We have just released a brand-new Cantus Christi audio companion, titled Worship in Harmony. In a nutshell, this new product is designed to help families and congregations learn to sing the Psalms and hymns from the Cantus in four-part harmony. You can read more about it here.
But we also felt that it was important to explain why we’ve taken on this project, and why we believe that learning to sing in harmony is worthwhile. So, we asked some of our local pastors and friends to write short pieces on this subject. This article, our first, is written by Pastor Toby Sumpter (Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, ID).
Congregational singing can be one of the most glorious or most appalling sorts of experiences. Especially in smaller congregations, there may be a few trained voices and ears, but many in our generation have not grown up learning to sing psalms and hymns, much less sing in four part harmony. But this is a pursuit that many of us have undertaken, and it really should be seen as central to a recovery of a robust reformational catholicity. Not only was the ancient practice of congregational singing recovered in the Reformation, there was a certain way of being catholic that was recovered in the reformation. As the Reformers themselves insisted over and over again, they were not interested in founding a new church, rather they were seeking that one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church that had been lost or obscured somewhere along the way. Singing harmonies in four parts is a wonderful picture of the kind of catholicity the Reformers and many of us today are trying to live out. The Scriptures are the music that God has called us to sing, and you are called to sing a particular part, in your context, in your community, in your church, and in your family. And as you sing that part to the glory of God and to the best of your ability, it becomes a blessing to others; it harmonizes with the other parts and makes a glorious sound. At the same time, there will be noises that periodically erupt from a rambunctious bass section that no one wants to claim as being part of the music. There will always need to be periodic shakedowns of the choir since Christendom is a messy place to live. But we are the saints that God is gathering into his heavenly Jerusalem with all our spots and wrinkles, tone deaf and all. But Christ doesn’t leave us that way. He is washing us with water by the word, teaching us to sing and turning our messes into music. The point is that God would have us learn to be content in our places, working to make our parts glorious, working to bless the altos and tenors down the street or next door or in the pew behind you. Learning to hear the music is called faith. And by faith, we sing our part trusting the One who will continue to build His Church until we sing in four parts, until our dissonance becomes harmony.