Doxology

In my last post, I began looking at an insightful article written by Mike Harland the director of LifeWay Worship.  I will conclude by looking at more of the article today and then make some comments. You can read the entire article here.

They Can’t Sing The Song.
Often newer songs have rhythms that don’t lend themselves to congregational singing and rather than struggle, the worshipper will just quit. They may love the song – they just can’t sing it – especially if they barely know it. As they become more and more familiar with a song, they can handle harder rhythms. But we often don’t give them a chance before moving on to a new song. If a certain song is vital to the worship because of a unique message you might make an exception and use the song. But the reason many of our people have stopped singing is these type songs have become the rule in many places.

I’ve said it before at this blog and many other places and I will say it again:  If they ain’t followin’, you ain’t leadin’!  There may be a song that I deem as a “can’t miss” congregational.  But I’ve got to consider the musical aptitude and ability of the congregation.  It may be that a particular song is best suited as a special where the congregation worships through listening rather than singing.

I rarely, if ever, ask a congregation to sing on a new song unless they have heard it as a special 2-4 times.  The heart cannot be engaged in worship if distracted by trying to learn a song.  I’m not saying that it’s wrong to teach new songs—God forbid!  Mus Min just must be very considerate and strategic in how a new song is integrated and then kept in the song list.

They Can’t Hear The Room Singing. The typical person in the pew is not in love with their own voice. But if they can be part of something larger, where their individual voice is not distinguishable they will sing their hearts out. In today’s rhythm driven worship so dependent on sound reinforcement the decibel level often gets pretty high. When that happens the individual worshipper can hear only two things – the sound coming through the system and their own voice. They cannot hear the sound of the congregation singing – the part they can “hide” their voice inside. So, they stop singing.

I’m not sure that totally agree with Harland on this point.  I do believe that an individual will sing out even if the sound system is at levels that some would consider “high”.  However, if a individual never gets to hear the congregation during a song service then something is wrong.  Why have corporate singing if each individual is isolated by sound levels?

There’s also another element to this:  sometimes the sound levels can be so low as to isolate a congregant to where they also feel exposed and will withdraw from singing.  Balance in this area is key.  Again, it is our philosophy at GLC to give a wide range of experiences.  We
might sing one song that thunders the choir and orchestra (and any soloist that may be fronting) and then follow that up with a song sung a capella.

Be keyed into how your congregation engages.  Be observant of times when the Body seems to “punt” on singing and when they seem to engage wholeheartedly.  A Mus Min’s job is to encourage singing not to stifle it.

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That title seems to be a paradox, doesn’t it?  However, I do believe that it is possible to build into your Music Department ways in which your ministry team can be prepared to lead songs extemporaneously.  These aren’t any great mysteries or deeply creative ideas but are steps that we implement here at our church or ones that I have used in the past.

Develop an impromptu folder. This is especially crucial if you have lots of orchestra members (we have about 20).  What I have done is to select approx. 75 hymns/songs that the congregation can sing very confidently.  We then put each of those songs at every orchestra member’s chair so that if I go to one of those songs, they have the music to it.  We have the songs listed in alphabetical order to shorten the time needed to find it.

Have visual aids accessible. In our church, we do not have hymnals in the pews.  That makes us very dependent upon our visual aids!  Fortunately, we have all of our computers linked together so that the operator of the service visual aids can access our song files that I also access in my office.  The way you have your song files organized is also extremely important.  Make sure that you have each song as an individual file.

Develop a rote list. This is something that I have done in the past and will probably do where I’m at now.  If most of your orchestra members are heavily dependent upon looking at music, they will balk at the idea of playing by ear (that’s what “rote” means).  However, I have brought in the players for an evening (maybe even after a Sunday night service) and asked them to play certain very familiar hymns without any music in front of them.  They will be pleasantly surprised at how many they can play by rote.  Then collect the songs that they can do and keep it with you for reference.  Just make sure you know what key they’re used to playing in! This will come in handy if called on to sing something with little or no prep time.

Know when in a service “spontaneity” is most likely to occur. For us, it is most often to occur just before or immediately after the sermon.  I also have listed at the bottom of our Orders Of Service a couple of “floaters” (pulled from our impromptu folder) that fit with the OOS, either by subject or by key area.  This gives the orchestra a little more of a “heads up” on spots that you might make changes “on-the-spot”.

Don’t give your Praise Team the benefit of the doubt. Don’t assume that your singers will be able to just jump in and get their parts.  Either rehearse with them on the entire list of impromptu songs or ask them to just lie out on a song that had not been planned.  Having them to try and muddle through vocals on a spontaneous song will create distractions that will interfere with the moment.

These are just a few pointers.  Hope they help!

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In my last post, I delved into the area of planning vs. impromptu specifically in regards to the structure of a song service.  I believe that the Lord speaks throughout the whole process from the earliest planning stages to the immediacy of the service itself. (I do NOT believe this to be in the sense of extra-biblical, canonical revelation–let me make that very clear!)  That does not mean that the Lord contradicts Himself.  It might sound as if I’m implying just that.  “Why would God tell me to do a certain song while I’m putting the service together only to then ‘lead’ me to go another direction in the middle of the service?”  That is a valid question.

Without repeat everything that I said in my last entry, let me remind you that He is not contradicting Himself to operate in such a way to keep you dependent upon Him alone.

Planning is important:

All a man’s ways seem innocent to him,

but motives are weighed by the LORD.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do,

and your plans will succeed.

The LORD works out everything for his own ends–

even the wicked for a day of disaster. Prov 16:2-4

In his heart a man plans his course,

but the LORD determines his steps. Prov 16:9

Listen to advice and accept instruction,

and in the end you will be wise.

Many are the plans in a man’s heart,

but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Prov 19:20-21

Make plans by seeking advice;

if you wage war, obtain guidance. Prov 20:18

But the noble man makes noble plans,

and by noble deeds he stands.  Isa 32:8

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jer 29:11

However, making an idol out of plans is sin:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

James 4:13-17

The way we think of our plans says as much about practical atheism as anything.  If you believe that God is Sovereign, then you must also believe that God is in control of the future and present—including the planning and execution.  He is free to interrupt whenever He wants!  That in no way infringes upon His own nature or attributes.  He is not in conflict when He changes your course midstream.  His ways are much higher than yours.  “If the Lord wills” should be your driving pulse in your planning and experience.

How do you do that?  In my next entry I hope to give you some practical steps to take.

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Finding balance between being structured without being stiff and being spontaneous without being chaotic seems sometimes like a razor-thin line.  Knowing when to stick methodically with the planned Order of Service and when to “let our hair down” and sing one off the cuff can feel like a shot in the dark.  I’ve seen ministers who just had an intuition on how to do it and others who confess that they don’t have a clue.

How does all this work?  In case you don’t know, I was first a worship leader in the Assemblies of God (A/G).  I’ve led music on services where there was very little of an Order of Service!!  In my early days, I would just scratch out a list of songs on a little piece of paper with the band not even knowing what we were singing!!  Seldom would the song service stay with that list.  Usually, I would start with it and then follow the leading of the Lord where the service would end up totally different than the way I had it written down.  Nevertheless, order was in operation and a good flow occurred.  How different things are for me now!  Let’s talk about principles involved with “order” in regards to a song service.

1.         If you have no order, you have no worship. God is not a God of confusion but of peace (1 Cor. 14:33).  Chaotic services breed only distraction, promotion of self, and anything but biblical worship.  Our carnal natures that we’re still chained to (Rom 7) still need to be held in check by order.  Look at the earthly ministry of Christ.  He always conducted Himself in an orderly way (feeding the five thousand, the Sermon on the Mount).  Look at the early church.  Although they were a part of a brand new organism, they still were striving to organize and bring structure to Her foundation and leadership (Acts 6:1-6).   Look at heaven.  We see lots of structure and order and designation in the glimpses given us in scripture to that glorious homeland.

2.         The amount of spontaneity you can do is in direct proportion to the size of the Music Department. Back in my A/G days, I was in a much smaller church with only a few players in the band.  It was much easier to communicate to them by hand signals and intuition where I was going extemporaneously.  Plus, everyone in the band played by ear and we had a firmly established repertoire.  It had much less to do with the denomination.  Today, I direct an orchestra of approximately twenty and a choir of approximately one hundred.  That’s the size of the whole A/G church that I led!!  There is no way to direct a song service “off the cuff” with that many “leaders” involved.  (Remember—everyone on the platform is a leader!)  It would come off like a train wreck!

3.         God speaks in the planning stage. If He didn’t and we just showed up on Sundays with no game plan or vision from the Lord as to what He wants to say through the song service and sermon, my earlier description of a train wreck applies.  Very little worship would be facilitated.  Most of everyone’s attention would not be on Christ and His glorious redemption.  It would be on the chaos!  I can’t imagine what a service here at GLC would be like without any planning!  I would probably take a vacation that week….

4.         God speaks in the spontaneous. If He didn’t, we would get the vision in the planning stage and tell the Lord, “Thanks for the order.  Now, leave us alone—we’ll take it from here”.  We would not stay dependent upon the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Because God speaks in both the planning and spontaneous we stay utterly trusting and dependent upon the Lord for the direction and power to move upon His Bride and to say what He wants to say.  I’ve seen churches that take great pride in their planning and just dare God to interrupt their order.  I’ve seen other churches just as arrogant in their lack of planning, mistaking laziness for humility.  To be properly biblical, depend on the Lord from beginning (planning) to end (spontaneous).  After all, He is the Alpha and Omega! (I realize that that designation speaks of Christ being the Author and Finisher of our faith so forgive my use of it here.)

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If I were starting a church plant or beginning at a new church today here are the first ten hymns out of the hymnal I would teach (if not already known by the congregation):

1.         Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing—Robinson

2.         When I Survey The Wondrous Cross—Watts

3.         And Can It Be?—Wesley

4.         Hallelujah What A Savior—Bliss

5.         It Is Well With My Soul—Spafford

6.         And Will The Judge Descend?—Doddridge

7.         Stricken Smitten And Afflicted—Kelly

8.         Praise To The Lord The Almighty—Neander

9.         A Mighty Fortress Is Our God—Luther

10.       How Sweet And Awful (Awesome)—Watts

(It was hard to find decent video links to some of these videos which speaks of how obscure some may actually be!)

Notice that I said that these were the first ten I would teach.  That’s not to say that these are the only ones.  Most all of these hymns can be found in The Baptist Hymnal, The Celebration Hymnal, and The Hymnal For Worship And Celebration.  Numbers 7, and 10 can be found in The Trinity Hymnal.  Number 6 can be found by contacting my at tclay@gracelifeshoals.org

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Folks just can’t resist a good Top Ten list.  Therefore, I will now answer a question I received a while back:

If you sat down and thought about it, would there be 10-15 worship songs that would fit this criteria:  (1) Easy to play (3-4 basic guitar chords), (2) easy to find on ITunes, (3) easy for a pianist to read and play and (4) theologically solid?

The most difficult element to deal with for me is number 3 b/c it’s hard to know the playing ability of any piano player (do they play from charts? From sheet music?). With that in mind, I would think this list would serve well in a church plant environment or for a new pastor wanting to breathe some life into his new church’s repertoire.  If I had to start with ten easy worship (non-hymnal) songs that fit the criteria in the question, here’s where I would start:

**How Great Is Our God—Tomlin

Chords needed: Bb/Gmin/Eb/F w/o capo (A/F#min/D/E capo first fret)

**Blessed Be Your Name—Redman

Chords needed: A/E/F#min/D

**Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)—Tomlin

Chords needed:  Eb/Ab/Bb/Fmin w/o capo (D/G/A/Emin capo first fret)

**Your Love Oh Lord—Powell

Chords needed:  E/A/Bsus/C#sus/F#min

**You Are My King (Amazing Love)—Foote

Chords needed:  D/G/A/Bmin

**The Wonderful Cross—Tomlin

Chords needed (without a key change):  C/F/G (or D/G/A)

**Nothing But The Blood—Redman

Chords needed:  A/F#min/E/D

**The Glory Of The Cross—Kauflin

Chords needed:  E/A/C#min/Bsus/F#min

**God Of Wonders—Byrd

Chords needed:  Dsus/Emin/C/G/Amin

**In Christ Alone—Townend, Getty

Chords needed:   D/A/G

In my next entry I will give you my top ten starter hymns (with a slightly different criterion).

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I thought this was a helpful article from the blog “Tim Price and Harvest”.  I have given you the first five.

1. “Don’t try to be Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Paul Baloche or Darlene Zschech.  God already has those folks.”  We need you to be uniquely who God created you to be.  Be unique to our church and to our community.

2. “Loud doesn’t necessarily equal energy or youthfulness – we want it to be energetic – not piercing.”  It’s up to the worship leader to make sure the sound is where it needs to be with the blend that it needs to have.  Because, the worship leader is up front and often doesn’t hear the “sound,” it takes time to build the right team to make it work well.  Sound engineers and worship leaders need to work together to make sure that stage volume, individual instrument volume, monitors and house mixes all work together to make it great for the congregation.  Additional factors that make it challenging to have good sound for worship services often include a limited budget and lack of knowledge about the type of equipment needed.  These factors take time and planning – making sure that the stuff you buy now, even if it’s small, is quality.  Build as you go.  If you have the luxury of starting from scratch, don’t skimp on sound, it’s crucial.

3. “Variety is good.”  Different styles of songs, different instrumentation from time to time, or even a different form of worship breathes new life into the congregation.  Don’t get in a rut (even through they may think they like it).

4. “From time to time, we would like to hear our own voices.”  One of the exciting things about accompaniment driven worship is that the peoples voices carry the melody.  The congregation loves it when, at the right times, the vocalists for the worship team step back and the instruments die down to allow for the voices of the congregation to carry the song for worship.

5. “We want to have an opportunity and framework to meaningfully participate in worship leadership.”  As worship leaders we need to find ways to help people participate on many different levels.  Time constraints make people’s involvement in worship participation tough, but there are ways to help assist people in taking part.  Give people one shot jobs – it’s much easier to be asked to “read scripture on December 5” rather than, can you read scripture once a month.  It’s also much easier to be asked for specific things such as, “could you sew skirting for the stage?” even if the job is large, as long as it’s specific, it’s easier to comprehend and commit to.  Pull people in who have gifts in areas – technical, photography, decorating, musical.  Make it personal.  An ad in the bulletin that says, “we need help with worship components” will only marginally work.  When you connect with a person by phone or even email, the chances of them connecting will be much greater.

You can read the last five here.

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I continue today with the original question from a pastor/elder on how to help a brother who is leading music at this church for the first time and seems to be locked in on his own personal style that doesn’t quite serve as a source of good communication and edification.  (Notice that I say it “seems” to be that way.  There’s no way I can truly know the whole story without being there—but for the sake of teaching we’ll make that assumption.)

I hinted in my last post on this subject that I would look at 1 Cor. 12-14.  Paul, in this passage is dealing with the surface issue of the use of the gifts (primarily glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” and prophesy).  However, it matters not so much as to the gifts that brought problems to the surface.  It matters everything that we understand the principles that were being violated by the Corinthians and how it might apply in answering the question.  (I will do so with my best attempts to avoid the very controversial subject of cessationism vs. continuationism.)

In Corporate Worship, Personal Edification Must Occur In The Context Of The Body. The problem with the Corinthian Church was not tongues or any other gift.  The problem was selfishness.  Whether you want to believe or not that Paul was taking a stance on tongues, what you must see that Paul was teaching that there were lots of folks who came to their gatherings with their own agendas and expectations that did not include the entirety of the congregation.

How does this apply to a Music Minister?  I must not sacrifice a congregation on the altar of my musical expression.  My primary “natural voice” musically may be country.  But if I’m trying to serve a congregation that most predominately has classical music tastes, then I better begin to learn some classical literature if I am to best serve them.  (I totally “get” that bridging that musical difference may be next to impossible—please just humor my extreme example.)

Getting to the question that was asked, the “screamo” style that your Music Minister is using may be edifying to him but if it is creating distractions to your congregation, he must deny himself those expressions not because they are sinful in themselves but because they are not the wisest forms of leadership.  “The Body is not one member but many.” (1 Cor. 12:14)

In Corporate Worship, The Body Must Celebrate The Diversity Of Each Of Its Members. As a balancing principle, Paul also reminds the Corinthian Church that while subjugation of personal gifting for the sake of corporate edification is crucial, it is also crucial for the congregation to treasure an individual’s uniqueness.  To translate Paul’s teaching on submission of personal edification as homogeneity is bad exegesis.  In God’s economy, Individuality must pull towards and celebrate the Corporate; but the Corporate must pull towards and celebrate Individuality as well.  There must be healthy tension there.  Where each church lands in this area depends on many factors including (but not exhaustively):  age of the church, length of the Senior Pastor’s term, size of the congregation, maturity of the congregation, etc.

While I am suggesting that this brother deny himself using his talents in ways that are most natural to him for the sake of the Body, the Body may need to, at rare times, allow this brother a time to express his unique talents (maybe as a special or at an outdoor, outreach event—for the sake of giving some examples).  The same God who tells the Corinthian Church to speak with a clear voice also tells them that “God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired” (1 Cor. 12:18) and that one member cannot tell another member “I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21).  Paul didn’t tell the Corinthian church to cease all their unique gifts—he told them to use them properly (1 Cor. 14:26-33) with the central principles being “let all things be done for edification” and “God is not a God of confusion but of peace”.

As a church allows both of these tensions to work in body life, in God’s economy, it should—over time—pull that congregation into biblical balance.

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Finally—we now get to the second part of answering this question!  I had received a question recently from a church plant pastor asking how to help an inexperienced musician integrate into a church service environment.  When a musician transitions from singing in a band/concert setting to a congregational setting it can be more of a change than first meets the eye.

I mentioned that for a church service, the nature, purpose, and function is radically different than at a concert (although they both may also have lots of similarities).  Let’s compare the two:

Concert Vs. Church Service

*Music is central Vs. *Truth is central

*Artist is focal point Vs. *Christ is focal point

*Teaches views of artist Vs. *Teaches views of the scriptures

*Artist’s voice is primary Vs. *Congregation’s voice is primary

*Length of performance points to market Vs. *Length of performance points to preaching

*Indulges base desires Vs. *Activates higher affections/thoughts

*Agenda of conformity to artist Vs. *Agenda of conformity to Christ

*Escape from reality Vs. *Confrontation with reality

*Boosts self-esteem Vs. *Encourages Christ-esteem

*Exhibition of talent  Vs. *Submission of talent

I could go on and on….When dealing with an artist who has only known concert venues (even those who have been singing Christian music) it can mean everything to clearly articulate these contrasting environments.  It may be that the musician has never thought about such differences and the elements of the concert list are so ingrained in them that they can’t yet conceive of the second list.

Don’t assume that these differences are understood.  A novice Music Minister may have attended many church services and possess an intuitive understanding of how a church service works.  Leaving it to chance is not good stewardship, however.

1 Cor. 12, 14, while dealing with gifts (specifically glossolalia and prophesy), teaches the fundamental principle of corporate edification.  It takes careful study—to not miss the forest for the trees—in looking at this chapter for those principles that teach good music leadership.  I will attempt to do so in my next entries.

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As promised, I now return to answering a question I received a while back.  I soon realized that I should have waited until now on answering once we got closer to the True Church Conference.  I will re-post the blog entry in which I began answering the question and then continue on answering in my next post.  Here is the original post:

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