Most churches want to be perceived as a welcoming. Sadly, if you’ve been in a number of churches over a lifetime, you’ve probably encountered churches that have no set plan in place to create a welcoming environment for guests (or members), but by their actions, philosophy, and music, they are adamantly exclusive. An intergenerational church values the whole over the individual–the family atmosphere over the segregated. The musical portion of worship should also reflect and embody a welcoming spirit as well.  Today, I will discuss pitfalls of music in churches that lack a welcoming atmosphere.

Music that is unwelcoming in the intergenerational congregation is…

1. Performance Driven.  In these churches the congregation simply spectates with little to no participation. Many think that band-driven worship leadership is the primary offender of performance driven worship, but I’ve experienced choral driven worship services that did the same thing. The medium of presentation does not indicate whether or not it’s performance driven; rather, the lack of opportunities for the congregation to sing. We are not simply spectators, but participators.
   Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
2. Physical Space. What does your worship center look like? What does it say about your congregation? If your worship space is Gothic and medieval in appearance and you’re attempting to do band-driven worship with and echo that could ring for minutes, it’s not very welcoming for your congregation. Basically, the look of your worship space should reflect who you are. Remember the authenticity thing. Forcing a musical style or preference in a room never designed to handle that type of music usually ends in someone thinking or saying) these people try too hard. Our room here at Ivy Creek is very well-suited for choral and orchestra-driven music. Our acoustics aren’t very dry and there is a nice ring to the room. If we were band-driven, we’d probably add more acoustical panels to deaden the sound, but we have found what works for us. When you walk into our room, you see a large platform (it’s actually about 35-40% of the room—no lie) and it’s pretty obvious what we’re about. Sound/loudness also can wreak havoc on the welcoming spirit of the church worship space. I have some new friends in my choir, late Gen Xers, who came from a church that was so oblivious to the decibel level in the room, they often had to come in after the music portion of the worship service was over because the volume was so loud. They also mentioned that because it was so loud they couldn’t hear each other sing. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, if no one can hear each other. The converse is also true, make sure your people can hear and understand or they also won’t be edified.
3. Too Personal or Me-Centric. Honestly, until several years ago sitting in hymnology seminary, I had not really given this thought that songs could be useful for personal use or corporate use. Not only that, I realized that there were a lot more songs that were vertical (sung to God) as opposed to horizontal (sung to others about God). One of the assignments during that seminar was to analyze texts of many of our hymns and modern worship songs for these elements.  We even were asked to take months and months of our own corporate songs we as worship leaders selected for worship and analyze them as well. What I discovered was I tended to lean towards songs that lacked the collective “we.” I was not aiding my congregation in the act of worship together, but in subjective/privatized time of music.
4. Loss of Welcoming Community. Congregations seeking to be welcoming, inclusive, while admonishing each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs cannot exist primarily on texts driven with personal pronouns. This is not to say that vertical, personal pronoun driven songs are off-limits. There is an argument for the collective “I,” which states that as long as we are individually proclaiming our love for God together then we are essentially doing the same thing as singing we or us. I can accept that argument to some degree, but hear the heart of the point I’m trying to make: the goal of corporate worship music is for the whole body of believers to experience community together. Community is mutual submission to our neighbors. It welcomes all who will come to the table of grace. We are better together, synergized by the people next to us—flesh and bone—harmonious, literally and figuratively!

In my next blog post, I will discuss how the church can overcome these pitfalls in churches that do not value community. As a teaser, I will remind you that people of all ages, especially our Millennial friends, value relationships in the group sense. While this “pack” mentality is certainly not original to the Millennial generation, I’ve noticed that small groups is the key to engaging and keeping young folks. In fact I believe that focusing on getting young people plugged into small groups is more important than catering to perceived musical tastes that many church leaders believe will draw and retain young people and families. Getting them connected to each other, driven more by how they can help (think social justice), and provide solid biblical children’s ministry is the key. Pastors (and yes, the pastors are the ones driving the vision of the church) need to stop putting so much weight on the music and worship service itself as the key to retaining young people. Don’t worry; it’s important, but not the key. More later…

Community– a group of people “who have a sense of common purpose(s) and/or interest(s) for which they assume mutual responsibility, who acknowledge their inter-connectedness, who respect the individual differences among members, and who commit themselves to the well-being of each other and the integrity and well-being of the group.”  Wood and Judikis, Coversations on Community Theory, 2002.

When I read this definition through the lenses of what the church (local and global) should resemble, I was convicted. This definition is convicting and thus challenging because we’ve got some work to do as communities of faith that are unified in one purpose and mutually submissive to one another. In the area of music for our churches, which is too often divisive anyway, we tend to lean on our preferences and not on how we can live in community.

One of the hallmarks of the intergenerational church (music ministry) is that we strive to live in community where all ages should feel valued and important. However, it’s a struggle. Here are a few ideas of how intergenerational communities of faith can make strides in being more authentic in striving for community:

1. Involve others in the process of making music. Never underestimate the musical talents of your team. Don’t be afraid to use them to help for sectional rehearsals, orchestra sectionals, and the like. Often, the collaborative team-work approach often produces a better overall sound. Again, all the help from your team must be directed and overseen by you. Don’t let someone have carte blanche when ultimately it is your job to protect the musical and theological integrity of the music ministry. Invest in others and work together—don’t just push tasks off on other leaders without purpose.
2. Involve others in leadership planning of worship services.  Yes, we should involve others in the “doing” of music ministry, but I bet there are folks with theological and musical training that can assist in helping plan worship services.  Planning with a team is hard work, but the creativity gained and ownership from the whole is worth the time and effort.
3. Involve others in making overall worship ministry decisions.  Beyond musical and worship service related decisions, I find it helpful to have persons dedicated to helping “steer” the direction of the worship ministry. At our church, we have Music Ministry officers that act in this way. They hear the vision and direction from me, while adding add input, revisions, and the like. When decisions are made (even not so popular ones) the group has made them collectively, which I think adds more weight to the decision. With this said, often there are decisions that must be made outside the collaborative experience with your lay leaders. However, when possible, use your lay leaders in helping make decisions.
4. Regularly celebrate the importance of each person in the ministry. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it is vital all members of your community (music ministry) feel important. Remind them of the biblical importance of music in worship and how they are being the body of Christ as worship leaders in the church.
5. Celebrate what makes your local church unique. I cannot stress this one enough. All churches, even those inside the same zip code, are not equal. Some have choirs and orchestras, some have a band only, some piano and organ, or any other combination you can think of. Some are very casual; others are not. There is much to be said here (another blog post soon), but every congregation is different. Their corpus of music is different. In the not so distant past, most Baptist congregations were similar in their congregational music. Now, with the advent of technology, this is not the case. I remember when I arrived almost five years ago to Ivy Creek, I asked our music leadership to make a list of the top 25 or so congregational songs (and choir favorites) so I could get a feel for where the church has been prior to my arrival. I still refer to the list…
6. Be authentic as a leader, but willing to stretch. As a leader, you are the sum total of your experiences to date. To be asked to make a 180 degree shift in worship leading style is unfair and ultimately detrimental to the leader and the church. However, the leader should always be willing to stretch out of his or her comfort zone musically to some degree when needed. If we are to truly live in community, we must sing theologically-rich songs, both old and new, and everything in between. The only difference may be that in some churches, the medium of musical presentation might be a band in one church or a piano and organ in another. Whatever the case, strive for excellence and lead with high expectations. I remember my pastor saying to me a few years ago, “Will, you set the bar for excellence for your choir so high knowing that just below that is where they’ll end up and that’s your plan all along.” At first I wasn’t sure how to take this comment until he explained that I’m always striving for the perfect sound/blend/articulation/vowel placement, but I’m thrilled because while they might not achieve professional sound, they are far better than they were and I’m okay with that. Always aim high, my friends. Be authentic and real and appreciate your people when they give their best for the Lord.