Comments on: Choirs in Worship

By: Bob Kauflin

Bob Kauflin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:47:56 +0000

Alvin,

Thanks for your encouraging words.

By: Alvin Hoi

Alvin Hoi — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:33:00 +0000

Hi Bob,

Thanks for everything that you are doing here. You are a great encouragement to me and from all your writings, i can see the humility that is portrayed here and it’s serve as a standard to myself to good at what i do but still keep that heart of learning and humility within me. Thank you for your sharings and teachings here. Am looking forward to sharing everything here with my ministry back here in Singapore! You are impacting nations my brother… keep on preaching!

By: Dustin B.

Dustin B. — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:00:12 +0000

Church choirs can be a blessing and a curse. I have been in church choirs for about ten years, led church choirs for two years, and sang in top-notch (ACDA level) collegiate choral programs. I believe that the choir should be well done or not done at all. The church which I currently serve in and worship lead in had a pastor in the past that drove the choir program into the dirt. He claimed to have choral experience, when truthfully he did not. I had a hard time convincing some people to rejoin the choir because of their bad past experiences. This is just the musical side of it, there can be spiritual problems as well (as you noted).

However, even though a choral program can be done poorly both musically and spiritually, it can also be a tremendous benefit to the church. Although I am bigger proponent of congregational worship than I am of choral addition in worship, this is a tool many evangelical churches are missing out on. The choir can help worship by doing a choral octavo which helps the listeners (and singers) focus on a new text or new setting to an old text.

I also personally believe a well done church choral program can help listeners see there is more to Christian music than contemporary pop, rock, and indie albums. There is amazing Christian choral music being recorded that doesn’t sound unintelligible like the Cambridge singers or stuffy and warble-y like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I do not believe we are serving our congregation by teaching them that classical and/or classical choral recordings are out of touch and are for “old” people by giving them only Christian “band” exposure.

By: Bob Kauflin

Bob Kauflin — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:50:17 +0000

Giovanni,

Thanks for stopping by. If you check out other portions of my blog, you’ll see that I’m just addressing one aspect of leading worship here. In other posts I’ve talked about praise bands and worship teams.

By: Giovanni

Giovanni — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:54:11 +0000

You totally didn’t even mention Praise Bands/Teams.. any special reason why?

By: Thomas Clay

Thomas Clay — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:50:41 +0000

Another wonderful way that we use our choir here at Grace Life Church (formerly First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals) is using the choir to introduce new congegationals as specials. Then, when they are sung as congregationals, there is rich, confident, four-part harmony supplementing the congregation as it sings.

Several examples would be arrangements of In Christ Alone, Be Unto Your Name, and My Chains Are Gone that are very powerful additions to a congregational set when a choir of 100 are singing along! The congregation heard them as choir specials several times before I asked them to sing as congregationals.

By: Dean Lusk

Dean Lusk — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:51:34 +0000

“They can be breeding grounds for gossip, slander, immorality, and envy.”

Whew! That’s a pretty indicting statement, but sadly, more possible than many realize.

As leaders, it’s easy to unintentionally distance ourselves from the dynamics of the social interaction in our larger groups, like choirs, moreso than we do from our more closely-knit instrumental or vocal teams. But that’s a sharp reminder of why NOT to allow this to happen.

By: Paul Hayes

Paul Hayes — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:51:09 +0000

Bob,
I think that continued practice and performance consistently over the years makes the difference in the cohesiveness and quality of our choir. I have many non-readers, but they have grown in their “following” skills so that after being part of the choir for three years, they are able to catch on almost as fast as the readers they lean on. We are thus able to sing a repertoire that varies from classical to contemporary. I also think that the weekly devotionals we do help focus the choir’s attitude to God-centeredness and the desire to worship and not “perform”. Try leading choirs folks-they are the symphony of the human voice! Paul

By: Matthew Westerholm

Matthew Westerholm — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:16:55 +0000

One of the craziest things our church does (about twice a year) is what we call “spontanious choir.”

We set up risers and microphones, and as a part of the call to worship, our worship leader says “the first 40 people on stage are in the choir this morning.”

While the “choir” gathers, the worship leader exhorts the congregation that we are all the choir, singing our praise to the Lord. To encourage participation, we’ll prep about five people to come up first.

If the sound guy likes what he hears, he turns them up. If they sound poor, they aren’t in the house mix. It’s a big hit in the church.

By: Nicki O'Donovan

Nicki O'Donovan — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:24:56 +0000

Excellent advice…thank you Bob! I appreciate your reply.