âHow do I get rid of special music in my church?â
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 6. 09. 2024
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Iâm a Worship Leader and also a classically trained soprano. Sometimes iâm asked to do special music in service. Usually itâs a song that doesnât work for a worship team or congregational singing but enhances the sermon or topic of the day. For example, The Lordâs Prayer, Come Unto Him from The Messiah or How Beautiful by Twila Paris. While i approach these songs with more classical/ solo technique (itâs healthier for my voice anyway), i always also approach these songs as worship, not a performance. I absolutely feel special music can be a wonderful addition to Sunday Service on occasion. Iâm Presbyterian snd the congregation sometimes claps after but they've also been clapping after worship team songs that really speak to them so I've been looking at clapping as extension of praise.
You are not the only one that can lead or prompt worship. A beautiful solo or excellently performed violin instrumental can prompt worship as much as you. It also helps develop talent in your church body. A string of pop contemporary worship songs is certainly not a nourishing worship body.
A choirâŠ.well trainedâŠ.is a wonderful tool.
I think there is space for both, there are parts of worship that can support edification many ways. Worship team (or the organist) shoudl lead songs/ hymns, and other music has function---prelude/postlude/transitional/offering/ but I do agree that it must be planned carefully and be connected to the worship service intentionally.
Special music is a great tool to use during the transition between worship and preaching . It also offers edification both to the performer and listeners. There are of course cases when there is limited time or something else going on where special music would not be beneficial. Of course it has to be done in a way that gives glory to God and not only the performer. But but I have to say that on a personal level. I enjoy it immensely when I see somebody talented come out and play or saying to the glory of God. It can give spice and a little something extra to make a service special and memorable.
Every church movement has its own way of doing meetings, maybe we could call it liturgy, whether formal or informal. It seems to me you are expressing a preference rather than a scriptural imperative. I can see no biblical objection to individual contributions provided it is actually worship.
âThe Lord gave me a song!â
Then He probably doesnât want it đŹ
My 2 cents worth. Special music can be beneficial in the proper context. Having weekly special music for the sake of special music can get to be too performance oriented and humdrum. I do however enjoy a special song that wouldn't work well for congregational singing in a special setting. For example, the Don Fransico song from the 80s, "He's Alive" was very edifying to the congregation at Easter but was not one the congregation could join in with singing. On the Christmas morning service, "Mary did you Know" was edifying. Songs with special meaning and purpose work well in special circumstances.
Our church gets people to use their musical gifts regularly by having a monthly "Singspiration". It's kind of an open mic Christian music event with potluck before and music until everyone has sang their last song. People love it and it has become one of our monthly fellowship highlights. Through this, those that want to sing, get the opportunity. I have also used it to bring up future musical ministry leaders. The singspiration is performance type but with no critical feedback. It has also brought new people into the church who started coming for the music, but return on the next Sunday for the praise and worship.
Singspiration is a great idea
Please explain within your philosophy, how having a single musician playing music for worship is any different from having a single preacher delivering a sermon? The entire service is worship, not just the music. The congregation is listening to the preacher and (hopefully) still worshipping even though they are not also preaching. Why can they not do the same to music?
I wonât speak for Spencer if he wants to address this. But I think the Bible just disagrees with the points you raise. Your ideas are logical but not scriptural. Scripture addresses corporate worship, including examples of preaching and congregational singing. Solos just donât usually appear in scripture in a context of corporate worship (I canât think of an exception but I havenât done any research at this moment). Outside of that context is where we see individuals breaking out in song. So there definitely is value (even to lead others to worship) in an individual performing a song, but the pattern in scripture is that it happens outside of corporate worship. Unfortunately âLeading Corporate Worship Wellâ doesnât sound as nice, but that really is truer to the goals of this channel and its videos. There is a sanctity to the 1-2 hours we gather on Sunday morning or whenever - why not spend that time doing what scripture most recommends? Special music should be reserved for special events that happen at other times
This is a great point!! Itâs worth noting that outside of American churches, music is done really differently, including having a gifted person sing solos or by them doing a call and response thing. Eph 5:19 says to use psalms hymns and spiritual songs, but doesnât say who should sing. That makes sense as it needs to be applicable around the world and for 1000âs of years. But for someone to say âitâs not Biblicalâ means someone is reading a lot into the text that isnât there.
@@GlazedYeti I guess my reaction to that is about the same as my reaction to someone saying we shouldnât have guitars in church because they didnât have guitars in Scripture. I do not believe that Scripture prescribes every element of how we are to do every little thing, nor do I believe Scripture claims that role for itself. Your position is coming from a philosophy which is itself not based in Scripture. So, while you are free to think as you want, it doesnât carry much weight for you to chide me for having a position which is logical but not Biblical. Your position isnât Biblical either.
To add to that, there are hundreds of elements of our service and general church operations which are not the same as what would have been happening in Scripture. If youâre going to take the position that everything must be as it was in Scripture, then whether or not we have soloists playing music in church should be the least of your worries.
@@homeboyjon4885 It says âspeaking to one anotherâ. As in, *everyone reading this* sing psalms, etc - not just one person.
@@JBLFC92 that is an interpretation, obviously. If one person is singing to others, the verse still fits. And in any case the passage is not speaking of church services but of living in harmony with each other in a general sense. So unless youâre going to suggest that we all walk around singing to each other all at once constantly, youâre going to need to roll back your prescriptive interpretation of the verse.
Really thankful that you touched on these questions; very encouraging to know that we're not alone! Been in a new worship leader role for the last two months and these are both issues similar to issues I'm facing right now. Thank you for shedding light on this using wisdom, discernment, and ultimately Scripture. Happy to have joined up in the LWW fam in the last month!
Glad you're here Eran! Feel free to shoot me an email if you ever have any questions. Keep leading well! đ
Specisl music can be a continuation of worship. It is not always for self promotion. We can agree to disagree tho
I have a thought regarding both topics that come to mind here.
1. On the special song piece; we are a small church of about 120 people. Our pastor is currently on a 4-month sabbatical and we have several guest pastors speaking throughout the summer. I have had a couple pastors ask me to lead a song or two that is not normally sung by the congregation. As a worship leader, it is my role to support the pastor and the congregation in helping everyone worship to the best of their ability. I first prayed for wisdom and clarity on the songs message. I share the song with the worship team and generally they trust my leadership. I have had congregational members ask for me to play more hymns as we have an aging population, which is fine if it supports the message and allows for open worship for all.
2. The difficult team member is always a challenge. The one thing I didn't hear in this situation is how much prayer was put into this person or what is God teaching through this process? As worship leaders, we are "appointed" by the pastor because they recognize we have a heart for God, for others, and trust that God will lead us as we serve. While respecting the pastor's wishes is crucial to the relationship, God is their "boss" as well. The pastor needs to clearly define what authorities you have as a leader.
God will deal with the hearts of all involved and as the leader, if your motivations are purely for building the Kingdom, God will provide an answer. I would encourage this leader who asked this to engage with God in that way.
Wow, this is rather a dicey topic, As a Worship Leader and Co Music Director, Whoever wants to do a Special Song in Service should come to rehearsal, attend Vision trainings and understand Our Goals as a Church Department and then you can Do a Special Song, If this canât be done, Well , You are indeed a Performer and well I donât do Performance hereâŠ
If I may ask, what precisely are "Vision trainings"?
Iâve done church music for >20 years and have done many rehearsals, but never a vision training or church department goals.
@@stanley1976 For a first timer, it is important to be Trained and Tutored on the Visions and Goals of the Church as a wholeâŠ
@uchemonyemusic Okay, just wanted to clarify. I know Visions training could mean different things to different people. Thank you so much.
this!
The "workaround" situation is such a ministry killer. As an older millennial, I cut my teeth on "leadership, leadership, leadership" skill development. Well - I"m here to say - we need a concerted effort placed on how to improve followership skills.... For real.
What is âworkaround?â
â@coolramone person A doesn't like something that leader 2 is doing, so they go to leader 1 and get them to agree with person A.
Also known as "dad said no, so I went and asked mom and she said yes"
My church SO needs âfollowershipâ training!! What a genius idea!!
So you limit special music and by doing so you limit the gifts in your congregation. If people donât have a safe place to use their gifts they will go elsewhere. Praise and worship is not a show. How will people grow in your church in their gifts? Or do you just pick and choose the people you want to be gifted. I un subscribed you make me feel like you just want to have a show and not much else. Being a leader is about growing people, not just people who look the part ,all need to know how to minister with their gifts.
Thing is, the focus does get shifted. In yesterdayâs service, one of our members did go and perform a special song, beautiful, btw. What happened? Look how pretty the brother plays and sings. Another case, same church different member, 80 year old sister, gets up randomly on any given service to sing a special song, you can tell itâs not rehearsed because she even says it, âgee I canât remember the rest, does a little laugh, the says, well there you goâ and everyone proceeds to clap for her. One time i get you, you could even say, oh, sheâs elderly, but she randomly gets up and wants to sing, without practicing said song. If youâre offering this song for the glory of God, arenât you supposed to give Him 100%, not JUST âwell, there you goâ?
People would grow in the gift of leading worship by joining the worship team. People whose gift is musical performance would grow by using their gift during musical performances. (For example, seasonal plays, music gatherings, etc.) While I don't necessarily agree with Spencer on being so hard-nosed about not having any special music, I 100% respect his reasoning on this - to not have a talent show, but to lead people into God's presence with corporate worship.
Wow.
@@jvega2033 but those problems (and I agree those are problems) are things which could be addressed quite easily without eliminating special music. We canât just say that a band leading others in singing is worship and an individual playing a solo is not. Thatâs silly. The congregation should be LED in how to absorb and respond appropriately to a soloist, just as they should be in many other elements of the service.
@@ukulele4worship I just really donât understand why the preacher is expected to give what is essentially an individual performance of their craft/gift as the centerpiece of the service, but if a musician does it itâs âjust performance,â or itâs âa talent show,â or what have you.
The Church has this incredibly rich musical heritage, and yet the people who have that gift in the greatest abundance are sidelined and marginalized as if thereâs either something wrong with them or with their gift.
Our church body is very active during praise and worship, up at the front with lifted hands and singing along and that continues during our specials when we have them. Which isn't every service. Then the Worship teams just seamlessly picks it right back up and it still continues until its time to preach. It works well and it keeps things fresh and it seems to really minister not only to the people in the congregation but also to the one singing. I can see where if it was too many it would throw things off and possibly hinder the move of God. We also have a 5th Sunday singing anytime theres a 5th Sunday in a month we have a open mic singing on Sunday night and refreshments in the fellowship hall. Gives everyone who wants to sing an opportunity to. We should definitely do all things decently and in order and that may look slightly different from church to church. Always be led by God.
If one is going to have a title of worship "pastor" I think he can be delegated the authority to say yea or nay to someone asking to bring their special music. Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe the yea or nay can be decided through an audition to see if it's good enough, both musically and lyrically.
your videos have truly helped me, im New to MDing and the church im serving are pretty old school. they don't understand the concepts and why we need In ear monitors why we do this ect. but these last couple videos have been very helpful. thanks.
Glad to hear it! Keep leading well đ
Wrong! That is a bad attitude toward singers that use solo as a ministry. God does call individual people to ministries such as this, including myself. That is a typical contemporary music worship team, cool, worship leader proud attitude that is not of God!
When you have 'senior pastor' (Moses model) church government, you just need to (unfortunately) accept that he is basically The Prophet/Moses/'Father/CEO' of that church...it is ultimately His church. What HE wants HE gets...sadly.
Special music is over. It is always "performance" that demands an "audience". Worship should be a group of skilled people leading the congregation to "sing praise and worship" to God and as an offering to Jesus. I can't even stand to hear applause and that's why our group never breaks music but transistions in the same key so that it doesn't resemble a performance. Teach your church that worship is NOT the music, but simply a form of a conduit FOR worship.
Literally everything we do is supposed to be worship.
And a âperformanceâ that demands an audienceâ-- do you really believe that is a property intrinsic exclusively to solo work?
Are you saying it is impossible for a solo artist to be glorifying God while they play?
Do you really believe there are no musicians in bands who are a bit full of themselves? Or that under a facade of humility someone might be secretly arrogant or prideful, even if they arenât a soloist?
Could you not simply lead your congregation to withhold applause? Or to glorify God and not the musician on stage (regardless of how many or few they are)?
If this is your position, then what is the difference between a preacher or a soloist? They both can teach, exhort, and praise the Lord.
Would singing a song about Noah or King David be a sermon or a special number?
what is "special" music ?
Thatâs when a congregation member sings a song for the rest of the congregation outside of the regular song service and without the congregation singing along.
Who still does âprintedâ music? Charts are ALL in Planning Center. Get you an iPad and be done with it!