Media Tip: The Ins and Outs of Church Music

Have you ever gotten into a hot debate with someone about how the church should run their music program? Well that's...NOT what this media tip is about. Instead, this is about how you can improve your current music program. Church music is a big deal because it sets the tone for the entire service. Bad church music makes for a bad service. Media is about communication and music is a communication tool. So here are 10 tips for your church music ministry.


1. Biblical Principles about Music.
Music should be God-centered, not man centered. Music that focuses on you and me and our life is misdirected. Music ought glorify and uplift God. Music is spiritual in nature and affects our emotions and inner being. Songs must be Biblical and based on Scripture. Any song that directly violates a teaching in Scripture is wrong, even if it is performed by a Christian artist or sung in church. Music ought be focused on the melody, not the rhythm, which is worldly.
(Exodus 32:17-18, I Samuel 16:23,
Psalm 95:1, Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16-17)

2. Get Involved. Music is a great way to get involved in the service. Every week your pastor makes some sort of announcement begging people to get involved. He wants nothing more than to see you serve Christ in your local church. His whole goal is to see you develop as a Christian in your walk with God. You would knock his socks off if you came up to him and said, "Pastor, what can I do to get involved?"

Church music is one of those ways that you can get involved. Join the choir, sing a solo, sing a duet, sing in a quartet! Do you play piano? Ask if you can play a congregational song. Not up to that level yet? Ask to play an offertory. Do something! My church has a mini-orchestra. Do you play another instrument besides piano? Ask your pastor if you can sit next to the choir and play that instrument, even if you don't have an orchestra already.

3. Have a Song of the Month. Does your church sing the same songs over and over again? You probably have a hymnal with over 500 songs in it (800 if you have Living Hymns) and only sing about 100 of the songs. I know a rather larger church that only sings about 40 of the songs and it drives people bonkers! Why not pick one song a month to learn and sing it every service so that you get to know it. My friend's church does this and he says it's great.

4. Sing Songs Not in the Hymnal.
Your hymnal isn't a Bible. It's okay to sing songs that aren't in the hymnal. How can you sing them if they aren't in the hymnal, you ask? Well if everyone knows it, it shouldn't be a problem. However, this is one of the many uses of Powerpoint that your church can employ. Sing songs like Sanctuary, In Christ Alone, and As the Deer. In some cases, you could invite the congregation to open their Bible to Matthew 6:33 and sing Seek ye First. I'll bet you'll have some folks that didn't even know those songs were in the Bible!

5. Vary the Order of Service. People get tired of the same old, same old. This doesn't mean you should preach first and sing later (though, you could do that if you were having a singspiration and the sermon was merely a devotional). If you only sing the first and the last, sing all the verses. If you normally sing all the verses, only sing a couple (you're people might thank you. Sometimes song services can get overwhelming with so many verses). Sing 2 songs instead of 3 or 3 instead of 2. Changing it up a little bit will add variety (and keep some of the critics at bay!).

6. Have Special Music. I would say more than half of the churches out there already do this, so this might be a moot point. But I know a few churches that never have special music. Now it may be because they don't have anyone to do the special music. But my guess is they just haven't asked. As much as is possible, have special music at every service. My church is so packed with special music that we have to issue a monthly song schedule just to keep all our ducks in a row. This goes back to the getting involved point.

7. Powerpoint for Special Music. I already mentioned using Powerpoint with your songs, but here is another use, also mentioned in the same article. Say Joe is playing a song for the offertory and you have heard that song before, but you can't think of the song title. Instead of it eating you up the whole service, the title is wonderfully displayed on the screen and you can sit there and enjoy rather than be tormented. At least, I hope I'm not the only one who is bothered something like that.

8. Invite Special Singing/Peforming Groups. Groups like Proclaim Ministry Teams and the Academy of Arts (Excuse their website design. It's pretty bad, but they really do have great drama teams, I've seen one personally and vouch for their talent) make for great special services. I don't know how many of these types of things there are, but call around and see what you can find. Most Christian colleges like Pensacola Christian College, Bob Jones University, and West Coast Baptist College send out these special singing groups every summer. Call them up to book a team for your church next year.

9. Pay Attention to Song Order. Specifically, I mean in regards to meaning and thought flow. You may want to coordinate with the pastor on what his sermon is about. If he is preaching on Jesus you may want to sing "Near the Cross" or "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Place your more upbeat songs at the beginning of the service to get focus energized. Then put the slower, more contemplative songs right before the sermon so that it gets everyone's mind focused on God and ready to hear from God's Word.

Another potential thought in this area, if you can, is not having two slow songs in a row, or two fast songs. If you use a variety of hymnal and non-hymnal songs, you may actually want to put them back-to-back so that people don't have to keep turning in their book and then putting them away again.

10. Focus on the Words. This is more or less just a general principle that everyone should apply to every service. Does your brain shut off during singing? Have you ever caught yourself just singing the song not even thinking? I do it all the time and I trust you do too (Don't pretend you don't!). It defeats the purpose of the song service if all you do is regurgitate the words. The purpose of music is to focus our heart and mind on God and His goodness.

The next time you find yourself falling into that pattern (and you will very soon), stop and listen. Listen to the words, pay attention to them, and focus on them. Meditate on what it means for Heaven to come down and glory filling your soul. Is it just a song or does it mean something to you? Heaven, that is Christ, came to earth in human form and died on the cross for our sins, that through faith in Christ we might have eternal life and glory fills our soul.

Is that not a wonderful thought!? How can you contain your burst of excitement when you think about the goodness and love of God?! Yet our faces are flat, our voice boring and monotone, and our spirit not the least bit uplifted.

UPDATE

11. Song Suggestions. Based upon the conversation in the comments below I thought it good to add this tip to the list. Do you have a favorite song to sing at church? Maybe you love Victory in Jesus, but the problem is the church only sings the first and the last verses, but the verse that means the most to you is number 3. You could suggest to your music pastor what songs you would like to hear that way you, as a part of the body of Christ, are more engaged in praising God through song.

For the music pastor, my suggestion would be to have a song-leading hymnal if you do not already have one. Have one hymnal that is reserved for your song-leading. In it, you can write down all the notes you see fit to record. Maybe you'll circle all the songs the church knows. That way you can pick one they don't know every now and again. Maybe you'll star the song that the dear old lady in your church loves to hear. Anything other important song information can be written there for your recall.


Do you have anything to add to this? I'd love to hear your tips and different ideas that your church does to spruce up the music ministry. Leave a comment in the box below.

Posted in: Church Music, Media Tips