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December 2004 Table of Contents
Cover Story
The Future of Choir Part II
by David Gipson
While the world is getting churchier, with overtly Christian songs like "I Could Only Imagine" hitting the secular charts, the Church seems to be trying to look more like the latest video on VH1. Worship services are programmed with a variety of elements like drama sketches and video clips, with each entertaining ingredient designed to break down the audience's barriers to the Christian message. But at the same time, we need to be careful not to throw away the "wine" of worship along with the "wineskin" of old methods Some of that worship "wine" that is being discarded in many contemporary churches is the choir.
One of my favorite movies is "Sister Act". Although I'll admit it is not a theologically deep film, it did catch my attention at one point. Remember the scene where Whoopi Goldberg's character leads the choir for the first time in Sunday Mass. Until that time the choir sang what was considered the appropriate choral literature fitting their particular tastes. But something had been missing… and that something was JOY! But on this Sunday with a new choir director and a new attitude, joy permeated the platform, spilling over the cracked varnish of the pews and running out into the streets.
And guess what happened then? All the unchurched people in the street CAME INSIDE THE CHURCH… most of them probably for the first time! Why did they suddenly show up for church, the prostitutes and the drug dealers? Because there was finally something resembling life in the building! And when there is JOY and CELEBRATION, even those farthest from God know they want some of it. How amazing that the lost world would be happy to show up if they only knew that God was going to show up also!
We believers have made a lot of fuss about the depravity of the entertainment world and how it portrays Christians. And yet we can't see the truth that if God had ever been in our services, we would have probably won over most of the world by now. When the lost world goes to church, they are looking for something more than just entertainment. And even in their movies, they show us that they know what it would be like if God were really in our midst!
But instead of joy, we go for "slick". Instead of praise, we strive to be professional. We have tried to be so very inoffensive, replacing our worship with secular songs, replacing our offerings with "Don't feel obligated to give", and replacing the choir with a trendily dressed ensemble. Or else we have changed nothing, and expect them to find their way to us. We have either mortgaged many of the things that made us unique so as to seem familiar, or we have refused to reach out at all. Now we are so much like them, or so completely foreign to them, that they don't believe we have anything that can help them anymore!
Preaching to the Choir
I hate to admit it, but like most of the rest of America, I sat glued to my TV set watching the finale to the 2nd season of "American Idol". As the stakes got higher and higher, it finally came down to two singers - Clay Aikens and Rueben Studdard. That night was going to be when they put their best foot forward and gave it their best shot for the title. So what did they do to take things up a notch, to put their big inspirational numbers over the top? They brought out a choir, singing strong and loud behind each soloist during their last big chance at stardom. And they did it again with the third season finale as well!
Yes, that's what I said... a choir. You remember those, don't you? Those antiquated artifacts of church life from way back when. Those musical dinosaurs that most experts today tell us are just taking up space on the platform that could be better used for a good drama sketch. And yet, when the lost world wants to celebrate and inspire joy, they do what is only natural – they call in the choir!
Just when churches are turning in their choir robes, music from Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir is selling in droves, and lighting up some TV screens as well as CD players. Right when worship leaders are pronouncing the death of the choir, the world is embracing its power and reveling in its spirit. So why are churches giving up on choirs today?
Killing the Choir
One reason is that we're just lazy. Choirs require a commitment from a large number of people. It takes work to keep people coming to rehearsal and worship week after week, year after year. And once you get used to having a strong choir in the service, any worship time without one seems like it has had all the power drained out of it. And if a church is trying to soft-sell commitment, it can be a real chore to keep a choir going. It's easier to just find six good-looking, talented people (some of which may be paid) to commit to leading weekly worship. That's also less people you have to buy music for, and less of a music library you have to maintain.
The other main reason is the Church's love affair with worship fads. Choirs have gotten a stodgy image, and I admit that many of them deserve it. Many need to take the time to painstakingly transition their choir from singing dusty "anthems" to uptempo songs and inspiring ballads. But instead, they have thrown out some of the wine with the old wineskins, instead of just making a new wineskin. What could have been recast with a new sense of mission has been trashed.
And that's too bad, because a choir can do things that a praise team just can't. For one thing, there are some songs that just don't sound the same with fewer people. Majestic hymns like "How Great Thou Art" and even choruses like "Shout to the Lord" don't have the same power with 6 people singing as they would with 60. You really are hard pressed to do service to the grandeur of God with just a small ensemble and a couple of guitars (no offense if that's all God has provided for you). We have greatly limited the music we can use when we give the choir their walking papers.
A choir is also a terrific training ground for new singers. There are lots of people who could one day be fine soloists or praise team members, but they have no "laboratory" in which to sharpen their gifts. Choirs offer a first step to the timid and untrained, so they can hone their skills in the background. There are also some people who will never be great soloists, but never the less are called by God to lead worship because of their exuberant spirit and their expressiveness. When the congregation sees all different kinds of people who are just like them worshipping God, they just can't help but join in the celebration.
Praising with Power
For the first years of my ministry, I focused on Student Ministry because much of the music in the churches I served lacked a power and transparency that I experienced in Youth Worship. During those years, one of my youth workers told be about a need at the plant where he worked. There was a group of workers who met each week during their lunch break to sing as a choir, but they needed a pianist who could play by ear, and would come and play for free. When I showed up to do my friend a favor, I discovered that the group was made up completely of African-Americans. I was the sole Anglo in the room, and needless to say I was a little out of my comfort zone. They did all sorts of things that I was not used to, having been trained in classical conducting in a fine Baptist university. As we started working on the music, I noticed that their director didn't conduct by waving his arms in a time pattern like I was trained in school. He had all sorts of little signals and cues, and he would jab his fists at the choir to accentuate the rhythms in the piece. Gone were all the subtle nuances to which I was used. But I noticed that the choir, though untrained in choral technique, knew exactly what he meant with these signals and gestures. His leading "telegraphed" what he wanted them to do. It was efficient, clear, and much more effective with untrained musicians than the academic style to which I was accustomed.
And these people who could have seen me as a poser, trying to play "their music", accepted me whole-heartedly. What I most remember was the joyful abandon with which they sang. They had twice the volume level of the "musically trained" choir at the church I served, though they were a fifth of their size. And the expressions on their faces were absolutely inspiring. I found an intensity in the music that challenged me as much as it invigorated me. As I was driving back to my job at church one day, my eyes filled with tears as I wondered why worship couldn't be like that every Sunday for me. It was that day that I knew God was calling me into full time music ministry.
I am convinced that if we truly want our choirs to stay effective, we must adapt the way we lead them. With school music programs on the decline, we had better make it so that people with no music reading abilities whatsoever can be successful choir members. And our music must be accessible to all people, not just to white southerners from the Bible Belt. I think God wants us to do the type of worship that we will be doing in heaven...worship from all cultures, led by worshippers of all races, lifting up the name of Jesus to every nation! With the way demographics are changing in the United States, the diversity of our communities is already far beyond the diversity of the average church music program. It is up to you to decide if your church will rise to the challenge. If you do not, God will surely find someone else who will share His passion to reach the lost around us. As for me, I'm selfish...I want to be part of a church He is using!
Bible Story Time!
So if you've been thinking about putting your choir out of its misery, I'd like to encourage you to reconsider. And the best reason I can give you to do that is simply this… choirs are Biblical. A quick trip to II Chronicles 20 will illustrate that. Most of us know at least the pertinent details of King Jehoshofat and his predicament. His kingdom was about to be attacked by forces too strong for him to resist with a conventional army. When he recognized he was powerless to fight against such a huge army, he humbled himself before God and called on his people to pray for God's deliverance.
So what did God decide was the best way to answer their prayer, and that would also bring Him the most glory? His plan was to show them how puny their weapons were compared to His strength. The way He would do that is by sending the choir into battle first – in front of the army! I wonder how many people showed up for choir practice after Jehoshofat announced that new tactical strategy? Maybe that's not the best example of a choir enrollment campaign I've heard of!
While this plan might seem ludicrous to any military leader, it made sense on the battlefield of spiritual warfare. You see, instead of relying on their own military power, the choir leading the way with praise showed they relied on God's power alone to save them. I know some pastors and worship leaders who need to learn that lesson! Instead of relying on our talent, our budgets, our numbers, or our extravaganzas, or our trendiness, we need to put our personal arsenals aside… and take up our song of worship! Unless God shows up in the power of His presence, our churches are just buildings and our worship is a sad charade.
That battle formation is a perfect picture of how we enter into worship every Sunday. The choir is not a performance organization; it is a tool for spiritual warfare leading the charge against the Enemy. Satan hates Godly worship, so we are storming the gates of hell when we take up the song of praise of our Champion. It is not our programs or being on the "cutting edge" in ministry that is going to defeat the forces of evil; it is our God rescuing us when we cry out to Him. Our worship says that we are depending on Him to win the victory, not on our own strength. And when we lay down our weapons and take up our song, God responds to His children… in a huge way!
Put Your Praise On
In this story, God wants us to learn to put down the suit of armor we've been protecting ourselves with and put on His praise instead. He wants us to put down the weapons the world has convinced us are smart and up to date, and instead take up our song. When we start seeing our hearts as the true battlefield and worship as the true weapon, then we stop fighting each other and start fighting together.
God has given each of us a powerful song to sing: the testimony of the wonders He has done in our lives. And that testimony has the power to send demons sprawling across the floor disoriented and destroyed. When we take up our song in worship, we encourage each other to stay in the fight. And the choir is the best way I've seen for large numbers of people to give testimony in song to what God has done in their lives.
On one side of the sanctuary, there may be someone facing a difficulty in life. But then they see a fellow believer that has gone through the fire, singing to the top of their lungs, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness". A young adult struggling with depression and singleness sees a friend with the very same challenges in life, singing "Shout to the Lord" in the midst of their doubts. A senior citizen who is facing cancer treatment looks into the face of an older man who has just lost his wife to that disease, and yet he proclaims "The Longer I Serve Him… the Sweeter He Grows"!
Worship doesn't just send the Enemy into disarray: it has the power to take our focus off of our problems and put it on the One who holds our lives in His hands. When we look to Him, our perspective changes and we see things as they truly are. And when we hear the testimony in song of lots of people who are in our same circumstance, we are encouraged to keep fighting the good fight. That's the power of a worshipping choir!
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