Fifty Years Of Church Music

Yesterday I read an interesting article by Gordon McDonald from the Christianity Today online presence. He was discussing the difficulties a certain church was having in searching for a "worship leader" for a multi-generational fellowship. I've excerpted it below and a few comments of my own follow:

"Fifty years ago they would have sought an arm-waving song leader who fired up people to sing three gospel songs, then led them in prayer, sang a solo, and turned things over in a timely manner to the preacher.

About forty years ago, song leaders morphed into choir directors, who were paid (this ticked off some folk) to recruit a choir and present anthems. Most people came to like this and didn't notice that we amateur worshipers in the pew were singing less now.

Thirty years ago (give or take) full-time ministers of music appeared. They championed age-graded music programs: multiple choirs, cantatas, concerts, and complex musical extravaganzas with orchestras (and live animals at Christmas even). Most of us thought this development was quite classy.But in truth we pew-people were worshiping less and being entertained more. Clapping (to do or not to do) became a serious issue for elder boards. The professional Christian musician debuted, and a star system was born.

Over the past twenty years, we saw the advent of the worship leader and the worship team. Each team member was armed with a long-cord microphone (uniformly held). The team was usually young, sincere, enthusiastic, often quite talented. Organs were replaced by electronic keyboards, drums, and bass guitar; and we all learned to clap (on 2 and 4, I think). Hymn books were discarded, and churches mounted video projectors and displayed PowerPoint. Sound speakers grew bigger than your garage; programmable lighting stirred the senses; artificial smoke simulated Gethsemane. We worshiped. But, sometimes, we sacrificed the experience of worship to the … well, the experience itself.

For many young people choosing a church, worship leaders have become a more important factor than preachers. Mediocre preaching may be tolerated, but an inept worship leader can sink things fast. Worship leaders now do more to define a church's culture than anyone else on the staff.

The good things about worship leaders: they arouse our feelings and our desire to be joyful; they offer less performance-based music (exit ministers of music) and more congregational singing (enter leaders of worshipers); they realize that people need to spend more time loving God through personal and corporate expression. A good worship leader is a precious gift."

My thoughts on this article:

First thought: Obviously, this is a generalization. Most older churches have not made their way through this progression. They stayed where they started. Some have offered additional "contemporary services", contemporary often defined by songs from the 1970s rather than the 1870s. The church my little family currently attends is, according to this article, still somewhere between forty and fifty years behind the cutting edge with its music. For evening and Wednesday night services (which we usually do not attend), they still have the "arm-waving song leader". On Sunday mornings they have a "choir director", choir anthems, and the old organ-piano combo accompanyment. This frustrates me at times, but Melody and I settled on this church largely for the great children's ministry (my old college roommate - Tim Burriss - is the children and youth minister). Sometimes if I don't know or like the hymn of the day, I'll just close my eyes and make up my own words. Very often, though, we do old hymns I loved as a child and I close my eyes and sing them with all my heart. The pastor recently stopped me after a service and said that he loves watching me sing the hymns. He said watching me sing makes him sing better. Now this was a very kind comment. I believe he sees me worshipping and it inspires him to worship. The same thing happened with me back in 1988 at Watauga Christian Center in Boone. I remember seeing David McClanahan worship - eyes closed, singing to the Lord - and it made me want to worship and to be a worshipper.

Second thought: One thing that this article ommitted was the step that preceeded the advent of the worship leader. First came the guitarist leading scripture-based songs in small group meetings, youth meetings, and coffee houses. This grew out of the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s. That's where I got started as a worship leader. At age 17 I started leading songs in a coffee house ministry in Sanford called "The Mustard Seed". I believe these guitar led scripture based songs became included in some traditional services and were so well received that the worship leader and worship band naturally took a more dominant place in lots of churches. This was complemented and encouraged by the Contemporary Christian Music industry which grew like crazy through the 80s and 90s.

Final thought: I keep feeling like the future of church music is a returning to something simpler. I keep thinking that the house church movement will grow - perhaps out of neccessity, perhaps as a reaction to the mega-churches and the worship music industry. I think of 2 Corinthians 11:3 - "But I am afraid that... your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ". I love leading music with a band, singers, and big amplifiers - but in my spirit I long for something gentle and strong like a living room full of people singing deeply intimate songs to the Lord, breaking bread together, praying for each other, then singing some more. Let me quote John Lennon here: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

Whether your fellowship has the "arm-waving song leader", the huge worship band, the dulcimer player in the den, or whatever else, let's worship the Lord with all our hearts. He is worthy of all this and much more.