mgpcpastor's blog

Lots of people are referring to this post (which is consciously framed in a gracious and constructive manner), particularly these three points:

1. If we, the congregation, can’t hear ourselves, it’s not worship. Christian worship is not a concert. In a concert (a particular “form of performance”), we often expect to be overwhelmed by sound, particularly in certain styles of music. In a concert, we come to expect that weird sort of sensory deprivation that happens from sensory overload, when the pounding of the bass on our chest and the wash of music over the crowd leaves us with the rush of a certain aural vertigo. And there’s nothing wrong with concerts! It’s just that Christian worship is not a concert. Christian worship is a collective, communal, congregational practice–and the gathered sound and harmony of a congregation singing as one is integral to the practice of worship. It is a way of “performing” the reality that, in Christ, we are one body. But that requires that we actually be able to hear ourselves, and hear our sisters and brothers singing alongside us. When the amped sound of the praise band overwhelms congregational voices, we can’t hear ourselves sing–so we lose that communal aspect of the congregation and are encouraged to effectively become “private,” passive worshipers.
2. If we, the congregation, can’t sing along, it’s not worship. In other forms of musical performance, musicians and bands will want to improvise and “be creative,” offering new renditions and exhibiting their virtuosity with all sorts of different trills and pauses and improvisations on the received tune. Again, that can be a delightful aspect of a concert, but in Christian worship it just means that we, the congregation, can’t sing along. And so your virtuosity gives rise to our passivity; your creativity simply encourages our silence. And while you may be worshiping with your creativity, the same creativity actually shuts down congregational song.
3. If you, the praise band, are the center of attention, it’s not worship. I know it’s generally not your fault that we’ve put you at the front of the church. And I know you want to model worship for us to imitate. But because we’ve encouraged you to basically import forms of performance from the concert venue into the sanctuary, we might not realize that we’ve also unwittingly encouraged a sense that you are the center of attention. And when your performance becomes a display of your virtuosity–even with the best of intentions–it’s difficult to counter the temptation to make the praise band the focus of our attention. When the praise band goes into long riffs that you might intend as “offerings to God,” we the congregation become utterly passive, and because we’ve adopted habits of relating to music from the Grammys and the concert venue, we unwittingly make you the center of attention. I wonder if there might be some intentional reflection on placement (to the side? leading from behind?) and performance that might help us counter these habits we bring with us to worship.

Please consider these points carefully and recognize what I am not saying. This isn’t just some plea for “traditional” worship and a critique of “contemporary” worship. Don’t mistake this as a defense of pipe organs and a critique of guitars and drums (or banjos and mandolins). My concern isn’t with style, but with form: What are we trying to do when we “lead worship?” If we are intentional about worship as a communal, congregational practice that brings us into a dialogical encounter with the living God–that worship is not merely expressive but also formative–then we can do that with cellos or steel guitars, pipe organs or African drums.

The points about music, worship and those who lead congregations in sung worship have some relevance to what we do in this area at mgpc. If you’re a part of our church and these concerns seem alien to you, well, there’s a reason why we do things the way we do them. We have been consciously striving for our worship to be covenant reaffirming dialogue between God and His people week by week.
Now a lot of concerns in this area are simply code for ‘I want things done the way I like.’
In our case, volume’s not usually an issue, we could probably go a bit louder, but music is used to support the singing, not as a distinct element in itself.
Visibility is only relevant to the point where I can’t actually get the people leading singing into a position where they’re seen by everyone there. This helps more than is generally realised.
And some songs sound great, but they just aren’t singable. I’ve written before I can pick most things up first or second time through. Most people can’t and sometimes the musicians have to let go of something we personally like because the people just don’t get it. And we don’t introduce copious amounts of new material.
That being said, a lot of tunes historically sung in a church like ours have their complexities, it’s just that people have heard them over and and over again and learned them. They’re not all instantly easier, they’re familiar. (Good) newer songs become familiar when people listen to them.
For the last couple of years we’ve been publishing the songs which we’ll be singing each Sunday a week ahead. Every Sunday morning before the Service they are rehearsed, some more than once.
Any regulars who say they don’t know the songs just aren’t trying.