A Discussion on Worship and Music

My friend, Mike Cunningham (music worship leader at Cornerstone Fellowship/Newburgh) sent me the link from the blog, "Between Two Worlds." It's an eight-part video series from Sojourn Church (and here) in Louisville. I'm posting it here, as well. May these three men help us all think more graciously and clearly.

In the videos below Pastor Mike Cosper talks with Dr. Harold Best and Dr. Carl ("Chip") Stam about worship practices, theology, and music.

(Cosper is the pastor of Worship Arts and the 930 Art Center at Sojourn Church in Louisville. Stam is associate professor in the School of Church Music and Worship at Southern, the founding director of the Institute for Christian Worship, and minister of worship at Louisville's Clifton Baptist Church. Best is Dean Emeritus of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, and the author of Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts and Music Through The Eyes of Faith.)

Session One

Cosper, Best and Stam - session three on worship from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Sojourn Worship & Arts Pastor Mike Cosper interviews Dr. Harold Best ("Unceasing Worship," "Music Through The Eyes of Faith") and Professor Chip Stam (Director, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's Institute of Christian Worship) about issues pertaining to Christian worship practices and theology, and the modern worship movement.



Session Two

Cosper, Best and Stam -- session two from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Dr, Harold Best ("Unceasing Worship"), Professor Chip Stam (SBTS) and Sojourn Pastor Mike Cosper continue their discussion of worship and church music.

Session Three

Cosper, Best and Stam - session three on worship from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Session Four

Cosper, Best and Stam - Session Four from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Session Five

Cosper, Best and Stam - Episode Five from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Session Six

Cosper, Best and Stam -- episode six from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Session Seven

Cosper, Best, Stam: Episode Seven from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

Session Eight

Cosper, Stam and Best - session eight from Sojourn/The 930 Art Center on Vimeo.

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On our face before God

Part 3 to the previous post, on removing distractions in worship. This time, an extended quote. 

"It's so important to me that my church family meet with God and worship Him. I work all week to help enable that....

It's terrifying to face a congregation who probably has not thought much about worship yet and know it's your job to help them experience God. I am humbled every single week. If I could, I would lead worship laying on my face because I am so amazed that for some reason I am leading the church to worship Almighty God. That is holy ground to me. Worship leaders have everything they do become for public consumption and comparison and that is so very hard - and many times heartbreaking. (If I had read most of these comments as a younger worship leader I would have been tempted to quit - I could never ever live up to your expectations of me) The bottom line for me is that I want to worship together. I will make mistakes. I will pick songs that annoy you. I will talk too long sometime (did you listen? perhaps God was speaking to you?). I will not look cool and yes, over and over again no matter how hard I try, I will forget the words. I'll be leading the band, paying attention to sound, seeing people in the congregation reading their bulletins and making faces, try to stay worshipful, remember the words, and I will lose my train of thought. I will desperately want you to worship with me, not judge me or even "conmsume" in the worship service, not just watch. Whether we sing a hymn, or the newest worship song, I will want us to encounter God together.

When we come to worship we all share in a mutual responsibility. Do you know what I've observed after standing on the stage leading others for more than 22 years? We have the best worship when the church worships. Period. Perfection, new songs, great worship leader - all of these are extras. When we are focused passionately on God, we have great worship. One guitar or a full band, this is the recipe.

I know there are skills needed to lead more effectively. I work on that continually. PRAY for your worship leader!
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Blending old and new music

We are a confessional, 2nd LBC (1689), reformed baptist church. One can safely assume we love to sing old hymns. Toplady, Kent, Watts, Gadsby, Cowper, Bonar, etc. We love to sing new hymns, too. Carson, Kauflin, Dudley-Smith, Clarkson, Getty, Townend, Kendrick, Boice, etc. And we love to sing the psalms (usually newer settings). This is who we are. We are happy being this way!

We also want our music to be consciously missional -- as we are able, to sing in the musical vernacular of our culture. I don't want folks having to walk through a musical time-machine when they come to our services. So we also love to sing 'contemporary' worship songs (long list here)...


You might call our music style "blended piano-driven" -- piano, synth, acoustic guitar & bass, djembe, violin and other inst. sometimes. It wouldn't be accurate to call what we do "guitar-driven pop style." We're much more acoustic than that. (Though I wouldn't mind....)

I'm not talking here about singing hymns (anything old & from the blue book) vs. choruses (new stuff). That's an inaccurate distinction anyway (many of our hymns are new, and most contemporary worship songs today can't be called "choruses."). No, I'm talking about the sound of our music. How do we blend old and new styles in the same set or service?

Part of the answer is just old-fashioned work. It takes time to be sure the flow continues through the set without interruption. We can and do sing hymns (old and new) in an older manner -- one has to be careful where to place them in the set, to be careful the style contrasts aren't too sudden from one song to the next. [Tech-speak: by "older manner" I mean songs having frequent and complex chord changes, piano leading with melody, no/almost no guitar, little percussion.]

The flow between songs is critical to removing distractions in worship. We just can't bump from one good song to the next w/o thinking through key and tempo changes, style contrasts, instrumentation, etc. I am convinced that we need to give as much attention to transitions as we do the songs themselves.

But another part of the answer is something we've begun doing this year -- downloading hymns settings arranged in a 'contemporary' style. Hymns with a new hair-do! Singing 'classic' hymns in a way that sounds current. I've been getting our songs (1 or 2 per week) from lifewayworship.com -- the Southern Baptist development of their new hymnal. There are other sources,too (see Don Chapman at hymncharts.com).

So this last Sunday, when we sang "Holy, holy, holy," it fit right into the set. It was a classic hymn in a contemporary setting -- we got into it easily from "The gospel is true" and went from it easily into "How great is our God." Isn't downloading songs expensive? On average, I'm spending about $7 per lifewayworship arrangement, I think I can justify the expense.

Why download music:
1. We're blending our hymn heritage (old & new) into a more contemporary style. Our musicians and I need help in learning how to play hymns in a contemporary sound.
2. Our instruments (synth, guitars, percussion, violin, others) can't play from a hymnal (designed for voices, piano, organ).
3. I want our rich hymn history arranged for our music team -- a both/and approach (so we can do both 'traditional' and 'contemporary' versions). This isn't about never singing again in an older style -- it is a matter of now having a choice.
4. The music we download we own. These are one-time purchases!
5. These are internet downloads -- so we save enormously from purchasing pre-printed music arrangement books.
6. Many favorable comments so far.
7. Couldn't I arrange these songs myself? I suppose -- if I had the time. But I don't. I work without pay. And it's hard to increase the 15+ hours I already spend outside of our services. Full disclosure: downloading these arrangements does make it easier for me.

I'd be interested in your thoughts!

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Eat the Mic

From Don Chapman at worshipideas.com. He comments on the right kind of vocal/mic technique in our worship. Good stuff. Read it here. Read More......

Music Team Objectives

I sent this out last week to the music team -- kind of a big-picture look. You may not care for the idea of "worship team." I'm not crazy about it -- or, for that matter, for "worship leader." So we use different words at times. 

For those who want to come among us, this explains what we're about. Maybe later I'll put up the expectations we have for each other.

Music Team Objectives

Each week we rehearse and prepare over ten songs for public worship – every key, transition, modulation – and who plays when, how loudly, etc. And there can be as many seven instrumentalists for a service.

We also have to do the (often) hard work of musicianship – solving musical challenges so we sound our best.

We are ‘performing’ on Sunday. It is ‘sacred performance’ to be sure – with a goal of delighting the audience of One: We do what we do for the Lord, not for human applause. But make no mistake here: We do perform – and we must bring our best skills to bear (because we want the congregation to engage in heart-felt worship).

We must coordinate our efforts with the sound board tech – so that the musical product we strive for can be heard throughout the sanctuary and MCTS room.

As we can, we want to bring in new folks – and nurture them in their musical skills.

You should see both musical and spiritual improvement for having been on the team.

We want our hearts stirred and challenged before Sunday ever comes. We want to be those most ready in Sunday’s services to praise God! We want to show up on Sunday with eager joy!

Because of Mercy,

David

 

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