Worship leaders. Song writers.
When I'm with a group of Christians who already started going to church 25+
years ago, or when I'm with my Christian aboriginal friends, or friends from
the Philippines, Samoa, Papua New Guinea or some such country - we can enjoy
singing and praising together, harmonizing for hours on end. We could go all
night if we wanted to - singing spontaneously, without needing to look at the
words. It's great!
But try singing spontaneously with a group of Christians who have known only
the contemporary Australian Church - in a setting where you're away from the
rehearsed band on the stage and away from the PowerPoint words projected onto
the big screens. You can't do it!
It seems no-one knows more than a few lines of the lyrics of most contemporary
worship songs.
Recent converts don't know many of the old easy flowing songs that we're
blessed to know - so they can't easily sing along with you.
Result: spontaneous singing is no longer much a part of the Christian
experience of the contemporary Australian Christian. Not much at all.
Does it really matter?
I think they're missing out! Big time. We're all missing out.
I should probably address this to pastors as well as to music directors, seeing
music directors are really only doing what their pastors are expecting them to
do.
It seems we've come full circle. Some years ago during the Charismatic Renewal
the Holy Spirit gave the Church new praise and worship songs with easy lyrics
and nice melodies that enabled us to easily flow with one another and with the
Holy Spirit without needing to hold a hymn book in our hands.
It was really anointed! Remember how much you looked forward to the praise and
worship in those days?
Now we've come full circle, only this time it's not the hymn book that we can't
do without - it's the PowerPoint projection on the screen that we can't do
without.
So once again there is a need today to introduce songs that are easy to sing
and remember.
Songs that let the congregation close their eyes and get caught up in worship
without needing to look at the words.
Songs that have a touching melody line.
The type of song you can still remember the words to when you get to your home
meeting on Wednesday night.
The type of song you wake up in the morning singing. And I don't mean just
singing a few lines and then you have to hum the rest of it because you can't
remember the words. I mean singing it all the way through, then over and over
again, because it blesses you so much!
These are the types of songs you can sing spontaneously one after another in a
group, expressing the Holy Spirit's work in you, without anyone needing to look
at the words.
In a home meeting. Down the beach. On the mountaintop. Out bush. In the car. On
your own. In a group. Away from a flow sheet. Easily flowing with the Holy
Spirit.
We can benefit from singing together not just on Sundays where we've got the big screen but also in
smaller informal gatherings, and when we're by
ourselves with the Lord.
I'd love to grab a guitar and go down the beach with you sometimes and be able
to sing spontaneously together to the Lord.
Or in the car on the way to a meeting. Someone starts singing. We all join in
and keep singing all the way to the meeting - and we all know all the words to
every song. That used to be normal.
But nowadays even if we play a CD or plug in someone's iTunes playlist, people
still can't really sing along. No-one knows the lyrics to contemporary songs well
enough.
Sure we can soak in the Spirit while a CD is playing contemporary music. I'm
all for having extended times where we aren't primarily singing but instead are receiving from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. All for
it!
But being able to sing the words
of a song together in a group also helps you to "...be
filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord"
(Eph.5:17,18).
Singing spontaneously together
helps us to "let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord" (Col.3:16).
And it's nice to be able to get that uplift in the middle of the week
in settings where it
isn't always possible to look at
the words. In settings where you can be spontaneous about it. Not just at church.
But to be able to do that spontaneously in a group it helps if the
group knows songs off my heart.
See, our role as singers and songwriters in church is not just to showcase the full range of our
own creative abilities. Of course there's a time and place for that in our
meetings too. I love it just as much as anyone whenever a band lets loose on
occasion and someone sings with their full vocal range!
But part of the role of a church music director is also to equip the congregation with songs they can
sing easily - not only at church but also during the week, by themselves or in small groups.
It's not just about what the trained full-time songwriter is capable of
performing on the stage - it's also about what the congregation can sing when
they're away from the band, away from the PowerPoint projector, away from the
stage lights, the smoke machine, the backing CD, the DVD with lyrics, or the
leader's iTunes playlist.
It's about equipping new converts with songs they can easily sing spontaneously
without having to look at the words, in their own prayer time and in small
groups.
If you can sing spontaneously because you know lots of older songs off by heart -
then you could hardly imagine what it must be like for recent converts who
haven't been equipped with the capability to do that.
Similarly many of today's new converts who don't know many songs off by heart
wouldn't know what they've been missing out on either, unless they experience
it.
Since so many of our church-friends these days don't know many songs without
looking at the words, we usually just don't go there
anymore. Spontaneous communal singing has therefore pretty much become a thing
of the past for all of us in contemporary churches, unfortunately.
Perhaps you feel many contemporary
congregations generally are really getting into the worship quite full-on. Well
you should have seen what the level of congregational participation was like
during praise and worship in the Charismatic Renewal days!
I must confess that some modern popular songs give me a fail-to-launch kind
of feeling in worship. It feels like there's little to no anointing on it. It just doesn't do it for me. Often I stand
there trying to overlook what I'm feeling - or rather what I'm not feeling -
and just try to worship anyway despite the music. Looking around at the congregation I think
others might be having the same trouble.
In comparison to the Charismatic Renewal days, the level of congregational
participation in a lot of today's praise and worship sessions remind me more of
an audience waiting for what's coming next on the program. The
congregation is not all that engaged. It's like they're being sung to from the loud band on the stage
more so than they're being heard audibly
singing themselves.
When the Holy Spirit moves in a special way during a meeting, and the pastor or evangelist takes over from
the song leader and begins to lead with an unscripted song - have you noticed
in those moments that the pastor seldom chooses a contemporary song. He almost
always goes with one of the old simple anointed songs he knows.
Yet look what happens. The volume of the
congregational singing crescendos. Hands start going up everywhere. Eyes are
closed. Faces are uplifted. For a change you can actually hear the congregation
singing above the volume of the band, as a wave seems to sweep over the crowd.
Why is that? Well a little while ago I got together with some friends in their
lounge room. I picked up a guitar and began to sing. A worship leader from a
contemporary church was there, and afterwards she made a comment which I felt
was quite telling, and I'll finish this Post with her words. She said:
"It's so easy to worship with the songs you sing".
Now this doesn't mean I don't like any contemporary songs at all. It's not to
say we should stop singing contemporary songs altogether. It's not to say our
churches should have stayed locked into an earlier music style exclusively.
When the Holy Spirit gave us new songs to sing
during the Charismatic Renewal, it didn't mean we completely stopped singing
hymns. We mostly sung the new songs, but we also still sang the old ones sometimes too.
So it doesn't mean we need to stop performing contemporary songs just because we can now see benefits in introducing some simpler songs again. There is good in almost any style - and we
can still enjoy it all.
It's like if I'm suggesting we put chocolate topping on our ice-cream, it doesn't mean I'm against the ice-cream. As
good as the ice-cream might be, it just means I want to make it taste even
better! So there are some things I do like about contemporary churches.
It's just that I
think we've reached the
place where there is something to be gained now if we once again introduce some anointed, melodic, simple songs back
into the church.
Songs like:
Lord You Are More Precious Than Silver:
and
As the Deer Panteth for the Water,
have a melody line and lyrics that are
almost timeless.
So singing some of those old songs again - it's not like you'd be singing
something so nerdy that you'd loath it. Some of those songs can still be made to sound quite contemporary.
And they're really anointed!
Some brand new songs with
simple words and pleasant melody lines could also be written.
Written by songwriters who are living right.
Who would rather choose not to do something that might be permissible for them than to offend another believers' conscience.
Songs birthed out of an anointed moment where the writer's focus was God-ward,
rather than sitting around a table trying to meet a producer's deadline - not
that there's anything wrong with that either.
Add some new and old, anointed, sweet melodies with easy words, back into the mix. Without necessarily throwing out
everything good that we already have.
For "...the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder,
which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old" (Matthew
13:52).
We'll see a lift in our Sunday worship services, and we'll once again be able
to get the blessing of singing with our brothers and sisters in settings where
it isn't possible for everyone to look at the words.
I wonder if anyone else out there feels the same way I do about it?
