Garrison Keillor, Singing, and the Church

This week at the church has been very hectic, as are any weeks when there is a funeral to plan.  Longtime member, Charlie Piper passed away on Wednesday, and in preparing for his service in addition to other Sunday activities, I have been unable to blog. 

In an effort to still post something this week, this is a post I put on a former blog I kept while in seminary; this one is from May 1, 2011.  I believe its contents are fitting with last Sunday's Music Dedication Service

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On Sunday mornings after I finish leading worship at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, I get in my car and drive down to Decatur, where I sneak in the back of a worship service at another church where my wife Rebecca sings in the choir.  I attend the second service to support her, worship with the community, and I enjoy going to brunch with our friends afterward.  On my drive between churches, which takes about 25 minutes, I typically listen to NPR, which features A Prairie Home Companion in Atlanta on Sunday morning at 10:00.

Many people know this variety show that combines current events, old-time radio schtick, and musical guests into a hodge-podge of hilarity and sometimes confusion for listeners.  I was particularly intrigued today, however, to notice how frequently Garrison Keillor, the host of the show, sings for the various skits and parodies of songs performed.

Keillor is a funny guy and has a nice voice but he is by no means a trained professional singer.  I love the fact, however, that each week he puts his voice out there without making apologies for it.  I find it refreshing in a world where we think if you aren’t trained as a musician your role is to serve only as a listener.  Even shows like American Idol, which appear to celebrate musical talent, provoke laughter from audience members who hear the scathing reviews of poor singers by the judges.  Keillor, however, seems to make it okay to be an average singer, and without saying anything about it, he is encouraging others to sing with whatever voice they have.

Now I listen to this show between two worship services, so it is not difficult for me to connect this thought to life in the church.  I am passionate about congregational singing and figuring out ways to enhance congregational participation in the music ministry of worship.  Many people in the pews, however, seem to struggle to engage in the music of worship.  I do not know if it is out of boredom with old tunes and words, memories of ridicule they have received, or a worry that someone sitting near them might hear them, but many people who gather for worship only timidly engage in the music.  It may also be tied to the fact that our worship space is set up in a way that resembles “proscenium theatre,” where in many cases there is a clear distinction between “performer” and “audience,” and in many plays the audience are only passive observers.  This happens with preachers and choirs in many of our sanctuaries today, wherein the congregation gets lulled into being observers instead of participants in worship.

I see this happen regardless of the worship “style.”  In more “contemporary” services singers with microphones and instrumentalists with pianos and guitars dominate the singing, and there seems little work on the part of worship planners to engage the congregation beyond inviting them to “sing along” in a way similar to the way fans sing along with artists at a rock concert.  I believe the exact same thing happens in more “traditional” services as well, where a choir stands at the front to lead the singing, often making it appear (and this is done unintentionally) that the good singers join the choir and “the rest of us non-musical people” sit in the congregation and enjoy it.  This differentiation is only furthered when congregation members say to a new member or visitor with a nice voice, “You have such a lovely voice.  You should join the choir.”  As though no one in the pews could possibly have a nice singing voice (as I said, this is unintentional but implicitly promotes this distinction between “singers” and “non-singers”).

The “professionalization” of music in our culture, I believe, has rendered Christian worshipers helpless in many situations.  They doubt their own ability or find singing intimidating or removed from their experience.  We will sing alone in the car or in the shower, but the minute another person might hear us, we become worried about how our singing might be perceived.

And that’s why I’m grateful for Garrison Keillor.  He is not a professional musician but he sings week after week on national radio, singing whatever song he and his crew have written.  I wonder what doors could be opened in the church if we invited “mediocre” singers to help lead us in singing, showing that no professional training or education is required to sing to God but simply a willingness to try and to celebrate the voice God has give each of us.