During the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to visit several different churches and experience their expression of worship through singing.
To be clear – worship is much wider than singing; it is a lifestyle.
So when a church has a “worship group” it suggests to me that it show a superficial equation between music and worship.
However, my focus today is on considering how music and singing can aid the expression of worship during a “service”.
Although there are many variants, three common formats are:
- Hymn sandwich (or song gateau if you like) – sing something, for example a hymn, then do something else, say a Reading. Sing something else and then do a prayer. Sing something else and have the sermon – you get the picture.
- Top and Tail – have a block of songs at the start of the service to warm the congregation up, then do the rest of the service (readings, prayers, talks) and maybe finish with a song or two.
- Worship block in the middle – maybe have a song or hymn to start, then some stuff, then a block of songs, then the talk and finally a song to finish.
I’ve lead all of these formats at some stage (and others – yup anthems and chant) as a lead worshipper, and I’ve enjoyed (or endured!) these recently.
John Leach in Liturgy and Liberty talks about the shape or flow of a service. Of finding out the mood of the congregation and by careful choice, using the music to help them respond to and engage with God during the service.
Sometimes, I have found that the musicians are very earnest, very skilled, yet not really engaging. Sometimes it is more like being at a rock concert – focus on the band whilst they perform and we join in. Sometimes though it has been particularly good.
Why is there a difference?
I suppose some of it may be down to me, how I feel, how welcome I feel and how I relate to the others in the congregation. But not always – especially when other fellow pilgrims on a similar journey relate similar experiences at the same church on different occasions.
I don’t believe in a consumerist view of church – picking out places because I like the worship or because I like the teaching – there has to be a sense of calling. However, I think it would be difficult for me to really fit into a church where there was little connection between me and the music. Worship is a lifestyle, but there has to be some measure of compatibility between the private and public expression of that worship.
Don’t get me wrong – there is a place for the ceremonial, the awe, the Royal Banners going forth and all that – indeed I have been to a number of ordination services where there is a sense of the contiunity of the church. But the sense of the numinous doesn’t necessarily rely on such trappings.
It is important to remember that silence is good too, although it is used too infrequently in the churches I visit or have been involved in. But that would be reflection for another time.
