“Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise”

Toward a Sacramental Theology of Congregational Singing

This is an academic paper on congregational singing that has its origins in presentations I made at the Annual Meeting of Theologians of Ohio (TheOh), Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Bexley Seabury, February 22, 2014, and at the City Ministry Spring Conference, Covenant Theological Seminary, St Louis, April 10, 2015. I have had some requests for copies and so I want to make it available here as my small contribution to the conversation about why singing in church matters. Here is a pdf version of the paper--remember it is worth what you paid for it and please use responsibly!

1.             The Problem

In twenty-first century America, it is difference in musical taste not difference in doctrine that poses the greatest threat to congregational unity. Look up the service times of any large mainline Protestant church and you are likely to find multiple services offered on a Sunday morning. This is nothing new of course, churches have often had two or even three services on a Sunday morning with, for example, a simple service at 8 a.m. and all the stops pulled out for the 11 o’clock service. What is new is offering different services simultaneously. Consider this description from the website of a large Baptist church: "during the 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services in the Sanctuary, the worship style is best described as “blended” - singing a mixture of contemporary praise choruses and traditional hymns. . . [There is also] a contemporary service called The Link at 10:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall." The Link is ‘a casual worship experience." These worship experiences--with names like The Well, The Crossing, and The Gathering--divide congregations over aesthetics. But this is more than a change in musical taste or a preference for comfortable chairs and jeans over pews and suits: this is the emergence of sub-congregations sharing the same church buildings. Put simply, musical preference is dividing churches.

Can we really think of the separation of the body between the hymns in the sanctuary and the contemporary worship songs in the fellowship hall as a rupture in the body of Christ? Is this not perhaps overstating the case? I do not think so. Even if these two worshipping groups celebrate the Eucharist on the same day--and many do not--they do not gather around a common table and share in the common cup and loaf. Ignatius, the first-century bishop of Antioch, would certainly have thought this a problem. In a letter written to the church in Philadelphia, he insisted that a church should not have separate sittings for the meal. "Be careful then, to observe a single Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and one cup of his blood that makes us one, and one altar."^[1]

In many Protestant churches today, the greatest symbol of the Church’s unity--the Eucharist--is sundered over song choice and most people are unaware this schism has even happened. One solution would be to convince people that what we sing and with whom we sing is unimportant. To take this line would be to make a terrible mistake. The problem is not that these churches are taking congregational singing more seriously than their Eucharistic identity; it is that they are not taking congregational singing seriously enough. Rightly understood, congregational singing is a sacramental practice of the Church.

Acoustics, Congregational Singing, and Carpet

The Sanctuary at Ashland's First United Methodist Church (AFUMC) certainly looks like it should be a great place for congregational singing. It is a big room with a high pitched wooden roof. But when I sing in the choir it is hard to hear what else is going on. It all feels a bit dead. When I sit out in the pews it is not an encouraging place to sing. When I play guitar as part of an ensemble, I play through the deadness hoping that the people in the sanctuary can hear a blend of the noise the instrumentalists are making.

The problem is--acoustically speaking--the space doesn't give much back. It is hard to hear yourself and it is harder to hear others.

What's the problem? It really shouldn't be this way.

When the congregation announced it was building a new church back in 1957, it had music on its mind. The Times Gazette reported on July 26 that “the chancel will be wide and open with room for 40 choir members on each side.” The sanctuary (including overflow seating in the narthex) “will comfortably seat 740.”

The current organ is particularly grand. Church historian Sidney Boyd recorded that First Methodist bought the “two manual Kimball” from Chicago in 1915. It was so large it completely obscured the stained glass window at the front of the old sanctuary . In 1949, the church spent $10,000 on a new consul separate from the organ so that the organ could be installed in the new church-- that's the equivalent of $100,000 in 2016! (Sidney Boyd, The Story of the First United Methodist Church, 1963).

Clearly the congregation spent huge sums of money so that the church--congregation, the choir, and the organ--would sound awesome.

But it doesn't.

Somehow the sound in the sanctuary, that should be so resonant, is muted and muffled.

The church has tried a number of solutions. A previous choir director area mic'd the choir and positioned monitors in front and to each side of them. After cluttering the front of the church with black boxes and wires, the problem remained unsolved. If the monitors were loud enough to overcome the deadening acoustic at the front of the church and satisfy the singers, then the congregation enjoyed squealing feedback. As an audio engineer explains: "The acoustical conditions of where a choir is will have a direct impact on the choir. You can’t ignore the acoustical environment of where the choir is because it will determine how they sound to each other and therefore how they will perform." In other words, amplification might help but it won't fix the problem.

When my wife took over the choir, we tried an acoustic solution--we ditched the microphones, and the monitors, and the cables and moved people and instruments around. I wrote about the experiment on this blog. It lowered the volume in the sanctuary and helped the congregation hear themselves sing -- but the sense of deadness and having to "push through" didn't go away.

I am not just being an acoustic snob here; this stuff really matters for the worshipping life of a congregation. I have been poking around the internet for the last couple of days and on an organ builder's website I found an excellent explanation of why acoustics matter in church.

Congregational Singing - Individuals want to join in singing if they feel the company of their fellow worshipers. Individuals will not participate if they feel conspicuous and alone. . .
Choirs - Individuals are more likely to join choirs if the room is acoustically suitable for their work. They won’t sing if they can’t be heard. The choir’s effect is greatest when its music sounds best.
Sermon - It is hard to hear a preacher whose energy is absorbed rather than radiated. It is artificial, and finally discouraging, to hear the voice only through loudspeakers. It feels more natural, and our response to the words is greater, if we can hear the natural voice.

The solution is plain, what you need are "solid walls, floor, and ceiling." What you don't want are "padded pew backs, padded walls, drapes, and carpet."

As you can see from the photograph, at AFUMC we have a massive thick and heavy set of drapes hiding the organ pipes and lots and lots of carpet.

Carpet, it turns out, generates amazing amounts of animosity from audio engineers. No superlative is left un-hurled in their attempts to get congregations to understand what a bad idea carpet is. Here are some of my favorites:

"Putting a choir on a carpeted floor is like pulling out their vocal cords." -- Art Noxon “Church Acoustics - Frequently Asked Questions”, Acoustic Sciences Corporation

"Wall-to-wall carpets kill congregational singing . . . As far as the choir area is concerned, I can think of no justifiable reason to have it be carpeted. If you ever expect music to be sung or played from the choir area, the only reason to carpet it is if your congregation's musicians are so bad that you really don't want to hear them." -- Evan Kreider “How to Deaden Acoustics and Seriously Damage Congregational Singing” American Catholic Press

"To sing in an absorbent room is as frustrating as to look at pictures in a room painted black." -- Ross King Co. "Acoustics for Worship Spaces"

And it is not just choirs that shouldn't be put on carpet:

"When a piano is played over carpet it dulls the sound. Try adding an office chair plastic carpet protector under the piano and you'll hear how it brightens up and starts to actually sound like a real wood instrument." -- “Church Acoustics - Frequently Asked Questions”

♪

One of the ways to gauge the acoustics in a space is to measure its reverberation time. Basically that is how long it takes a sound to die away. Your bathroom with its tile, linoleum and mirrors has a long reverberation time and your living room with drapes, carpet and cushions doesn't. That is why you sing in the shower.

One of the sites I visited had this information: "A pleasing concert hall might have reverberation that lasts from 1.6 to 1.8 seconds or so (with audience in attendance)." It turns out that Cleveland's Severence Hall's reverberation time is 1.7 secs with a full house. Of course a church's acoustic requirements are different than an auditorium:

An auditorium has only one acoustical function, and that is to project music produced on stage so that the audience can hear it clearly. A room used for worship, on the other hand, has two acoustical functions. The first is identical to that for auditoriums: to project the sound produced by the choir, soloists, instruments, and preacher. The second function is to provide an atmosphere which encourages and supports congregational singing. Both acoustical goals must be met if the building is to be successful for worship.

I love being alive in the age of Google -- I found a site that taught me how to measure reverberation time and suddenly I had enough knowledge to be dangerous. All I needed was my digital recorder, a free piece of software called Room EQ Wizard, a balloon and a pin! I quickly found a willing assistant and we set to bursting balloons all over town.

Drapes, carpets and cushions at AFUMC

Here is what we found:

Screenshot of Room EQ Wizard in action.

With the sanctuary empty, AFUMC has a reverb of 1.453 seconds. Standing at the front (where the musicians are) the reverb drops to 1.367 (my guess is that the reverb time is quite a bit lower on a Sunday morning with the congregation there). 

What does this mean? After scratching my head over some complicated papers by acoustic engineers I found this chart that I could understand.

"What is a desirable reverberation time?" from Georgia State University's Hyper Physics site

So, even empty, by my amateur measurements AFUMC's reverb of 1.453 seconds falls into the "not a desirable place for music" category. And for the musicians at the front the 1.367 seconds of reverb puts us in the least desirable place in the whole sanctuary!

Perhaps my measurements were way off. I took my balloons to the university chapel which I know is a wonderful space in which to sing -- big hall, bare wooden pews, wooden stage.

BANG!

2.883 seconds

We are in "fuller richer musical sound" territory. I am starting to develop sanctuary envy.

                                                                                         ♪

Shiny hard surfaces at CUMC

What can a church like AFUMC with its carpets, drapes and cushions do? The answer lies across town at Christ United Methodist Church. A few years ago they reappointed the front of their sanctuary. Away went the carpet and in came a laminate floor, and tasteful wooden choral risers. I have sung there on a number of occasions -- the choir has a full sound and the congregation sings with gusto.

On Tuesday afternoon I went in with my last two balloons (there had been 20 in the pack from Dollar General).

BANG! POP!

1.647 seconds
                                                                                          ♪

Back at Ashland First, the old worn carpet at the front of the sanctuary is coming out. The new carpet has already been purchased. It will, I am told, blend well with the carpet in the aisle.

It is time for me to say the serenity prayer and hope God will give me the wisdom to know which carpets I cannot change. The problem is that I prefer my serenity with lots of natural reverb.

Singing Advent Before Christmas

The congregation  is ready to start singing Christmas carols but this is still Advent.  The solution this week -- using the lectionary(ish) readings Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 3:1-10 -- is to write new verses to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." This is my talented wife Libby Moore Slade's work:

A voice cries in the desert
“For the Lord, prepare the way,
Exalt the valleys, raze the mountains
crooked roads, make straight.
Exalt the valleys, raze the mountains
crooked roads, make straight.
O tidings of comfort and joy
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

The day the Lord is coming,
he’ll be like refiner’s fire.
Like strongest soap, he’ll cleanse
his people; he shall purify.
Like strongest soap, he’ll cleanse
his people; he shall purify.
O tidings of comfort and joy
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

John calls us to repent:
“The ax is ready at the root.
The tree it must bear fruit or perish.”
What then shall we do?
“The tree it must bear fruit or perish.”
What then shall we do?
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

We’ll turn our hearts to Jesus and
our lives will be restored.
His name it shall be Wonderful,
our Counselor and Lord.
His name it shall be Wonderful,
our Counselor and Lord.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

(c) 2015 E. Slade

"I feel like singing and they need to come help me!"

Post by Shae Reel- Johnson.

My friend Shae, who I know from my days in the University of Mississippi Gospel Choir, recently made this post to Facebook. Her daughter is in hospital and is going through a tough time. I wrote to Shae and asked if I could share this on the blog. She wrote back:

Yes sir you most certainly can!! Those are my miracle babies!! The boys are twins and they were born autistic. The doctors told us that they would probably not ever talk or function. They couldn't talk until age 4! They have always been able to sing praises to God tho!! Sarah was born five years later and she completed the sound!! They have been singing in harmony since she was 2!!

This testimony of family and of singing God's praises together moved me to tears. 

It is the sound of community that defeats isolation. 

It is the sound of hope that overcomes despair. 

It is the sound of love that heals the sick.

As I preached the other week:

The Song became flesh and dwelt among us and the deafening silence could not overcome it.

Christmas: Singing the Story Together (and free album download)

Last week I had the pleasure of leading the singing and preaching at the Well--a mid-week worship service held in the chapel at Ashland University.  Lights are usually dimmed and guitars and drums are usually cranked up as over 200 students sing contemporary worship songs. Last Thursday night was a bit different -- not only was their usual worship leader replaced by an old(er) religion professor, but I persuaded the sound team to use minimal sound reinforcement (omni-directional mics rather than running instruments directly through the board)--something Red Team has been working with for the last three years. My reason was to place the focus firmly on the singing.  AU's Miller chapel has wonderful acoustics for singing and that's what I wanted. I rehearsed all the musicians once (but not all at the same time!) and we set off!

I have a few observations from the evening:
It is hard to think of Christmas without singing. It may get more commercialized every year, but we know Christmas should involve singing. This connects with my next point . . .
Christmas is about community - you can't really do Christmas on your own. This is odd because we certainly think we can do Easter on our own. No one says, "Poor Dr. Slade, he has no one to spend Easter with this year."  Perhaps the Easter hymn "I come to the garden alone" is responsible. But Christmas, on the other hand is about community. and it is an intergenerational community -- we want the children singing and the grandparents too.
Contemporary Praise & Worship music doesn't satisfy the needs of even the most 'contemporary' congregation. People want to sing the familiar Christmas carols. This is worth thinking about because in many churches there is almost a complete absence of traditional hymnody the rest of the year.  I would hazard a guess that these are some of the reasons:

1. Folks intuitively know that if you want to sing songs together then you need to sing songs that everyone knows. This requires a repertoire that you repeat.
2. We want to get in touch with our memories of Christmases past, particularly the Christmases of our childhood. For some reason at Christmas we understand what liturgical scholars insist we should do all the time: connect with the continuity of the church worshipping through the last two millennia.
3. Christmas carols are nearly all story songs and Christianity is, at its heart, the proclamation of a story: an outrageous and incredibly unlikely story. Interestingly the popular contemporary praise and worship songs do not (as a rule) tell stories, they proclaim emotion (worship, praise, adoration, wonder etc.). But at Christmas we need the story as well.
4. There are Christmas carols that rejoice in the revelry, feasting and joy that follow on the heals of really good news . . . I would hazard a guess that that is completely absent from any song in the CCLI charts!

One of my students captured a snippet of  us reveling in the good news of the Christmas story - more hootenanny than Hillsong!

Speaking of the CCLI charts -- I did include its #1 song "10,000 Reasons" as it includes a theology of singing that I really like and I knew this congregation of students enjoy singing this song; however, I wanted to include more of the Story in the song for this carol service. My friend Pete Clapham in England helped me out by writing a new verse.

As shepherds heard
The angels singing,
Now we rejoice
And we join with them.
Ten thousand echoes
Of the heavenly choir
Swell to crescendo
“Peace on Earth today!”

---

Heart & Soul & Voice  

(free download of the bootleg album recorded at the Well, Miller Chapel, Ashland University, Dec 4, 2014)

The Acoustic Band:

Nate Bebout - Guitar, Vocals
Ruth Chilcote - Vocals
Spencer Dolezal - Cajon and Loud Thumping
Jake Ewing - Banjo, Vocals
Jeremy Harrison - Grand Piano
Kaitlynn Jackenheimer - Vocals
Mary Kettering (Red Team) - Violin
Liz Sinchok - Vocals
Libby Slade (Red Team) - Accordion, Vocals
Peter Slade (Red Team) - Songleader, Guitar
Cory Smith - Ukelele, Vocals
Kiara Woods - Vocals
Sadie Zegaric - Vocals

Congregational Singing: Lightning Rod or Spiritual Discipline?

Whether I felt like it or not, I have been attending Sunday morning worship at a range of different churches for over thirty years. I have sat through inspiring sermons and tedious sermons and sermons that did not even deserve the name. I have been in big churches, small churches, black churches, white churches, charismatic churches and un-charismatic churches, missional churches and "omissional" churches, churches that were thriving and churches that were disintegrating.

My point is that I have seen a lot of church.

One thing I have observed is that when a congregation feels it is struggling, when people feel unhappy with church, it is often expressed as dissatisfaction with the worship music. Worship music becomes a lightning rod for congregational discontent.

If young people are not coming to the church then it must be because of the music.

If I am not feeling inspired during worship, it must be because of the music.

Sean Palmer, a church of Christ minister in Temple, Texas wrote a very interesting piece, "Singing as a Spiritual Discipline" that identifies this very problem. He diagnoses this tendency as an expression of our individualistic approach to our faith.

Our corporate/common singing, regardless of the musical style of our congregation, is still viewed by too many as an individual pursuit. This is odd, because we can’t do corporate singing alone. We just wished the songs were picked and sang as if corporate singing existed for us alone. 

Don’t believe me? Do you know anyone who left their church because of a change in “worship?” In truth, these changes are barely changes in worship. Most churches still celebrate the Eucharist, engage sermons, sing, pray, and – sadly – have announcements. What changes is the singing! And the reason people leave over “worship” is because they no longer “like” the singing…personally.

I would add that discontent strikes at music because that is an area that a congregation believes it can change. A church might be stuck with its pastor, with its aging demographic, with its poor location, with its dwindling finances, with its deficient theology, with its lack of commitment, but it can pick different songs!

Sociologist Gerardo Marti in his study of music in multi-racial churches, observed that in an exercise as fraught as nurturing a multi-racial community in which so many factors are outside the church leaders’ control, the pastor and the elders can control “the construction of participation through worship music” (15). Marti contends that this ability to control the musical content can lead to the mistaken belief that just by playing the right music the right way a church can determine the racial constituency of the congregation — a kind of “play it and they will come” mentality. What he discovered from his research in California was that it is the practice of making the music together, rather than the type of music being made, that actually proved to be most significant.

Perhaps drawing from his background in the Church of Christ where worship music is unaccompanied singing, Sean Palmer comes to a similar but more spiritual-sounding conclusion. His prescription for the problem: the church needs to rediscover congregational singing as a corporate spiritual discipline. Palmer suggests that doing so would have five consequences; I particularly like his first two:

1. We Wouldn’t Expect Immediate Results. No faithful practitioner of spiritual disciplines expects to walk in, practice a discipline for an hour, and leave humming a tune and tapping their toes. In the realm of spiritual practices we know that the blessing is found in the practice itself. You could practice contemplative prayer for years without any tangible outcome, uplifting feeling, or goosebumps, but you come to love and enjoy practicing the presence of God.
2. We Could Sing On Behalf Of Others. There are songs I hate, like “Amazing Grace.” I’ve never liked it, but I know “Amazing Grace” is tremendously meaningful for others. A friend recently shared with me the place of the song “Amazing Grace” in the recovery movement. The song means a great deal for members of AA and other recovery groups. Those folks are in my church. As a spiritual discipline, I can sing that song – though I despise it – on their behalf. I sing, therefore, not because it’s efficacious for me, but those around me.

I am reminded again of my favorite John Wesley quote:

“Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a single degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.”

 “Directions for Congregational Singing” in Select Hymns, 1761.

Or put another way: When the going get's tough the church gets singing (together)!

Showers and Sanctuaries

David Neff has some good words to say about congregational singing in an article over at Christianity Today. He is affirms what many of us know, that congregational singing is a central practice of the church. He offers this good advice:

Allow people to listen to themselves and their neighbors. Our voices should not be overwhelmed by the band or pipe organ. Some of the best congregational singing is a cappella, because unaccompanied singing lets us attend to the voices of our neighbors. In addition, our voices shouldn't be muted by dead acoustics. We are all tempted to sing in a tiled shower. Conversely, nothing discourages singing like an acoustically dry, carpeted worship space with low ceilings and padded pews

Hallelujah

My friend Katharine Mitchell sent this my way. Enjoy.

--

Hymns & Friends

Church musician and fellow traveller Wendell Kimbrough has posted his new album Hymns & Friends over on bandcamp -- you can stream the whole thing and even pre-order your own copy. Wendell is the musician at the Church of the Advent in Washington D.C.
I love what he says about the hymns he has recorded:

I have heard 20-something young professionals and retired grandparents sing these songs with equal love and enthusiasm.
The hymns on this album also transcend musical styles. Their basic components—text, melody, and harmony—are so well built that they can be led by choirs and pipe organs or by guitars, bass, and drums. When sung in the Spirit’s power, they can shake the walls of cathedrals or bring a living room full of people to a foot-stomping crescendo.

Now that's what I am talking about!

Getty's tips on Congregational Singing

Contemporary Hymn writer Keith Getty offers some advice on congregational singing in a blog post Five Ways to Improve Congregational Singing. He has just returned from a tour that involved meetings with pastors and worship leaders. Reflecting on this he makes the observation that I myself have made and that never fails to amaze me:

In each of those leadership events, I posed the question, “What are the things you ask yourself on Monday morning, in reviewing Sunday’s services?” Generally, the responses centered around production values, stylistic issues, people management, pleasing the pastor, or finishing the service on time. I do not recall that any one asked, “How did the congregation sing?”
It seems curious that in a generation that has produced innumerable conferences, articles, blogs, and even university degree programs on “worship,” the topic of congregational singing hasn’t been raised more often.

He then offers his five suggestions--check them out for yourself. He concludes with this suggestion:

Why not in 2014 begin the Monday morning review by asking, “How did the congregation sing?” and, “How can we help them do it better?"

Good questions Keith!

Pete Seeger: "It sounds so good when you all join in."

Singing "If I Had a Hammer" at a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Rally in Greenwood, MS, 1963.

I woke up this morning to the news that Pete Seeger had died.  He is, perhaps the biggest influence on me as a singer and leader of songs.  If you have time, I recommend you watch the documentary film Pete Seeger: The Power of Song; it is a tribute to his life and will inspire you to song and action.

As I bounced around the internet watching YouTube clips, I found this example of the song he made ubiquitous: Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. Just watch the joy in Seeger's face when the audience really starts singing and he can step away from the microphone and join with them as their voices resound off the walls.

I found myself reworking In paradisum from the requiem mass. It is my prayer for Pete Seeger: 

Pete, may singing angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs join the song and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the choirs of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have harmonious rest.

Matt Redman and the theology of '10,000 Reasons'

We are preparing to introduce Matt Redman’s song “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” to our congregation this Sunday. This song is number one in the CCLI charts which means it is currently being sung in more churches than any other contemporary praise song (it also won two Grammies back in February)--so we are a little behind the times here a Ashland First United Methodist!

"10,000 Reasons" has a satisfyingly singable chorus echoing the familiar and often sung opening words of Psalm 103: "Bless the Lord, O my soul." The verses are less singable: the melody is not as strong as the chorus and contains irregular syncopation to accommodate the lyrics. This will not be a problem for Redman fans as they will have it memorized from the recording but it will be tricky for the uninitiated.

Redman and his Swedish co-writer Jonas Myrin, as Redman explained, have written a song “about the many, many reasons there are to worship God.” The second verse, drawing inspiration from Psalm 30, claims there are “ten thousand reasons” to sing God’s praises.  The number ten thousand is familiar to practically anyone who has ever drawn breath to sing in church. It is from the "ten thousand years" in the last verse of “Amazing Grace” (a verse not in John Newton’s original hymn) and Redman explicitly quotes it in his final verse. He acknowledges giving “a nod to the old hymn” in an interview about the hit song.

So my first impression was that here is a singable song with some familiar words: this is a good formula for congregational singing.

There is, however, something much more theologically profound going on in this hymn than Redman alludes to in his interviews or in his downloadable devotional guide to the song.

Consider the opening lines of the first verse:  

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning

It's time to sing Your song again

The singer is not claiming it is time to sing my song of praise to God again: the singer is addressing God and declaring his or her intention to sing "Your song."  What is God’s song that we are supposed to be singing?

Chris Tomlin's Lessons for Worship Leaders

“This is about all of us singing”

On Wednesday, Oct 16, I went to the Q-Arena in Cleveland to hear Chris Tomlin. He is by far the biggest artist in the contemporary Christian Praise & Worship industry. Back in 2006, TIME magazine announced that he was “ the most often sung artist anywhere.” CNN recently backed this claim with their own math:

In 2012, Christian Copyright Licensing International paid out $40 million to artists and musicians, and Tomlin got a healthy slice of that pie. Churches around the world used 128 songs he wrote or co-wrote last year, [Howard] Rachinski [CEO of CCLI] said.CCLI estimates that every Sunday in the United States, between 60,000 and 120,000 churches are singing Tomlin’s songs. By extrapolating that data, Rachinski says, “our best guess would be in the United States on any given Sunday, 20 to 30 million people would be singing Chris Tomlin's songs.”

As the most successful songwriter and worship leader in the church today, a master of his craft, I want to present some of the lessons for church musicians that I drew from watching him work.

1. Being a musician and worship leader is about Congregational Singing

Despite the rock concert aesthetic of Tomlin’s show -- the big stage, light show, massive PA and strange skippy dancing around -- as the words to the first song appeared on the huge video screens, it was obvious that we were expected to sing.  

Talking to Worship Leader magazine about his new album, Tomlin said “songs of worship are meant for community and are meant for the people coming together to sing.”
In a sound bite from a televised interview on CNN, Tomlin said: “I strive to write [songs] that people can sing, that people want to sing, and that people need to sing.”

2. You need to encourage the congregation to sing

Sing with me!

Many things in the show let us know that we were not singing-along to the songs but that the songs were for us to sing. Throughout the evening Tomlin encouraged us to sing. This should come as no surprise from the man whose biggest hit “How Great is our God” includes the injunction “Sing with me!” in the chorus.

How did he encourage us to sing? Well in a few different ways:

3. You need to choose/write singable songs

Whether you like Tomlin’s style of soft pop/rock anthems, you have to acknowledge he writes a catchy singable chorus. He told CNN “I'm trying to think, how can I form this so that everybody, people who are tone deaf, who can't clap on two and four, how can I form this song so they can sing it, so that it is singable?”

Two days after the concert, the chorus to “Indescribable” is still stuck on constant play in my head.

4. You need to teach them the new songs (and worship God while you do so).

For me the most interesting moment came early in the night. Like in any rock concert, Tomlin played the material from the new album early in the evening. “I promise to you at some point we will sing ‘How Great is Our God’” he says to reassure us.

He then eases into the new song “Lay Me Down” singing the chorus with muted accompaniment.

“I lay me down I’m not my own . . . “

At the end of the chorus he addresses the crowd. “This is a new one so we’ll do it again.” And the band repeats the chorus.
This is a revealing moment. Tomlin clearly understands himself primarily as a song leader. He wants the audience to sing along to every word and he is following the basic rule that when you introduce a new song to a congregation you must teach it to them. The band then ploughed ahead into the Mumford & Sons-y foot stomping guitar strumming number with the congregation singing along lustily.

5. You must make space for singing

Of the sixteen songs Tomlin sang that night, ten were specifically arranged to accommodate and encourage congregational singing. (And three others had intentional audience participation - dancing, waving flags and bouncing balls!)

a) in arrangements

Chris Tomlin’s band is loud and the crashing wall of ringing guitar that kicks in on the choruses of the U2-ish praise rock anthems is overwhelming. (Just listen to the chorus of Awake My Soul, or Whom Shall I fear [God of Angel Armies]).  Even in these full on rock numbers, Tomlin created space in the arrangements for the congregation to hear ourselves and that clearly signaled to us that we were expected and needed to sing.

There was significant dynamic range even in the loudest songs but his most obvious device to get us singing was stopping the band completely. The second song of the night--the Coldplay-esque I Will Follow--had crushing power chords and pounding piano in the chorus but Tomlin inserted an acapella final chorus (immediately followed by a drum solo!).

But singing to this level of noise is not satisfying for a congregation and Tomlin the song-leader knows it.

b) by dropping the volume

Of the sixteen songs in the set, six of them were played by smaller acoustic ensembles (2 acoustic guitars, solo piano, acoustic guitars and cajon) --and these were the moments of greatest singing and emotional connection between artist and audience.

Talking to Worship Leader magazine about the hymn “Crown Him With Many Crowns” Tomlin reflects--perhaps unintentionally--on congregational singing and the volume of the band:

‘Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but it’s own.’ It just cannot be written any better than that. When I think about what we’re doing as worship leaders, when we’re bringing a song of praise, a heavenly anthem of praise, it drowns out all music and drowns out all other noise … That’s why there’s so much peace when people come to sing; God drowns out every other competing thing.

I think worship leaders (and church sound engineers) need to ask themselves, ‘Who is being drowned out?’

6. You should love the voice of the Church (more than your own)

It was fascinating that Tomlin, the king of the contemporary praise song, used old hymns, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus” and “Amazing Grace,” to create the emotional touchstones of the evening. After leading us in a simple arrangement of “Nothing but the blood,” during which he stepped away from the microphone, Tomlin said “There is no other sound like it on Earth: when the people of God sing the praises of God. It is a special thing.”

In his recent interview with CNN Tomlin reflected on his concert at Madison Square Gardens and his desire to step away from the microphone:

It was just so beautiful, because I feel like it says something. It's not just like, ‘Hey, listen to me sing.’ This is all of us together. I think when you step back from the mic and it is not about you - and yeah, the light may be on you, but this is about all of us singing. This is about a bigger story, it's about a greater story. It's about a greater name than my name. My name is on the ticket, but this is about a greater name.

First Hymnal for Atheists

Thanks to Lori Brandt Hale for sending this my way!

Report from the Field: RUF & Rivers Hill, Oxford, MS

This is the fourth (and final) in a series of blog posts I wrote for the Project on Lived Theology on my two-week lived theology road trip from New Orleans to Memphis. To read more of my posts, click here.

From Jackson I drove north to Oxford, home of the University of Mississippi and a number of my old friends.  That Wednesday evening, I slide in to a pew at the back of the campus chapel for the weekly gathering of the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). The new chapel building is rapidly filling with conservative white Presbyterian youth. Women  in shorts, makeup and silk-screened T-shirts reading  “Tri Delta Crush Party” and  “Alpha Gamma Delta Swap” pass me as they find their seats. The men are wearing a uniform of baseball caps and check cotton shirts.

Report from the Field: Redeemer Pres, Jackson, MS.

This is the second in a series of blog posts I am writing for the Project on Lived Theology. They are reports and reflections on my two-week lived theology road trip from New Orleans to Memphis. To read the first post “New Orleans and CCDA”, click here.

I crossed the Pontchartrain and drove on up to Jackson, Mississippi, in time to go to Redeemer Presbyterian Church for Sunday morning worship. Redeemer is a fascinating and unlikely congregation. A church in the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), its existence is the result of a church split nine years ago in a North Jackson congregation called Trinity Pres. In the 1950s, when Trinity had started, Northside Drive had been a white neighborhood. By 2004, it had “transitioned,” as they say, into an African-American neighborhood. The split in the church may not have been directly about race, but race had played a complicating factor — it was over whether the congregation should stay and work in the neighborhood or move four miles down the road (and across the highway and color line) into a bigger facility.

Report from the Field: The Chattahoochee Musical Convention

photo: John Kelso

On the Saturday preceding the first Sunday in August, I found my way to Wilson's Chapel a few miles south of Carrolton, Georgia for the Chattahoochee Musical Convention. As Wikipedia will tell you, this is "the oldest surviving Sacred Harp musical convention, having been founded in 1852."

I couldn't find much information online other than it took place in August on "First Sunday and Saturday before - Chattahoochee Musical Convention, Wilson Chapel, Southeast of Carrollton GA. Turn left off Hwy A-27 at Cross Plains Rd. to church." So you can imagine my relief when I saw the sign that said "sing" at the entrance to a gravel road. And sing they did!

There were a good number of singers filling the wooden pews in the wood paneled sanctuary of Wilson's chapel. Three window AC units hummed and the ceiling fans whirled signaling just how warm they expected it to get.

Report from the Field: New City Music Conference

I  recently returned from an eleven-day singing tour of the South with my head full of tunes and ideas about congregational singing. This is all part of my semester-long study leave from Ashland University and research for THE BOOK.

When I tell people about the book -- “It’s going to be about congregational singing, church and reconciling communities.”-- I tend to get a polite look of disinterest. It is as if I am saying, “I am writing a book on knitting and theology.”

So it was with great relief that I found that at the New City Music Conference in Chattanooga my sentence-long book proposal was met with understanding and interest.

What is the New City Music Conference? This will take a bit of explanation.

New City is a church founded in Chattanooga in the 1970s by Randy Nabors, a white conservative Presbyterian pastor with assistance from James Ward, a talented young musician. An urban ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America, New City has become the flagship of a small but vibrant multicultural worship movement in this predominantly white and southern denomination. This single congregation has become the hub of the New City Network: a loose connection of urban congregations interested in “cross cultural ministry.” From my observation, this seems to  include congregations that are deliberately trying to be multiracial as well as congregations ministering to particular refugee communities.

The Conference Choir practice with Jim Ward-- New City's
musical godfather--on keys. This is the first time I have sung
gospel music from a score -- it was tricky -- a lot of syncopation
and repeats

These churches have developed an ethos of worship music that attempts to be an authentic expression of the particular congregation’s ethnic sensibilities. Every couple of years, musicians from the New City Network gather together to share their songs and worship together and I was lucky enough to be there this summer.

I sang in Spanish, Swahili, French, and English. 

I had wonderful conversations with many musicians.

I am still processing the experience.

You can find many offerings from the conference over at the New City Music website -- it is well worth exploring.

Here is one sample -- a blues lament written for the conference by Kirk Ward. Kirk (son of James Ward) is a musician at New City Fellowship - University City in St Louis. He has written about this song over on his blog "Worship in the City." The lead sheet is available here.