Music team commitments and guidelines

Drafted for the team leading the congreational music at St. John's Church, Nevilles Cross, Durham, 1997

Background

It seems reasonable to conclude that those involved in leading the worship of the church, musicians as much as clergy, have a fearful responsibility to lead daily lives of integrity and of Christian commitment. Our Sunday worship is insignificant compared to our Monday to Saturday Christian living.

A possible vision for our Music Team

Axioms

This paper assumes about the music of a parish church that:

• It is primarily vocal. Use of the organ and other instruments, while important and valued, is a secondary, supportive activity.
• It is primarily congregational. While there should be a place for the presentation of choir anthems and music group songs, this must never usurp the former.
• The emphasis is on routine weekly services. "Special" services, however big in themselves, are relatively unimportant in the even bigger picture.

Where are we now?

A small, but dedicated and enthusiastic group of singers commit themselves week in, week out, to midweek practice and all the services that we support. Several others join us on a more occasional basis, such as Christmas, Easter Sunday and the centenary service.

The primary focus of this paper is on the regular, weekly, group: the "Music Team". It is to be hoped that the occasional members will nonetheless find it useful, sympathetic and relevant.

Commitments

The music at St. John's covers a wide range. Its breadth is an integral part of the life, worship and mission of the church. It is assumed that all people involved in the music are in full and happy agreement with this as policy and principle. Inevitably, in the realities of the pieces chosen, there will be a wide range of personal tastes and distastes: enjoyment and endurance for all.

It is assumed that:

• Those in leadership, being committed to the general policy, will endeavour to familiarise themselves sympathetically with pieces from across the range, personal taste notwithstanding.
• Each member similarly will be open to the possibilities of good music from across the range.
• Those in leadership will offer other members an opportunity to express appreciation or vent their distaste of particular items chosen.
• Those choosing to praise or criticise any item should be encouraged to provide reasons.
• Those choosing items will exercise care, attention and discrimination to quality of words, music and theology, whatever the style, and to the balance and appropriateness of styles.

Regarding membership:

• Membership is open to both singers and instrumentalists who wish to offer their gifts and talents in those areas to the worship of God and as a service to the congregation of St. John's Church.
• Each member should be committed to, and active in, the overall life of St. John's.
• The current membership is basically adult; this may be loosely interpreted as being aged 15 or over, a committed Christian, and a communicant member of the Church of England.
• As yet, there is no suitable provision for a regular children's group.
• The leaders should ensure that each member is as contented as is reasonably practicable in a diverse group: for example that no member feels either superfluous or unduly burdened.

Regarding technicalities:

• Current musical ability: high levels of skill, whilst obviously desirable, are less important than enthusiasm and commitment. Ability to read music, whilst helpful, is certainly not essential.
• Willingness to learn: the corollary of the previous point is that all members, including the leaders, should be willing and keen to develop, widen and deepen their musical and technical skills.
• Willingness to experiment: the range of Christian music available today is vast; from Monteverdi to Messiaen, from Baroque to hard rock, from singing in parts to singing in tongues. Whatever our personal preferences we should be open to all, and discriminating of all.
• The leaders should ensure the range of technical level of material chosen includes that which is simple enough for the less experienced still to feel confident and difficult enough to stretch the experts.
• We should all develop our knowledge and awareness of music, word structure and theology and apply our critical faculties to encourage "whatever is true, noble, right, pure, excellent, admirable" (Philippians 4:8).
• It is hoped that all instrumentalists and organists, and those involved in training, will take an active singing role, as "time out" from their instruments and within their teaching work.

In addition to our Sunday service commitments, we should be prepared to be keenly involved in other events, including external ones such as the carols in the shopping centre and carol singing round the parish.

To illustrate the points by recent examples:

• One singer, despite having lost her voice for a few weeks, still came to the practices, simply "to be there".
• Two of the singers have become so enthusiastic that they took some singing lessons.
• One of our organists sometimes attends music group practices even though he chooses to be in the congregation in the service itself.

The guiding principle is that attitude is considerably more important than present technical ability. Of course a key component of the attitude is willingness to expand and develop technical and analytical abilities. The measure, if any, of technical ability is "personal best".

Administration and other unsung heroics

The running of the Music Team for the church, especially with such a diverse repertoire as ours, requires a huge amount of tedious and often unnoticed background work. The people who undertake it, often in an already busy working and family week, should be warmly commended and their work valued.

The choosing of hymns, songs and other items every week of the year is governed by Canon B.20. In brief: the vicar is responsible and has active oversight, taking advice from the music director. This activity is far less glamorous than might at first sight appear. Balances must be kept between old and new, reflective and lively, substantial and incidental; meanwhile thematic congruence and liturgical placement both offer and constrain choices.

Hymn numbers are placed on hymn boards. Lists are drafted in advance for discussion and refinement, then prepared and distributed to the Music Team, clergy and sidespeople.

New items usually require acetates for overhead projection or typed inclusion on notice sheets. Both these activities require the painstaking work of individuals.

These labours of love often involve personal financial cost, willingly given. The church leadership should ensure that the offer of recompense is always available.

Of times, services, practices and homework

Our current workload is comfortably full. At present we primarily support the 10:00 Sunday service, which is usually a Eucharist, the monthly informal "Praise and Prayer" evenings and some "occasional" services, such as the Christmas carol service, the recent centenary service and the shopping centre carols. The church also hopes to develop an evening service in Taizé style, perhaps quarterly, in which we would play a full role.

The 8:45 service is basically "traditional". It need not officially fall under the remit of the Music Team, although it is hoped that the organists supporting this service would be active members anyway.

Practices are currently at 7:45 on most Thursday evenings. We should aim to finish by 9:15, but this requires discipline by leaders to keep things moving, and discipline by each member to arrive promptly.

As a general rule: "no practice, no service". Someone who has missed a midweek practice should not expect to sing or play on Sunday, unless by explicit arrangement. Please do not put the leaders in the embarrassing and delicate position of having to find a tactful way to say "no".

New or unfamiliar music requires work and investment of time. The leaders should ensure that it receives attention on a minimum of two practice nights. The first practice can familiarise everyone with the music, the second allows work on the fine detail and ensemble coordination. Between the practices each member should be prepared to do some homework on the music. Time spent with one person or one part during practice is, in general, a waste of the valuable time to which others have committed themselves.

Pre-service practicalities

Each service is for congregational worship. The time leading up to its formal start is used by the people in the congregation for their own quiet reflection and preparation. The Music Team should respect this.

Instruments need tuning. Tuning disrupts the congregation. So instrumentalists need to arrive sufficiently early. Likewise movement around the sanctuary can be disruptive visually and should be kept to a minimum.

Time off

It is highly desirable that Music Team members, having committed themselves to its regular weekly activity, should have time off, say, once a month. This provides the opportunity not only to be with the congregation, including perhaps their own family, but also to exercise their developing skills of listening and discrimination to assess the work and effectiveness of the rest of the Team from the perspective of the pew. Observe. Come back and let us know where we are getting things right (and why/how), and where we may be getting things wrong (and why/how).

Some people have other commitments in other churches. This can be good and to be encouraged. Again, observe and let us know how we might improve and change (and why/how).

Occasionally the timing of other church events will conflict with practices. Recent examples have included prayer meetings and an "Alpha" course. The clergy and music leaders should seek to prevent such timing clashes. Nevertheless, any Music Team member is free to attend the events "in another place": indeed this should sometimes be encouraged as recognition of our integral role within the church.

Heart of the matter

The Music Team is neither choral society nor rock band. The congregation is not our passive audience. The church congregation is not a replica of Spring Harvest or of Taizé or of a cathedral, but rather a motley collection of individuals, called together by God to worship him and to serve the community and world around. The Music Team simply comprises those whom God has winkled out of this congregational habitat into a peculiar sub-colony.

We should be constantly monitoring and extending our repertoire as best serves God, the congregation and the unchurched community around us. Whatever is chosen to sing, we should sing everything with equal effort, regardless of personal taste or distaste of a particular item. All we do, we should do to the best of our ability.

We should aim to be as professional as possible in our performance. But it should never be "performance" or "professionalism" for its own sake. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for others" (Colossians 3.23). We are primarily there to enable the congregation to sing. To paraphrase: "music is for the church, not the church for music".

Moving forwards: needs and directions

St. John's is already very fortunate in having a wide range of music available and acceptable. We must never undervalue this privilege. As always, however, this is room for development and improvement, AMDG.

Particular current needs include:

• More regular singers. We are particularly short of tenors and basses. We also need people, of whatever voice, who are able and willing to sing occasional solos, such as cantor lines and song verses.
• Keyboard players (piano, organ, synthesiser). Teenagers would be especially welcome: the church of the next fifty years will always be requiring, often desperately, people with keyboard skills. The Music Team should be an ideal base for developing skills and confidence in leading music in worship.
• Other instrumentalists. Whether classically trained flautists or rock drummers, they could be used many or most weeks and would be most welcome.

People in the congregation with musical gifts or enthusiasms should be encouraged to use and develop them in and for the church. The sobering parable about letting talents lie buried should be heeded: it applies not only to those individuals but to others in the church community to encourage those individuals, and to us to nurture their gifts. We commend the church to ponder this shared responsibility.

Within any such group, there are two dangers, actual or latent:

• The existing group is itself internally divided or factional, hence unattractive to prospective members.
• The existing group is such a well integrated and coordinated, smooth and efficient coterie or clique, that it is difficult for the outsider to break in.

We are fortunate and seem not to be endangered by these at present. Nevertheless we need to be aware of them to ensure continued safe steerage.

Because of the technical pressures of music practice, we do not spend enough time in social, corporate activity. In the last couple of decades many churches have realised the importance of housegroups for spiritual growth, both individually and communally. Although the Music Team is not, nor should it be, a housegroup, it would nevertheless be beneficial to adopt a general housgroup ethos and attitude, spending more time together in prayer, study and general social activity. For instance a little more of the practice time might be spent in prayer or study. We should consider a once-per-term team lunch and social afternoon. We might even consider an annual "Away Day".