There are times when sitting in a sanctuary or community center or reissued movie theater on a Sunday morning is nothing less than an affront to the ears. All around us our brothers and sisters mumble and slur their way through the songs, while everyone tries to keep from being distracted. There is a lack of quality singing in churches each week. So do we need to give our congregations singing lessons? That would be hilarious! By quality singing, I don’t mean vocal excellence. What they need is not singing lessons but rather the permission to sing. Just like in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” “Happy Birthday,” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” If your church doesn’t sing it’s probably because of one of two things: either they haven’t been invited to sing or the obstacles to their singing have not been removed. I have identified four things that hinder congregational participation.
4 Dysfunctions of Congregational Singing:
1. Not realizing the congregation is present
Great communicators, actors, comedians, professional singers and yes, great pastors are aware that there are actually people in the room. As in any gathering the crowd must feel welcomed and comfortable. So is the case with congregational worship. An intentional, warm welcome is important. I am not saying that a “greeting” has to be the opening of the worship experience but a nice smile goes a long way, then clear direction as to who is singing and who isn’t. Though the trend is not to over direct people, clear direction as to sitting and standing is surprisingly important. Corporate reading of Scripture is also an important activity toward congregational participation.
Note: It’s my opinion that in an intergenerational congregational context, that 12 minutes is a good amount of time for people to stand. Standing longer than that will affect the concentration level for many people. In a crowd filled with younger age demographic this really doesn’t matter.
2. Vanilla song choices
The process of finding great songs is extremely important. Oh it’s easy to follow the normal path to find songs, but to find great songs that are congregational in their appeal is an entirely different story. I have a friend who is a photographer with National Geographic and he told me that to get 30 pictures for a National Geographic article, he took 14,000 pictures. Finding great songs requires a lot of time. The lesson here is, don’t settle on the easiest way to find good songs. Recruit people to help you and take the time to find great songs. As well, do not just depend on your own personal tastes in choosing songs. You will be fooled.
3. Bad key choices
Really? Why does this matter? Well it doesn’t matter at a rock concert or in an auditorium filled with 18 to 35 year olds, but church has wider age span. So the rule of thumb is that men sing higher than women and women sing lower than men. Crazy? Oh but it’s true. Just take note the next time a female is leading worship. The songs will, for the most part be in keys that are more singable for the intergenerational congregation. Most male worship leaders, in order to sing more comfortably put songs a higher range. When this happens, the congregation often is left behind. This rule does not apply for well-known worship artist concerts. In this case everybody in the room knows all the songs and can sing them in any key. Be intentional about key choices for your congregation.
4. Music that is too “busy”
In a contemporary worship band there is a tendency for everyone in the band to play too many notes at the same time. This can be helped by “thinning out” the arrangement. Change the parts that band member plays from verse to verse, chorus to chorus. Add things, take things out. Be creative with this. But most of all avoid the “sameness.” This takes a lot of thought and experimentation, so most of these ideas need to come prior to the rehearsal. But the congregation needs to hear themselves sing. And the congregation needs to be inspired by the music. Just like in the movies, music embellishes the moment. But playing “too busy” causes numbness, and boredom sets in. As the jazz legend said, “It’s not the notes you play; it’s the notes you don’t play.”
Theologian, John Calvin says, “singing subdues the fallen heart and retrains wayward affections. St. Augustine says, “Singing is praying. When one sings one prays twice. While singing in the front of the Lord, we are in touch with the deepest center of our heart.”
Col: 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Thanks Stan,
I wonder whether you might consider a fifth (or even an all-encompassing) reason for ‘poor quality singing’ in our churches. The challenge is achieving acoustic space balance. “The difficulty is that people sing when they are confident that their own voice will join with the voices around them in a way that does not overly expose their own singing. Balance must be obtained. Too much volume and the worship participant will cease participating due to physical discomfort. Too little volume and the worship participant will cease participating (or mumble their way through the song) due to social discomfort ” (Robinson, 2011, p. 218).
Singing is no longer a widely practised ‘community pass-time’ outside singing at ball-games etc.. Consequently, as you allude to under point 3, people’s vocal range capacities are limited (typically to less than 1.5 octaves). The challenge facing the choice of better ‘keys’ is that ‘one-size will never fit all’.
The skill of engaging the collective voice of the congregant is an art developed with intentional understanding and practice. I thank you for highlighting some of the challenges facing worship leaders and Contemporary Worship Singers the world over.
References:
Robinson, D. K. (2011). Contemporary worship singers: Construct, culture, environment and voice. Unpublished Dissertation, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD.
Thank you for the helpful article
Contrary to what is written here I found that the men sing in the lower registers/keys hence tenors and bas and the ladies do the higher keys- alto and sprano’s.
Technically men sing lower, yes. But women sing the melody an octave higher which is generally too high for most women when a male is leading. A song might be comfortable for me in B but when my wife is leading out we usually need to transpose it to G.
Very good article. I agree with all you have said and am going to put this more into practice.
Very good article touching on many areas that truly can get in the way of congregational participation. I have made most of these mistakes myself and can vouch for their validity!
You have to do more than pick songs you like in the artist’s original key, services like SongSelect allow you to download and print music in almost any key! I have been guilty of overproduction to get the song to sound like the album version, which is nearly impossible unless you are blessed with LA or Nashville’s best in your band. Simplicity is far more appealing and as pointed out above, allows the congregation to hear themselves which gives them confidence and encourages participation!
Thanks – good comments and advice. The key thing: so, what IS recommended “C to shining C”? low A to high D? (covers most songs we do0
Great reminders. I have been practicing these things for most of my ministry although the “thinness” of the band and “sameness” principle is a little weak right now. Thanks, Stan, for the helpful reminders!
I was taught in college that our congregations sing between C to shining C. This is a good rule of thumb to keep the key singable. It’s okay to venture a little higher or lower on a note here and there, but you can’t live there.
This is all so very true and so helpful! Thank you.
That is an awesome article. I know in many congregations they are always looking around making sure someone doesn’t think they are singing off key, …etc… I at times have turned down the lights and told everyone to close their eyes and just sing out to the only one who matters, Jesus. It gets them in that “take me out to the ballgame approach’ or “happy birthday”. Everyone is so worried over what they other person is doing, they stop focusing on God. Thanks for a terrific article, may God continue to bless your ministry and congregation.
Great thoughts! Great reminders. I’ve found all of this to be true. But I am very spoiled in being allowed to lead a congregation that LOVES to sing. Keep the great ideas coming, though! I love learning new things.
Nice article. You make some great points. However, the side note regarding a congregation not being able to stand for more than 12 minutes at a time will affect their concentration strikes me as odd. We live in a society that will stand in line for hours at Disneyland or to watch a sporting event it seems to me that standing to minister to our Savior and the Creator of all things would be worth a little more than 12 minutes intervals. I am not at all for a people pleasing church. If that were the case then let’s all go to an evangelical service where nothing is required of the people but to show up. WE were made to worship and will be doing just that in heaven for eternity. I say let’s start practicing and participating now and not save it for then. If the more mature members of your congregation begin to tire they will sit on their own. Do not take away the privilege of standing in reverence from the rest of the members.