10. The congregation’s voice drives our music.
While we seek greater and more varied instrumental accompaniment, it should always take the servant’s place to help our singing.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Principles for worship at HBC #11
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While this principle is clear, judging it so is a subjective process!
ReplyDeleteWhat one thinks is a good balance between instruments and voices another will think is instrumentally heavy. Or in another setting, one may judge the instruments to be insufficiently 'present,' while another ear thinks the balance just right.
I don't have any easy answers for this -- save one: the snap judgment will always be wrong.
There must be a journey toward a collective judgment/agreement among the elders and musicians (always getting congregational input, of course). This may take some time to figure out. When setting a new musical direction, I suggest a church's leadership allow several months to work out the new balance.
Ultimately each church will arrive at its own 'sound.' New folks who come will stay, in part, because they like the 'sound.' The rest of the congregation (the ones already there) may take some time to adjust to it.
No church's music can, or should want to be, all things to all people. It's not practical; it's not edifying. It's really okay if other churches in town have a different musical taste/sound. We need to find our own -- and work it as creatively as possible in order to build up the saints.
David