By Becky Ahlberg
It”s no secret choirs are in a state of decline in churches all across the country. Depending on whom you ask, that is good news or bad news. It seems we cannot abide variety in music and worship. We must name the way everyone must follow to have an effective and growing ministry.
If you don”t have a worship team and band, you are just not with it. If you still have a choir, you are assumed to be yawningly old-fashioned, and””I”ve come to hate this word””traditional.
My Worship Team
I have nothing against a worship team. I use one every week. It just happens to be my choir from September through mid-June and then, through the summer, it”s a much smaller ensemble. And I have a worship band: keyboard, rhythm, lead and bass guitars, and drums (including congas). But I also have two flutes, an oboe, clarinet, tenor sax, baritone, two violins, viola, cello, and piano (and am anticipating adding a trombone in the near future). Our instrumental ensemble plays every week . . . all 52 of them.
I wholeheartedly believe in the team approach to worship leading. I just have a bigger team than most, I guess.
Our choir is one of the most effective small groups in our church. Demographically it looks like this: 28 women, 10 men; six teenagers, nine 20-somethings, six 30-somethings, six 40-somethings, eight 50-somethings and three 60-somethings. It”s quite a cross section of the church. Notice that more than half are under 40. It is full of committed leaders: four elders, three ministry team leaders, three youth sponsors, eight Sunday school teachers, and the preacher”s wife. That”s a pretty impressive “lump of leaven” that meets together weekly for 42 weeks of the year to prepare to lead our congregation in worship.
They are anything but ineffectual.
They spend 90 minutes every week in preparation and prayer so they are excellent enough musically to get out of the way of the message. But their service is so much more than singing an anthem. Because our minister prepares his sermon schedule in advance (I have his sermon topics and Scripture references at least six months ahead of the service), we can use anthems that enhance what the preacher says, and also reinforce his message in many other creative and artistic ways.
Because I have the freedom to be creative, we can be expressive in a wide variety of ways, including changing the order of worship regularly. Sometimes Communion is before the sermon, sometimes after, sometimes the very first thing, sometimes the last thing. Sometimes the choir goes out into the audience to lead small groups of prayer. Sometimes the choir does the Communion meditation and leaves the platform to pass Communion throughout the room as they sing. They often help teach new songs or provide the leadership for many of the contemporary pieces that have male/female antiphonal or responsoral formats.
Yes, they are anything but ineffectual.
Our Choir Directors
So why have choirs fallen onto such hard times? Why are they summarily dismissed from the “toolbox” of church growth? The easy answer is we aren”t educating new choir directors. It may be more accurate to title this article, “Where Have All the Choir Directors Gone?” I”ll grant you, there are few things more painful than a bad choir . . . and I”ve heard plenty of them. But that doesn”t mean choirs are ineffectual””just bad choirs.
For 12 years I was on the music faculty at Hope International University. One of our greatest challenges was students who came to be music majors/worship leaders whose only experience was in a youth service. Their only music exposure was to the latest contemporary pieces.
Many had never heard an effective choir. They had not been exposed to any music education in the public schools, and many could not even read music. They resisted anything outside their experience, spiritualized their personal preferences, and had no clue what it meant to have any breadth. (To be fair, there are plenty of older people who have the same narrow perspective.)
In short, we don”t have many effective choirs anymore because we are not exposing our young people to effective choirs. They have absolutely no choral experience. You cannot lead people somewhere you have never been.
Worship teams are a wonderful alternative for small churches or those who do not have the musical personnel to build a full program. They are a creative change of pace for seasons throughout the year. But instead of being just one of many choices, they have become the preferred choice””to the exclusion of all others. It”s cheaper, easier, more manageable . . . and it”s exclusive.
The audition for my choir is notorious. If someone wants to join the choir, I simply walk up to them and check their pulse. If they have one, they are in! That puts the pressure on me to teach and equip them to be an effective part of the choir. I”ve got my work cut out for me, but I perceive that as my job.
And that may be the real problem. More and more of our worship leaders are seen (and see themselves) as producers, not equippers. They scour the congregation for the best talent and then put them in the right places. They are under enormous pressure to keep topping the last “big thing.” Their highest priority is seamless, professional presentation. They hire studio-level musicians, acquire expensive sound equipment and the latest in media, and are constantly looking to be on the leading edge””I sometimes think of it as the bleeding edge””in order to keep up with the Southeasts and Saddlebacks and Willow Creeks.
To be sure, our job is to be an authentic and winsome witness that will draw an increasingly postmodern and pagan world to Christ. We can”t “do church” like we did even five years ago, much less like we did it in the 1980s and “90s. The use of technology and media are imperative to reach people for Christ. Relevant, creative programming is a must. Multiple services require multiple personnel and disciplined time management.
But in our endeavor to be efficient, have we have lost sight of our biblical imperative to equip? In our effort to find the right “up front” people, have we left the ones in the pew to simply observe? We often think only the pros can do anything up front. We have bought the notion that only the polished can be effective for Christ.
If you don”t have choral skills, then don”t lead a choir. But please don”t make it a test of “effective ministry” if I still have one.
Our Goal
God deserves our absolute best. Those of us in worship leadership must insist on excellence from ourselves and from those we lead. But how we define excellence will determine the road we take to achieve it.
My church is located one mile north of Disneyland and two miles west of the Crystal Cathedral. That”s pretty tough competition. Recently, however, I was paid the most wonderful compliment at the conclusion of one of our Easter services. It was given by a professional theater person who is part of our congregation. She came up to me and said, “I”ve finally figured out what it is that I love about how you do things here. It is all so authentically amateur. People do it for the love of it, and it is just so obvious. What you are able to accomplish with untrained actors and singers is amazing.”
For many people, any use of the word amateur would be an insult. We have come to use that word to describe things done poorly. But in this context, she absolutely captured what we try to do: take people who love the Lord””who will give their very best effort, who are teachable, who will follow direction and are committed to excellence””and equip them to be relevant and winsome ambassadors for Christ.
BECKY AHLBERG, is the worship and family life minister at Anaheim (California) First Christian Church. A graduate of Pacific Christian College with both BA and MA degrees, she has served in four congregations””Kentwood (Michigan) Christian Church; Orange (California) Covenant Church; University Christian Church, Los Angeles, California; and North Orange (California) Christian Church””before coming to Anaheim in 1993. She joined the staff there full time in 1997.
She also served on the music faculty at Pacific Christian College (now Hope International University) 1983″“1997, where she was also the director of public relations and assistant to the president. She is executive director of the National Church Music Conference, having served in that capacity since 1997.
She and husband, Dan, have been married for 30 years and have three grown sons.
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