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Multiple services/styles and division of the church
At my current church we have two Sunday morning services. The 9:00 am
service is mostly traditional, organ, piano, 9 member choir, the 11:00
am service is contemporary with a full band/12 member team. The issue
of music style has been contentious from the beginning. Originally the
contemporary service was at 9:00 am but it far outgrew the 11:00 am
traditional service and the two were eventually switched.
The problem that we are having now is that the 9:00 am service has
dwindled so much it is hard to maintain the music for it. It is like
the energy is slowly ebbing from this service, although the numbers
have sort of stabilized. It is almost impossible to find an organist
around here, and since ours retired about 2 years ago we have just had
temporary substitutes. Sometimes when we can't find a substitute for a
given Sunday the keys player for the contemporary team takes it. But
she is very uncomfortable in a traditional format.
So the issue has come up in the last year about eventually phasing out
the traditional service. Perhaps transitioning it first to sort of
blended but leaning traditional, and very slowly transitioning it to
blended leaning contemporary. This has only been discussed so far
behind the scenes in a general sort of way. The members who attend the
traditional service tend to be quite a bit older and would be shaken by
the thought.
Several people have said that they think it is better to do one thing
and to do it well than to try do several things and do some poorly. I
have been thinking about this, and about our duty to our older members.
They are brothers and sisters in Christ. And yet I known that the folks
who attend the early service are increasingly resentful that sometimes
it is almost impossible to provide the music they want while they see
the latter service packed with people and never without music.
Eventually our inability to supply the music that helps them worship is
going to become a major problem.
My question is, has anyone else here dealt with anything similar to this?
service is mostly traditional, organ, piano, 9 member choir, the 11:00
am service is contemporary with a full band/12 member team. The issue
of music style has been contentious from the beginning. Originally the
contemporary service was at 9:00 am but it far outgrew the 11:00 am
traditional service and the two were eventually switched.
The problem that we are having now is that the 9:00 am service has
dwindled so much it is hard to maintain the music for it. It is like
the energy is slowly ebbing from this service, although the numbers
have sort of stabilized. It is almost impossible to find an organist
around here, and since ours retired about 2 years ago we have just had
temporary substitutes. Sometimes when we can't find a substitute for a
given Sunday the keys player for the contemporary team takes it. But
she is very uncomfortable in a traditional format.
So the issue has come up in the last year about eventually phasing out
the traditional service. Perhaps transitioning it first to sort of
blended but leaning traditional, and very slowly transitioning it to
blended leaning contemporary. This has only been discussed so far
behind the scenes in a general sort of way. The members who attend the
traditional service tend to be quite a bit older and would be shaken by
the thought.
Several people have said that they think it is better to do one thing
and to do it well than to try do several things and do some poorly. I
have been thinking about this, and about our duty to our older members.
They are brothers and sisters in Christ. And yet I known that the folks
who attend the early service are increasingly resentful that sometimes
it is almost impossible to provide the music they want while they see
the latter service packed with people and never without music.
Eventually our inability to supply the music that helps them worship is
going to become a major problem.
My question is, has anyone else here dealt with anything similar to this?
Tags: band, contemporary, organ, piano, team, traditional, worship
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Johnson on -
There is a large contingent that would like to see the organ go for a variety of reasons. But it needs to be phased out very, very slowly almost so it is hard to notice it happen but nobody misses it when it is gone. We're hoping that someday we are at the point where this service is contemporary instruments leading any hymns that are sung.
Our band does some wonderful indyrockesque arrangements of hymns.
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Permalink Reply by Greg Moore on -
There is a certain... should I say it... Natural Selection about the coming and going of ways to "do worship." However, as long as the Species doesn't change (the people remain Christians, and remain Christian about it), you're doing fine.
My wife and I, as new pastors, were asked to create kids, youth, adult and seniors choirs for a growing church. This worked fine for about ten years. Then we got a youth pastor who was a musician; they started their own band, and the stream of interested young people dried up; and while we had really cool worship music, the intergenerational aspect quietly went away... but not really. What really happened is that it became 2000, and people over 50 and 60, and even 70 GREW UP on Rock music, and waited in the shadows for it to become dominant. Today you see those gray heads bobbing and veiny hands waving in the air along with the teenagers.
I've had a lifetime dream to unite the generations and grow a church that fosters real respect by embracing one another's music. To me, the idea of splitting into types of services would be like putting a divider in your car seat between Sonny and Sis, because they can't get along.
I am an organist. The college that educated me dropped organ a few years later -- keeping a faculty member there a year to graduate the last student! To keep a music style vital, you need skilled musicians. Sometimes you just have to educate people to let it go. I go over to the Episcopal church to play the organ, and minister to the janitors. I am happy doing that.
I could probably start an church and fill it with marginalized, disgruntled, disappointed people (old and young) who like Nashville & Country worship music. Their churches have relegated the music that is soul to them to the back of the bus. But if I did that (and being unemployed right now, I could), what sort of church would I have? A whole bunch of disgruntled people, united only by music! It would be much better if churches could have a bigger heart to those who are losing their culture, but don't want to leave the fellowship of the Body they have served in for half their lives. It would be best if the reaching out were accomplished by young people, those who look out on a world with wide horizons -- and if a Body were filled with that kind of love, nobody would care what sort of music they sang.
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Permalink Reply by Peter K W Tan on -
We have an organ-and-choir service at 8 using only the Anglican hymnal Common Praise, a mixed service at 10 and a contemporary service at 6. At the moment, it seems to be working well. I work mostly with the 10 o' clock, and we've had disgruntled people saying that modern songs are difficult to sing and moved to the 8 o' clock. So the traditional service is certainly not on its last legs as there has been some movement in that direction.
A lot of the hymns can be done well on the piano or keyboard. Might it be useful to try experimenting with this?
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Luce on -
We have an 8am service where we play at least 50% hymns and the other songs are like "We Fall Down," "How Deep the Father's Love," "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," and so on. That is what the people in that service like, (at least the ones who comment to the leadership). We play the songs with piano, guitar, and cello, generally, with about 3-4 singers. That is a much smaller gathering than our 11am service. At that service, we play 80-90% contemporary songs of all kinds and an occasional hymn or two that works with the other music. Both services are VERY well received by the congregation.
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Permalink Reply by James O'Brien on -
Well Ryan if you had a growing service why move. Normally what I have seen is the 11:00 service is the more traditional setting, and is mostly the older portion of your church. hard for me to say is (scene I ma getting real close to the senior years) this crowd does not like change. We had complaints when we got a data projector for the sanctuary, if the early service out grows the 11:00. as long as both can operate this way use them this way, or you may find that your catering to a specific group and I don't thing this is what you want. We had 2 services for about a year, we had started getting doing what people go complaining we went back to 1 service we lost some people(I thing is was the complainers) If you have a combination that is working in your ares, I would thing about going back to the way. Complaints you are going to have them, PRAY seek GODs will for your church, do what He says.
James
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Permalink Reply by Greg Moore on
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No matter what the style, even no matter what the tempo, the music in church should have life, because Jesus is life.
Music, though a temporary composition, should have the qualities of eternity, because in Christ is eternal life.
Styles tend to emerge not uniformly but in clumps -- someone comes up with a bright idea, and others like it, use it and imitate it in short order. It begins vigorously and grows rapidly, often on the wings of revival. The Puritans were known for their fervency and gusto in singing: their song were called "Geneva Jigs" by critics. Shakespeare has his clown refer to some excellent part-singers, but he adds, there's "but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings hornpipes!" But as revival wanes, and its progenitors age, tempos slow and pitch gets lower (notice how high everything is in this current period of musical revival?).
The way you approach music attracts musicians. Sometimes a lot of daring is required to find a good combination of people, and dedicated people, who feel the spark of Life in worship music and keep the fire going.
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