Let’s Get Creative!

By Robin G. Jordan

David Manner’s article, “If We Can’t Sing…” got me thinking. Singing, whether it is congregational or choral, is an important part of Christian worship. But it is not the only way that Christians worship. I have read a number of articles and books, which argue that it is common mistake to confuse singing and worship. They also maintain that it is a common mistake to refer to the time in the service when the music ensemble leads the congregation in singing God’s praises as the “worship time.” Worship encompasses more than the act of singing. The kind of worship that the Bible tells us God wants the most from us is a life of obedience. The General Thanksgiving in The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 puts it this way:

And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

With singing and loud talking implicated in the transmission of the COVID-19 virus at gatherings, churches, when they relaunch their in-person services, will need to place a moratorium on congregational and choral singing and recitation such as hymns, worship songs, anthems, solos, and responsive and unison reading. These activities increase the emission of airborne droplets that may contain COVID-19 virus particles and facilitate the spread of the virus. Since it is also recommended that members of congregations wear face masks as well as gather in a large, open room which has its doors and windows opened to the outdoors and is ventilated by electric fans and sit in household groups at least six feet apart and separated from each other by an empty pew or row of chairs in front and back, singing and loud talking would also prove difficult.

Congregations scattered around a large, open room do not produce the volume of sound that congregation seated close proximity in the same room produces. Unless their voices are amplified by a sound system, choirs and music ensembles whose members are standing or sitting at least six feet apart from each other in all directions also do not produce the volume of sound that they would produce if they stood or sat close to each other. Face masks will muffle the voices of the congregation and choir or music ensemble and electric fans will produce a loud background noise. All these precautionary measures, if they are used singularly will do little to prevent the buildup of COVID-19 virus particles in the room but when they used in combination in accordance with the principle of layers of intervention, or protection, they will significantly reduce the risk to those present.

While we may not be able to collectively praise God in song during such a moratorium, we can still praise him individually. Youtube.Com has a number of videos of choirs, music ensembles, and congregations singing hymns, worship songs, and service music to which we can sing along in our own homes. I have used this resource for a number of years to learn new hymns, worship songs, and service music. I sing along with the video until I have mastered the new song.

Hymnary.Org has the lyrics of a number of hymns from a number of hymnals. Click "all representative texts" or "compare texts." Jubilate Hymns and Hope Publishing Company also have the lyrics of hymns and worship songs under copyright to them on their websites.

The UMC's Discipleship Ministries and SmallChurchMusic.Com have downloadable mp3s of hymn and worship song tunes. They may be downloaded free of charge. I also use these resources to expand my personal repertoire of tunes.

All Souls Langham Place in London has been recording individual members of their choir and orchestra in their homes and then combining their voices and instruments digitally. The Church of the Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, Minnesota has done the same with the members of Spiritu, their music ensemble. These churches have posted their videos to Youtube.Com where they can be replayed. Watch All Souls Choir and Orchestra perform Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend’s “In Christ Alone” and Spiritu, Michael Joncas’ “Shelter Me.”

In the early years of Christianity the desert fathers, monks who lived in the deserts of Egypt and Syria, had a particular way of singing the psalms each day as a part of their common devotional life. One monk would sing a psalm while the other monks mediated on the words of the psalm. After each psalm the monks prayed silently or aloud as the Holy Spirit led them. We can adopt a similar practice. Churches can record individual members of their choirs or music ensembles singing a hymn or worship song at home, combine their voices digitally, record the result, and then play the recording in the service while the congregation mediates on the words of the hymn or worship song. After the hymn or worship song the congregation can be invited to quietly or silently pray. Churches can also record soloists at home and then play the recording during the service.

We can also follow this practice at home. Watch a video of a hymn or worship song online. Sing along if the Holy Spirit moves you. At the conclusion of the song, pray as the Spirit leads you.

Another option is to hold outdoor, or lawn, services, the weather permitting. The best spot is a breezy one. Research to date suggests that there is less likelihood of the transmission of the COVID-19 virus outdoors provided people are not crowded together in close proximity to each other and are wearing face masks, and the movement of air in the space that they are occupying is dispersing any concentration of droplets containing COVID-19 virus particles. While the acoustics outdoors would be less than ideal, it might permit some singing. The congregation should be seated by households at a six foot or more distance from each other in every direction and should wear face masks.

Rather than lamenting the temporary loss of singing from our services, we should be creative. For instance, churches can encourage family singing at home. This would greatly enhance and enrich our congregational singing once we are able to sing together again. The late James Rawlings Sydnor attributed the decline in congregational singing in America’s churches in part to the decline of family singing in America’s homes. Churches can email to their families weekly playlists with links to videos, lyrics, and mp3s as well as encourage the families to sing together at home.

I grew up in a household where the members of the household sung hymns as they went about their daily activities. When we went for a drive in the car, we also sang hymns. My mother was for many years a member of her church’s chancel choir. My grandfather had been a church organist in his younger days. My grandmother’s family had attended both the local Church of England parish church and the local non-conformist chapel. She had acquired a love of singing hymns at an early age.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for families to sing together at home, which could lead to a renaissance of congregational singing when congregations are able to sing together again.

When I have led congregational singing, I have encouraged those who did not believe that they sung very well and were consequently uncomfortable adding their voices to the singing to follow the words along in their hymnal or on the screen and to hum the tune while the rest of the congregation sung. Singing at home, however, may give a number of people a chance to discover their voices. I have also pointed out what matters to God is not how beautifully we sing or that we sing at all but whether our hearts are turned to him and our lives reflect that turning.

The Journey Church in Murray, Kentucky in which I was involved for roughly 10 years, from about 9 months after it was launched to shortly after its move to its present facility--the indoor arena at Murray State University, holds periodic "evenings of worship." These gatherings focus solely on singing God's praises. While thinking about how I might transform my comments in response to David’s article on his blog into an article for my blog with a link to his article, I concluded that it would not be difficult to transfer such a gathering online, using clips from videos of services that a church had archived or video recordings of a church's choir or music ensemble singing individually at home or in another setting and combined into a single video. The "evening of worship" could be streamed and the church members could sing along with the choir or music ensemble at home.

Except in churches that have a strong tradition of congregational singing, much of what we see in contemporary churches is what I call parallel worship. Some members of the congregation sing along with the music ensemble while others listen to the ensemble. This is parallel worship which is similar to parallel play observed in children of a certain age. Children of this age play beside each other but they do not play together.

Parallel worship characterized the worship of the Medieval Church. The priest recited the Mass, the choir sung the service music, and the people engaged in their private devotions. They were all worshiping in the same room but in parallel and not together.

Among the results of the Protestant Reformation was a revival of congregational singing. In the Lutheran Churches the congregation began to sing chorales; in the Reformed Churches, metrical psalms. This included congregations in the Reformed Church of England. While she herself preferred the cathedral choral music, derisively referring to the tunes of the metrical psalms as “Geneva jigs,” Elizabeth I permitted the use of metrical psalms in English parish churches. "Geneva jigs" was not entirely an inaccurate description of the metrical psalms. The tunes were based upon popular ballad and folk dance tunes. Metrical psalms were so popular with the English people that thousands of people would gather at King’s Cross, London and sing them for hours on end. Both the English nobility and the English common people learned the words and tunes by heart and sung them as they went about their daily lives.

I am not arguing that parallel worship is the most desirable way to worship God in song but under the circumstances it may be what we must settle for. A church could host an "evening of worship" online to which church members would be invited and to which they in turn could invite others. It would be something like the Mitch Miller TV singalongs of the sixties if you are old enough to remember them. It cannot be compared with the massed voices of a congregation and choir singing "with one voice" but it is a good way of encouraging church members to sing God's praises.

All Souls Music has posted a video of its Virtual Prom Praise 2020 – A Festival of Hope online. It shows how a church might do such an “evening of worship,” using archived video recordings and more recent material.

I don’t believe that we should despair over the limitations that the COVID-19 pandemic is imposing upon the services and gatherings of the local church. Rather we should see them as an opportunity to use the creativeness that God has given us. I believe that God will work through us in ways that may amaze us to bring about a renewal of worship not only in our churches but also in our daily lives