By Ken Medema
If worship is the work of the people, something we do together, something we share, then it might make sense that the more we can involve all the people in all the aspects of worship, the better it is. When the preacher is proclaiming the word, we want people to listen actively and be in the process of discovering how the sermon resonates with their own experience and perhaps how it challenges them to be different people.
It is the same with music. We want the greatest possible involvement of all the people in the making of music and in the receiving of what music has to offer. Here are a few ideas about how your music program can perhaps become ever more connected to the rest of worship.
Start with the choir.
For those of you who have choirs in you churches, let’s start there. It happens way too often that the time for the choir anthem arrives and we all sit back for a brief immersion in pleasant sound during which the brain is mostly turned off. This is because we don’t know and can’t understand the words they are singing and have no concept of what the anthem is all about.
How about a two minute introduction to the anthem by the director or somebody chosen by the director who speaks well? One might read some of the words of the piece, talk a bit about how the music and the words work together, play one or more of the main themes of the piece so we can get familiar with the music, and refer us to the words written in the bulletin and invite us to sing along in our minds and hearts. I have discovered that this little alteration can do radical things in terms of connecting the choir and the congregation and help congregants to feel that this choral anthem is not some distant but pleasant sound to be listened to or worse something to be tolerated, but rather it becomes an expression of all of us together.
Also, take the choir out of the loft sometimes and put them in the aisles or in the middle of the room. Place them standing right near where folks are sitting. It’s amazing how I wake up when somebody is singing three feet from the end of my row.
Remember your choir is blessed with the task of leading the rest of us in worship, not presenting some beautiful soundscape while we take a brief nap.
Don’t be afraid to teach a song.
For those of you who have praise bands and the like, it is absolutely essential that we not be afraid to stop and teach a song to the congregation. Just a few days ago, I sat in a large assembly in which the praise band got up and began singing. I think the expectation was that we would come along and sing. We didn’t know the song and had no clear idea of what we were supposed to do. A two minute teaching time would have helped us learn the song and prepared us for the work of singing God’s praise together.
I have found that it sometimes really helps to get the vocalists in the band away from the stage and out into the room standing among the people helping them to sing. In this way, the band seems more connected to the congregation as a whole. It takes practice and developed skill to teach a song well. That teaching should be practiced just as diligently as the chords, notes, and musical changes. Very often the vocalists are so engaged in their beautiful harmony they forget they are supposed to be leading the rest of us to sing.
Whether it’s a choir, a praise band, or any other musical entity, what needs to be remembered and acted upon is that music in worship can and should be an everybody business. The more we get all of us involved, the more rich and beautiful will be the experience.
I wish for your church, and for all churches, much happy singing.
Posted
Fri, Jun 12 2009 12:08 PM
by
MTBEditor