Who’s the Most Important of Them All?

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(This post was written prior to 2016, in a blog entitled “Jubal’s Jottings.”)

Church musician, Carlton Young, once made an important observation. “We tend to treat the choir as if it were the congregation; we should, instead, treat the congregation as if it were the choir.” What a great statement! Liturgical scholar, James White, added that we have moved from “liturgical music” to “musical liturgy,” and that our approach to music should move from that of “sacred music” to “pastoral music.” I like these thoughts! More hot buttons for me! White further states that when music “…is not an integral part of the service, it cannot help being entertainment….” The use of music in worship needs to be holistically relevant, “rather than gems of choral or instrumental music dropped into it.”

Whether the worship style language is traditional or modern, my observation is that there are a lot of isolated artistic events in worship…performance driven, not connected to other service elements, observer oriented…. If we take Young’s statement to heart, then we would refocus our attention away from the platform and onto the real choir – the congregation.

Jubal, can you see it now? No platform…just the people of God together in song!

Author
ed
Ed is a composer, conductor, orchestrator, worship consultant & educator, and author. He has been a director of a music institute at a seminary, a worship & arts pastor at a large church, a music professor at a university, and has written orchestrations as a profession. Ed has also traveled the world, sharing the gift of music in places like South Africa, Romania, and Argentina.

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