How one church peacefully negotiated the worship wars

They were a delightful young couple on their honeymoon who, visiting from interstate, worshipped with us one Sunday morning.
Afterwards, as we drove them back some way to their residence, they told us they were involved in a church plant in their home town. They expressed a particular interest in our supplementary hymn book (“Sing Together!”) They were excited to hear that we had compiled it ourselves, and even more so that it had been produced without creating division in the congregation.
They were keen to hear how we avoided the trauma of the worship wars that often accompanies such an undertaking.

I realise there is much more to the worship wars than just what you compile to sing in a supplementary song book. But the principles we employed then apply across the board in all of worship and in whatever is sung – whether from a book or a powerpoint.
So, for the benefit of any others who may be interested here is an expanded version of our conversation, going deeper into the background.
For the sake of clarity I will put this in question-and-answer form.

How did you go about tackling this issue?

“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” (Jas 4:1)
Over the years I have heard from numerous folk who have been hurt by, or even forced out of, their church by a leadership that put the “desires for pleasure” of one demographic in the congregation above the importance of theological “truth” and a “spirit” of reverence in worship (cf John 4:24).

This is highlighted when it comes to what we sing since, while all are to participate in every other aspect of worship, singing is the only activity in which all in the congregation have the opportunity to lift their voices together to praise God.
Hence, it is important that all in the congregation take ownership of what is sung and that they thereby willingly and deliberately join in.

David Jones, one time pastor of Ann St Presbyterian Church in Brisbane, in an article on “Blessed Change”, gives the following good advice in introducing any change, eg. in what we sing in worship:
“For change to happen, good clear communication is essential in both directions. It involves listening and receiving feedback from everyone involved.
“Aim for consensus. Aim for unity. Aim to bring everyone to a common mind regarding what you are seeking to achieve.”

To achieve such a consensus we established a standing Hymns and Music Committee (HMC) to look at the whole range of “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19), that are sung in worship.
Our aim was to get the best possible input from members to improve hymn singing in worship.

What was the makeup of the committee?

The Committee of eight church members included four men and four women; age ranges were: two in their 20’s, one in their 30’s, two in their 40’s, two in their 50’s, one in their 60’s. Among these were three accomplished musicians, and others who knew varying amounts about music. It also included two of the four elders.

The makeup was deliberate as we wanted to represent all ages and backgrounds. Each member of the committee was there, not just to give his or her own opinion, but deliberately to represent other members of the church with a similar background to them. Other members were encouraged to have input via those on the committee.

This all seems a bit unwieldy. Wouldn’t it have been more efficient for the leaders of the church simply to have chosen the hymns to be sung in worship?

Yes, I probably would’ve favoured going about things that way earlier in my ministry. When I was younger I had a different approach to leadership.
But one purpose of this blog is to share with you what I have learned from my mistakes, especially from my earlier ministry, including from my involvement in earlier versions of the worship wars.

But I have learned that leadership is not so much about telling people what’s good for them, as it is identifying with all those you lead and then seeking, by all means possible, to take them with you in a good way. Even if it takes more time, it is always better for a church to move forward together, than to be dragging others behind you.

This is especially so when it comes to worship: as leaders we are limited in the extent to which we can empathise with the thoughts and feelings of all those involved and it is important to be engaging with a broader representation, such as via the HMC.
Of course, the leadership still has to approve, or otherwise, the recommendations of the HMC since the leaders have to accept ultimate responsibility for the way worship is conducted

But does that work? You cannot expect that everyone will always come on board.

Of course there will sometimes be problems; not everyone will be convinced, even when you are patient.
But if a good leader is to be patient in seeking to convince the most recalcitrant (2 Timothy 2:24), surely we are to be even more patient with genuine Christians who have genuine concerns. Also, we need to be prepared to rethink our approach where a significant number of our people have concerns.

This is particularly important when it comes to worship. Worship is the most important work we engage in as a church, and the most obvious one that we engage in literally all together. It is very close to the heart of all believers.
It was therefore stressed with the HMC how important it was to keep up good communication with the rest of the congregation so that they would know what we were doing, and so that any who wished could also have input. The congregation need be involved in, and own, decisions about worship.

Everyone has his or her own preferences in worship. If you involve everyone in the decision making, even if it is through a committee of eight, it will be chaos won’t it?

The chaos of personal preferences can be largely avoided if everyone is clear as to the criteria being used to gauge the form of worship. Then, if anyone has a concern, he or she would be required to show how it violates the criteria, and is not just a matter of personal preference.

The Westminster Confession states that: “There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God… which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence”; but adds that everything must still be “according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed.” (WCF ch 1, §6)

When it came to the HMC choosing hymns the following criteria were collectively agreed upon as “according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed” :

The WORDS of what we sing need to be:

• Biblically sound (2 Timothy 1:13 etc)
• Theologically significant, not trivial (Philippians 4:8)
• Thoughtfully understandable (1 Corinthians 14:15)
• Thoughtfully arranged (1 Corinthians 14:33,40)
• Focusing attention on God and His works, especially His work through Christ (Romans 11:36, Colossians 3:1-2 etc) – though this could include a focus on our response to God and His works

And, over a period of time:

• Reflecting the balance of Biblical truth (Acts 20:27)
• Reflecting the balance of Christian experience (cf The Book of Psalms)

The MUSIC we sing the words to needs to be:

• Appropriate for worshipping a great and holy God
• Reflecting the mood of the lyrics
• Singable by a congregation

In fact, we added one more practical qualification during the course of our meetings: we also agreed not to include any Hillsong compositions (see further on this here), as we believe the influence of that organisation has been so much to the detriment of true worship we should avoid any association with it.

What tasks was this standing committee entrusted with?

The HMC had a fourfold brief:

1. To investigate a new hymn book or corpus of hymns (our current hymn book was by then out of print)
2. To look at revising/ expanding the current supplementary hymn book (this evolved into “Sing Together”)
3. To look into issues surrounding musical accompaniment (spreading sound around, alternative instruments etc.)
4. As an ongoing task, generally to give helpful input into how music and hymns are used in our church

How did the committee go about these tasks?

For the sake of brevity, let me just address the second of these:

After a new hymn book had been chosen, over a period of a number of months everyone in the congregation was invited to submit suggestions for any further hymns they would like to see sung in worship.
Altogether we received 156 submissions.

The committee members were given the complete list and asked to consider each one, both words and music. Each member gave their judgment, including reasons for rejecting a song, using the above criteria.
We worked our way through the entire list, discussing a set number of songs each meeting, considering each one’s judgment and reasons.
We agreed to include those songs where all (or, almost all) agreed to their inclusion; then thrashed out any concerns with the remainder.
Eventually, by this means, we culled just over half of those suggested, and ended up with a collection of 71 songs.

How well did the committee work together?

From the beginning we were exhorted:

We all see music and hymn singing as an important element of our worship, and for that reason we all feel a degree of passion for this matter. That is good, and how it should be. But for that reason these matters also sometimes generate a lot of heat nowadays (and, probably have ever since the human race began to sing in worship).
It is therefore understandable that we will each bring to the table some strong views in some areas (while there will also be other areas in which we humbly acknowledge we don’t know a lot).
At times our discussion may be “lively”, even “robust” (what delightful euphemisms these can be); but let us always be aware that we are all striving for the one goal, i.e. to encourage a tremendously diverse congregation to worship God with one mind in a way that He delights in, as well as being edifying to ourselves.
If, as a congregation, we can achieve this we already have a powerful witness as a church to the power of the gospel, Ephesians 2:13-22.

In concrete terms this will mean:
– as elders, we don’t look to the committee just to rubber-stamp our own idea of what should be done,
– as musicians, we genuinely respect that our own carefully developed notions of what makes “good music” may need to be adjusted,
– as young, or old, we don’t insist on a style based on personal preference alone etc.

It was in that spirit that we met together and, apart from one or two early teething problems, everyone worked together very well.
I personally looked forward to our meetings together.

Would you do anything differently?

No matter how well a process works, we can always learn and do better.

• If I were to do this over again I would involve the congregation even more, eg. invite comments of the final song selection before the songs were actually published.
• Also, it would be good if the HMC were able to revisit “Sing Together”. Not only to add some further songs, but no doubt to exclude a few that it would have been better not to include.

“Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”              – Colossians 3:14–17

Let us: Sing Together!