I’ve been sitting on this post for a little while, reflecting and trying to polish it a bit. In the end, I thought I’d just put it up here…
Not so long back at Sanctus1, we did a bit of take on “sung worship led from the front” as a service at Sanctus1. Called 'Live', we had a huge projection of live DVD recordings of tracks by Moby, Faithless, U2, Coldplay, Ash, Robbie, and encouraged people to sing along (lyrics were in a fanzine-style handout, alongside questions, actions, reflections). The interesting thing for me was that it felt like one of the most physically and spiritually uncomfortable services that we’ve ever done – loud, big and very visual, with standing room only, containing a call to very actively join in, rather than sit/ ponder/ reflect/ internalise. And to be honest it only occurred to me afterwards that we’d basically presented a take-off of the “church worship band” – up front, micced and amped up, male… you name it, in fact, a totally static, unresponsive worship session. It certainly touched (both good and bad) nerves from the feedback we had.
Kester’s posted recently about music, the long and honourable tradition of protest songs, and the power of lyrics/ ambient music in worship. I found it a really thoughtful and provocative post – there are some good comments in response to it on his site too. It made me think harder about something that Jonny and I were talking about not so long ago – namely, guitar-led singing as worship. We were thinking out-loud (with Mark Berry, and others) about why sometimes as alt.worshippers/ emerging churchers we’re uncomfortable engaging with this despite being keen proponents for a diversity of worship. My initial take on it was that guitar-led singing as worship is a one-way street – that too often worship leaders (and I included myself in this) have been guilty of closing eyes and ears to the congregation (literally and spiritually) and thus “leading worship” risks becoming singing/ playing to connect me to God but in a way that doesn’t facilitate anyone else present. In some senses, a performance rather than worship. And although I have no experience of this, I suppose picking hymn numbers each Sunday for more trad organ/ piano led-worship could become a similar experience for the person who chooses. The difference I think with the more alt.worship/ emerging church stuff is that it has the potential to be more of a two-way street – more inter/active with more space to sit things out and/or to join in. Or introspective navel-gazing by candlelight as some would have it… ;-)
I’m not sure that this is really leading me to any grand conclusions – it’s more a set of observations…
I think the way we use music is fine.. just placed in the service where it's appropriate.
I can't think of a way of introducing singing which doesn't have a 'led from the front' vibe so it just becomes the traditional leader/scumbags relationship.
Equally if some people want to sing in a service then I'd be the last to stop them.. just don't drag me into it :p
By 
Tony, at 6:27 PM BST
A good worship leader is just that ... a leader. This by definition involves an interaction with the rest of the room, otherwise it does just become a performance. This applies whether it is a "traditional church" service, a "worship band" led service, or an "alt.worship / emerging" service.
I've been to good and bad examples of all of these and the one thing the good ones had in common, was leadership in some form which involved the congregation. The thing the bad examples of all had in common was a lack of leadership that involved those who became, merely an audience.
By Rob (the ergonomist)., at 8:57 AM BST
I'm really sold on Mark Pierson's description of worship 'curator' rather than worship 'leader' (though, being not as arty as some it did take a while for me to get my head around the term!) By this Mark is arguing that in putting together an act of worship we create space and resources for people to engage with God, just as a curator of a gallery creates the right environment for people to engage with the art. I guess you might want to argue that God is the only rightful 'leader' of worship and that we are facilitators in the curator type model.
If you want to check out Mark's argument (he puts it way better than I just have!) you can find it in The Prodigal Project
By Malcolm Chamberlain, at 11:43 AM BST
Thanks for this post Laura. We need to get over the anxst about the songs we're not singing.
An ongoing question I have though, from withing an alt worship community, is how we can become better at praising God. Our approach seems well suited to confession, reflection, intercession, etc, but apart from overusing that fat boy slim song or having a "praise God on this graffiti wall" station, our repetoire of creative ways to express praise seems very limited.
Might there be an imbalance in our worship diet.
I suppose that was OK when it was largely frustrated chruch types who'd had their fill of wall-of-chorus worship. But what about the increasing numbers who'd only experiece of orship is within our commnities?
Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?
By 
richard, at 2:04 PM BST
I've said in Sanctus1 a few times that I think that people find it difficult to praise in society generally. It's not in most peoples character to praise in such an overt way as we do when singing songs in church.
We need to find ways of praising but i think that it's a toughy!! I much prefer a good old lament!!
Also at the service in April we did do singing and people really enjoyed it. It worked becauses seaming had produced it and therefore it was indigenous to Sanctus1 and reflected our theology. The problem with lots of songs is that they impose a theology onto us that we may struggle with. See Pete Wards booking selling worship for more details...
By Ben, at 2:12 PM BST
I'd be with Malcolm / Mark.
When we wrote something for Vaux to go into aforementioned Prodigal Project we used the term 'worship architects' - much the same idea as curating in that you design a space within which you hope/pray people will worship, but don't force them to live in that space in any particular way.
I do agree though Ben - we (I)_ do find it difficult to praise my socks off... And I'm not entirely sure why. May be just too self-conscious, and underneath I just want to lose myself in it... Which is easier to do in a club than a 'church'... Or after a few beers. I'm sure this is what underlies binge drinking. People desperate to dissolve the boundaries they feel caught behind.
By Kester, at 3:27 PM BST
I'm finding this discussion really helpful - thanks Laura!
I just wonder whether the curator/architect labels, while helpful counterbalances to much of the baggage that now comes with "worship leader", carry just as many problems of their own.
For example, 'curator' to me means a very high level of control over the gallery layout and content so that whilst visitors will have different experiences as individuals, they won't on the whole have very much input to the 'show' that others experience. I realise that is highly simplified and that many exhibitions are increasingly interractive or shaped by those who visit them.
It would be pretty ironic if there were discussions in the emerging art/architecture worlds where they were recognising the baggage their labels carried and wanted a new name for the person who's responsibility it was to coordinate the shared experience of those creating and taking part in a show/building... Not sure I've made sense, but I don't want to grab a new label uncritically just because I know that the church ones tend to be crap.
Also wondering if the reserve/find it hard to praise thing is a bit class/subculture based rather than true of British society as a whole?
By richard, at 5:44 PM BST
Re: labels and baggage in other sectors. Understandably, we get our knowledge from a relatively limited set of experiences, so once we’re immersed in a specialism/ culture, it can be hard to break out and see the parallels I think...
OK, so I am married to an architect, but am not aware of what’s going on in that area as much (M or S might want to comment more?). I suspect that the term “designer” is seeing a resurgence against the formalised protected title of “architect”.
But as someone who works full-time in the arts across a range of sectors, I hear the occasional debate about titles that goes on in certain quarters. Lots of people who curate shows are not “curators” - they’re artists, project managers, educationalists, etc (think Damien Hirst and the original YBA breakthrough show). Bear in mind that various other titles for that post include “conservator” or “keeper” and other such words, and you’ll start to see why there is some questioning of it. Is it about preserving the status quo or shaking things up? Do the best shows contain provocatively juxtaposed items or a carefully themed selection of pieces?
For me, the point is more that we are ALL creating ALL the time, whether we call it that or not (humans responding however imperfectly to The Creator), and the freedom and perceived permissions to do so are constrained all the more a title or language hierarchy is implied or imposed... (the “I can’t do it, I’m not qualified/ able/ trained” school of thought).
Just to pick up Kester’s point as well about making space. I think the most exciting/ spiritual/ resonant moments in many services are the things that none of us could have foreseen – something spontaneous and beyond our control or planning (see my post about the 2nds service earlier this month: “worship-as-messy-mistake-making”).
Re: praising – I’m still not sure. Any more thoughts? I praise God – but probably not by singing. A simple and memorable example would be for S and R’s marriage blessing at S1 we made a paper chain of our prayers. Or just by being out on the top of a hill on a sunny afternoon somewhere eating sardine sarnies and drinking hot chocolate...
By LauraHD, at 12:35 PM BST
OK, now I'm really paranoid about DJing well at Sanctus services!...
By Fat Roland, at 12:58 PM BST
I know it's a bit cliche and has been said many times, but re: Ben's point about people in general not being able to praise - when I'm sat on the South Stand on a Staurday afternoon at the Walker's Stadium (that's watching Leicester City for the uninitiated!) there seems to be a lot of 'praise singing' (as well as a fair bit of criticism!) going on. Some of this is singing the praises of the team, some individuals in the team, some the city/county itself.
Does this put a spanner in the works of Ben's comments or is this a superficial 'worship' that doesn't count? In other words, is the concept of praise actually alien and tough, or does it depend on the object of our praise?
By Malcolm Chamberlain, at 4:29 PM BST
I'd argue that the exception proves the rule.
By Ben, at 6:01 PM BST
Great discussion... always thought that the football/p&w analagy is a bit of a red herring (though I have often felt like singing "whose the W***** in the black" whilst sat in the pews) my experience of terrace singing (more so now than as a kid - when there were more 'songs' around) is that most football chants are just that.... chants... designed to inspire/distract the teams... if there is a social dimension perhaps it has more resonance with the Pub singing of Working Class culture of 'yore... more about doing it together than the song itself... if anything (for me) p&w became the opposite of community singing... too individualist (with the WL strumming away with eyes closed and a beatified expression), no sense of fun, way too 'slick' and too focussed on being 'slick' (don't here may football chants rehearsed for hours around a piano/guitar) and to be honest even if you put the singing itself aside the theology is at best uninspiring and generally just plain crap. Recently Laura and I were encouraged to sing a song which kept repeating the phrase 'Come, join me in worship'... all that I could think about was who on earth (or heaven) was I supposed to be singing this too? The others there, the people outside, God???
Ultimately the whole Christian mono-sub-culture thing just has nothing left in it for me... mind you I find alot of Christian 'new-media' really annoying too... last week someone showed a film made up of clips from movies of father and sons hugging etc. accompanied by some slushy mor track 'The Fathers Song'... it seriously p***** me off... I felt like they were just trying to push my buttons... to manipulate my emotion... no content, no context just sentimentality to evoke a response!
...oops went on too long... rant over
By Mark Berry, at 8:26 PM BST
... sorry more... I recently wrote a review for Perspectives mag of Nick Pages 'And now for a time of nonsense' the basic jist was... this is about the narrowest view of the rich history and diversity of worship I have read... however the critique of P&W lyrics is astute... so if you have delved the heights and depths of worship/art/poetry/music and decided that retro-folk-mor-easy listening-front led singing is where God is at right now then you must read this book ;-)
By Mark Berry, at 8:30 PM BST
WHat I like about the curator analogy that Mark P uses is that it focusses the idea on the job of the leader to involve and free people to engage in the experience. But I'm interested that the curator idea has largely been taken up to imply less control than by a "leader", whereas in fact a curator is usually a highly qualified expert whose role is (necessarily) very controlling of the gallery experience. Curator, to me, is a useful analogy for thinking through what the worship leader actually does (in whatever style, guitar, alt, robed choir) but loses its usefulness when re-applied as a critique of leadership models.
good discussion - thanks!
By maggi, at 10:15 AM BST
The Old Bill... just posted this cruel but wonderful post...
Lord, the words of this song are smarmy,
so banal they cross to smarmy,
Lyrics and chords are oh so predictive
yet somehow still bloody addictive.
Smarmy it is,
smarmy it is.
Smarm, Jesus, smarm.
Give us tunes now that really matter
Breathe, Spirit, breathe -
give us some mystery
Speak, God, please speak -
let this chorus be more than dribble
Send us some poets, Lord,
and get them to write.
http://theoldbill.typepad.com/the_old_bill/2006/07/smarm_jesus_sma.html#comment-19284101
By Mark Berry, at 5:45 PM BST
