Deeper Conversations #2
thinking about singing
Thanks to everyone who added their thoughts to #1, why you attend services. The two-week gap you experienced between #1 and #2 is because my D.Min. intensives were more intense (in a good way) than I expected, and as a result, were quite exhausting. Thank god I suggested this series would be mostly weekly.
The gap also gave me some time to read your comments more deeply. They provoked a lot of thoughts and further questions, and the next few weeks will likely be drawn from those first comments about why you attend services, and what matters to you.
This week, our conversation will be about singing. Several of you talked about how singing together mattered - from the welcome song at a new congregation to just the being together and hearing each other.
My questions for you this week are these - answer any or all:
What does the experience of singing with others in a service feel like/do for you?
Is there something in particular that happens for you when singing with others?
Is there a difference when you’re singing as part of the congregation versus, say, as part of a choir?
What do you most like to sing with others? Are there particular songs or styles that feed you more?
What don’t you like about singing together - in your setting or others you’ve experienced?
Do you have thoughts on singing from a hymnal versus singing from a projection?
Let the conversation commence!
I love to sing. I’ve sung in church choirs for almost 40 years. And I also love singing hymns as a congregation. Singing is meditation to me. And choir practice is especially so. But your question is about congregational communal singing. For me, it is the blending of voices and creating beauty as one body that is so sacred. Time stops when we sing. And emotions feel deep.
My home church is in search of a music director and I had an epiphany that that role needs to include song leader skills. I wrote to the committee: As I sat in the wonderful service today I realized that almost all of the services that moved me the most deeply involved a song leader helping the congregation to find their voice. Group singing with the boost or assist of a bold song leader is a common element of the ahhaaa, release, worshipful, community sense that some services give me.
I would strongly urge inclusion of a requirement for the music director that they can serve as an energetic, engaging, full bodied song leader. (as Bailey did today) Further I'd suggest that a video of someone serving as a song leader be a requested element of the candidate's package.
Obviously this is in addition to all the stuff I'm sure you have heard about standard choir director, music director responsibilities and skills.
Really strong song-leading is a skill that would make a candidate exceptional and we need exceptional. It would also make their ministry powerful and deeply inclusive. To me, congregational singing and generating energy and passion in that singing is how the whole congregation becomes a part of the music.