Is There a ‘Right’ Music for Congregational Singing During Worship?

Answering this question is full of challenges, but I would like to suggest that there is such a thing as ‘right’ music for congregational worship.  The question is, ‘Will I, or anyone, convince anyone else about this?’  After all, if ‘beauty’ is in the eye of the beholder, and if worship is one’s gift to God, who is to be so bold as to say that this or that is ‘right’?  Perhaps the best way to proceed is with a serious of questions that others might explore further.  My own understanding of what ‘right worship music’ is will, I hope, come through by how I phrase these questions.  I do believe that there are cultural, generational, and personal tastes in music that need to weigh into some of the answers.  Yet this does not mean that anything goes—not at all.

So, here are twenty questions that I think are important to answer.  In fact, I think that the ‘right’ answers to these questions would lead us to ‘right’ music for congregational singing during worship.  The right answers might just revolutionize the kind of congregational singing that has come to characterize so many churches in the past thirty or so years.  I certainly hope so!

1. Where should musicians be placed in a church building?  Does placing a worship ‘team’ on a stage in front of the congregation make worship more of a performance than a support for congregational worship?  Does the worship team support the congregation or the congregation support the worship team?  (And what happens to our worship when we say 'support' rather than 'lead'?)
2. Is congregational singing suppressed rather than enhanced when new songs are frequently introduced?
3. What are the characteristics of worship music written to be sung by a congregation versus music written to be sung by a single person, band, or choir?  Should the goal be for the congregation to sing together?
4. Should worship music be sung to God?  Should it be about God and what He has done?  To what extent might it be about my/our experience, concerns, and faith?
5. Should worship music help believers to know Scripture (especially the Psalms)?
6. Should worship music help believers learn the Christian faith (theology)?
7. How important is it to use Church music that connects generations and contemporary congregations to the historic faith?  (If so, then a conservative approach to the music selections—choosing hymns and songs from earlier times—might play a significant role in tying contemporary believers to the historic Church.)
8. Should worship music be contemplative, helping people meditate on God?  Does this strengthen believers’ faith?
9. Should congregational worship music be emotional, stirring the heart?  If so, what sorts of emotions are appropriate?  (Joy, exuberance, thanksgiving, sorrow, etc.)  When is emotion manipulative or fascile?
10. What is the purpose of a choir for singing?  Perhaps choirs can help stir a congregation to worship through beautiful music, whether sung only by the choir or leading the congregation in singing.  Perhaps they constitute the church’s ‘singers’ who play a role in learning songs and teaching the congregation the songs of the Church.  And perhaps they bring the congregation into their worshipful experience of the music that they have had from earlier practices and times of prayer during the week.
11. Is music a certain ‘place’ believers ‘go’ in worship in the sense that it is good to have a section of the service devoted to singing instead of intersperse singing with other things—talking, prayer, introductions, etc.?  That is, does singing allow a congregation to enter into worship such that it is not as effective if mixed with other things?
12. If things like contemplation and group singing are important, are some musical instruments more helpful than others?
13. Who should choose music for a worship service?  If music teaches Scripture and Christian faith, should not choices be made by theologically educated persons in the congregation?  If worship music is educational (learning the songs, learning Scripture, learning the faith), then should not the same person keep track of what is sung and when?
14. While standing might be the better posture for singing, is it always the best posture for worship music?  (It might be difficult for persons in pain and with mobility issues, and it might be better to sit or kneel with meditative music.)
15. What are the different benefits of worship words on a screen and words and music in a book?  (Screens have allowed people to introduce new songs regularly—is that at all a good thing?)  Songbooks can be taken home and used in the home—they bring sacred music into the home, and they provide an approved collection of music to be learned by the congregation.
16. Should music be a major means of teaching children the Christian faith?  If so, some carefully selected songs should be learnt by heart rather than treating children’s singing as simply a time to sing some Christian songs.
17. How loud should worship music be?  (Who would have ever thought this question needed to be answered?!)  I think this question calls for some suggestions.  The answer to this question is surely about the sound that a congregation makes in singing if it is congregational worship rather than the performance of a worship band with electric instruments, microphones, and speakers.  It is surely about what constitutes reverence to God and allows meditation.
18. How should worship music be related to the rest of the service?  While some seem to think that the first song should be more energetic and contemporary, perhaps the first song should be a call to worship.  What about the relationship between what we say in song and what we say in prayer?  Which songs are appropriate for other parts of the worship service—before the sermon, in response to the sermon, and during the Eucharist?
19. How important is singing for discipleship?  Some people cannot hold a tune or have little appreciation for music.  How can they participate in worship expressed in music?  Too many churches have so restricted worship in contemporary times that there is little more than three songs and a sermon during church worship.  How can recovery of more elements of Christian worship help to include more people in worship?  Would simply listening to certain singers sing at certain times during the service help those who do not sing enter into worship through music?
20. Is it possible to use music to draw people closer to God?  This involves using music for more than ascribing worth (‘worship’) to God, learning the Scriptures, or even meditating?  Pentecostal churches used to use music at the end of the service to ‘tarry’ before God, seeking Him, listening to His voice, and praying.  (The demand for shorter services has often curtailed this definitive practice of earlier Pentecostalism.  A similar practice is known in Baptist churches with altar calls.)