used to be congregational singing has become congregational staring.

Even when the chipper “worship leader” in contemporary churches bounds on stage and predictably beckons everyone to “stand and worship,” the people compliantly obey the stand command, but then they turn into mute mannequins.

What’s behind this phenomenon? What happened to the bygone sounds of sanctuaries overflowing with fervent, harmonizing voices from the pews, singing out with a passion that could be heard down the street? I suspect it’s a number of unfortunate factors. Keep reading

Weightier Worship

Last spring, evangelicals across America were abuzz when Atlanta’s North Point Community Church released “Sunday’s Coming,” a short film that parodied contemporary evangelical worship. The popularity of that video — which went viral across Facebook and Twitter and dominated chatter for weeks on the Christian blogosphere — is a testament to the accuracy of (and our familiarity with) its depiction of contemporary worship. Featuring a stereotypical evangelical church with formulaic rock music (“lights and big drums”) and laughably predictable worship leader banter (“I’d like to invite the ushers to come…”), the video was a hilarious, slightly disturbing reminder of how silly our worship can look from a distance.

“Sunday’s Coming” raises questions about the homogeneity and shallow predictability of contemporary worship. Many evangelical churches in America today share a very identifiable style of worship music: a five-piece band with electric guitars, singing U2-sounding songs about God’s love written by Hillsong or Matt Redman. The experience of “worship music” has become formulaic, standardized and narrowly conceived within much of evangelicalism. In some cases, it is simply the “thing we do” for 25 minutes before the pastor preaches a sermon.

How can we go deeper in our worship? How can we make it more meaningful and less worthy of parody? And how can we make worship more about “we” the church than “me” the consumer, but above all about God? Keep reading

Many church choirs are dying. Here’s why

James Merritt spent years as senior pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch that featured a mighty choir.

Then he changed his tune.

At 50, he left First Baptist Church Snellville to plant a new church — 200 people in a rented space at a high school 12 miles away — focused on reaching a young generation.

There was and is no choir. And that puts Merritt’s current congregation, Cross Pointe Church, right on trend. Keep reading

The Best Way to Use Music in Church

The key to biblical worship: Let everyone sing!

On my last Sunday at Saint Barnabas, where I led music for almost 27 years, the new music director asked me to share my philosophy of church music with some key instrumentalists. It was a good occasion to rehearse what to me is the role of music in biblical worship. Keep reading

I would add a fourth implication to David Neff's list of three implications. Be intentional in introducing new songs to the congregation whether they are hymns, psalms. canticles, worship songs, or service music settings. This entails being systematic in how we teach new songs to them. It also entails holding congregational practices before or after the service or on a weeknight; giving people ample time to learn and master a new song; and repeating the new song with sufficient frequency that the members of the congregation incorporate it into their repertoire.

The role of singing in the life of the church

The many purposes of singing
One of the chief things that Christians are renowned for, both historically and universally, is singing songs and making music. This is in contrast to Islam, for example, where many regard music as haram (forbidden), and singing does not normally feature in Mosque practices.

Now there are all sorts of reasons why Christianity is a singing faith; for the practice of making melody to the Lord, and of hymn singing in particular, has many purposes. My intention in this article is to focus specifically on congregational singing (rather than Christian music generally), and to open up its three principal purposes; the three main reasons why, according to Scripture, God has given us this ability and called us to engage in this activity. These reasons are: (1) to help us praise, (2) to help us pray, and (3) to help us proclaim. So let’s look at each of these in turn. Keep reading

Five Ways to Improve Congregational Singing

My wife, Kristyn, and I recently returned from a tour where we had the privilege of sharing our music in cities across North America. As we do on our tours, we partnered with most of our concert sponsors to host a lunch and time of discussion with local pastors, worship leaders, and other church musicians.

In each of those leadership events, I posed the question, “What are the things you ask yourself on Monday morning, in reviewing Sunday’s services?” Generally, the responses centered around production values, stylistic issues, people management, pleasing the pastor, or finishing the service on time. I do not recall that any one asked, “How did the congregation sing?”

It seems curious that in a generation that has produced innumerable conferences, articles, blogs, and even university degree programs on “worship,” the topic of congregational singing hasn’t been raised more often. But even if we had been discussing congregational participation, would we know what goal we’re aiming to hit each week?

I do not pretend to be qualified to write a theological treatise on this particular subject. Congregational singing is a holy act, and as I organize my thoughts, I hear my old pastor, Alistair Begg, reminding me that in our song worship, we have to be spiritually alive (dead people don’t sing), spiritually assisted (through the enabling of the Holy Spirit), and spiritually active (committed to daily walking with the Lord).

I offer here some practical advice on strengthening our congregational singing, drawn from both our experience as musicians and also what we have seen and learned in our travels. Keep reading