Roughly twice a year we host a class called, "Intro to Good News," where we share information about the philosophy of ministry at Good News Church. Over the years of doing these classes we've had some music-related questions that have come up enough that I thought it would be a good idea to write out the answers and share them with everyone.
These are in no particular order.
Who picks the music at Good News?
This question comes up quite a bit, and I think that the motivation behind this question can determine how I answer it. For instance, someone might come up and phrase the question like:
My son came home from Youth Group this past Wednesday and I heard that they sang "It Is Well." Do you know who picks the music at Good News?
Or another time they might say:
The music this past Sunday really spoke to me. It's like it was picked just for me. Do you know who picks the music at Good News?
As you can probably tell, the question that each person is asking isn't the same. Person #1 wants to know who is responsible for determining what's allowed to be sung. Whereas person #2 wants to know who selects the songs we sing on Sunday mornings.
Here are my answers:
- Who is responsible / in charge of determining what's allowed to be sung at Good News Church? That person is me. I have the veto power to prevent songs from being sung at Good News. However, do know, that I have used that power sparingly. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to assert it.
- Who selects the songs we sing on Sunday mornings? You might be surprised to know that this isn't 100% me. We have a team of musicians that contribute to what's being sung corporately. Lance, Charles, Josue, Tyler, Tori, Chara, Chris, Rick, Amber, Kristin, Jalaissa, Nikkee, etc... They often will send me songs that speak to them or songs that they think would be a good fit at Good News. I will then make the first determination of whether I think the songs are theologically true. After they pass that test, we will try to look ahead and see where the songs might fit into our schedule. We'll work together toward integrating those songs in a service.
NOTE: Let me take a moment to talk about something tangentially related. It's important to make the distinction that I try not to let my personal preference of music style be inserted too heavily into the process of song selection. Notice I said music style not theology. When Good News first started I tended to only pick songs I liked and enjoyed, and while I don't think it's sinful, I stopped doing that years ago because what needs to be sung by everyone on a Sunday morning rarely lines up with my musical taste. I'd say I probably only like 75% of the songs we sing, maybe less. I think it’s important to realize that there might be 1-2 songs that we sing on any given Sunday that I may not like, and that’s ok.
So, to sum up, we have a team of people selecting songs for Good News, but I have the ultimate "veto" power if I feel I need to use it. I think this helps us to more accurately reflect the congregation as a whole when we sing together, and not just "Kennon’s Top 10."
Why don't we have a choir?
There are many churches that have choirs, and that's fine. At Good News though we choose not to have a choir, because the congregation should be the choir. I didn't make that up. I read it in a book years ago, but it's always stuck with me. You, as a congregational member, are supposed to be actively engaged in singing on Sunday mornings. This is two-fold:
- The Bible tells us as Christians to sing. We are to actively glorify God with our voices.
- It's important for people who visit Good News to see everyone singing. This helps reinforce that Sunday mornings aren't a spectator event.
Why don't we sing more hymns?
I want to start by saying that I think hymns are great. They are often times theologically rich, and they are steeped in church history, which is why I love them. However they are musically quite dated. If a theological truth is especially important for us to sing about, I try not to let musical style get in the way. But because of our mission statement that says, "we exist to ... love people who don't know God yet," it's important to try to be relevant to American culture (specifically Marion County) with the style of music we play. We need to be missionaries. We need to be a boat in the water, not on the shore. We don't want to be so relevant that we forget theological truths, but we don't want to forego musical trends either. So we do work hymns into the rotation but generally we try to spruce them up a bit so that they don't sound like we're singing something from the 1700's.
But hymns are more recognized and easier to sing!
This is usually the response that I get back after I answer the initial question.
Interestingly I believe this is only true for a specific demographic. Take a moment to think about the music you hear other people listen to and how they act when listening. If you do, I think you'll admit that almost every single style of music that you hear others listen to is also sung by those people. Whether they're humming the tune, or reciting the lyrics. Nearly everyone sings.
It turns out that whatever you listen to on a regular basis is what is easiest for you to sing. Crazy right? I know this to be personally true as I've gone to concerts where people next to me are belting out the lyrics to a song that's being unintelligibly screamed at the top of the vocalist's lungs. I've seen people in videos recite an intricate rap that was just released on a new album days, or weeks, earlier.
The thing is humans are musical creations. We sing, and it often doesn't matter what the source material is. It just needs to be familiar to us. Because part of the vision of Good News Church is to reach people who don't know God yet, we need to be mindful of what they are familiar with. So, when someone visits on a Sunday morning, we try to play songs that sound more like what they are used to hearing on the radio.
I hope all of that information was useful and helpful to you. 😊
