[Mavsfan41]

as a college student who studies classical music and also plays modern worship and aspires to be a full time minister in the future, where do you guys see the role of a choir and such in the present church as well as the future? and, with that, what role do you guys think more classically oriented songs should play?

[Joe F]

I have to work with the choir I inherited from when our church was traditional hymns only. I also have to incorporate a classically trained pianist. This works out great when we still do traditional hymn services once a month. As we've moved into the contemporary realm however, both have been a challenge that sometimes wears me down. Many of the most popular modern music is not choir friendly and the repetetive simple chord progressions of say a song like "Everlasting God" leave a classically trained concert pianist wondering what to do with themselves.

Still, with lots of prayer and God's help, we manage to pull it off. Having a choir does make it take substantially longer to introduce new songs as my folks range in age from 17-63 with a wide range of musical skills or lack thereof. It takes a great deal of practice to get them all singing somewhat together. When we do have those monthly hymn only services however, I wouldn't do it without them. As far as what role "Classically Oriented" songs should play, I limit them to the prelude and an occassional offertory performance just to let the pianist stretch out a little. Once in awhile I will even accompany her on violin. Depending on your service format, I'd think there could be place for classical performance and that it could be quite beautiful. I'd just be cautious about becoming too performance oriented. Our primary goal is the engage the congregation in the act of worship, not entertain them.

With regards to how a high church choir sounds in a contemporary setting, here is a recording of us from Easter. Disregard my guitar being so out of tune. I had done a sunrise service in 29 degree weather about an hour earlier and my strings continued to go flat for the rest of the day. My hands didn’t seem to warm back up for awhile either! Keep in mind that this is a former high church singing choir, a classical pianist, a beginning bass player and a drummer whose been playing about 6 months now. God is good!

My Savior My God - Choir Style

[RainCaster]

My wife and I play in the praise team- lots of modern stuff- Brenton Brown, Lincoln Brewster, Matt Redman... Mrs. RC is also the leader of our "traditional" worship team- a small vocal ensemble that does acapella pieces, so I sing there as well. We use a lot of Zoe Group material, it is mstly modern worship songs done in a more traditional way. OTOH, the praise team does modern versions of traditional songs as well- look to Paul Baloche for some excellent examples of this.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Mavsfan41

as a college student who studies classical music and also plays modern worship and aspires to be a full time minister in the future, where do you guys see the role of a choir and such in the present church as well as the future? and, with that, what role do you guys think more classically oriented songs should play?

That's a very difficult question to answer since its sort of implies there is just one "present church." In reality every single church as a a different make up and a different style. My "contemporary" church in Texas is very different from my "contemporary" church in South Carolina. A church where the average age of the attendees is 72 is going to be very different from a church consisting of primarily of families. Likewise a small Baptist church in a small town in the deep south will probably have a very different feel from a church which meets on University of Texas campus. The role of a choir or classical songs would be very different in each of these churches.

On a personal note, in a year and a half when I graduate from Bible college there is a chance I will be involved in planting a church near a college campus. If this happens one of my responsibilities will be the worship band. I can't imagine a situation in which I would use a choir. And I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to when you say classically oriented songs. I'm all for using hymns. However, I would almost certainly do them in a modern style to match more modern material. I'm not really a big fan of genre hoping worship bands. Unfortunately that also tends to lead towards a homogeneous crowd, which I don't like either. I'm not sure what the solution is though.

[trpullen]

I think there will be a large pendulum swing back at some point in the future. Most likely not back to "traditional" as we know it but I think knowing how to lead a choir will be a good skill....if for nothing more than adding lots of vocals for special occasions.

[Athanasius]

Our church is kinda lumped with the "emerging" crowd - we're generally 20-40 year olds who have generally grown up outside of the church or who have been outside of it for a long time (with several exceptions of course). We have a rockin' choir.