Under the guidance of our present worship minister, our worship services have gotten pretty good. I know this is true because —
* No one 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. I’m not 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 marrieds, 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 popular-music 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 mic 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 with 4, 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 to 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.
4. Don’t add contemporary sections to old hymns unless the arrangement is truly excellent. They keep introducing these contemporary tunes to be sung as part of a traditional hymn, kind of like an extra chorus. I don’t know why. To me, it’s new wine in old wineskins.
Don’t get me wrong. Many of our older hymns are beautiful and work just fine even today. But most of these hybridized songs are a bad match. The new section does not mix well with the old.
Maybe it sounded great with the full instrumental arrangement. But rarely does it sound great in congregational singing. The only exception I can think of is Aaron Shust’s “My Savior, My God,” which actually works quite nicely a cappella. But most of these mongrel tunes only serve to degrade the original version.
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.
Is it the quality of sound that stir our hearts or is it the words eked out of a tone deaf child? As a musician it seems we are lost in a paradox of religious rites. Oh how I wish the Bible could have been more specific.
When I lead/ plan worship, I usually blend instrumental and acapella worship. Contemporary songs with instruments, old hymns acapella. Though my church isn't really good at acapella singing, the old songs usually work although they tend to be a little slow.
I don't agree with you about not letting the worship leader speak. Most of the time, he selected the songs and did that for a reason, people should know about that! And with songs that are sung very often, it is essential to focus the attention on the meaning of the words again.
Another thing: Have you heard of Taize songs? Cause they work really well with acapella singing.
Our praise team stands. Our worship leader (.."lead worshiper") sometimes speaks but not too much. We do not project the notes on the screen. We do sing during the Lord's Supper (with the praise team seated), and we have a mixture of contemporary and old songs.
If you want to hear excellent singing, visit White's Ferry Road in West Monroe, LA on a Sunday or Wednesday. I love our robust but deeply spiritual singing to each other and to our Lord.
There is not many things more painful to me than poor singing, either a cappella, or with accompanyment.
As for the theology reflected in songs, I prefer the old stuff. Most of the songs I like best were written well before my parents were born. I love songs that are fulled with truth from God's word. Too many of the contemporary songs are mostly fluff and no stuff in my view.
Royce
Very good Jay. Watch out, these recommendations are so good you might be the next worship leader at your church. If this happens let me know and we will take a weekend trip up to Tuscaloosa. Get us out of the house anyway.
Good stuff. I think a big part of it is to take our singing seriously. Many of our songs are prayers and should be given the same reverence we give to prayers (it's not the time to deliver that message to the preacher!). We need worship leaders to put as much serious thought into what they are doing as they would if they were preaching (maybe not as much time, but as much seriousness).
I agree with Royce to a large degree, regarding the theology. I do appreciate the worship style of newer songs, with their focus on God, but there's a reason why we still have some of these hymns from the 18th century. Isaac Watts wrote hundreds of hymns; the ones still in use are "the best of the best."
I heard a woman who works with an Episcopalian youth group express her surprise at the song selection in their youth-led church services. The young people always chose the old traditional hymns. (No, NOT Stamps Baxter; we're talking "O Sacred Head.")
Anyway, thanks for addressing this important subject.
Grace and peace,
Tim
Sorry… what exactly are "Stamps Baxter songs"? Never heard of it.
mark,
I think it's both. The scriptures urge us to sing. If only the words mattered, we'd be told to recite or read. "Sing" means with a melody. Lousy words and a great tune are not good enough. But neither are great words set to a lousy tune. The wonder only happens when the words and melody work together.
Joe,
Trust me, I'll never be the worship leader at our church — or any church. God chose not to give that talent to me, and it's abundantly clear.
However, our worship leader is truly gifted and does a great job. It would be the highlight of your trip — even if you also take in a football game, visit the Bear Bryant Museum, and eat some Dreamland BBQ ribs.
Chr1sch,
"Stamps-Baxter" is a reference to a type of rural, gospel quartet songs from the American South, written during the early 20th Century.
You'll find a discussion with links in the comments at /2009/01/07/faith-lessons-b…
i have a love for acapella music , i served for years ,back when worship leaders were Song leaders. We never said a word, and that was too bad
Chr1sch and willohroots,
Notice that it's just the worship leaders who support worship leaders talking. Maybe it's a coincidence.
Readers —
Are there any non-worship leaders who like for the worship leader to talk between songs?
Hm. Most of the time, I don't do the talking, because I sit behind the piano. But when I plan a service, it usually has a theme, which I will explain in the beginning and then during the service there are short teaching moments/ meditation moments. Sometimes that is more valuable than just sing one song after the other. But I agree the worship leader shouldn't just talk for the sake of talking, it should have something to do with the service.
I'm not a worship leader by any means, but as far as the song leader talking….it depends. At my congregation, the song leader talk all the time, but just saying "turn to hymn number xxx in your hymnals." In the context of the discussion here, I think it depends on what is being said. If the leader is telling the people what the song reminds him of—then absolutely not. But if he is trying to focus us on the song, or on God, and its kept short, then he should have the freedom to do that, provided its not just some really corny, forced statement.
About the new parts to old songs….I disagree with you a little bit. Assuming that the hymn is actually a good hymn, I think adding a contemporary portion to it, or combining it with a contemporary song is an excellent way to do a combined service. That's what we do on campus, because we have a great number of people that come from more of an old school, conservative, hymn only background, but also have people from outside the churches of Christ or from less old-school churches that sing a lot of contemporary stuff. It really works quite well. And we are terrible singers as well.
Groups like Zoe Group, Watershed Worship, and Hallal arrange a lot of new songs a cappella, and do a wonderful song. They make songs work with out the accompaniment that I never thought would be possible, and the arrangement usually isn't too hard at all.
Lastly, what software do you use to project the notes?
We are using MS Powerpoint, but want to switch to SongBeamer soon…
Matthew, we use Paperless Hymnal to project the music. http://www.paperlesshymnal.com/. We'll never go back to hymnals.
I loved Garrison Keillor's comment (during the show at ACU) about "7-11 hymnology – The same seven words repeated eleven times." Even though many of those songs bless me and finally hammer their reality through to me through repetition!
I get emails. A reader wrote —
If A Capella music is the best, should not our singing be the best?
I think your article is right on the money.
I can get preaching and teaching from the TV. But I can't get to sing along or meet my brethren by staying at home.
We don't have a good song leader and our elders don't appreciate the importance of good singing. It is tough. Any suggestions?
You're right. Singing with our brothers and sisters is one of the special joys of Sunday and it can't be replicated by the TV, radio, or stereo.
I've seen song leaders developed through training. If the elders aren't concerned, perhaps the leader himself is. Or perhaps the minister can be urged to push for training for your leader.
While I've never seen it done, I stand by my recommendation in the main post — send the leader to meet with an excellent song leader from another church to get some training. Pay for the man's time.
I've seen our song leader work with some of our members here to greatly improve their ability to lead. Training makes a world of difference.
And for many, just getting out and hearing songs led well will make a huge difference. If your leader has never heard anything better, he can't know what he's missing. Get your leader to visit some churches with great song services. He may improve just by knowing how good singing can be.
Great points and discussion Jay.
Even in singing groups I've always wished they would quit trying to sound spiritual and use their gift: SING. I don't mind a sentence or two, but if there's a sermon between every song I'm thinking about the song leader's thoughts. In each song we sing are a number of thoughts and expressions … God often reaches out to me in a song and focuses my attention on a phrase that I need to hear … the song is the messenger … not the worship leader. I usually know I'm going to hear a sermon. Let the preacher preach, the singers sing, the prayers pray, and God be at work in all.
I agree with JD, a sentence or two, a quote from Psalms, but NOT a sermon!
Scripture between songs would be excellent!
But worship leaders — if your theme is clear enough to bless the congregation, it won't need you to explain it. If your theme requires explanation, it is probably too esoteric.
In nine plus years, I have never pulled the tenor or bass line out of the praise team. If the purpose was to give me a useful sound in my part, it has been unsuccessful for me. Has it worked for others?
My guess is that someone will wi-fi the sound from individual singers to my own earphone.
I've noticed that as well, Kent. In fact, my wife is an alto who grew up in a musical family (vocal and instrumental), and she doesn't like praise teams precisely because of what you're describing. She can never hear the alto part, and she has trained ears.
The soprano is almost always miked too hot. This may also be because a lot of congregations do not have anywhere close to professional sound board operators — so they just don't know how to test and calibrate the system. I don't know — but I've also been places where the worship leader's wife was the soprano lead on the praise team — who's gonna turn HER mike down?
I wish to reply to the last two comments from Kent and Nick. Granted, the tenor and alto parts are more difficult to specifically "hear" in a Praise Team. Obviously the soprano is almost always the melody with nothing above those notes and the bass usually indicates the tonic of the chord progressions with nothing below those notes. The tenor and alto are encased within the chords often splitting amongst themselves to fill out the sound and their parts are deifinitely harder to pick out.
Praise Teams that are actually vocal enhancement teams are usually what I heard Randy Gill call "stealth praise teams". In other words they sit on the front row of the audience and they are heard but not seen. When the purpose of the Praise team is just to enhance the sound, then the congregation is getting only half the benefit of having one. But if the Team is spiritually engaged both vocally and visibly then the real benefit of speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is better realized.
Remember … the old songleader who folks could really tell was "into it" was the most effective with less regard given to his vocal ability.
If the commanded resource is "that which is written" or "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" or "the Word of Christ"…
And history notes that singing as an ACT was added in the year 373 along with self-composed hymns outlawed without effect by a church council. And that caused the split between the eastern and western churches who imported Syrian practices used by the Gnostics and Manichaens IMITATING the commanded Psalms
And the Biblical text is not metrical and the Psalms had to be radically rewritten after the Reformation to begin singing: this was for unison singing.
And the Catholics never did "congregationaly singing with organ accompaniment." The professionals fiddled around with pipe organs NOT requested by the church and did processionals, intermissions and recessionals only. The use of the organ in the only offical Pope's mass in the Sistine was outlawed but when the pope imported emasculated French opra singers singing 'organum' it was a legal end-run around the NO MACHINES. And that a cappella identifies those emasculated singers which quickly disposed of the earlier "falsetto" singers in imitation of the Jewish singers.
The chapel from caper or a goat-skin military chapel never pointed to congregational singing (as in making music) but derived from the sad songs which pointed to Capella or a constellation: the worship of the starry host if you will.
Because the functions include teaching, admonishing, comforting and glorifying or praising God with HIS songs, and Paul defined gatherings or assemblying with synagogue words–and there was never any praise service in the synagogues as schools of the word–is it possible that the focus on performance singing may account for the fact that so many can be fooled about just going a step further and adding "machines for doing hard work."
The Campbells called church A School of Christ and worship was reading and musing the Word–what Paul told Timothy: so, where did the Restoration begun by John Calvin go?
Ken Sublett
Ken,
It amazes me that a practice that can damn one to hell can be condemned using only extra-biblical sources.
Teaching that only a cappella singing is OK with God is a man made rule. Those church fathers you refer to were only imperfect men like you and me, their views and practices have no more weight of authority than yours or mine.
The time and energy you have wasted condemning men you disagree wth (mainly over this issue) is sad. I wonder how much good you could have done had you taught about Jesus and his work for sinners instead.
Royce
It amazes me that a practice that can damn one to hell can be condemned using only extra-biblical sources.
But, that is not remotely true: those willing to split a happy church based on quoting a verse out of context and then twisting it, also misquote the church fathers to prove that everyone always approved of it when no one approved of it.
Vocal and instrumental rejoicing was outlawed for the Qahal, synagogue or church in the wilderness: Stephen also got clergyized because he attributed Israel's fall from grace at Mount Sinai (and continued as Amos, Isaiah etal prove). The synagogue ran parallel to the pagan monarchy as an imposed curse and not a patternism for worship. Just common sense: you don't make noise (the OT term never called music) in all of the ot history, the example of Jesus, the command of Jesus using the word ekklesia, the practices of Paul, his NOT musical definitions in most of his letters, the direct command to Timothy and the historic practice of the early church before pagan priests flocked in to get paid after Constantine.
It is simply rationale if you grasp that ekklesia or synagogue is a school of the Bible and is NEVER defined as a worship service. The Lord's Supper is also a TEACHING activity and there is no law of preaching, law of singing or law of giving.
I am never surprised that people waged to "teach that which has been taught" cannot find the Satan-Music connection beginning in the garden of Eden up to the end-time explicity description of the "new style musical worship."
If I couldn't find any support for 1878 years I would wonder why people suddenly discovered the PSALLO word to justify their sectarianism when there is NO musical content in the word.
Most of my posting has been "by request" when the first hostile takeover using twisted scripture and historical scholars happened in a happy church of my best work as it was turned over to the Christian Church. Yesterday I was asked if "Ixion" was a clue to the end time mother of harlots (Rev 17) using the "a capellas" in Rev 18 as rhetoricians or sophists, singers and instrument players John called sorcerers who HAD deceived the whole world. Because it is impossible to decode much of the Bible without being Babylonian tablets and classics-literate, I did a quick posting which answered his question. You might be interested in something no Greek Geek has ever read:
http://www.piney.com/Pindar.Pythian.2.html
I simply read the PUBLISHED material people use to steal a church house and church family (and real family)–some daring me to refute it–and quote the context and STORY LINE.
In addition, what you cannot buy at any university, I post the literature of the period as the ONLY way to define words.
And from those USES in the Bible see that you could not find a jot or tittle related to the INSTRUMENT which is not the mark of "People who set their lies to melodies to deceive the simple minded" as the people of the Greek world understood.
I have posted on about 250 topics so refuting the "white papers" people use to "make a place for musical friends in the mainstream" is just part time: at approaching 79 I also reserve some recliner time 🙂
Maybe you would post what you think proves that "God commanded instrumenta praise and we MUST obey" as vindication for a preacher (no Biblical role) to drive off 1/3 of HIS congregation. It should be easy to disprove a tired, sick old engineer?
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Jay,
I have heard some great acapella music by Allison Krause, Rhonda Vincent and others. GLAD is acapella, as is ACAPELLA. All are great, Dolye Lawson and Quicksilver is great, they are Bluegrass, and occasionally have acapella songs.
One of the best worship services I have been to is Easter at the local Methodist Church. They have a small Bluegrass group, which they include in the liturgy. During communion, they have the musicians play Bluegrass softly. It is quiet beautiful.
Jay,
Better a-capella does not necessarily lead to better worship. It amazes me to still hear that IM and praise teams are just for entertainment, then the critics immediately talk of how good the a-cappella sounds.
I guess it is "entertainment" if you disagree with a practice, but "sounds good" if you agree with a practice.
God bless
Has anybody heard of the north mississippi acapella chorus in hernando, ms the name of there church is west oak grove church of christ and they are reeeeeeeaaaaaallllllyyyyyyyyyy good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
brandon,
I have to agree. They are great.
But why is it that the videos of Church of Christ black choruses are always filmed in front of an all-black audience? There is something wrong here. We need to make an intentional effort to cross racial lines in every way possible — and you'd think that music would one of the easiest places to do it.
Here's another —
Its very simple Jay. You sing where you are welcome.