The Reason Your Congregation Doesn't Sing Along

It's Monday, and you look over your shoulder to Sunday's service, making the observation that nobody sang along with you the during the worship service you led yesterday. It's so easy to blame the congregation--after all, the songs you chose were top-charting worship choruses, and you even sprinkled in a few hymns. But they just stood there looking at you, mute and seemingly uninterested. Of course it was the congregation's fault: they are spiritually immature and musically unsophisticated...or are they?

The problem usually isn't the congregation, it's you! It's time to address a problem that seems to be increasingly more prevalent in churches: people can't sing the songs because they are in a key that is out of the congregation's singing range

We pick certain keys because the song was originally recorded to promote the lead vocalist on the recording.The original sounded so cool with all of those high notes and licks the singer put into the performance on the CD, and it's our desire for the song to capture the same energy and excitement of the recording. Also, we choose keys to suit our own singing range and comfort zones.

Below is a chart that illustrates conventional singing ranges, across the spectrum, for most people. Some have low voices and others medium or high. Usually in choirs, we label singers either soprano, alto, tenor or bass, in order to find a part to sing. But when we sing the melody together in a congregational setting, we must find the average range in which most people can sing. This range is considerably limited, but we must consider the congregational range as our priority when choosing songs for a service.

Diagram 1

Determining the correct vocal range in advance helps our people to engage in worship. The audience is the lead singer!

Diagram 2

You'll notice in the first diagram, the tenor and soprano (in a higher octave) sit comfortably within the congregational singing range. This is why, when altos and baritones choose keys for a worship set to suit themselves, its usually too high or too low for the average congregation. 

Don't scold your congregation for not singing with you, worship leader. Most likely they are silent because you haven't done your homework to find the correct key. You'll find that sometimes songs will have a low verse and a high chorus, and vice-versa. I led a song yesterday that had to be re-keyed for the congregation. The verse was very low in the melody, but by the time I sang the chorus it was fine. I'm not sure if I'll do the song again, even though its by a major artist and a big radio hit!

The congregational singing range principle is also a helpful tool in writing songs. Don't go below the Bb in the diagram, or above a D in the melody. If the song is written to sing in the congregation's range, chances are, people will be quick to join in with you (there are many other factors to consider regarding a song's success--more for another time)! It's really about being a servant to our congregation and not taking an opportunity to show off our vocal abilities.

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I am currently writing an instructional book for worship leaders. This is an example of some of the nuggets that will be included in the book. I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Ghosts In the Shadows

The church directory from 1988.

It was 1988, and I just took the position of Youth Minister and Music Director at a small, Southern Baptist church in what is the Westlawn area of Mobile, Alabama. Brenda and I were married only three years at the time, with a baby son and a daughter on the way. As a student at Mobile College, I struggled to pay bills while attempting to maintain a strong grade point average. I was about a year away from graduation when this little church called. It seemed the meager salary would help meet the financial needs of my young family.

The Westlawn community was once a thriving neighborhood in Mobile. In 1938, when the Army Air Corps took over a 1,000 acres of land and called it Brookley Army Air Field, it was perched in a ready position to serve the nation after the U.S. was invaded by Japan in 1941. Brookley Field quickly became the supply base for the Air Corps in the southeastern United States and the Caribbean. Eventually, some 17,000 skilled civilians would find employment there. Housing projects popped up all over Mobile, pushing westward past the city's expanding boundary.

The need to provide housing for the workers was met by developers who built small, affordable single-family homes, with just enough room for sleeping and eating. Many of the families that moved into these homes, and in the surrounding neighborhoods, would eventually meet to discuss the formation of a new church to serve the immediate community. In the 1950s and '60s, Westlawn grew to become a notable congregation in greater Mobile. A large sanctuary was built to accommodate growth, along with several floors of classrooms and a recreational building, made from the bones of the first worship space.

It was a booming place until Brookley Field closed in June, 1969, eliminating 10% of local jobs for the Mobile workforce. Soon, people moved away to find work, and the church began to see evidence of the change: attendance in weekly services diminished, the halls of the educational building became increasingly silent, and the roller skates and basketballs from the recreation space were locked away.

Here I am, leading the Westlawn choir.

Immediately after starting work there, I began exploring the spaces that people rarely entered anymore. Even though we used the sanctuary for weekend services, it mostly stood empty--1950s decor and all--looking much as it had when it was new, some thirty years before. The balcony was still filled with pews and hymnals that probably hadn't been used in years, and a layer of dust settled on what was originally designed to accomodate overflow crowds when the church was bursting at it's seams. 

The classrooms of the Sunday school building were filled with bulletin boards, replete with pictures of Bible characters and children's artwork still clinging to the cork surface. Old, out-of-tune pianos, wooden lecterns and metal folding chairs were left in place from when the last classes adjourned a decade earlier. 

The dark recreation space was stocked with old sporting equipment. Even a refreshment room, including a menu with prices for drinks and snacks, stood ready to serve. Roller skates, organized by shoe size, were still resting in their slots. The wooden floor of the gym, once carefully maintained, was now covered in worn circles and shapes, sanded away by years of squeaky tennis shoes and roller skates--evidence of a once bourgeoning summer and after-school hangout.

As I stood alone in those spaces, the eerie presence of an older generation, like ghosts, seemed to stare at me from the darkness. The oil paintings of former pastors, standing watch in the hallway by the old library, intensified the feeling. It seemed that from the shadows, voices were calling out at me, asking, "What are you going to do with all of this?" Sadness came over me with the thought that this once lively place of play, learning and worship, now had become a home for mice, termites and mold. 

I left Westlawn after a few years of ministry. In that short time I was ordained, I baptized people, officiated weddings, and led my first funeral for a former student in the youth group. It was there I forged relationships that would propel me into a song writing career. I cherish my time with that congregation, not only for the church's place in my life and ministry career, but also for the the contribution Westlawn made in the community.

What Westlawn's congregation accomplished over the years wasn't in vain. The purpose for those buildings--the spaces and ministries--were all for the Glory of God. As my pastor said in his sermon this past Sunday: "In the end, the only things that will last are the Word of God and people." 

May our ministries thrive to honor God, and may we spend time facilitating our love for Him while loving people. For me, that's how Westlawn Baptist Church will always be remembered. 

The Tightrope

I've been thinking about faith. It's been quite a journey over the past few years as Brenda and I have found new wind to fill our sails. We've spent many hours seeking God and His direction for our lives. Don't get me wrong, its not been a downer...we're having a blast!

Brenda is a serious disciple: she reads the Word, prays often and shakes the heavens with her faith. I am encouraged by her solid commitment to the Lord. Her greatest mentor in life is someone she has never met: Edith Schaeffer. Brenda acquired her book, L'Abri, early in our marriage. The way Edith and her husband, Francis, lived--which was portrayed in the book--made an early impression on Brenda, and through osmosis, on me. I am sad to write that Edith went to be with the Lord a few days ago on March 30, 2013.

The book L'Abri tells the story of how the Schaeffers started a ministry to college-aged students in the 1950s in Switzerland, a community that welcomed people who were seeking intellectually honest and culturally informed answers to questions about God and the meaning of life (L'Abri means "The Shelter" in French).

The couple's faith to start the L'Abri ministry in Europe became a huge influence on our lives. We were impressed most at how the Schaeffers placed complete trust in God to provide everything. Through their example, we have taken a similar road in complete reliance on God. As a result, Brenda and I have witnessed incredible miracles financially, personally, in our career and in ministry. Glory to God!

When one personally witnesses God move in amazing ways, it's quite motivating, and stirs the heart to believe He can do even greater things!

I liken the walk of faith to a jaunt across a chasm on a tightrope. There are two things to be concerned about while making one's way across: 1) to make it to the other side, and 2) to not fall in the process! If I look down, I tend to freeze in place, and my walk across the wire ends right there--hanging on for dear life. But if I look forward, trusting and focusing my eyes on the Lord, and carefully walk to the other side--ignoring the fact that one wrong move could end my life--I can make it!

God calls His beloved to extraordinary things. I guess I'm one of the crazy people who take what the Bible says at face value. Because Brenda and I have walked across several tightropes over the years, we've gotten better at it each time. Believe me, it doesn't get easier, it just doesn't surprise us anymore when a valley or a canyon appears to block the trail. God engineers these "faith opportunities" to draw us closer to Himself.

Like the Schaeffers, it's our goal to teach others, mostly young people, about the faith-walk through life--in marriage, parenting, finances and ministry. The L'Abri experiences Edith wrote about have helped generations of young people. Edith wrote other works while she was alive. One in particular was The Life of Prayer. In it she spoke of touching lives, even future generations with her faith. Here is one example:

“[W]e need to remind ourselves that although prayer is a very personal and private communication with God, pouring out our repentance and sorrow for sin, it is also to be a constant connection with God, an unbroken communication, a means of receiving assurance as to how to go on in this next hour in our work, and our means of receiving guidance. Prayer is also to be our means of receiving sufficient grace and strength to do what we are being guided to do. This reality is to be handed to the next generation, not to end when we die.”

I want to be in the business of teaching others about God and to walk the tightrope of faith. It could be the greatest gift I leave to my children and their children's children. It all starts with saying "Yes" to God!
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References

• Schaeffer, Edith;. 1969. L'Abri. Worthing (Sussex): Norfolk P. ISBN 978-1-85684-025-5  

• Hankins, Barry (2008), Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0-8028-6389-2, pp. 5–59.  

•  Schaeffer, Edith. 1992. The Life of Prayer. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. ISBN 978-1-85684-046-0