How wonderful it would be if church leaders would trade their emphasis of polished presentations for a compelling call to mobilize every disciple into meaningful service and worship. Equipping the priesthood of believers to become actively engaged requires an emphasis upon education. Worship training is no exception.

There is no greater joy than witnessing this type of transformation, as we regularly experience through the Praise & Harmony Workshops. Our goal is to equip the entire church to be “the choir,” celebrating the fact that everyone’s voice is important.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

No telling how many people have experienced choir in school, university, or have participated in band or another musical program.  These people comprise one group who would easily benefit by a visual representation of the arrangements being utilized in worship.  In fact, you’d be surprised by the number of people who can read music (more than they’ll admit), identifying the proper part as it goes up, down, drops out, etc. Without notation, people are left to ad lib and to “make a guess” as to how the song is supposed to sound.

There are many approaches to worship, and my favorite is to view the entire church as “the choir.”  After all, we comprise a “royal priesthood,” and the joy of singing is a blessing intended for the entire body of believers, not just a select few.

I welcome other points of view. What are your thoughts about projecting notation during congregational singing?

The new Praise & Harmony CD, entitled Only God, contains 25 contemporary worship songs.  As with the entire Praise & Harmony Series, the package is bundled with two CDs; one with the hundreds of worshipers and the second, very valuable Vocalist Training Disk.  The training disk allows people to isolate one part at a time in order to learn how to sing alto, tenor, bass or soprano.  Since most people learn “by ear,” we are excited about this tool that churches are using to teach four-part harmony, even to the non-musical folks.  The training disk makes the process easy, through repetition.  Combine individual (and daily) usage of the training disk with weekly classes (best if everyone sits in their “section”) and you have a powerful combination to make significant strides in a church’s singing, and more importantly, in their overall participation in worship.

There are many solutions offered for the problems that plague mankind; but only God provides the true remedy.  In fact, Jesus confirmed that He is “The way, the truth and the life.”  Join us in celebrating the salvation that is found in the Christ.

“I was so lost, but You showed the way, because You are the way.”

“I was lied to, but You told the truth, because You are the truth.”

“I was dying, but You gave me life, because You are the life.”

“Christ above me, Christ beside me, Christ within me ever guiding, Christ behind me, Christ before, Christ: my love, my life, my Lord.”

“In Christ alone my hope is found . . .”

“You are the holy One – You’re the one, You’re the ONLY ONE.”

So, “You better take the Lord with you everywhere you go.”

Then, you are welcome to expound further in the comments on my blog, as I’m sure there are multiple factors (answers) for most of you. However, IF you had to pick one answer, which would it be? Thanks for taking the time to visit my new blog home! I pray that these discussions can be both interesting and helpful.

As much as I love shaped notes, it seems that all forms of music literacy has been underemphasized in recent decades.  How great it would be to see a renewal of teaching music to the average church member, rather than exclusively to those with special music giftedness.  It has happened before and it can happen again.

Is reading shaped notes a foreign concept to you?