The Church Singing

The new 9Marks Journal is on "The Church Singing." Check it out here.

Below is the editor's note from Jonathan Leeman:

Singing is not one of the nine marks, a point which, not surprisingly, has come up once or twice with my minister-of-music father.

That said, okay, yes, 9Marks does have a few opinions on music. Our understanding of the local church pushes us toward a slightly different perspective on church singing than some of our evangelical brothers and sisters.

The difference comes down to the question of performance. Who is performing? The congregation or the people on stage? Dimming the lights and turning up the volume of instruments and leaders doesn’t necessarily mean you have turned the congregation into an audience, but it often does.
Or think about it like this: is the “worship experience” in your church a solo transaction between the individual worshipper and God as stimulated by a high-emotion performer up front?

Because here is an alternative: the musicians and song leaders help to facilitate an intellectually and emotionally engaged communal experience where members sing to one another while singing to God. The primary thing people hear is the faith-reinforcing praises and laments of their fellow saints. “I’m not the only one who rejoices like this…mourns like this…pleads like this. So does everyone around me!” They don’t listen for the organ, electric guitar, or praise ensemble. They listen for the folksy and hearty voices of other pilgrims walking alongside them on this long and rocky road of Christian obedience, rehearsing old memories of Calvary and new hopes of the heavenly city. 
  
Are these just my preferences that I’m trying to impose? I hope not. Think about what the New Testament emphasizes when it comes to the church’s corporate music. It doesn’t talk about crafting a highly charged worship “experience.” Interestingly, it doesn’t use the language of “worship” at all in this context (which is not to deny that corporate singing is worship). Instead, the Bible talks about the congregation singing to one another (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19), and doing everything for the sake of edifying one another (1 Cor. 14). That’s it: people singing together. When it comes to the topic of music, Christians might do well to talk about the church singing or the congregation singing because that’s what the Bible talks about.

In this edition of the 9Marks Journal, we start with singing and the song. Why do congregations sing, what should they sing about, and how can they sing better? We then think more carefully about the music itself, particularly with two different perspectives on whether or not some musical forms are better than others. Finally we think about what is involved in leading music.

Congregational Singing Starts with the Pastor

My article in the current issue of the Baptist & Reflector is an "amen" to the recent post by Keith Getty on improving congregational singing and a plea to fellow pastors to recognize our responsibility to lead in this area.

You can read the article in the virtual version of the B&R here.

Paul Clark on "Media and Worship - Careful Consideration"

My friend, Paul Clark, has a great article on his blog regarding media and worship that is worth reading. Here's just a snippet:

Lest you think I am just a non-comformist, old fashioned stick-in-the-mud who refuses to keep up, I am, after all, writing this on a blog, ok?  Twenty years ago none of us had ever heard of the term, “blog.”  Give me a little credit here.  This is not some kind of a “burn your cellphone” rant.  Rather, my appeal to the church is for us to think about the implications, ramifications, and long-term impact upon our culture of these “advances” and more particularly, I would call for serious consideration of how embracing their use affects our worship, and how it might impact the spiritual lives of the worshipers.  Certainly, very careful evaluation as to how technology effects worship when it is used in the gathered worship event itself must be a concern for church leadership.  The field of media ecology has evolved into a field of study of which more Christian leaders, and particularly worship ministry leaders, must take note. 

[...]

I am not necessarily advocating an abandonment of technological devices in our gathered worship.  Like anyone I could provide a significant list of ways technology can and does contribute to the worship environment.  What I am positing is a need for prayerful, careful consideration of any and all technologically induced and produced materials in worship.

To read the entire article, click here.

And for those of you in and around Jackson, Tennessee, you might be interested in joining us at First Baptist Church the next few Sunday nights as we consider how we should think about and use technology in appropriate ways as followers of Jesus Christ (including in worship).  We will be led by Dr. Ben Mitchell and Dr. Justin Barnard, and the topics for each night are listed below.

Following Christ in the Age of Twitter (with Ben Mitchell and Justin Barnard)

First Baptist Church | Jackson, TN

Sunday Nights at 5:00 PM

2/9    "Saved, Saved, Saved: Technology's Promise and Problems" - C. Ben Mitchell

2/16  "Gadgets @ Hearth & Home: Technology and Family Life" - Justin D. Barnard

2/23  "Help! I’m LinkedIn and My iPad is Driving Me Google" - C. Ben Mitchell

3/2    "PowerPoint Praise? Technology and Church Life" - Justin D. Barnard

Light First, Then Heat: What Worship Leaders Today Can Learn from Isaac Watts

This excerpt from Douglas Bond's new book on Isaac Watts is a needed reminder for those who lead God's people in public worship:

Watts understood that "our passions are intensely directed toward material things but are hardly moved by the most important discoveries of faith." He was warring against the stale lifeless singing in worship in his youth, and he rightly wanted to see emotion and passion, as we do, in sung worship. He knew that passions "are glorious and noble instruments of the spiritual life when under good conduct." But here is where Watts is a counter voice to many well-meaning worship leaders today: he knew that passions "are ungovernable and mischievous energies when they go astray." He grasped - and so must we - that it is the business of church leaders both "to assist the devout emotions" and "to guard against the abuse of them." Centuries before the invention of the electric bass, Watts warned church leaders: "Let him not begin with their emotions. He must not artfully manipulate" their passions and feelings until he has first "set these doctrines before the eye of their understanding and reasoning faculties. The emotions are neither the guides to truth nor the judges of it." He argued that since "light comes before heat...Christians are best prepared for the useful and pious exercise of their emotions in the spiritual life who have laid the foundations in an ordered knowledge of the things of God."

In the very best of Watts' hymns, he combines both emotion and knowledge. But for Watts, it is always light first, then heat. The feeling of wonder, the emotion of profound gratitude, the escalating thrill of adoration and praise always follow the objective propositional exploration of the doctrines of the gospel. For Watts, the doxological always follows the theological....We know this not because Watts said so. Watts discovered it from divine revelation. Hebrew poetry in the Bible can be deeply passionate, even erotic, and the Psalms are rich with thrilling emotion, but it is always light first, then heat.

--Douglas Bond, The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts  

Paul Clark on "Deference Over Preference"

I'm grateful for the very kind personal remarks from my friend, Paul Clark, in his most recent blog post, Deference Over Preference.  But I'm even more grateful for the clear and faithful way he goes on to unpack and apply this concept of deference over preference in our worship. 

It was wonderful to have Dr. Clark with us at First Baptist Church on Sunday, and he did an excellent job preaching and teaching God's Word.  Click here for the audio of his morning sermon, "Can You Sing in Tune?"  And click here for the audio of his evening session, "Worship Renewal and Music Ministry."

Biblical and Theological Foundations of Worship

During Sunday evenings in September, we at First Baptist Church will be having a teaching series on The Biblical and Theological Foundations of Worship with guest speakers Paul Clark, David Dockery, Chris Mathews, and Ben Mitchell.  Each session will begin at 5:00 PM.  The schedule and topics are below:

September 8      Dr. Paul Clark, "Worship Renewal and Music Ministry"

September 15    Dr. David Dockery, "The History of Worship"

September 22    Dr. Chris Mathews, "Selecting the Songs We Won't Sing"

September 29    Dr. C. Ben Mitchell, "The Gospel and Worship" 

Audio will be made available on the church website for those unable to attend.   

2 New Books Related to Worship

Here are two new books related to worship that I look forward to reading:

Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel, Mike Cosper

Is it singing? A church service? All of life? Helping Christians think more theologically about the nature of true worship, Rhythms of Grace shows how the gospel is all about worship and worship is all about the gospel. Mike Cosper ultimately answers the question: What is worship?

Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works, James K. A. Smith

How does worship work? How exactly does liturgical formation shape us? What are the dynamics of such transformation? In the second of James K. A. Smith's three-volume theology of culture, the author expands and deepens the analysis of cultural liturgies and Christian worship he developed in his well-received Desiring the Kingdom. He helps us understand and appreciate the bodily basis of habit formation and how liturgical formation--both "secular" and Christian--affects our fundamental orientation to the world. Worship "works" by leveraging our bodies to transform our imagination, and it does this through stories we understand on a register that is closer to body than mind. This has critical implications for how we think about Christian formation.

A Liturgy of Narcissism

Paul Clark has a great post on the narcissistic mindset that marks much of what passes for worship these days.  Here are a few excerpts:

[A]iming for emotional manipulation simply to evoke feelings is valueless for Christian worship.  Oh, it can certainly be effective, even when it is completely lame.  Sadly, its most powerful effect may be that persons think just because they felt something, evoked by sad or glad songs, goosebump-producing video, or loudly authoritative preaching, they have had a spiritual encounter.  Placing the name of Christ in the midst of such emptiness seems nothing short of sacrilege.  Far too often the point of such liturgy is simply a view of self, albeit the self we think we want to see.  We start with a big song, move through stages to get to a “just me and God” moment.  If we get there, we fool ourselves to think we are satisfied, only to find we quickly thirst again.  And rightly so, for no religious feeling will ever suffice.

[...]

Biblical worship seeks to frame the connection of God and man.  Faith is rooted in Biblical truth.  God Incarnate is among the worshipers.  The Spirit’s work empowers Word, said and sung, to engage hearts and minds.  The resultant vision is Christ Jesus.  Worshipers depart to serve, patterning life and love after the One they have seen by light of Spirit and the Word.  Rather than seeing a “better me” I have seen a perfect, Risen Christ.

God, help us to form our worship that we may be formed to better see and reflect Jesus.

To read his post in its entirety, click here.  

An Open Letter to Praise Bands

James Smith offers a humble yet helpful "open letter to praise bands" in this post.

As he says near the end, "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?'"

His three main points are as follows:

1. If we, the congregation, can't hear ourselves, it's not worship.
2. If we, the congregation, can't sing along, it's not worship.
3. If you, the praise band, are the center of attention, it's not worship.

The whole letter is worth reading.

Lewis on the Dangers of Novelty in Worship

C.S. Lewis, from Letters to Malcolm, on novelty in worship and the need for permanence and uniformity:

It looks as if they [Anglican clergymen] believed people can be lured to go to church by incessant brightenings, lightenings, lengthenings, abridgements, simplifications, and complications of the service. And it is probably true that a new, keen vicar will usually be able to form within his parish a minority who are in favour of his innovations. The majority, I believe, never are. Those who remain—many give up churchgoing altogether—merely endure.

Is this simply because the majority are hide-bound? I think not. They have a good reason for their conservatism. Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best — if you like, it “works” best — when, through familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping….

A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude the question, “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”

Thus my whole liturgiological position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity. I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put. But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home in it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship.

Why Do Christians Sing When They're Together?

"Why do Christians sing when they are together? The reason is, quite simply, because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time; in other words, because here they can unite in the Word."

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

A Book on the Importance of Congregational Singing

My friend, Paul Clark, has written a book that is the product of years' worth of researching, reflecting on, practicing, theologizing about, and leading congregational singing. Tune My Heart to Sing Thy Grace: Worship Renewal through Congregational Singing will be of great benefit to any pastor and/or worship leader, and hopefully it will have the effect on countless churches that its subtitle proclaims. Paul has been writing about worship in a weekly newsletter for pastors, ministers of music, and worship leaders for years. I have always wished a wider audience could read his reflections and learn from him. With this book, that now can happen.

Here is what people are saying about the book:

Paul Clark is a church musician who is equally committed to the glory of God, the building up of his church, and using the best of creativity of the past and present to look towards the future. I cannot recommend him highly enough.

--Keith Getty, Christian artist, lecturer, and modern hymn writer

Worship involves a rhythm of revelation and response, and this book beautifully reflects that reality. Paul Clark reveals biblical, theological foundations for radically God-centered worship, and then he gives us clear, practical guidance for how God's people respond congregationally to God's greatness. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for pastors, worship music leaders, and Christians who long to see God-honoring, Christ-exalting, Spirit-led worship in the church.

--David Platt, PhD, Senior Pastor, The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, AL

In Tune My Heart to Sing Thy Grace, Paul Clark has crafted a powerful book on congregational singing. Writing out of a heart that has been richly shaped by God's mercy, Clark provides a roadmap through the story of song in the Bible and church history. From years of consultation with churches, he offers sage advice for how individuals and churches can "retune" their singing. I needed the "retuning" this book provided - and you probably do too!

--Dr. Reggie Kidd, Professor of New Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary

Dr. Clark serves as the director of worship and music ministries for the Tennessee Baptist Convention and blogs at Tune My Heart to Sing Thy Grace. To order the book, click here.

Song Shapes Theology

The following quote is a reminder why we must be so careful and diligent in choosing the songs we sing in church:

It is well known that the character of its song, almost equal with the character of its preaching, controls the theology of a church.

--From the preface of the Trinity Hymnal

Honoring God Before Country

There is always a danger for American Christians to confuse our allegiances to God and country around Independence Day, especially when July 4th falls on a Sunday. The following is a corporate reading I wrote for our congregation to help safeguard that very confusion.

Honoring God Before Country

As we celebrate the independence of our great nation, we acknowledge God's bountiful blessings and providential care throughout our history.

We acknowledge the courageous and sacrificial service of so many men and women who fought, and are fighting, for the freedoms we enjoy and so often take for granted. With deep gratitude, we recognize and remember those who gave their lives defending those freedoms.

We acknowledge those who have gone before us to help shape and form these United States.

And we acknowledge the wonderful opportunities and benefits afforded to us simply by being American.

But as Christians, while still being grateful and mindful of this wonderful nation of ours, we celebrate a far greater freedom today - freedom from sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus on this day it becomes especially important for us to remember and confess that we are Christians first, then Americans.

We acknowledge God before country; the Cross before the Stars and Stripes; and the Bible before the Declaration of Independence. Our primary loyalty is to Jesus Christ and his kingdom, which is made up of people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

So we proclaim today that "our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:20).

Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns

You may remember my interview with David Gordon a while back about the new book he was working on, Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns (which is a sequel to the excellent work, Why Johnny Can't Preach). Well, the new book was just released and is now available.

Click here to order a copy.

Click here to see the Table of Contents (PDF).

Click here to read a sample chapter (PDF).

The Fruits of Public Worship

Does our corporate worship make us holy at home? According to Ryle, that is the test for whether or not our public worship is doing us good.

The best public worship is that which produces the best private Christianity. The best church services for the congregation are those which make its individual members most holy at home and alone. If we want to know whether our own public worship is doing us good, let us try it by these tests. Does it stimulate our conscience? Does it send us to Christ? Does it add to our knowledge? Does it sanctify our life? If it does, we may depend on it; it is worship of which we have no cause to be ashamed.

-- J.C. Ryle

HT: Erik Kowalker

The Gospel-Centered Wisdom of Bob Kauflin

When Bob Kauflin speaks about worship, it makes sense to listen. While he's far from infallible, he is incredibly wise and has a gospel-centeredness that permeates both his leading of worship as well as his talking (or writing) about worship.

The brief videos below provide an example of that gospel-centered wisdom. The first reminds us that singing and preaching share the same end. The second is a sobering reminder that the gospel has more power to unite us than musical styles do to divide us. And the third reminds us that the tunes we sing are important because they are mediums through which to communicate the truth of God.

Interview with T. David Gordon on Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns

Dr. T. David Gordon was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding his forthcoming book, Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Re-Wrote the Hymnal (to be published by P&R early this summer), which is a sequel to his excellent book on preaching, Why Johnny Can't Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers, which I blogged on here, here, and here (and highly recommend). Dr. Gordon is Professor of Religion and Greek at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Prior to teaching at Grove City College, he taught New Testament for thirteen years at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

What led you to write Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns, and how is it different from the abundance of books recently published on the subject of music and/or worship styles in the church?

Both books (Why Johnny Can't Preach and Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns) are informed by my study of media ecology; therefore, my perspective on the matter differs from that of non-media-ecologists. In the last 70 years, substantial changes happened to music in American culture:

• music moved from being participatory to passive (folk music, performed by average people, has all but disappeared, and has been replaced by pop music)

• music went from being communal to being, largely, individual (began with the Sony Walkman, but music is now heard solitarily)

• because of the commercial interests, pop music has replaced sacred music, classical music, and folk music. For the vast majority of Americans, the only music that SOUNDS like music is pop music, because they are surrounded by it. It is in the “background” when shopping, putting gas in the car, dining in restaurants, on TV and film. So nothing else registers as music. The consequence is that many churches have effectively abandoned the church’s rich history of hymnody for trifling contemporary stuff.

You talked quite a bit about reading poetry and the importance of verse in Why Johnny Can’t Preach. Do you see a connection between our sparse reading of poetry today and our inability to sing hymns?

There probably is a relationship between not reading poetry and tolerating contemporary worship music. If one reads poetry, one comes to appreciate language that is well-crafted; in the process, one becomes less accepting of language that is poorly crafted. So, most contemporary worship makes me cringe not only musically but also lyrically (not to mention theologically). The commercial forces in our culture want us to be content with pablum, because it is easier to produce pablum than really good stuff. Those commercial forces have pushed us away from demanding disciplines such as reading verse (where there is almost no room for significant commercial profit); and in the process, we as a culture no longer notice inferior art, because we are surrounded by it.

Does the inability to sing hymns seem to be a generational problem (say fifty-somethings and under), or is it more widespread than that?

There’s probably a small generational difference, because some younger people now have never been in a church where many hymns were sung, so they are entirely unfamiliar with them. But many middle-aged people have also been influenced by a culture in which pop music has effectively crowded out all other forms.

Are you encouraged by what seems to be a current trend of returning to both writing and singing theologically rich hymns?

I’m not sure I’ve observed a trend of writing good hymns yet. I’ll be delighted if one emerges, of course; but I don’t believe it will happen. Nor would this solve the problem. The problem is the discarding of older forms. Christianity is not a new religion, and whenever it is “dressed up” in contemporary garb, that itself is problematic; it sends the wrong meta-message. The solution, that is, is not to write BETTER contemporary-sounding music, but to write music that doesn’t SOUND contemporary. E. Margaret Clarkson just died in the last five years or so. She was a Canadian hymnwriter, who wrote many hymns. But none of her hymns SOUND contemporary. If one didn’t know better, one might think some of her hymns were written a century or two ago. To me, THAT is the solution; to jettison contemporaneity itself, as a value inconsistent with the Christian religion. You’ll have to read the book to see if my arguments on this point are persuasive.

Can you give us a glimpse into how the book is arranged or structured?

Here is the Table of Contents:

Introduction: My Pastoral Concerns

Chapter One: Introductory Considerations

Chapter Two: Aesthetic Relativism

Chapter Three: Form and Content

Chapter Four: “Meta-message”

Chapter Five: “Sacred Music”?

Chapter Six: Three Musical Genres

Chapter Seven: Musical Questions

Chapter Eight: Contemporaneity as a Value

Chapter Nine: Song and Prayer

Chapter Ten: The Mind, Sentiment, and Sentimentality

Chapter Eleven: Ritual (Formality and Informality)

Chapter Twelve: Strategic Issues

Chapter Thirteen: Concluding Thoughts

Chapter Fourteen: Teaching Johnny Hymnody

The Function of Music in Worship

Paul Clark's latest article explores the function of music in the worship of God's people. Here is an excerpt:

Consider this; projected on the screen is a set of words. Played by the instruments, music floats around the room addressing the ears of worshipers. Married together for corporate expression both words and music take wings and become the expression of our corporate and individual response, confession, or praise to God. We may sing our proclamation, or demonstrate outwardly what we sense internally, and this proclamation bears witness to His grace and our faith....

Singing binds us together and forms community. This is a powerful reality that is far too easy to miss if we become enamored with our own performance, or preoccupied with the excellence of the music for its own sake. In this action music can give us a vision of what it means to be one in Christ. Music that fosters a bold unison in proclaiming Christ can drown out discord and aid in the rally of our hearts.

Read the entire thing here.

Indictment

Indictment on Evangelical Worship
M. Justin Wainscott, © 2007

Set the stage and dim the lights,
Create my mood; abuse my rights.
Out-do all you did last week,
And never let the silence speak.
Entertain me, at all costs,
Blur the lines ‘tween true and false.
Smile and tell me all’s okay,
I’ll believe whate’er you say.
Give me mirrors; give me smoke,
Fill me with clichés and jokes.

Like an orphan with no story,
Cut me off from all before me.
Hide the pain and fake the smile,
Lamentation’s out of style.
Give me milk and warm the bottle,
Make sure it’s the latest model.
Numb my mind with borrowed tricks,
Feed my soul with Pixi-stix.
Don’t confront what lurks within,
Or else I’ll never come again.