With My Whole Heart: Music Ministry in the Small Membership Church—Part III

I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. Psalms 9:1-2

By Robin G. Jordan

In this article I propose to examine the place of music in the life and worship of the small membership church. First I will look at its place in corporate worship and then at its place in our life together as a local manifestation of the Body of Christ. One flows out of the other. It is a two-way street. The place of music in our common life as a Christian community also affects the place of music in our worship.

Historically music in corporate worship has been viewed two different ways. It has been seen as primarily an embellishment of the service—something that adorns the service but is not a part of it and therefore essential to it. Or it has been viewed as an integral part of the service. When music is seen as an adornment of the service, the accompanying tendency is to see it as the domain of the professional choristers and musicians. The Anglican cathedral choir and its repertoire represent this view of music in corporate worship. The megachurch band with its professional musicians and vocalists also stands in this tradition.

When the music is seen as integral part of the service, however, the accompanying tendency is to regard it as the congregation’s domain. Anglicans have tended to fluctuate between these two views.

The history of church music in the Anglican Church may be described as a history of tension between the two views. In the Elizabethan Church we find the music of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd and in the Jacobean Church the music of Orlando Gibbons. At the same time we also find the metrical versions of the Psalms, the canticles, and a number of Prayer Book texts. Matthew Parker composed a metrical psalter for which Tallis composed eight tunes. Gibbons composed the music for George Wither’s Hymns and Songs of the Church, a collection of metrical versions of texts taken from the Book of Common Prayer and Scripture. These two collections never enjoyed the popularity of Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins' The Whole Book of Psalmes Collected into English Metre.

In the reign of Elizabeth I large crowds gathered at St. Paul’s Cross in London to sing metrical psalms for several hours at a time. The metrical Psalms were so popular that people learned them by heart and sung them as they went about their daily occupations. The tunes were for the most part based upon folk tunes and traditional melodies. Queen Elizabeth, however, did not like the tunes of the metrical Psalms, derisively referring to them as “Geneva jigs,” a reference to the fact that these tunes were the same kind of music used for jigs—a lively type of folk dance.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was not a poet and consequently we do not find the office hymns of the Medieval breviary in the classic Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The music of the 1552, 1559, 1604, and 1662 Books of Common Prayer is limited to the Psalms and canticles. The rubrics of the 1662 Prayer Book make provision for an anthem after the Collects at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, “in Quires and Places where they sing.”

The metrical Psalms and later the hymns that were used with 1662 Prayer Book were not a part of the Prayer Book services. Elizabeth I authorized the singing of a metrical Psalm before and after each service and before and after the sermon. This reinforced the view of music as an embellishment of the service in the Anglican Church.

At the same time the singing of metrical Psalms was a major form of congregational participation in corporate worship in the parish church during the Elizabethan period and subsequent periods. The parish clerk would line out the verses of metrical Psalms and the congregation would sing them after him.

More recent Anglican service books make provision for hymns and other forms of congregational song in their services. They treat the various forms of congregational song as an integral part of corporate worship and make provision for the use of metrical versions of the Psalms and canticles, thereby making them more accessible to the congregation.

The use of metrical versions of the canticles and other Prayer Book texts such as the Creeds, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer is not new. Metrical versions of the canticles and the Prayer Book texts are found in Bishop Parker’s metrical psalter, Sternhold and Hopkins metrical psalter, and Tate and Brady’s metrical psalter. They were widely used in parish churches until the reign of Charles I who suppressed their use. They would enjoy something of a revival at the Restoration and would form a part of what is called the West Gallery Music repertoire well into the early nineteenth century. The Oxford Tractarian movement was responsible for their suppression in the nineteenth century with West Gallery Music. This movement introduced the organ and the vested choir into the parish church and represents a swing of the pendulum back to the view that church music is an embellishment of the service and the domain of the profession choir and professional musician, in this particular case the domain of the boys’ choir and the organist.

Music in corporate worship takes two forms—instrumental music and song. The two are often combined together with the instrumental music serving as accompaniment to the song. However, the two are also used independently. Instrumental music includes what may be described as body music, a form of percussion—handclapping and foot stamping. Handclapping, the striking of the fingers of one hand on the palm of the other hand, may be used to accent the melody of a song. Rhythmic foot stamping is found in indigenous African music and may accompany singing with a drum-like beat.

In the early Church singing was unaccompanied. Musical instruments such as the organ and various stringed, wind, and percussion instruments were used in pagan temples and in brothels. A number of today’s churches maintain a tradition of unaccompanied singing. In African hymns and other forms of congregational song are often sung in natural four-part harmony with no accompaniment except for foot stamping. Songs are frequently included as a part of the sermon and may be improvised on the spot. A catechist may take a sermon, turn it into a song, teach a refrain to the congregation that reinforces the point of the sermon, and then sing the sermon with the congregation joining in on the refrain. Africa has a long tradition of call-and-response singing.

Music in corporate worship may also be divided into performance music, participatory songs, and congregational songs. Performance music may be further divided as instrumental performance music and performance songs. Most instrumental music is classifiable as performance music. However, handclapping and foot stamping may be participatory or congregational. Performance songs rage from the anthems and motets of the traditional choir, to solos, to the vocals of the contemporary band.

In participatory songs a cantor, small group of singers, or a choir may sing the verses of a song while the congregation sings the antiphon or refrain. The responsorial singing of the Psalms is a common form of this type of music. The call-and response song heard in indigenous African music is another common form of this type of music. Western forms of this type of music are found in the contemporary repertoire of the Roman Catholic Church particularly the music of David Haas, Marty Haugen, and others. It is a form found in Western folk music upon which the songs of these musicians are based.

Or the cantor, small group of singers, or a choir and the congregation may alternately sing the verses or stanzas of a song. The responsive sing of the Psalms is a common form of this type of music. Or the cantor, small group of singers, or a choir may sing most of the stanzas and the congregation joins in on one stanza. A song may contain one or more instrumental interludes.

In congregational songs the entire congregation sings the song or the congregation may divide into sections and sing different stanzas of the song. The antiphonal singing of the Psalms is a common form of the later. The song is usually sung in unison but on certain stanzas the choir may sing parts while the congregation sings the melody. Members of the choir or music group or a soloist may embellish one or more stanzas of the song with a descant.

Instrumental music and song in corporate worship serves a number of purposes. It does more than embellish the service. Participatory and congregational song are first and foremost a part of our common prayer. They are a part of a conversation that is going on between God and ourselves and among ourselves to which outsiders become a party when they attend our worship gatherings. We speak to God in the lyrics of songs and God speaks to us. We also speak to each other.

Performance songs may also be regarded as a part of our common prayer. In performance songs the choir, soloist, or vocalist serves as “the tongue of the assembly,” much in the same way as does a minister who is offering a prayer.

This is one of the reasons that those choosing the songs for the corporate worship of a congregation should take great care in the songs that they select. The lyrics should not only be taken from Scripture or consonant with Scripture and theologically sound, but also they should make sense. They should fit with the part of the service in which they are to be used. It a song must be shortened, they should also take great care in editing the song so as to not mutilate the meaning of the song and put nonsense into the mouths of the congregation, choir, or music group. They should assiduously avoid such bad practices as concluding every hymn after the first three stanzas or abruptly cutting off a song whenever the priest is finished doing whatever he is doing. These practices say that the music in our corporate worship is something less than prayer.

Both instrumental music and song may be used to draw together a loose aggregate of people into a worshipping community and to focus their attention upon God and away from the cares of the world. Music, either instrumental or song, may be used to set the tone, or mood, of the service. It may be joyful, penitential, or triumphant. It may express other moods.

Songs provide not only a response to God’s Word but also a means of proclaiming the Word. They may be used to reinforce the teaching of the Scripture readings or Biblical truths and principles in general. They may be used to introduce the theme of the sermon or to reinforce the sermon’s theme. They may even be used as the sermon itself.

Through the lyrics of songs we give voice to praise and adoration of God. The lyrics of songs help us to put into words how we feel toward God as well as what we think about Him. Through the lyrics of songs we draw to each other’s attention and to the attention of outsiders God’s attributes, his character, and his mighty deeds. We proclaim the excellencies—the great merits—of the One who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light that we might show forth his praises.

Through the lyrics of songs we edify each other. We build each other up in the Christian faith. We encourage each other and we exhort each other. Through the lyrics of songs we invite outsiders to follow Jesus with us. We urge them to accept Jesus as their Savior and their Lord.

Songs in corporate worship are a reminder that we gather with our fellow Christians on Sunday morning is not to hear a sermon or to receive the Holy Communion but to show that God alone is worthy of our worship. They help us to keep our worship focused on God. In the hymns, Psalms, canticles, and other forms of songs used in corporate worship we either sing about God or we sing to God.

When the sermon or the sacrament of Holy Communion becomes the main focus of the service, our worship is apt to become human-centered rather than God-centered. We come seeking a blessing from God in the sermon or the sacrament. Our focus is not upon offering our praise and thanksgiving and ourselves to God for what He has done through Jesus Christ but on what God can do for us in the here and now. “What’s in it for me?”

The purpose of congregational songs is not to provide the congregation with an opportunity to have a good sing. They are also not to set the stage for the sermon. In non-liturgical worship the service is typically a preaching service and any songs are apt to be seen as warm-up for the main act—the sermon. The only Scripture that may be read may be the sermon text and any passages that the preacher uses to support the points of the sermon. The preacher may give an invitation after the sermon and a soloist may sing a song of invitation. After the invitation and the accompanying song the preacher may make announcements or he may immediately dismiss the people.

The Medieval service that has influenced the shape of the Sunday service in non-liturgical churches was the prone. The prone was a preaching office that was inserted into the Medieval Mass. At the time of the Reformation the Continental Reformed Churches based their Sunday service on the prone. The Reformed Church of England, however, retained the historic pattern of Morning Prayer, Litany, Mass, and Evening Prayer. The Reformed Church of England reformed these services, stripping away the Medieval accretions and in the case of the Mass rearranging the elements to make a thoroughly Reformed service. The name “Mass” was dropped.

The Scottish Reformer John Knox would adopt the prone as the model for the Sunday service in his Book of Common Order, as did John Calvin in the Geneva Service Book. These two liturgies would influence the Westminster divines who would adopt the prone as the model for the Sunday service for their Directory of Public Worship. Baptist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian churches that trace their origins to the English Non-Conformists share the common heritage of the Westminster Directory. One of the particularities of the Congregationalist adaptation of the form of service in the Directory was that the Congregationalists placed the Great Prayer before the sermon instead of after it.

The revivals and camp meetings of the eighteenth and nineteenth century would also influence the shape of the Sunday service in non-liturgical churches. A revival meeting typically consisted of a sermon, preceded by singing. The practice of referring to the first part of the Sunday service in non-liturgical churches as the “preliminaries” originated in these revivals and camp meetings.

The practice of singing a block of songs at the beginning of the service—sometimes referred to as the “worship set” and popularized by the Praise and Worship movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s—is a modern adaptation of the medley of hymns and gospel songs sung at the beginning of revival meetings as a part of the “preliminaries.”

Newcomers coming from non-liturgical churches are likely to bring these particular views of the use of music in corporate worship with them. If they become involved in the music ministry of a small membership church, such views may influence their choice of music if they are involved in the selection of music for corporate worship. They will need help in acquiring a more balanced, holistic, organic view of the use of music in corporate worship.

Blocks of songs do have their uses in corporate worship. I will consider those uses in a separate article.

In the small membership church the music in corporate worship is primarily the congregation’s responsibility. The congregation is the church’s primary musical resource. Consequently whatever songs are chosen must be selected for their accessibility or ease of use. The role of the choir or other worship leadership group is not to be a choral society. It is to lead and support the singing of the congregation. Its chief objective should be to transform the congregation into a singing church. To this end it should work to integrate group singing into the life of the church.

Group singing can be a powerful glue to cement a small membership church together as a Christian community. Group singing refers to the practice of a congregation and groups within the congregation gathering to sing outside of corporate worship or including singing as a part of the activities at a particular church function. For example, the families taking part in a church campout might gather around a campfire and sing favorite hymns and other songs.

Groups of people in our culture do not gather to sing like they once did. Our culture tends to isolate people from each other. This is seen in the worship gatherings in a number of churches on Sunday morning. The congregation is not actually singing together. Rather individual members of the congregation are singing along with the vocalists in the band. This is singing in concert but it is not congregational singing in which the voices of the assembled people of God unite as one.

The volume of the sound of the instrumentalists and vocalists in the band is cranked up so high that the congregation can actually physically feel the music but they cannot hear themselves singing nor can they hear those around them. This is intentional. The younger generations want to feel the music. It is to spare congregants singing along with the band from hearing themselves or those around them. They might suffer embarrassment from a comparison of their own singing or the singing of their closest neighbors to the singing of the vocalists on stage.

The object is not to unite the congregation in song but to give the individual congregants an opportunity to sing along with the band if they want to sing along with them. If they just want to listen to the band, they can do that too. I have seen couples in the congregation who were not doing either. They were hugging and kissing each other oblivious of their surroundings.

Such practices do not foster the development of congregational singing. Rather they subvert it.

Group singing can also foster a sense of group identity. “We are a singing church.”

A congregation that gathers to sing outside of corporate worship or includes singing as a part of the activities at church functions looses its self-consciousness about singing. The quality of its singing improves as congregants become more comfortable with singing together. They take delight in learning and mastering new hymns and other songs. They gain greater self-confidence in their singing ability.

The hymns and other forms of song that a church sings are an important of a church’s connection to Christians in other times and places. This is one of the reasons that I personally advocate the use of a wide selection of songs from different times and places.

Hymns and other songs can be used in the small membership church’s children’s ministry. They can be used to reinforce what the children are learning.

Music can also be used in outreach to the community. It can serve as bridge between the church and the community. For a number of years the parish church of my youth has sponsored what it calls Third Sunday Concerts. The public is invited to hear guest performers play music or sing in the church sanctuary on the third Sunday of the month. Admission is free. Refreshments are served after the concert.

God may use the music in corporate worship or at church functions to attract newcomers to the church. God created us as musical beings. He uses our musical nature to achieve his purposes. What we may think were our ideas were actually his promptings.

I cannot imagine the Church of Jesus Christ without music. Jesus and his disciples sang God’s praises. We know that they sung a hallel Psalm after the Last Supper, a song of praise. As devote Jews they would have sung Psalms as they approached Jerusalem, as did all pilgrims on their way to that holy city, something that Jesus must have done as child when his family brought him to the Temple on the occasion of the great festivals of the Jewish year. We know that they took part in the worship in the Temple and in the synagogues. This involved the singing of the Psalms.

Psalms 33, 96, 98, and 149 and Isaiah 42 exhort us to sing to God a new song. Psalm 150 concludes with this wonderful verse, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” In Ephesians 5 the apostle Paul urges believers to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their heart to the Lord. In Colossians 3 he urges them to teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in their hearts to the Lord. In Revelation 5 and 14 the apostle John describes the new song that those purchased with Lamb’s blood sing in heaven. These passages and other passages in the Scriptures are a definite reminder that music has a place in the life and worship of the Church of Jesus Christ, in churches large and small.