Lately, I have been feeling sad and discouraged about church music. I am just gonna be real with you all. I just wish we could start from the ground up. And honestly, not just with music used in our services. With the way the church gathers and disciples and more. But today I am going to just get raw about music for church gatherings. It feels wrong to remain silent when I see so many congregations and leaders follow other congregations and leaders down the same scary path. At least it is scary to me.
I have been mulling over the words I would share for a long time. Maybe what I am experiencing is mostly an inner crisis. Having been in musical worship leadership for a long time, I must acknowledge that my perspective might lean a good deal from my experiences. I wonder if I am not alone, though. Something just seems broken. I can admit I have definitely been broken over all of this. You may not agree with some of my opinions. I mean, it is okay. If there is anything I have been learning in the middle of this Covid-19 crisis, it is that there are a lot of perspectives and a lot of opinions. We have not all learned the same lessons. Some of us are still in the process of obtaining clarity and finding a way to filter through everything. God wants us to edify one another. Build each other up. Love and give grace.
I don’t have it all down or all figured out. I know I don’t. I am not an expert. I am just sharing what I am learning, some observations, and a bit of my heart with you today. I have not given up hope. I have not lost faith. Some of what I have experienced with the church has likely prompted some of these concerns and feelings about church music culture. Of course we are all human and fallible. It is not shocking that disagreements and misunderstandings happen. We all need Jesus. We all need grace alongside discipline. Legit.
I grew up attending church services and also serving in congregations. Music ministry is deep in my roots. I was either singing or playing piano or both in every church I connected with since I was 3 years old. It has always been a joy to me. I love to praise my Savior through song! This has not changed. I love the Body of Christ. This also has not changed. It has been a comfort, support and encouragement during many poignant times in my life. The Body of Christ -the church- has played an important role during my restoration and my discipleship. They have helped correct me and helped me seek my Creator. They have reminded me to give God praise through the hard times and mourned with me through the difficult times. God has rescued me time and again. He always sets my path straight and draws me closer to Him, and for this I cannot help but sing praises. Praise the Lord for restoration and His never-ending love that seeks after my heart. I just want to make sure you know I LOVE to make music to the Lord before I go further into my concerns about the direction church music is headed.
You know, there is nothing new with arguments in church music. I had to write a paper on the music used in synagogues for Music History when I was in college. Sometimes the leaders after 70 A.D. thought only one type of song should be sung. They actually decided trained solo voice should be used instead of a group of singers at one point. At one time they even thought women and men should not sing together! Sometimes they used a lot of different instruments. Then they decided to only use one or two. THEN they got rid of all instrumentation and only used voices to glorify God. They even argued about what kinds of songs to use: new vs. old! This happened in the first several centuries after Christ had risen from the dead! I had forgotten about this Music History paper until around a year ago. I read it and just cried.
Why do we spend so much time on what style and what years songs were written? On what instruments are used or how many voices lead? How have we come SO far from the basic and most important reason we gather together? We make music together to glorify God. We take that precious and privileged time to praise our Creator for all He has done and honor Him for His goodness and holiness. As long as the message is true, what does the style and year written matter?
I have heard arguments from extremely opposite positions, but the heart of all still echoes a similiar personal viewpoint. It is what “I think” is most important and what “I think” will benefit the Kingdom the most. I have heard, “we need to keep the older people,” or “we need to get the 18 to 28 year olds.” These express some wrong intentions, but they also express a concern that is growing. The concerns seem valid. Part of the intent seems good. I mean, people care about our elders and people care about our youth/young adults. There is NOTHING wrong with that. But when we prioritize one age group above another, then we create multiple problems. There are all kinds of congregations. Some have a wide range of ages, and some lean more to one or the other. It saddens me to think music is a reason our congregations’ age range varies. This really limits our ability to disciple and reach out to our community.
During the time when I was a worship leader, I felt like I had to defend the music I planned every Sunday. Not just to the congregation but to the leadership. It felt like nothing was good enough. I did my best to ignore the weekly critique and instead just listen to the Spirit when planning the music. I focused on the lyrics and prayed over every song. I realized that I could not satisfy everyone, though. The best thing to do was obey the Lord and turn over the rest to Him, including when leadership requested to cut songs or choose something else.
In addition to all of the music selection challenges, there became so much focus on production. Move people quickly on and off. No silent moments before the sermon or at the end. Our worship team lost the freedom to repeat choruses or spend time in prayer as the Spirit led because a video started before we even finished a song. We got rid of music stands so that they would not “get in the way”. It began to feel forced and rigid, though the intention was to be be less distracting and better focused. Instead of being a part of the congregational praise, I began to feel like a robot. It was not that my heart was not fully desiring to praise. All the production just became such a distraction for me. Mentally, I was spending more time thinking about my next cue than contemplating God’s faithfulness. It all felt like business. The church began to feel like a business.
I have heard it said that whatever you use to draw the people in, you will need to continue doing in order to keep them coming. I think that may be in part why we are in the position we are today with music in churches and the way it is presented/shared. Maybe this is why we keep having to one-up ourselves or other congregations around us in order to retain or gain congregation numbers. I sense SO much competition. Competition breaks my heart. What purpose does this serve the Kingdom of God? How does this show love for one another? As I study my Bible, I learn how God’s people time and time again start with impassioned gratitude and a vision to share His goodness with the world…then end up lost and far from what God intended for them. I have been there. I have done that. Easy to do. But it is so dangerous. We move forward down this path thinking that we are doing the best thing or the right thing, but end up with a ton of collateral damage. And what have we gained? Was it all worth it?
Yesterday I listened to a training about seeing people as people. It was so wonderful. The statement that stuck with me was this: we should not think about a person as an object. Our view of another should not be what we can get out of a person or what they can do for us. (It should NEVER be about about filling seats or gaining volunteers.) We should care about them. Connect with them. Learn about them. It all starts with relationships.
When we are sharing music with a church congregation, it is no different. We MUST consider all of the people that make up our group. If we want everyone to be able to sing during our congregational worship moments, we are going to have to give ourselves some parameters and establish some reasonable guidelines. The music should be “singable”. The keys used should be where most people can sing semi-comfortably. (There are many voice types, ranges and tessituras, but the majority of people are NOT tenor ranges.) The songs should, for the MOST part, be familiar. They should ALWAYS be scripturally-sound, church edifying, and God-glorifying. This is not about appeasement. It is about love. Showing love as a worship leader for a church congregation. Style just doesn’t really matter. (We are never going to appeal to EVERYone with style, so I find it a moot point.) What year it was written? Nope. Who cares! Want to use a new song? SURE! But space out new songs and repeat them enough so your congregation can LEARN them so that they can sing them together. I learned this the hard way. Again, I am still learning.
I have always enjoyed making music, no matter what format. Opera, musicals, writing my own songs, choir, jazz ensembles….but my deepest longing has always been to encourage the church and help them see the goodness of God through music. I love bringing a congregation together. One of my greatest joys is hearing a congregation’s voices lifted in praise. I LOVE it! I was trained to be a performer in college, but God has been training me to be a worshipper all my life. I love planning and love creating special moments. I LOVE dynamics!!! BUT I love how the Holy Spirit moves most of all. Truthfully, I am not always brave enough to take His lead since I love planning so much. I tell you this because I want to emphasize again that I don’t have it all down. I am still learning. I am still seeking God’s best and God’s plans for me, and I just SO DEEPLY want to be a part of the growth of the Kingdom of God.
Recently, I have had some time to sit back and experience church services as a congregation member instead of being a part of the leadership. I have sat week after week on Sunday mornings watching various church services during our stay at home orders. This is what I find myself screaming: I DON’T WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED ANYMORE! There was a time where I was part of the “entertainment”. I deeply regret and grieve that. I know I cannot judge the authenticity of another person’s heart in worship. Goodness, that is between them and God. So I am not talking about how a person appears. I have learned that there are so many personalities and ways that people musically worship. Just because a person is not moving while they share a song for the Lord does not mean they are not wholeheartedly feeling the depth or the magnitude of the words. What concerns me most is the presentation. Notice how most live services focus on the musicians. NOT the congregation. The panning and the atmosphere and the stage designs. What purpose does all this serve? What are we saying with all of this?
I have had a few longings over the years I was a worship leader. I wanted to put a sheet up in front of the worship team so they could not be seen in order that the focus was not on the musicians, and instead on the words as the music lifted them up to God. I wanted to have the congregation in a circle with the worship team all around alongside the congregation. Or have the musicians sitting with the congregation however the seats were placed. You see, it just kept feeling like everyone was too focused on the people facilitating the time of musical worship. The platform or stage…I love it. I love performing. But when it comes to leading a congregation to lift their voices in praise….I just wanna stand with the crowd and have nothing in front of me except the glorious shine of Jesus.
Listen, I understand some of these base intentions for doing what we have been doing. I know we want to try to keep people engaged so that they will learn and grow. But the Holy Spirit can work in the simplest of situations. I am not saying we should not use orchestras or choirs or bands. NOT AT ALL. What I am asking is this: what is the biggest message we are exuding with the way we worship together? Sometimes I find that there is more room for the Spirit to speak and for people to hear when we give Him the space and the opportunity to speak…instead of us rush from moment to moment to moment. I miss those spontaneous prayers as a congregation. And the testimonies from congregational members during a gathering.
My heart longs to see a day where it doesn’t matter what instruments or how many instruments are used in corporate worship. When it does not matter how skilled the musicians are or how smoothly a service flows. When we could care less what songs are used or what year they were written or what style is used. When our ONLY focus is to express our deep gratitude and the highest praise for our Living God. I cannot wait for the day we lift God high and we take time for prayer and we take the time to check in with one another, and that is the reason we gather. The day we gather not because it is an experience we don’t want to miss, but instead because we need each other and we need to cry out to God together and we itch to give Him praise in unified voice. (There is nothing wrong with not wanting to miss the experience, but I guess the prioritization?)
I sense we are in the last days…so the direction we head will matter so much. My heart is burdened. I wish I knew how to proceed. I am CRAVING to worship and praise with a group of believers without any worries or checkboxes to fulfill. I am praying that God would guide my heart right now. Does He want me to do something with all of this? Maybe I am being driven to simply pray. For certainly, our country and our churches need God’s hand to guide us.
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