Music in Worship

You might be surprised that you are over halfway through this MicroCourse on worship leading, and we have yet to talk about music. There is a reason for this! 

Worship is about the whole service, not just the music. The prayer should be worship. The sermon should be framed in worship. Communion is certainly worship. The whole service has a trajectory that is worship. The music is just one piece of that overall purpose and mission.

A MicroCourse is not the place for a comprehensive discussion of music as an element of leading worship. Nevertheless, Pastor Jolicoeur gives a few basic tips.

1. First, he provides tips on picking keys for songs. Here he points out the tension between keys that are typically comfortable for the congregation (middle range) and keys that tend to feature the gifts of the worship team vocalists. He calls this contrast the difference between keys that are comfortable versus catalytic.

   His advice is to diversify. Have some worship songs that draw more on the giftedness of the singers and other worship songs that are more comfortable for the congregation. In that way, their participation is more likely while the congregation can also experience the uplift of gifted vocals.

2. Second, he discusses the tension between “eyes open and eyes closed” leading. The eyes here symbolize the degree to which the worship leader is seeing and aware of the congregation and the degree to which they are individually connecting with God.

   Both have value. When the leader is caught up in worship, they are implicitly pointing the congregation Godward. Yet the leader is leading the congregation, so engagement with the people in front of him or her is important too. He or she is worshiping God while also leading other people to worship God.

3. Finally, he mentions what he calls “underscoring.” This is the music that happens to accompany the other things that are happening. For example, there can be music going on during the offering. There can be a light musical background during an altar call or the concluding moments of the sermon. There can be music at the beginning and ending.

   Pastor Jolicoeur calls this music a kind of “glue” that is underneath what is happening. It can be powerful because we humans are not just rational beings. We are affective and emotional too, and this musical background can contribute to the atmosphere of worship without being manipulative. It is something to pay attention to.