Diversity and the voice of the local
I notice a tendency which saddens me: Mid-sized churches which do "contemporary" worship are too often caught in emulation (envy?) of larger churches, both technically and stylistically, ignoring the opportunity of their particular size. An opportunity to be organic, driven by the available gifts, and deeply connected with both local culture and the diversity of original sources from which church music emerges. A life in worship that is free from the fear of "inconsistency" or of cycles and quirks in quality and engagement.
A technical example: All the pro advice says, "no amp faces visible or pointing at the congregation." "Everything should go through a mixer and be fed through high-end large speakers hanging from the ceiling." This is good advice for a large venue, where a large PA set up is the ONLY way anyone can hear you. This is terrible advice for a mid-sized church, where the worship space is the size of a club. It leads to vast unnecessary expense, a bland, radio-compressed sound, and misses a huge opportunity to create an exciting, authentic, organic band sound which works best in that size room.
It takes time to get the sound right without feeding everything through a mixer, but bands do this all the time. The PA ends up being for vocals and reinforcement of acoustic instruments, and YES, it sounds different in different parts of the room, but that's not a tragedy, it's, again, an opportunity - people can choose how much grit and/or boom they want to experience as they learn the room.
A stylistic example: Why can't a hymn just be a hymn, why does it have to be put through the melisma overacting mill or the indie-rock blender to be "accessible"? Why not have some songs just be folky and small, others TRULY punky and gritty? Why not sing Beautiful Savior with a piano or organ on Palm Sunday, give something from childhood to one faction, and a new and fresh experience to others for whom church was not a part of childhood?
I went to a local Assembly of God church recently, and the music was highly competent, an unusual mix of black gospel and "contemporary Christian" lite rock. There was a unique identity of the fellowship trying to be expressed (the church is ethnically diverse, praise God), and it was all being squeezed through an overly professionalized filter of too much equipment, too much sanding away of everything that is interesting about the source materials. I felt sad, because there was so much life and potential there, they just needed to put away the Worship Product catalogs during the planning phase, and think more about what is unique and important to their fellowship and those they hope to reach.
I think the best mid-sized praise bands/services I have experienced really have something to say implicitly about what's nuts in our culture, and I pray for them to receive confidence and encouragement.
There's a pervasive, unspoken belief that things which are local are less important than things we have heard about in the national media. If it's local, it must be because it's not good enough to transcend the local. If it's national, it must be better, must have gone through some kind of quality/importance filter. I'm here to say that it's just not true, there's lots of national crap, and lots of local gems. It's much more accurate to say that art which transcends the local acquires access to effects and resources which are not available to the local, but that the local (especially the mid-sized) centers of art have something else: freedom and uniqueness.
I want to encourage worship leaders to notice envy and acquisitiveness, and to turn it over to God, and to ask instead "What is the unique and amazing opportunity right here which is unavailable anywhere else?"
One way to start is to listen to a wide variety of secular music, have a moratorium on the WorshipTodayOnlineNow top 40, or whatever, and respect and learn from the artists who don't share your goals. The topical freedom alone can open things up. One weekend when the theme was Community in Christ we did Rancid's If I Fall Back Down in the same service with Blest Be the Tie that Binds. It did something that neither on its own could have. Let the freedom work on you. It doesn't threaten your faith. Turn the guitars up one song a service, make it "too loud" once in a while. Then take everything away and just let people hear an acoustic guitar and a plain, unforced voice, with no pretty decoration. Hey, even an organ might be okay once in a while, they are not toxic :o).
Not an organized piece, sorry. I just want to share what has been the highest high outside of prayer for me: letting God use the music I have been immersed in my whole life, all of it, warts and all. Let it be repurposed, yes, but not turned into plastic. Let it invite the world in. Let the music be a broken sinner as much as the people are.
God's peace y'all.
Ken Hymes, Music Director
Peace Lutheran Church
Charlottesville VA
A technical example: All the pro advice says, "no amp faces visible or pointing at the congregation." "Everything should go through a mixer and be fed through high-end large speakers hanging from the ceiling." This is good advice for a large venue, where a large PA set up is the ONLY way anyone can hear you. This is terrible advice for a mid-sized church, where the worship space is the size of a club. It leads to vast unnecessary expense, a bland, radio-compressed sound, and misses a huge opportunity to create an exciting, authentic, organic band sound which works best in that size room.
It takes time to get the sound right without feeding everything through a mixer, but bands do this all the time. The PA ends up being for vocals and reinforcement of acoustic instruments, and YES, it sounds different in different parts of the room, but that's not a tragedy, it's, again, an opportunity - people can choose how much grit and/or boom they want to experience as they learn the room.
A stylistic example: Why can't a hymn just be a hymn, why does it have to be put through the melisma overacting mill or the indie-rock blender to be "accessible"? Why not have some songs just be folky and small, others TRULY punky and gritty? Why not sing Beautiful Savior with a piano or organ on Palm Sunday, give something from childhood to one faction, and a new and fresh experience to others for whom church was not a part of childhood?
I went to a local Assembly of God church recently, and the music was highly competent, an unusual mix of black gospel and "contemporary Christian" lite rock. There was a unique identity of the fellowship trying to be expressed (the church is ethnically diverse, praise God), and it was all being squeezed through an overly professionalized filter of too much equipment, too much sanding away of everything that is interesting about the source materials. I felt sad, because there was so much life and potential there, they just needed to put away the Worship Product catalogs during the planning phase, and think more about what is unique and important to their fellowship and those they hope to reach.
I think the best mid-sized praise bands/services I have experienced really have something to say implicitly about what's nuts in our culture, and I pray for them to receive confidence and encouragement.
There's a pervasive, unspoken belief that things which are local are less important than things we have heard about in the national media. If it's local, it must be because it's not good enough to transcend the local. If it's national, it must be better, must have gone through some kind of quality/importance filter. I'm here to say that it's just not true, there's lots of national crap, and lots of local gems. It's much more accurate to say that art which transcends the local acquires access to effects and resources which are not available to the local, but that the local (especially the mid-sized) centers of art have something else: freedom and uniqueness.
I want to encourage worship leaders to notice envy and acquisitiveness, and to turn it over to God, and to ask instead "What is the unique and amazing opportunity right here which is unavailable anywhere else?"
One way to start is to listen to a wide variety of secular music, have a moratorium on the WorshipTodayOnlineNow top 40, or whatever, and respect and learn from the artists who don't share your goals. The topical freedom alone can open things up. One weekend when the theme was Community in Christ we did Rancid's If I Fall Back Down in the same service with Blest Be the Tie that Binds. It did something that neither on its own could have. Let the freedom work on you. It doesn't threaten your faith. Turn the guitars up one song a service, make it "too loud" once in a while. Then take everything away and just let people hear an acoustic guitar and a plain, unforced voice, with no pretty decoration. Hey, even an organ might be okay once in a while, they are not toxic :o).
Not an organized piece, sorry. I just want to share what has been the highest high outside of prayer for me: letting God use the music I have been immersed in my whole life, all of it, warts and all. Let it be repurposed, yes, but not turned into plastic. Let it invite the world in. Let the music be a broken sinner as much as the people are.
God's peace y'all.
Ken Hymes, Music Director
Peace Lutheran Church
Charlottesville VA
Join This Conversation
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Permalink Reply by Josh Linman on -
Ken, thank you for starting this conversation. A local and authentic voice is a hard thing to develop. As I was reading you examples, I think it all comes down to being intentional about planning. You're right that you can't just rely on the "WorshipTodayOnlineNow top 40" but it's a no-brainer, one stop shop with little extra work required. I will say one thing many large churches do well is excellent execution (I said many, not all). I think many small-mid sized local churches use their size, smaller staff/volunteer base and lack of equipment as an excuse for not being excellent in their execution of the serivce (i.e. missed cues, awkward pauses, boring PowerPoints, bad guitar solos, etc.)
I'd love to hear some more examples of secular music in worship...if you've got any that would work well for Easter, share them here.
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Permalink Reply by Debbie Groth on -
Hi Ken! I met you during your class at PIF/PIV about a year ago. I've taken your advice from then, and now I really hear what you're saying in being unique to your congregation. We, too, have fallen prey to find out why the "megachurches" around us are so successful. It puts a completely different perspective on planning your worship because we're not trying to be "like them". We'll keep in mind our congregation is on the smaller side, and what works for us. Thanks for your thoughts!
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Permalink Reply by Ken Hymes on -
Hi Josh. Thanks for your post. We use so much secular music that my examples will just be random samples that I can remember right now.
Baptized by Lenny Kravitz for series on living out your baptism.
All You Need Is Love when the sermon and readings were about the primacy Jesus, John, and Paul place on love.
If I Die (Up to You, Lord) by a Canadian indie band called Cuff the Duke, with some moderate adaptation of lyrics, for Palm Sunday.
Which Will by Nick Drake for the topic of commitment.
Here Comes the Sun when the theme was Easter People: Refreshed
A major revamp of Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" which in turn was a major revamp of a piece from a one woman show from the early 70's (so I don't feel too bad about messing around with the work.
Ball and Chain by Social Distortion for Lent (addiction)
Rejoice and Be Happy by the Violent Femmes... now there's an interesting case... Gordon Gano is by all accounts a semi-closeted Christian, and many Femmes fans take songs like this, Faith, and Jesus Walking on the Water as ironic... is this secular music or not? I don't care :o)
Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (social justice mission) and even though it's a Dylan gospel song, not really secular, can't forget to mention Gotta Serve Somebody, just because it is so powerful. I played this at an Army Intelligence prayer breakfast (weird place for me to be on a number of levels) and it was like the sky split open, the resonance was so pervasive... it was an affirmation of Christian faith, which is what they were there for, but was it also an implicit challenge to accepted loyalties to military might? They were thrown and loved it at the same time. Bobby Zimmerman is such a great example of the border area.
There's lots more, but I'd have to be with my files. Something you have to come to terms with to do this is that you often have to accept that the values and language of your choices will overlap with the Gospel (or you wouldn't be considering the song) but will also not perfectly mesh. But that's a good thing in my opinion. it breaks down unnecessary mental walls between insider and outsider. It doesn't mean you're endorsing the values of all pop music when you use one of these songs, any more than Paul was endorsing Greek myths when he sought common ground with the Athenians.
I agree, Josh, that worship planners can use lack of resources and personnel as an excuse for mediocrity (though resources and choices of players sure are nice to have). What I hope to encourage is the nurturance of the unique and important possibilities inherent in medium sized churches, in my case particularly mainline Protestant churches, because that, for whatever crazy reason of God's is where my call is.
peace
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Permalink Reply by Ken Hymes on
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Hi Debbie, how cool that you remember the workshop and that it had some value. It was a good day. Since reading Josh's reply, I feel the need to say that I don't at all begrudge large churches their role in the larger fellowship. I've been to Northpoint, most churches have a lot to learn from them if only about welcome and thinking about what people need when they walk in. Others have their own unique strengths, whether or not I share their take(s) on the Gospel. But when you are the leader at a medium-ish or smaller church, you have to use the strengths you have. And for me, that means thinking and listening and learning deeply about what is giong on culturally in your neighborhood. We are called to hold up, and most importantly live out, the values of Christ, but that doesn't mean we are in any way called to be culturally or aesthetically "above" the culture that is around us. Building contemporary worship from scratch, or restarting a mediocre attempt, is demanding, potentially frustrating work, and requires reserves of humility and patience that I know must be coming from God, cuz I'm not that nice a person. Hang in there, and if there is anything I can do to assist in terms of materials or rehearsal strategies, please email anytime. kenhymes@gmail.com
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