I’ve been thinking a lot about introducing songs at church recently. It’s one thing to write and play songs for albums … but to be honest introducing songs at church still makes me nervous.

For a start, there’s what songs to choose. I’m excited about a song we introduced recently at St A’s - Hosanna by Brooke Fraser. It’s an incredible song - Steph and Alanna sang this song recently at a church in Denver, and there was not a dry eye in the house. It’s beautiful; a rare alignment of stunning melody, poetic words, great teaching and an easy to sing melody. For somebody who has decided not to commit herself to the “Christian Music Industry”, she is doing a pretty good job at serving the church while also maintaining an impressive secular career. A true light to the world.

But will the congregation get into it? In my (small!) experience much of it depends on how well the song is led. I’ve had absolute killer songs which I know work well in many places absolutely bomb out at my own church. And once a song bombs in the first week, good luck trying to get the congregation on board ever again!

Here are my thoughts on what makes the difference between quiet success and spectacular failure.

1. Make sure the band and the song leaders know the song inside out.
The fact that I even have to say this is a little bit worrying. But our church is still confused about the melody and structure for some songs because they were introduced incorrectly. And nobody will follow uncertain leadership. Every melodic phrase, every word, every turn in the form should be second nature. Be prepared to put back introducing it for a week or two if it’s not ready!

2. Get the KEY right!
So here’s a little tip… I can’t sing as high as Chris Tomlin. Many of the songs you hear on worship albums are recorded in the best key for the vocalist. Which makes sense. But don’t expect it to be in the right key for your congregation. If your guys are happy belting out a double E above middle C, all power to them. But at my church we need to take it down a tone (or three!).

As a general guide here are the ranges of different denominations:

Here it goes…

Okay just joking. But whenever I introduce a song I do make sure I scan through the music and see if there are any high notes which will be problematic. A brief stab at a high note for a second will be uplifting and with the right encouragement and strong leadership your congregation will get there. But don’t expect them to hold long high notes!

Keep in mind that you can’t go too low either… it’s a very difficult balancing act to make sure that Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses are all happy singing the same melody.

3. Give your congregation permission to learn it slowly
For a long time I was totally against the idea of playing a song any differently the first time. But I’m slowly being won around to the idea that sometimes it might be good to play a song differently. The most obvious thing to do is play it as an item once so they can hear it and not be expected to sing straight away.

Or an even better way we’ve been experimenting with is playing through the whole song on a single guitar or piano (we find it gets people focusing on the melody more and they pick it up easier). If your crowd is slow to catch on, you could even try playing each section of the song (”that was great! now this is the bridge…[play it]… okay got it? now try it with me [play bridge again]”). It is a bit like a music class, but sometimes it can be helpful.

4. Make sure the time is right.
Part of the art of a good sermon is knowing where your church is at… are people struggling with trusting in God, or are they distracted by worldly temptations? A good pastor will know what word to bring them. In fact, it’s a gift: prophecy!

Likewise the right song at the right time in a church’s life can be amazing and moving and just what people want to sing. Music is all about connecting with where people are at emotionally, and our music has a spiritual element as well - so if it’s not right they simply won’t pick it up.

As for Hosanna… the band practised it for hours, they carefully introduced it to us, it was in a good key, and it really spoke into our meeting at the time… I think it went down great!

Over to you blogosphere… any advice??

In the last week I’ve had the great pleasure of playing piano at two great events - the Burn Your Plastic Jesus event at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and Engage 08 conference at Katoomba. Mark Driscoll (www.marshillchurch.org) spoke at both events.

There was a huge amount for everyone to process at these events. But one thing that Driscoll said after the events at a talk he gave to clergy at the Cathedral was that he thinks Sydney Anglicans have much to learn from the charismatics about how to run big events. The way we do things, apparently, is really weird: breaking up the night with interviews in awkward spots, music peppered through the night without flow … etc.

He described us as suffering from a “not invented here” syndrome, where we refuse to welcome ideas and techniques which have their origin in other traditions or places. If the charismatics know how to run great events — he went on — then what is stopping us from ripping them off?

At our church we’ve just started fiddling around with the order of service. Trev (who has recently taken over running the music from me so I can focus on my work as a trainee youth pastor — praise God!) suggested that we put the songs into two blocks. One small one (2 songs) at the start and a bigger one (3-4 songs) after the sermon (so we can respond to the word in song).

That’s how they normally do it at other more charismatic churches he has been involved in. And it works. It really does. We had the best singing I’ve ever heard in an Anglican church the other night. Loud. Meaningful. Focused.

What else can we learn from other churches?

At a worship music training day on Saturday the issue of physical expression in public worship music came up. I had been suggesting to the band I was working with that their body language on stage was an important way of leading the congregation towards praising Jesus (and not towards being distracted by, or discouraged by, the musicians on stage!)

Someone said that they would not feel comfortable raising their hands in their Church, which is a fairly conservative (theologically AND culturally) church in Sydney.

I’ve been musing on the comment ever since. I came across this very helpful blog and mp3 posted on Bob Kauflin’s site about the Psalmist’s physical expression of praise. He asks this:

“Is there any physical expression of worship that God has given us in Scripture that you’ve never displayed? And if so, why?”

Check it out here…