‘What do we do if we’ve only got one musician?’
This is one of the most common questions I’m asked by church pastors. Even though I work for a relatively large church which is well resourced in terms of musicians, there are some weeks when the flurry of apologies makes me feel as if I’m the only one left!
Nil desperandum
‘Don’t despair!’ is where I’d start, however glib it sounds. If the word is preached faithfully, and the congregation is responding in praise to God and in encouragement of each other, then even if there are no musicians at all, the Lord is powerfully at work by his Spirit. Having a dearth of musicians isn’t the greatest problem. In fact, I do know some church leaders who would prefer to have no instrumental musicians at all.
Glibness (but truth) aside though, here are some things which may help, and I’m going to start with the obvious.
1) Pray. We need to trust Jesus for his answer, which may be that we need to learn to cope with just one musician or no musicians. Alternatively, his answer may be to provide us with lots of really accomplished musicians, but who test our patience and godliness to the limit!
2) Ask. From experience, the public advert in church notices isn’t hugely effective. Often the best recruiting is done by non-musical congregational members ‘dobbing in’ someone they’ve stood next to who sings really well. Every now and then I’ve asked congregation members if they’ve noticed anyone who they think sounds like they may be gifted musically. The musician may not be grateful for the shove, but don’t worry about that – we need to encourage people to use the gifts God has given them to serve the church!
3) Offer training. There may be some people who learnt an instrument when they were younger, but who have since lost their confidence. There are plenty of church music training courses which, though they may not be theologically robust, will offer practical help. It might be an investment to offer to support this training, and would be a modest cost financially. Also, look to a more well-resourced church and ask if any of their musicians can help in training – a great way to encourage churches to work in partnership. However, from experience, it’s not great practice to ‘borrow’ musicians regularly from another church. This has all sorts of knock-ons. First, the musicians can feel as if they don’t belong in either church family. Second (and related), there could be lifestyle and disciplinary issues that are easier to hide when serving at different churches. Third, unless the visiting musician trains up other musicians in the receiving church, then no-one is really served in the long term, especially if the musician leaves, putting the situation back to square one.
4) Using non-believing musicians. You will need to have decided already whether you value the quality of music so much that you’re willing to compromise on the spiritual standing of the musicians. For some this is a very hard call to make, but it’s worth having a clear idea about how you want to proceed in this area. Many churches use non-believing organists, choirs or bands. To maintain integrity, they should be paid, just as the church would pay for a plumber or lawyer working on church business, as this will also make it easier to finish the arrangement if things get out of control. (I discussed this issue in ‘The Music Exchange’ , en August 2004. Now I’m feeling old, so I’ll move on.)
5) Using backing tracks. This may not seem ideal, and in some cases may discourage musicians from serving, but as a short-term solution it can work very well. There are lots of songs and programmes that are downloadable for this purpose. However, I would still suggest that someone leads the singing to help the congregation praise God and encourage each other corporately.
Ultimately though, we can praise Jesus and encourage each other in song with no instrumentalists at all (as was the practice in the church for hundreds of years). We oughtn’t to feel pressured into thinking that having just one musician makes us deficient as a family of believers. This way, we might even feel confident to give that one musician a week off every now and then!
