Worship Renewing worship for the 21st century



An Interview with John Ferguson
Q: What are the greatest challenges in church music today?
A: I think there are two great challenges before us today. Number one, how can you be both a servant of the word and of the people you serve? Often the difference between those two positions is a big challenge. Number two is the enormous upheaval in worship practices since Vatican II and the drastic changes and varieties in worship styles. We need to look at ourselves and say it is okay to be different from the church down the street. Often the questions "do we need to change" or "are we doing something wrong" fall on the shoulders of the church musician.

Q: Is there a pendulum-swing going on in church music today?
A: Yes, in some ways I believe there is. I think there is some movement back toward the middle, away from the extremes of some contemporary Christian services. The large cultural swing to a more self-centered, narcissistic attitude makes the comment "if I go to church, what's in it for me?" even more likely to impact us today than say 30 years ago. Yet, in spite of this trend, I see more people being willing to ask again what worship is about and for whom is it done. When the focus moves to a real examination of these questions, there does seem to be a move back towards the center.

I also notice a growing realization that much of the contemporary Christian style has become a big for-profit business with all its associated glitz and marketing designed to sell product. The desire to sell product tends to encourage producing "disposable" music. After all, if one produces a classic, there is less incentive for people to purchase something "new." I think that occurs more in the contemporary market than in some of the more traditional marketing practices. This contemporary hype is causing some people to sit up and say "wait a minute, let's think about what we're really trying to sell here."

Wisdom I gained from an experienced church secretary in Ohio long ago: if a specific, local church is no longer meeting God's needs for it, it shouldn't stay open. However, if we are muddling along and faithfully ministering, we don't need to panic. We may not be doing what some other bigger or smaller church is doing but we are meeting the needs of the congregation at this location.

Q: What is the main role of the choir in worship?
A: This is difficult, because it involves human nature. Experts say the role of the choir is to be the leader of the congregation's song. Sometimes [that might mean] singing things the congregation cannot. Most liturgical definitions can be limiting: alleluia verse, offertory, hymn stanza, with little thought to the anthem, but in many choir rehearsals the anthem is the first thing on the agenda. To say that our job is to sing the liturgy, not anthems, is not realistic. If we ask people to give up a night every week, they want to present something that they work hard on, and find some fulfillment in doing. You need to do both, an appropriate, fitting anthem along with the liturgical music. And sometimes the anthem can fulfill a liturgical role. We have done F. Melius Christiansen's Lamb of God as part of our Lenten services. We sang it every week in Lent - making it as beautiful and memorable as we could. It functioned as part of the liturgy.

Q: What is the key to keeping the choir happy?
A: Choir members need to feel good about themselves. They have to have a reason for being. Choirs have to fulfill their responsibilities and gain fulfillment from doing that. It's a social time, but it?s our work and understanding of our work that gives us delight.

Q: How do you make aging choirs sound great?
A: Being older doesn't mean you can't sing and sing well. Helen Kemp and I were clinicians at a Church Music Explosion a few years ago. I was asked to provide the morning worship programs and I asked Helen to be the cantor for a cycle of Morning Prayer liturgies. Helen was in her seventies and sang beautifully. When I asked her how she did it, she replied, "Good singing is good singing at ten, thirty, fifty or beyond." Maintain high standards; don't let them get sloppy. Understand, there will be breathing issues and phrasing issues. With older singers you trade good choral experience for age issues. Now and then just remind them what good singing is.

Q: How do you attract the "thirty-something" age group?
A: Offer something of substance. Of course, I'm not directing a church choir, but then I'm not directing "God's choir" at St. Olaf, [the St. Olaf Choir], so I have to offer something to attract students. More directors err on the side of not being demanding enough of their singers than being too demanding.

When I was at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis the choir grew to ninety members. They came because they were being challenged. They came because they understood that the choir's mission as a servant to the worship life of the congregation didn't require a compromise on musical excellence either in repertoire performed or performance standards. I think the growth of community choirs, shows that we have many singers who are unsatisfied with church choirs not being challenging enough, so they are going outside the church for more satisfying musical experiences. Of course the danger is we don't want to frighten singers with too much challenging music. The simplest anthem can still be an occasion for the pursuit of musical excellence. Even if we don't achieve that excellence (and since we are all human we may well not), we can grow and thrive in the process.

Q: Is there hope for the future of young organists?
A: Oh yes, we have a waiting list at St Olaf of students wishing to study organ. The interest in the organ is high here. I do hear colleagues at other schools talk about the organ student shortage, but it's really more than that, because we're not seeing a lot of piano students either. Playing organ/piano is not very social for a high school student. Practice time is long and is alone and that's a struggle. There is no immediate gratification from doing things together in a group as there is for those singing in choirs or playing in ensembles.

I do believe that the worst is over. Churches are realizing that if they desire a good organist, they will have to compensate appropriately. Thirty or forty years ago you had an abundance of the organist/homemaker. Now, women who used to be on the bench are the lawyer/home-maker, and don't have time to do the organ thing anymore. We see more male organ students now than when I joined the faculty in 1983, because women have many more career options. At St. Olaf we currently have about twenty-five organ students, not all majors but all interested and enthusiastic.

Q: What makes good worship?
A: Something that adds integrity through a liturgical shape - my definition of liturgy is pretty broad - faithfulness to a pattern that has integrity. Some concern that the congregation has a voice, usually a sung voice. When people feel strongly about something, they sing. We were created as singing beings, humming to a child, keening over a grave.

Good worship is worship that includes singing, theological substance, and liturgical integrity. There should be a rhyme and reason for what is happening.

Good worship is focused upon God, not us, an important factor to remember these narcissistic days.

Q: What are your personal challenges at the moment?
A: St. Olaf Chapel is all torn up now as we put in a new organ. So every day it's a new challenge, "Oh, by the way the choir risers are gone."

Figuring out what it is I should be doing and not be doing. I always try to do too much. The Northfield community is full of overachievers who take the protestant work ethic to the limit.

Should I write a book? I have two offers. Which one do I do? And I must finish these Gospel Acclamations for Augsburg Fortress!

Q: Do you see differences in students today from when you started?
A: I think students are better prepared in different ways, but have slipped in some basic competencies like reading, writing and 'rithmetic. Musically better, socially more sophisticated. Better educated in a broader spectrum of curriculum. For instance, I just heard of a school offering paramedic training - this is great, but I do worry - when do they have time to learn to read and write?

However, at St. Olaf we don't see a real cross-section of America's youth. They come to St. Olaf, because it's St Olaf. They come because of our strengths.

When I came here, I felt the general caliber of students was better than at the state university where I taught, and I still feel that way. Again, in conversations with my colleagues elsewhere I find a consensus of agreement that we are seeing a "dumbing down" of entering students.

Q: Who are some of your favorite living composers?
A: That's terribly difficult. Are we talking about what I sing at St. Olaf? Andrew Carter and his British wit, John Tavener (who very few church choirs could do) and his rich sonorities. Most of what I do is not stuff that a typical church choir would do, except for my own writing, since my choir here is my laboratory. For instance the Gospel Acclamations - which I'm writing for AFP, we are using with the choir now, so I can see if they really work as I imagine them to be.

Composers and arrangers that most church choirs should have some experience with, I would suggest: René Clausen, Keith Hampton, Andre Thomas, David Cherwien, K. Lee Scott, (one of my favorite tunes is Shades Mountain). Brad Ellingboe has a real knack for arranging. Ken and Carolyn Jennings are still writing wonderful stuff. Carolyn gives refreshing buoyancy to her music. Ken has the greatest set of ears for how a choir works, and it's reflected in his writing - a real sense of sonority. Charles Forsberg's, Fairest Lord Jesus, is a wonderful piece. He knows his craft of composition.

Every good choir should try:

  • All You Works of the Lord, by Ken Jennings, is one of the greatest pieces written for choir in the late 20th Century and stands up there with Benjamin Britten's Jubilate Deo. Too bad it is not more universally known.


  • E'en so Lord Jesus Quickly Come, by Paul Manz.


  • Wake Awake, by F. Melius Christiansen - enormously rewarding for the singer and the congregation but requires a good choir.


  • Sing something of John Rutter - Deep Peace of the Running Wind and All Things Bright and Beautiful.


  • Something from the Renaissance: Almighty and Everlasting God by Orlando Gibbons; If Ye Love Me by Thomas Tallis. The choir director owes their choir these experiences.


  • Lamb of God, by F. Melius Christiansen.


  • Brahms, Magdalene: a quiet Easter piece available from GIA in a fine new edition by colleague Robert Scholz. Most Brahms is too difficult for most church choirs but this one is not.


  • Mendelssohn's, How Lovely are the Messengers and He Is Watching Over Israel.


  • A movement from a Bach cantata: some are not impossibly difficult.

However, the role of the church choir is not spending all the rehearsal time to learn the cantata, because how would you prepare for Sunday morning? It's a balancing act. We are dealing with amateurs and volunteers and can't do hard stuff every week, but choirs should sing a little Vaughan Williams, Britten, and Howells. As well as things cited already.

Hear more thoughts from John Ferguson at one of our Summer Music Clinics coming in July and August of 2006.