Music and the Church with Sarah Bereza

Interview: Contemporary worship music is often billed as the same style of music people listen to outside of church. But Dr. Mark Porter's new book, Contemporary Worship Music and Everyday Musical Lives explores how this is often not the case, and argues against the idea that music is a neutral canvas.

Try This at Church: Invite people to join the choir for just Christmas or Easter. They get the opportunity to sing without a long-term commitment, and you get a strengthened choir on days of the year when many regular choir members are likely to be traveling.

In the Field: The acoustics of a church building can make or break your music. Crawford and I discuss ways to embrace the space you have, change it to suit your preferences, or, you know, just throw up your hands and say, I want to do the music I want to do.

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Resources we mention: a blog post on theology and church buildings' designs (Richard Cullen Rath has insight on this in How Early America Sounded). And miking the piano means you can play softer congregational accompaniments—read more on pages 225-6 of my dissertation.

Follow Mark on Twitter and check out his website (which has links to many articles he's written—this one on Christian congregational studies is really useful if you want to understand what researchers are studying.)

A resource Mark mentions: Jeffery Summit's outstanding work on music in contemporary Judaism.

Interview: Dr. Swee Hong Lim and Dr. Lester Ruth discuss their new book Lovin' on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship.

It's an exploration of the origins of contemporary worship—including contemporary worship music. In our conversation, we discuss the implications their research has on church music today: What should traditional church consider if they want to add a contemporary service and will it attract young people? Can blended worship services have integrity? And how do different theologies of worship shape church services?

Swee Hong Lim is the Deer Park Associate Professor of Sacred Music at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, and he is also the Director of their Master of Sacred Music Program. You can read more about his research here and find some of his hymns here.

Lester Ruth is a Research Professor of Christian Worship at Duke University. You can read more about his work here and follow him on Twitter here.

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Resources We Mentioned:

C. Michael Hawn, Gather Into One: Praying and Singing GloballyJames F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship 

Try This At Church: I finally got lay-flat spiral binding on my big music books! Super cheap, super easy, and my page turner will never have to spend an *entire* postlude holding the book on the music rack. Crawford and I also discuss the pros and cons of copying music and taping it into manila folders.

Interview: Dr. Yun Kyong Kim, organist and choir director at Christ Episcopal Church in Dayton, Ohio, discusses her approach to directing a choir while also playing the organ, planning her repertoire and hymnody, and crafting organ recitals to make the most of an instrument's unique sound and acoustic space.

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In the Field: Crawford and I discuss our approaches to planning hymns, choir anthems (especially for a volunteer choir), and instrumental music.

Curious about singing hymns alongside a lectionary's Scripture readings? Check out this post.

Resources we discuss: 

Post-It Full Adhesive Roll (what even?! I can't believe I've been ripping up post-its all these years!)My favorite resources for planning hymns with a Lectionary: Hymnary and UMC DiscipleshipHal Hopson's "I Lift My Eyes: Psalms 121," a two-part anthem to have in your back pocket for snowy days when only a few folks can get to church.

In this Music and the Church Moment, Dr. Jonathan Dueck discusses the relationship of congregational music-making with being the Church together. For the rest of our conversation with Jonathan, check out Episode 1.

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Try This at Church: Does your church like brass on Easter Sunday? Don't wait to book your musician(s)—schedule them now!

Interview: Jonathan Dueck, Vice President Academic and Academic Dean at Canadian Mennonite University (Winnipeg, Manitoba), discusses his new book, Congregational Music, Conflict and Community. It's about the worship wars in three Canadian Mennonite churches—and how statements of belief ("I believe this so I sing that") turned into reflections on beauty and relationships, a perspective he describes as an aesthetics of encounter.

In the Field: What responses to national tragedies can music leaders incorporate into services? Crawford chose different hymns and untexted music with a solemn association, and I introduced my prelude by inviting the congregation to pray the hymn with me as I played. Let us know what music you have found helpful in times like these—we are preparing a resource document that we'll make available in a few weeks.

Listen to Jonathan Dueck discussing music and being the church in this bonus episode.

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