Music and Faith in a Post-Secular Age with Jonathan Arnold, on Music and the Church Ep. 41
Music and faith, music and belief – what’s the difference, and how can music illuminate our lived experiences of faith?
Music
9 Benedictions My Choir Is Singing This Year
Does your choir sing a Benediction every week? Mine does during the program year, although it’s called a “Benediction Response,” since it comes immediately after the pastoral Benediction. It’s been surprisingly challenging to find pieces that work for my choir, since the pieces must be a cappella, as well as relatively short and easy. For …
10 Introits My Choir Is Singing This Year
Does your choir sing introits? My choir sings one almost every week during the program year, and I love how they can highlight a service theme and set the mood. Plus, they’re a great way to teach new congregational hymns. What is an introit? In the broader sense, it’s a short choral piece sung at …
An Easy Way to Create Hymn Sets (plus 10 Sets to Get Started)
I’ve been holding out on this post because…it seems obvious? Like making a hymn set should be really straight-forward, and why didn’t I try it sooner? But maybe you’re like me just a few months ago: I thought creating hymn sets – also know as medleys and song sets – would be tricky. And I …
An Easy Way to Create Hymn Sets (plus 10 Sets to Get Started) Read More »
Public Ministry, Personal Faith, and Church Musicians (plus a bunch of photos from my trip)
What a fun trip last week for the Christian Congregational Music Conference and the Three Choirs Festival – I am SO jetlagged, even after sleeping 9 (!) hours last night…. Here are some photos from my trip, the fantastic choral music I heard, plus an overview of my talk at the conference.
Hymns: In Hymnals? On Screens? (Paperless?!) on Music and the Church Ep. 40
Hymnals and screens often get a knee-jerk response. Supposedly, either hymnals are for old fogeys or people staying true to the faith. And either screens are for people who hate hymns or people who want to use current tools in the church. But if we get past the surface arguments, we can explore what the …
Hymns: In Hymnals? On Screens? (Paperless?!) on Music and the Church Ep. 40 Read More »
Is ANYBODY listening to the words?
Do you think people listen to song lyrics? Maybe? Maybe not? How about congregational singing: do you think people pay attention to the words they’re reading and singing? Honestly, I’m not convinced most people pay attention to the words, whether or not they’re singing or listening to someone else sing.
The New Thing I Wear at Church
Let’s talk about earplugs. Do you wear them to church? To concerts? To rehearsals? Until recently, I didn’t wear them – and I didn’t know that “musician’s earplugs” existed.
Forget hymnals. The issue is accessibility.
I love hymns. I can sing hundreds from memory. I’ve been a church musician for 20 years, always in churches that used “traditional” hymnody. I even did a PhD dissertation focused on Christian congregational music. BUT. I don’t love hymnals.
4 Hymns I’m Programming for Pride Month
In honor of Pride Month, here are the congregational songs of extravagant and affirming welcome that I’m programming at my church. The congregation knows these songs already because I’ve been introducing them throughout the past year. So singing them them all this month isn’t a drive-by acknowledgement of Pride Month, but an extra emphasis on …