{"id":65,"date":"2019-01-15T13:09:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T13:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceamazingly.wordpress.com\/?p=65"},"modified":"2020-04-21T15:21:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:21:04","slug":"when-the-congregation-sings-in-one-voice-what-can-music-team-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/01\/15\/when-the-congregation-sings-in-one-voice-what-can-music-team-do\/","title":{"rendered":"When the congregation sings in one voice, what can music team do?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The worship team had met to rehearse and chat about how best to lead and support the congregation in the worship service, see previous blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As would musical preparation in many churches on Sunday, we\nmet an hour before the service to run through the songs. An exercise to \u2018warm\nup\u2019 and \u2018tune\u2019 ourselves to the theme of the service. This is much easier to do\nsince our worship leader is also sharing the message \u2013 various traditions have\nthis as homily, sermon or simply message. More about this later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worship team seeks to prepare congregation for worship and this includes where possible provide clear melody for people to sing, as well as harmony and rhythm. Sometimes it is these basic things to provide for, before anyone can sing. As simple as that. But the \u2018feeling\u2019 or \u2018atmosphere\u2019 of worship is something really difficult to grasp, let alone control. And it\u2019s really not something you want to articulate by way of instructions \u2013 you can\u2019t say I want you to sing this in a solemn way, because each person will have a different \u2018feel\u2019 to a worship item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While the worship team might be able to detect the different\n\u2018feelings\u2019 from individuals in the congregation, what the team can then do to\nsteer the congregation towards the \u2018feeling\u2019 in the hymn \/ song is quite a\ndifferent matter, and it\u2019s also a question whether you should do anything about\nit. The key word there is \u2018should\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following opening address, our first hymn was \u201cI, the Lord\nof Sea and Sky\u201d. However you take the emotional orientation of this song, it\nshould be in the spectrum of \u2018definiteness\u2019. Worshippers might have feelings of\nuncertainty, or they feel they are lacking in faith, but the spirt of this song\nis that if God calls you and is sending you for his work, your response ought\nto be \u201cHere I am\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musically, the feeling of the melody can be taken two ways\n(and any points in between) \u2013 if you sing it individually, it can be quiet and\na bit like \u2018searching\u2019 for the faith that moves you to say \u201cHere I am\u201d. If you\nare singing in a large congregation, well, if the spirit is such that majority\nof the people are in a spirit of \u2018searching\u2019, more waiting on God for the call,\nrather than more on the response of \u201cHere I am\u201d, then you will find the\ncongregation singing in a much more meditative way than vibrant. That is, that\nmight sing it asking themselves individually but also aware of others around\nthem perhaps asking the same question, whether God is calling them, and for\nwhat God is calling them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the song can also be rendered in the other way \u2013\nmuch more vibrant, determined, because God has called. Or that there is a\nvehement certainty that it\u2019s more important that we will say \u201cHere I am\u201d now,\nand that what God calls us to do is not a \u2018condition\u2019 upon which my readiness\nto say \u201cHere I am\u201d rests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened? At the service, the congregation sang in one voice. From the first \u201cI\u201d, there\u2019s a vehement determination. And the music team felt that sung collective surety from the congregation, about 3 metres away, in the same way sometimes you feel the reverberation from the bass drum, or instrumental monitors (\u2018floor speakers\u2019). It\u2019s not just loud volume, it\u2019s the sense of oneness. God has prepared his people. We sang the same hymn the week before, and that was very much a sound of \u2018pots\u2019 of sincere searching \u2013 It didn\u2019t feel like we sang in one voice even in a quiet way, but that in different groups or even individually we were sincerely asking what\u2019s the nature of God calling us, individually and collectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

It\u2019s a great sense of relief that the music team could lead the singing from the start in the manner that we thought the song should go. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It creates more room for the musicians for playing musical interests and embellishment to enrich the feeling of singing, supporting the voices lowering and rising in feeling through the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat can music team do?\u201d God has done his work. The music\nteam did what it sought to do, to set the intended atmosphere and feeling of\nthis hymn that the team thought should be, and this confirmed by God. There\nisn\u2019t much else the music team can or should do. But as above, we have much\nmore room for embellishment to cultivate more musical interest to enhance the\nsinging. God has prepared his people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those interested in other hymns \/ songs we in the\nservice plan, these were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \u201cChrist is My Reward (No\nturning back)\u201d<\/li>
  • \u201cWill You Come and Follow Me\u201d<\/li>
  • \u201cOnly by Grace\u201d<\/li>
  • \u201cBe Thou My Vision\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Regarding the sermon, this was based on the baptism of Jesus, and focused on God calling us for his purpose. Having encouraged the congregation on how God calls us, the preacher said: \u201cHey listen!\u201d, and the phone rang. The congregation got the point, God\u2019s calling for us can be as clear as a phone ring. There is a time and place, there is a specific thing for which the call is for. The call is for you. Leaving it, it will ring for some time. It might call again. Picking it up, it might be a call towards something that you can do. It might be something that\u2019s really challenging, but it will be something that God will prepare you for. It might take a week to prepare you (singing \u201cI, the Lord of Sea and Sky\u201d first in a searching way, and then a week later, in a clear sure way), might take longer and God will journey with you to reflect and prepare. There\u2019s far more greatness that you respond positively to God\u2019s calling. Have a look at your phone. If God rings, you can pick it up and answer. If yours is a mobile phone, it might show choices \u2018Accept\u2019 and \u2018Reject\u2019 (and something like \u2018Send short text\u2019 to stop the ringing). It\u2019s not a call from an unreasonable and uncaring boss. In the same way the music team experienced, he equipped us to do his work. Recall earlier \u2013 \u201cthere is a vehement certainty that it\u2019s more important that we will say \u201cHere I am\u201d now, and that what God calls us to do is not a \u2018condition\u2019 upon which my readiness to say \u201cHere I am\u201d rests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Getting the phone to ring in the service was quite a task.\nThe PA manager agreed in principle, and then arranged for a few sound files to\ntest prior to the worship time. And the plan was for the projection manager to\nexecute the selected sound file. The PA manager asked if there could be clarity\non when the sound would be executed, this was satisfied with a copy of the\nsermon. With the appropriate places highlighted, we were all ready. The phone\nringer waited some 7 minutes to call. It was executed in the most excellent way\nover the amplification, accompanied by an animated ringing phone on the\nprojector screen. The most animated stunt took quite an amount of preparation.\nBut the congregation got the message. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    God\u2019s calling for you could be the phone ringer. Press that\nat that particular time. Leave the rest to God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The worship team had met to rehearse and chat about how best to lead and support the congregation in the worship service, see previous blog here. As would musical preparation in many churches on Sunday, we met an hour before the service to run through the songs. An exercise to \u2018warm up\u2019 and \u2018tune\u2019 ourselves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-worship","8":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}