Wesley wrote longingly of having a thousand tongues to sing God's praise, while we in the small church might be thrilled to have a dozen show up to sing in the choir on Sunday morning. By definition, small-membership church (SMC) means small choir, fewer voices in the choir and congregation, fewer children in the children's choir, fewer instrumentalists among the congregation to draw upon, smaller budget to fund the music ministry and pay someone to lead it, less likelihood of having a handbell choir, perhaps a greater struggle finding someone to play the organ or piano, and perhaps a smaller worship space. It would be unusual indeed for a small-membership church not to have to struggle with these things as it seeks to worship through music.

Here are a number of suggestions designed to help small-membership church musicians with these and other challenges. It may be comforting to know that our difficulties are not unique. Many of them are common to church musicians in large churches, but on a different scale. And it might surprise some to learn that what we view as challenges or difficulties may actually be strengths.

1. Remember that the primary task of music ministry, regardless of church size, should be to help the congregation give voice to its worship. It is through the singing of hymns that the people offer their expressions of praise and thanksgiving, enter into an attitude of confession and prayer, and learn and pass on the great truths of the faith. How can the choir help the congregation do this? By giving strong leadership to the melody, especially if the hymn is new, unfamiliar, or musically challenging. The choir should lead the congregation, giving confidence to timid congregational voices. The choir can also inspire by musically enlarging the sound of hymn singing through the use of descants or choral harmony. Seek out choir anthems based upon familiar hymn tunes, and allow (or adapt) the choral anthem setting to include congregational singing. If, on a Sunday morning, your choir has eight voices and your congregation has eighty, then you have the potential for an 88-voice choir that morning! A number of hymnals have begun to include congregational settings of some of the more familiar great choral works, including: The Lord's Prayer (Malotte), Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring (Bach), and The Hallelujah Chorus (Handel's Messiah).
2. Music for the small choir can sometimes be difficult to find. Certainly seek out unison, two, and three-part arrangements; but don't overlook the resources of the hymnal. Select a hymn and try some of the following techniques of musical treatment for various stanzas:
   1. Vary singing stanzas by choir, solo, men, women.
      
   2. Add the congregation on the final stanza.
      
   3. Change major to minor on an appropriate stanza, as on the Good Friday verse of "Lord of the Dance."
      
   4. Vary the voicing: women on melody, men on tenor or bass part; men on melody, women on alto; soprano and alto women's voices only.
      
   5. Sing one or more stanzas a capella, allowing choir and congregation to add harmony.
      
   6. Have the children rehearse and sing one stanza.
      
   7. Have the accompanist play one stanza while the congregation silently reads it.
      
   8. Stop the singing and have the congregation, in unison, read one or more stanzas as poetry or prayer.
      
   9. Using the metrical index in the back of The United Methodist Hymnal (p. 926), change the tune of a familiar hymn. For example, here are four familiar hymns that can all be sung to one another's tunes. Or pick one of these texts and sing each stanza to a different tune, using all four: "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" (89), "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" (384), "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (400), and "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" (731).
   
   
3. Let the children sing. Children have their favorite songs from home, Sunday school, and recordings. Find ways of bringing these songs into the church's worship, perhaps by changing some of the words or adding a verse. Encourage children to write their own words to a familiar song or chorus, perhaps as individuals, in groups, or as a Sunday school class; and then include those songs in worship for the whole congregation to sing. In addition to the dozens of books of children's music, don't overlook the Hymnal's resources, especially those listed under "Children's Choir Selections" on page 936. Prepare the children to be the choir one Sunday, giving the adults the week off and putting the children in the choir that morning.
4. Finding instrumentalists is a challenge in small and large churches, but the places to look are the same: adults who once played in the college or took lessons as a child; current elementary, junior-high and senior-high students in the school choir, band, or orchestra; children taking private music instruction. Don't be shy about inviting one or more musicians from other churches in your area to add their talent to your worship on a Sunday morning. Call school and area music teachers, choir directors, and band leaders to request names of students you might invite to play in church. Most teachers are eager to encourage their students to take advantage of such performance opportunities.
5. Exchange places with another choir in your community for a Sunday. This can be especially beneficial if the other choir is of a different ethnic tradition and musical style. You might enlarge this into a pulpit and choir exchange and include the pastors.
6. Combine with another choir in your community, together singing the same music in each other's churches on successive Sundays.
7. Organists and pianists are among the most important of Sunday worship leaders because of the roles they play in facilitating choral and congregational singing. If you're having trouble finding an organist or pianist, look again to community musicians and teachers. Ask area pastors if they have someone in their churches who may help out temporarily. Local piano teachers, even if they won't play themselves, may have students who can contribute. Don't be shy about asking choir directors and organists or pianists in other churches for suggestions, or even to come play for your church on a special Sunday. If you have an organist or pianist who might benefit from improved skills, think about funding a continuing education event for that purpose in the church's budget next year; or consider paying for some private lessons for him or her. Encourage your accompanist to make use of collections of keyboard music for preludes and offertories and for varied hymn accompaniments, and put $100 into your budget for that purpose.
8. Small music budgets: What do you do if you just don't have the funds to purchase all the music you need? There are a number of suggestions:
   1. Use the Hymnal. It is our first and best choir book.
      
   2. Borrow music from an area church or school, and offer to lend some other music in return.
      
   3. Download music from a number of web sites on the Internet. Many of these sites will allow you to download one copy and then make your own, either for free or a fee much less than the price to purchase. This is all wonderfully legal to do.
      
   4. Find and use music in the public domain. Copyright laws can be confusing and difficult to follow, but many (not all) musical works composed more than 75 years ago are now in the public domain. If you have access to one public domain copy, it is perfectly legal to make all the photocopies you wish.
   
   
9. Make your choir a place, not only for rehearsing music, but also of fellowship and nurture. The choir should be a place of mutual care and concern as well as of group celebration of individual and collective joys. Births, deaths, illnesses, struggles, moves that bring new members and send away old friends, new jobs, school graduations, baptisms, marriage and divorces — all should be part of your rehearsal, along with prayer and support for the rest of the church, its leaders, your pastor and family, and certainly the community. The choir that includes these things along with its music rehearsal and worship preparation will be a place of welcome and joy, of laughter and tears, a place of spiritual growth, of healing, of mission, of outreach, and of love. This nurturing aspect of the choir is easier to establish and continue in a small group than in a larger one. It is one of the strengths of the small-membership church.

The choir with only a few tongues to sing can still be an opportunity for rich worship and praise. The limitation of size does not necessitate a limitation of spirit or ministry or potential. It is the privilege of church musicians — whether with a dozen or a thousand tongues — to lead the people in the worship and praise of God. Do it in joy and with expectation, assured that God hears the song on each tongue.

Dean McIntyre (dmcintyre@gbod.org) is the director of music resources for the General Board of Discipleship.

(May 15, 2000)

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