i’m having transitional difficulties
hey guys (and any ladies who might be reading).
i’m sorry to interrupt everyone’s problem-free summer with a problem.
here’s the deal. we have a church that’s half geriatric and half collegiate. how do we combine the two musically? um. well. we just do both.
we do hymns. out of the hymnal.
and we do worship sets. three/four contemporized songs strung together.
but, sometimes we will do a hymn at the beginning or end of the worship set. and those moments get a little tricky.
ie: after singing “How Great is Our God” i will say, please grab your hymnal and turn to number so-and-so. we’ll be singing all four verses of “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.
my question is this: how can i make that “smoother” – less bumpy? less choppy?
and my other question is this: how can i transition from a starting hymn, grab my guitar, and cue the next song (which will be contemporary)?
what would you do? (canning the hymnal is not an option)
How about posting the hymn number in the bulletin or on your screen? That way you don’t have to verbally announce it.
Or how about announcing what it will be before singing the previous song or set of songs? People can have the hymnal ready ahead of time.
Usher: What in the world do we tell her?
Deacon: You’re openin’ up Pandora’s box Usher
Usher: She asked
Deacon: Up to you
Usher: WEll Mandy, what you’re trying to do cannot be done. Even though you think buzzards can’t sing, we did worship for 30 years. Once we found out what we are writing below, we gave it up and resorted to worship amongst ourselves in meetings without liturgies and order, titles and assumed leaders, programs, building funds and goofy directions dreamed up by people who hav never lived in the trenches). It goes kind of like this……
Worship in today’s church is about performance. Don’t be offended if you believe you are a true worship musician. You probably are. Regardless of your heart or intent, it’s not about that, it’s about the platform.
A little history for you…Music in the church (not the worship spoken of in the Word) originated out of pagan and Roman culture in the 3rd century. Choirs were trained and put in place to perform for the Eucharist. Preceding Constantinople’s times, Christians were not recognized, but Constantinople actually made Christianity an honorable thing (prior to his time, Christians were persecuted.
Music in the church also fits into the traditional liturgy established partly by Paganism and partly by the Catholic Church in the 6th century (look up Will Durant) by the monk Gregory the Great. If you study this you will find there is almost no difference between the “liturgy” or order of worship in any denomination of church as we have come to know it (Catholic or Protestant).
So now to the answer of your question: People want what they prefer and no matter how hard you try, blending a worship will lukewarmly satisfy both sides of the fence. Why do people prefer hymns over contemporary? Because they associate their times of being touched by God with music. This is human and has nothing to do with the spirit. Yet, it’s all we can do. We resort to the grand times of the past as part of our human nature (So you want to go back to Egypt?)
Me and Deak call it “death by association”. Typically each generation prefers the music of their youth. Because music has such a short shelf life, you have two or three camps in any church with a large congregation. After you endure the same people from each camp critiquing your worship every Sunday for about 10 years, you’ll come to know that it’s no use. You cannot please man and no matter how hard you try, it will never work. If you resort to pleasing one or the other, the ones you please will stay and the others will be disgruntled at best or simply leave and go where their preferences reside.
Hopefully you’ve made it this far and are over the fact that you’ve probably engaged in something dear to your heart, yet realize that if what we say is true, it could be all for nought. It’s not all for nought! If you are a true worshipper, then worship Christ outside the “church that man has built”. Worship him in freedom outside any order man establishes or pushes on you. Be encouraged in finding those who just want to worship, to sing a new song and not to perform. Your personal relationship with Him is all that matters. The confines you have experienced in this “church that man built” are extreme, debilitating and stifling. The church of the 1st century didn’t know any of these. Today’s generation is finding this out.
God Bless,
Deacon & Usher
Excerpts taken from Pagan Christianity? Frank Viola George Barna (Chapters 3 and 7)Copyright 2002, 2008
We ALWAYS use the big screen when doing a hymn. Sometimes we put the words of the hymn on the screen. Usually we put the hymn name, page number and what verses to sing over a motion background or picture. This makes the hymn seem more of the set.
Most of the time we don’t use the hymnal during the worship set. If we are going to do a hymn (remixed or not) during the worship set, the words are on the big screen. We use the hymnal for song later in the worship service. And even on this later hymn, we use the big screen by putting the title, page # and verses up.
I think it’s all about the little things. Don’t act like there’s a difference between a hymn and praise song. It’s simply a song that people can use to praise and worship God.
Our situation is somewhat similar, except we are probably further down the line on not having half the folks actually using the hymnal any longer.
We put the song service list in the bulletin, and the page number is listed for each hymn in the book. The words to the hymns are still up on the screens for those who don’t want to hold the book.
We tried for a while putting the hymn # up on the screen, but people said they didn’t have time to get to it and maintain a flow. Now, with it printed out ahead of time, I see people who have it open and ready in their hands before we get there.
As for the transitions themselves, I’m blessed with a wife who is literally one of the best pianists I’ve ever met. That said, whenever I need to put on/take off my guitar, or something else, she provides the needed transition on the keys. This may include changing keys, meter, style, etc.
If you can do stuff like this, it might help flow. I’ll admit, not calling out the hymn # is something some folks still don’t like, but the vast majority seems to appreciate the flow.
I would be like, “What? I know the words to both How Great Is Our God and How Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
Baby Boomers and Gen Y’ers: eat it!
Seriously, it is the only advantage that Gen Xers has.
ANYWAYS,
Could you have two leads when you switch from hymns to contemporary? As for the guitar, you can do the traveling guitar folksy rocker thing go on and keep it on your back during the hymns.
From contemporary to hymns, just a heads up in the bulletin would be lovely.
I, as a worshipper, don’t like not knowing the words to songs before service so I go and look them up on our worship team’s website.
Vamps are great for transitions. Have the rest of your band vamp while you are switching instruments – or vamp an intro to the hymn. You can talk over the music giving people the page number and what not.
I love the idea of still using a physical hymnal. Having notes to read can be really valuable and the kinesthetic feeling of holding it in your hand can be a physical act of worship.
If the hymnals aren’t working though, I’d reconsider canning them. Using hymnals because they work is good. Using hymnals despite the fact that they don’t work is not so good.
Personally, I’d ditch the hymnal, & MAYBE (if they feel the need to hold something in their hands) have a small booklet printed with both your hymns & contemporary songs – and of course, also have the lyrics projected… the songs will be in one place, and it’ll ‘weed’ the older folks off of the hymnal, yet not be too totally unfamiliar .
We do not use hymnals but there are times when I feel like I need to say something or pray and am not wanting a lot of action going on musically. During these times we have started using the strings/piano setting on our keyboard. I don’t know if you have a keyboard/keyboardist that could slowly play chords on the strings until you are done talking and ready to start the hymn.? I love the sound and emotion that these strings evoke and our pastor likes them so much that is what he requests now for his altar calls. We got the idea from the conferences we were attending where we would notice that the strings were always playing, even during quiet times of worship. I also like the the vamps, we have sometimes built those up musically and worshipped when we felt the Lord moving. Well, hope that helps.
Great Question Mandy. I typically just transition using the same chords, which is step one. Also, if you are using powerpoint, just have the words on there. I’ve transitioned from How Great is our God to How Great Thou Art. I just needed to fade out a little bit and go right into it. I hope this helps.
Hey Mandy,
Not being facetious but can’t you just keep your guitar on while you’re singing the hymn? My personal tendency would probably be to blend the music a bit more – use the band setup for older and modern stuff. A hymn like Great is your faithfulness I’ve done loads of times from a more modern song – just eased into it gently with an acoustic guitar and got the band to pick it up along the way.
It doesn’t have to be that way though – most important is just being ready to move straight from one song to the other.
Scripture over a musical backdrop can offer a great transition as well – no matter what style you’re going from/to.
One other thought: I respect what you’re trying to do and I certainly think there’s richness and benefit to both hymns and more modern stuff. However, I tend to think that what we do should be centred around mission more than preference. If mission is strong enough it’s amazing how these things have a way of coming together in a way that serves everybody and pleases God. When mission isn’t strong isn’t amazing how difficult it is to please anybody!
Without wanting to sound too harsh, the geriatrics aren’t going to be around for long. If they love Jesus then the love of making disciples and reaching the next generations will be greater than the love of the hymnal. Not saying we shouldn’t be doing all we can to serve the older folks and help them worship as well. Just saying the focus and the reasons are important.
Worship is firstly about loving and serving God. There’s something awesome about doing it in a way that causes the number of worshippers to multiply greatly – brings God all the more glory.
I wouldn’t bother with the hymnals. Just display the words on screen like you do with the contemporary songs and go straight into the hymn.
Also, consider mixing contemporary with the chorus of a old hymn. This can work amazingly.
I would imagine you could project the name, hymn number and page number AND the words. Warn the congregation beforehand that you will project hymn numbers above the hymn if they prefer to use the hymnal. There is an issue with allowing time to find the hymn and I would imagine that you would be sensitive to that and work in a transition in some way. If you are wanting to use a hymn as part of a set, you would have to make this clear before the set. Not idea, but probably the best way to keep the transitions smooth and allow use of the hymnals.
The guitar change is very tricky without a thought out transition. Presonally I would avoid this kind of change without one. I would talk to the congregation – lead them into the next song or, as has already been suggested, use other musicians, if available, to play or use Scripture. I find it really useful to imagine/play my whole layout through my head before I start practice with the team. It helps me to think through the issues well ahead of time.
I love the previous idea suggested of using the guitar with the hymns, but I’m aware that you may be playing another instrument for the hymn?
We have a blended worship service and it is working very well. After going to a worship conference, I came back and during the announcements, I talked to them about the worship conference that I attended. I explained to them that there are different kinds of worship and we would be experiencing some of the different kinds of worship at our church. I talked to them about it being okay to like and dislike different styles and if we do something that they dislike, just bear with us during that song and hopefully we’ll do another song that they will like. I explained that there are different kinds of people – some people like to dance and swing when they sing – some people like to raise their arms – some people like to just tap a toe – and some people like to stand still while singing. All of them are okay and none of them are wrong. I explained that if you see someone dancing and raising their arms and it’s not your style, don’t squash their mode of worship. You worship your way and let them worship their way. That was the jist of what we learned at the worship conference. So back to our service. Anyway, we start our service with the prelude. Then the preacher welcomes new visitors and does the announcements. Then we Share the Peace of Christ with others. That is followed by our Opening Hymn on the organ, followed by the Call to worship and the Invocation. We then have a “praise set”. We will do a series of 3 praise songs. I start with more upbeat songs and til the third song try to come back down in volume and speed to lead into the scripture. Followed by scripture we have our special music and then our children’s sermon. Next is offering. I play an offertory and after the offering we sing “We Are An Offering”. Next the preacher asks for joys and concerns. After the congregation gives him any prayer concerns, we sing a praise song. Then the preacher prays while I continue playing the praise song. This is followed by scripture and then the sermon. After the sermon, we have our closing hymn, the benediction and then end the service with a praise chorus, followed by the postlude.
It is very possible to have a blended worship service. You just have to work on looking where you are throughout the service and where you go next. For example, in our set of praise songs, I start out lively to create some enthusiasm but I come back down on the third song to lead into scripture. Just an example. Think about where you are going. You don’t want to be doing an upbeat rock Christian song right before the sermon.
Just look through your whole service, and pray. God will lead you in the right direction. There have been many times where He places the right songs at the right place and I am just amazed at how it all works (not by my hands but by His!)