Very Useful Article on Micing Singers

Shure Notes Issue #43 - Engineers' Round Table

Worship Leader Magazine - Your Comments Please!

Commercialisation or helpful resource for gospel-centred ministry? Real church, or glossy-paged, celebrity-worshipping quasi-Christian subculture?

Have a read of a free edition http://blog.worshiptogether.com/worshiptogether/2010/10/free-septoct-issue-of-worship-musician-magazine.html

...and have your say here!

O Holy Night - ou est-il?

O Holy Night is one of the best loved Christmas carols of the last 150 years. I currently have a beautiful version by Kerrie Roberts on my iTunes, and it has been covered by everyone from Mariah Carey to Andrea Bocelli.

The song was originally written in French as Cantique de Noel, with music by Adolphe Adam, and words from a poem by wine merchant Placide Cappeau, in 1847.

What is fascinating about the song is the richness of Biblical imagery and ideas in the French version, that gets sadly lost in the English version. I suppose it wouldn't have attained it's great popularity if the lyrics had retained their hard-hitting talk of original sin and the wrath of God!

To compare the French, literal English and popular English texts, go to Wikipedia.com. Just to give you a taster, have a look at this line from the third verse:

French:

Le Rédempteur a brisé toute entrave :

La terre est libre, et le ciel est ouvert.

Il voit un frère où n'était qu'un esclave,

L'amour unit ceux qu'enchaînait le fer.

Popular English:

Truly he taught us to love one another,

His law is love and his gospel is peace;

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,

And in his name, all oppression shall cease.

Literal English:

The Redeemer has overcome every obstacle:

The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.

He sees a brother where there was only a slave,

Love unites those that iron had chained.

Seems like Placide Cappeau was onto something! In verse 3's talk of liberation from slavery and oppression, which has become so political in our time, we have lost a Christmas reminder of our slavery to sin (Romans 6v17-18), Christ's destruction of the power of sin and death (Colossians 2v13-15), and Jesus Christ gladly considering us his brothers and sisters! (Hebrews 2v10-13).

So, who's going to have a crack at singing the literal words this Christmas?

Leading Songs

Too easily our song leading in church can become mechanical. The service leader announces the next song, the musicians play the intro, the singing starts the singing ends, and then the service moves on. Box ticked.

Here are a few principles to think about as we lead songs.

• Because we worship in song in response to God's revelation of himself in his Word, the leader should 'lead' the gathered church into the song from God's Word.
• The musical introduction should be part of the journey, setting the appropriate feel and atmosphere, as well as leading into the song musically. Think about the length, musical complexity, and instruments involved in order to do this.
• Mean the words we sing! Communicate this to the gathered church in our facial expressions and body language as we lead.
• Grasp the opportunity provided by musical interludes in songs to reflect on what you're singing, and enjoy praising God.
• Lead out of the song appropriately. Ensure that you put it down gently, and don't drop it! Note that you can even drop an uptempo rocker - you need to bring it to good end in order to move on in the flow of the service.
• After the song, leave space to breathe before moving on in the service.
• Perhaps it is appropriate to pray to God about something the song has raised.

These ideas all serve to ensure that the main thing is kept the main thing - God's people gathered to hear God speak and to worship him together. A good exercise if you are a muso or a service leader is to grab a song from your reportoire and go through these points with that song and see what you come up with. It might change the way you approach your church service!

"I Don't Do the Singing"

As much as I enjoy my job, one of the challenges for people in my position as a paid music minister is the perception that you are responsible for the singing. I'm not talking about the congregation standing up on a Sunday with shut mouths as they let you bring their praise before God, as if by proxy - I'm talking about fellow church workers!

There is a great danger in specializing our ministries to the point where normal Christian activities are 'outsourced' to the qualified person. If (as is usual in my church situation), someone else leads the service and leaves me to lead the songs, their is a great temptation to sit back and wait for me to finish my 'bit' before they continue with their 'bit'. Maybe it's a good time to look over your notes or remind yourself what notices you have to give!

The Bible commands Christians to sing to the Lord, and to come before him with great joy. 1 Chronicles 16v9 says, "Sing to him; sing praise to him; tell of all his wondrous works!" Psalm 5v11 says, "But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy." No one is excluded from the command to sing, no matter what their position, or musical ability, or even their singing voice.

This command to sing joyfully can be freely fulfilled knowing that God doesn't care about the quality of our voices, but rather looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16v7). After all, he created the human voice, and he declared his creation good (Genesis 1v30-31). Do you not think that God delights in the heart that desires to glorify him by singing his praise, without concern for what others might think of how we sound? (Here's a thought - doesn't a crowd of thousands of mildly tipsy sports fans sound amazing when they just belt it together? I'm sure they're not thinking about they quality of their voices!)

In days gone by, anyone who got up in front of the church was expected to be able to sing. Often the singing was led by the minister singing, with the organist accompanying. I suspect that because it was the norm, people just went for it and found that they actually could sing. It's a shame today that singing together is so not the norm that we are scared to try in case we can't.

Let me encourage church ministers, service leaders and others to commit this to prayer and in God's strength and enabling to be a model for those we lead. Often we are concerned for those who we see not singing in church; we worry that their hearts are far from the Lord and rightly so. But maybe they just need to see someone else doing it, someone who isn't trained, who isn't a musician, but is just a Christian opening their hearts to God with the voice God has graciously blessed them with. Anyone who stands in front of the church should, in everything they do, model a right response to God. A true love for Jesus is caught as well as taught!

Perhaps I should consider it gospel ministry to equip and enable my fellow gospel workers to sing...