Under the guidance of our present worship minister, things have gotten pretty good. I know this is true because –
* No is complaining much about the worship,
* The numbers are up, and
* Some people wish the service was longer!
Anyway, since we’re on the subject of worship, and since I really think churches can do a lot better with their a cappella singing, I thought I’d address the topic of how to make things better– without buying a guitar.
Get a great worship leader. This is, of course, easier said than done. And I don’t have any solutions. Nor am I aware that any of our colleges is seriously training worship leaders (although they may be).
If you don’t have one, train one. Send him to one of the Zoe conferences held around the country each year, for starters.
If you know someone who is an excellent worship leader, ask if he’ll spend some time coaching your leader. And, if you can, offer to pay for his time. “The worker is worthy of his hire.”
You see, excellent leadership is the most important key to excellent a cappella singing.
Singing during the Lord’s Supper is an excellent move. We should do more of it. I know some people oppose this, but it’s just not a Biblical issue.
My church sings sometimes, and we don’t other times — it’s a Romans 14 kind of thing, you know. And variety is nice. And those who think it’s wrong are welcome to sit silently. They don’t have to sing.
Nothing in the Bible requires that communion time be meditation time. Nothing in the Gospels suggests that the apostles meditated quietly while they ate and drank at the first communion meal.
And the reality is that most unchurched people and most young people do not like that much enforced quiet — especially not every week.
Stamps Baxter has to go! I grew up on this music. I actually enjoy it. Now, it doesn’t move me and help me feel God’s presence, but I enjoy it. For me, it’s nostalgic.
But no one who grew up outside the Churches of Christ likes it. In fact, many young people consider it so bad as to be hilarious. I’ve seen visiting college students struggle to avoid laughing out loud!
It might be a good idea to have the occasional nostalgia Sunday (once a year, maybe). For the sake of the older members, we could have a true country singing, with an outdoor, covered dish dinner with homemade ice cream (nothing store-bought allowed). Maybe even do a little fasolla or Sacred Harp singing. A lot of kids have never experienced anything like this. This would be enjoyed by those who love the Stamps Baxter songs without messing with the other services.
But, please, PLEASE don’t sing these any other time. It really ought to be a firing offense, you know — even if the words fit the sermon just ever so perfectly.
Praise teams. I used to think this idea was silly — sort of a worship minister affectation. Just a bit of fashion among the ministerial class that would go away if I ignored it. I was wrong. Nothing improves a congregation’s singing more than an excellent praise team.
Now, some get bent out of shape thinking there’s sin of some sort in this. But it really should satisfy even the most conservative interpretation of the scriptures. I mean, a female alto is leading the female altos. I think it’s really okay.
And the old argument about this being entertainment is just so wrong.
My church is quite conservative. We have our team sit at the front of the auditorium, give them microphones, and they just sing — like everyone else, but better.
Here’s the thing — we live in a world where the college students, young married, and most of the lost think of music as being a concert, rather than congregational singing. People enjoy congregational singing, but many cannot read music and have no ear for improvising harmonies. Part of the solution is an audible praise team. (There’s no contradiction between “concert” and “congregational singing.” People sing at concerts. But they expect to be well led.)
By “audible” I mean a praise team loud enough so that in the back corner of the auditorium a bass can hear the bass singing and follow along (all four parts, of course). Some churches mike the team too low because they’re afraid of criticism for even having the team. But the congregation isn’t stupid. They know the team has microphones. But they’ll wonder why if they can’t hear them.
I also think you need at least 8 members. I can’t explain it. We’ve tried it both ways, and 8 is better.
I should add that, while it’s not sin, it seems pointless and distracting to have them stand. Some churches do. Some don’t. But I really find it easier to focus on the music and the words if the team sits or stands with the congregation. But maybe that’s just me.
Song selection. There are some simple, easy-to-learn rules to enforce–
1. Don’t pick out songs too hard to sight read on the very first try. Some song leaders keep singing songs that even trained sight singers struggle sing. Some have difficult rhythms. Some have really hard harmonies. This means that those of us trying to sing the harmonies are so busy focusing on the notes that we don’t have a prayer of being touched by the words.
Here’s the test: if the praise team can’t get it right on the first try, neither can the congregation.
2. Pick only pretty melodies. Boring music with pretty words isn’t music, it’s poetry at best — suitable for dramatic readings or bulletin inserts. Music only accomplishes its purpose if the music is beautiful as well as the words. Thinking that the words matter to the near exclusion of the quality of the music is very Enlightenment thinking and guaranteed not to reach today’s Post-modern world.
By the way, lots of song leaders pick songs based on what’s popular on Christian radio. That’s fine if you have a guitar and drum kit. But there are lots of radio tunes that don’t work without the instruments. Even though the song leaders can imagine how great the music would be with a bass guitar, the congregation hasn’t heard it on the radio and they’re wondering why the leader picked such a pitiful tune.
3. Project the notes on a really large screen. This escapes two extremes. Some want to use only hymn books. But this forces people to look down (reducing the sound) and means each song is preceded by a minute of page turning. And it makes it hard to introduce new songs.
A big screen allows the church to move immediately from song to song. You get more singing done!
Now, it has to be really big so the back row can read the notes. Don’t scrimp on size or lumens. If your projector is old, buy new. The quality of projectors has dramatically improved in just the last few years (and prices are coming down).
However, there are those who want to eliminate the sheet music altogether, arguing that most people can’t read the notes anyway. But this only means that your best singers won’t be able to harmonize. Why dumb away the most attractive part of the worship?
Besides, even among the unchurched, there are lots of people who know how to read music. Many will catch on quickly and will enjoy being able to harmonize with the regulars.
Don’t let the song leader talk. No one wants to hear how this tune is so meaningful to him because of his great aunt’s funeral. No one wants a sermonette between songs. Rather, the flow of song to song, melody to melody is part of the joy of singing. Don’t interrupt it!
Clap. I know this bothers some people. I personally prefer not to clap. But it’s wrong to deny people the joy of expressing themselves this way. And modern worshipers are just used to having a rhythm section on upbeat tunes.
And the song leader needs to lead the clapping. Lots us us have no rhythm.
By the way, in the recent debate over instrumental music at Freed Hardeman University, the spokesman for the Church of Christ position, an FHU professor, argued that clapping does not constitute instrumental music, being merely an aid.
Carefully introduce new songs. Here are the rules:
* Don’t introduce the song unless it’s good enough to sing several times. If you’re going to ask the church to learn it, give them a chance to enjoy it. The first few times through, they won’t really benefit from it as they’ll still be learning the melody and harmonies.
* Don’t introduce more than one song per service — regardless of how much the music fits the sermon or whatever. People need familiar songs so they can truly worship. Remember: only the song leader and praise team have had time to practice.
* If the song turns out to be too hard or just not that good, don’t try to save face by singing it again and again anyway. Apologize, drop it, and move on.
Lyrics. I suppose there are times that a song really has lyrics that are theologically awful. In that case, you might want to change the words. But the vast majority of the times when we do that, we are showing our ignorance of the Bible much more than the author’s!
I mean, what on earth is wrong with “be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure”? What’s wrong with “such a worm as I”? And does anyone really think that “When we all get to heaven” should be replaced by “When the saved get to heaven”? Sometimes, I just want to SCREAM!
Break with tradition. It’s a struggle for an a cappella church to appeal to modern listeners. Many of our children have never heard a cappella singing except at church. Therefore, to sound halfway decent to their ears, we need to get out of our rut and be a little artistic.
Put an excellent soprano or tenor on the praise team to improvise a countermelody or descant over the lead. Some hymns have these written. If so, have someone sing them and mic up the singer. It’s not a solo. It’s really okay.
Sometimes, have the praise team sing while the congregation listens. (See the link to the post on the entertainment question above.) This is called a “meditation.” If the preacher or some college kid can talk before communion while everyone else listens, why can’t we sing the meditation while everyone else listens?
This technique will also allow you to introduce some beautiful music that’s too difficult for congregational singing.
And let’s have some solos and duets — if you have the voices. There is absolutely nothing unscriptural about these forms so long as you don’t eliminate congregational singing. We need to stop being scared of our shadows and have the courage to enjoy the freedom Jesus died for us to have.
(Gal. 5:1a) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Be creative! Let the solo illustrate the sermon right in the middle of it. Sing a duet before or during communion.
If God has given your people the gifts, use them. That’s why he gave them to you.
Filed under: Grace, Instrumental music, Leadership, church growth | Tagged: a cappella music, A Plea to Reconsider, Apologetics Press, Churches of Christ, Dave Miller, Instrumental music, Rich Atchley, Richland Hills Church of Christ
I love the point about singing songs that are not too difficult for the general group. I love to sing accapella but I’m not that good at it. I like to be able to participate without the stress of trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out how the song is to be sung.
Really good and simple steps to upgrade a Church of Christ worship service with out a guitar, I just impressed with the script in the article and your final words in the article is really encouraging thanks for that words.
I disagree about the use of only contemporary songs in the worship service. Our service is very meaningful and uplifting and we use a mixture of both. I am in my 20′ (hardly a senior citizen) and I’ll take a Fanny Crosby any day over Twila Paris. We have to remember just who the audience is.
I agree, at least in many Churches of Christ. We have a blended service ourselves, and it works quite well. Of course, “blended” doesn’t justify singing bad music either old or new. Stamps-Baxter and its ilk have to go! But so do some more recent songs. It’s just a matter of having good taste and trying to find music that the entire congregation will respond to.
After we’d been singing blended songs with a praise team for a few years — and excluding the really bad old songs — we had a service where an old-school song leader led old-school songs. One of the members who had strongly opposed the change at the beginning approached the preacher and said, “I was against all these changes, I’m sure you’ll remember. BUT DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!” Having experienced a praise team and a better selection of songs, even she didn’t want to go back.
I personally enjoy singing, I can carry a tune to save my life, in human terms, but I don’t sing for human ears. The good Lord in His wisdom gave my one of those big’ol mining dump trucks filled to the brima and over flowing with desire to Sing to Him. But He gave me a holey 1 gallon bucket of ability to sing to Him. In the church I grew up in there was this little old lady that used to sit behind us (mom , dad, and I) She couldn’t sing, she made my singing sound like the Viena boys chior. It usd to bother me when I was younger, until one service after a song was sung where we all stood, as I turned to sit I caught her eye. It was the most pleasent joyful face I had seen in my life ( alright a dramitazation), but the point is while I came to try to make my voice pleasing to God she had come to sing, giving thanks to God with everthing she had, she held nothing back. She didn’t have two mites of singing abiblty to rub together, but what she did have she gave every last bit of it to God. From that moment on I always made sure I say infront of her, if her gift of all was good enough for God, It was more then good enough for my human ears.
I write all this as a preface to say this: Praise teams no praise teams, stamps baxter, praise worship songs, slow songs fast songs don’t mean squat! Giving thanks to God in song means everthing. I understand the desire for the singing, the noise of our voices to be pleasing to our ears. But that doesn’t mean anything. It is the giving of all we have to the Creator in thanks from our hearts that means something. I don’t mean to be harsh here, but offer this thought: If we need pretty, pleasing (by human terms) sounds to our ears to give thanks to God, who are we trying to give thanks too? Who are we trying to please? Let’s change our hearts first, then the sound doesn’t matter. We’ll discover that it is fluff, nice to have but unimportant.
Edit CAN’T carry a tune to save my life (’cause I don’t know how to edit it once I wrote it
I disagree with several of your assertions, beginning with your point of singing during communion. The Biblical example we have from Christ himself in Matthew (26:26-30) is that they took the bread, took the cup and then sang a hymn. Where does the authority to change the scripture or its examples come from? Sounds like men make the changes, not God! Communion is a separate act of worship just like preaching, praying, scripture reading. We would not sing during a prayer, so why do it during communion?
And as far as authority goes, there is none for anything other than singing, that means clapping is adding to the examples and therefore is not acceptable to God.
And finally, your comment on what is wrong with bad lyrics… 1 Cor 14:15 tells us to sing with understanding. A purpose of singing is to teach so when we sing/teach unscriptural doctrine (double cure is part of calvanism) we have become false teachers and are subject to all of the punishments that will come to all false teachers.
When we use the Bible as our sole source of authority, we see that it is God whom we must please and we must please him in the way he has directed us. May God’s word find good soil and take root.
Jay, I respond in bold for ease of reading. It doesn’t mean I’m electronically yelling.
I disagree with several of your assertions, beginning with your point of singing during communion. The Biblical example we have from Christ himself in Matthew (26:26-30) is that they took the bread, took the cup and then sang a hymn. Where does the authority to change the scripture or its examples come from? Sounds like men make the changes, not God! Communion is a separate act of worship just like preaching, praying, scripture reading. We would not sing during a prayer, so why do it during communion?
Actually, we sing while praying all the time. A great many of our great hymns are prayers. Many end with an “amen.” Even if we don’t sing the “amen,” it’s still a prayer. Others are written to teach lessons, making them sung sermons.
Of course, many sermons contain a prayer or two. All communion services contain prayers, and many contain sermons. The fact is that we have mixed “acts of worship” frequently as long as I’ve been alive.
If the song sung after communion is a binding example, they why is OK for us to sing before communion? Or does your church save all its songs until after? Singing before communion is just as contrary to that passage as singing during communion.
And as far as authority goes, there is none for anything other than singing, that means clapping is adding to the examples and therefore is not acceptable to God.
At FHU a year or so, Dr. Ralph Gilmore debated a Christian Church minister on the instrumental music question. Dr. Gilmore taught that clapping is an aid, not an addition. Therefore, there are very respected, very conservative men who disagree with you. On the other hand, there are many who do agree.
If you disagree, don’t clap. Just don’t condemn those who do.
And finally, your comment on what is wrong with bad lyrics… 1 Cor 14:15 tells us to sing with understanding. A purpose of singing is to teach so when we sing/teach unscriptural doctrine (double cure is part of calvanism) we have become false teachers and are subject to all of the punishments that will come to all false teachers.
I certainly don’t advocate singing erroneous lyrics. You still haven’t explained what’s wrong with being saved from wrath and made pure. I’ve never heard the phrase in the context of Calvinism. Don’t we want to be saved from wrath? Don’t we want to be made pure? Isn’t that simply figurative language for justification and sanctification? (It is rather hard to come up with rhymes for those words!)
When we use the Bible as our sole source of authority, we see that it is God whom we must please and we must please him in the way he has directed us. May God’s word find good soil and take root.
Of course. Have I argued to the contrary?
Let me refer you to Luke’s account of the Lord’s Supper.
Notice that Jesus inserted an entire supper in between the bread and the cup. He added a full meal to the “last supper.” All my life I’ve been told it would be sin to do exactly that. But it just isn’t. Jesus instituted communion as part of a meal.
The idea that all additions are necessarily sinful is very, very questionable. Even more questionable is the idea that we can’t perform two “acts of worship” at once. We do it every Sunday in every church I’ve ever attended.
Perhaps stupid of me to ask this, but where in my New Testament do I find the specific “acts of worship” delineated as specific acts of worship? To so organize these separate parts of the whole and assume they are the whole appears to add to the scriptures.
Dido Todd:
The five acts thing is something we pulled out of a hat to support our presupposed ideas.
There is no example of giving during an assembly in the NT, so it should not be done in the assembly if we are to please God.
You see this is the whole problem with this theology. It reduces God to a being who is most concerned with a few specific acts that take place once a week for about an hour rather than a God who is mainly concerned with how we treat ourselves, each other and others.
God did not send his Son to die on the cross so that we would never sing in the Lord Supper, or use an instrument, or keep women silent, or clap hands, or any of the other issues we try to turn in to the Gospel.
Todd,
You are quite right to question the acts of worship rubric. But if the audience for this post didn’t have any concerns along these lines they’d buy a guitar!
Jay,
I’ve been meandering on the Web for so long, I don’t know how I made it to your blog. Anyway, now that I’m hear, wanted to let you know that I read this post of yours and thought it was quite good. I like both the spirit and the specifics of what you say. I’m afraid that many of our conservative co-religionists just won’t go with your recommendations. But it’s not because what you say is without merit.
As I recall, the old argument about singing and communion was that the Almighty had given us five acts of worship, and they weren’t to be combined or mixed. But you already knew that. I just wanted to put that one out there because, well, it’s ludicrous.
Uh, that should be “now that I’m here.” It was the music theme that made me go astray and write “hear.”
Frank B.,
I’m glad to have you as a reader. I have cousins in Amarillo, and so I spent many summers there as a child. Kind of flat, windy, and lacking in trees, as I recall, but lots of good people who make and eat excellent beef barbecue.
Very glad to have you as a reader.
BTW, we have a campus minister here. My church was founded as a campus ministry to UA, so I’m a big fan of campus ministers.
Jay,
Great article! One problem I’ve struggled with since moving to the states (i’m originally from scotland) was how thoughtless the worship services at nearly all the churches of Christ I attended seemed to be. The usual set up was announcements, a few randomized songs that are so random they are meaningless together, a brief lords supper (shot and crumbs basically, hardly what Christ instituted at all!) taking about 5 minutes, then the sermon and the obligitory invitation song (or the march of shame, as it is known back home. We don’t do it or want to!). The congregations back home and also the one where my wife and I currently attend puts a lot of thought and prep into its worship services, and in many ways it is much like the worship service you suggested above.
Two comments however; one disagreement, one suggestion.
Firstly, I don’t necessarily think its a bad idea to have to song leader sting together a few songs and have a brief explanation of the thought process behind why those songs. I don’t mean that he says why its so meaningful to him, rather what scriptures it illuminates, or what scriptures illuminate it. The worship leader doesn’t just lead our voices and hearts, but also our minds in worship to God.
Secondly, more (thoughtful) prayer. Have a bit of quiet time in the service for the congregation to pray silently. A well led, heartful prayer can be just as poetic and meaningful as any of the songs we might sing.
The whole 5 acts of worship I’m convinced is an american thing. I’d never heard it till I got over here, and i’ve been chuckling at it ever since. Its for sure a) adding to scripture (these are the ONLY ONE YOU CAN DO!!! for example) and b) another symptom of sunday only, check-list salvation.
Cheers,
Galloway