Church Music and Church Planting

(Image from tinyfarmblog.com)

At the moment in my church scene there's a big emphasis on church planting, and I'm excited to see a bit of it starting to happen.

But in a church plant (especially if you begin with a really small house-church-sized congregation) the statistical chances of having talented musos (see previous post) really start to work against you. If you have a core team of 20, the chances that one of them is a previously undiscovered Jonny Greenwood are pretty low. Even if you consciously pick your core team so that you have a few musos, chances are you're running a bit of a skeleton outfit at least at the beginning.

With this sort of thing in mind, I thought I'd try to offer a few tips about doing music well when you don't have many resources. Since I'm a guitar player, these tips will mostly revolve around using guitar for singing in church.

Now, trying for the stadium-sized Hills-style 'worship experience' when you're short on resources is:

1. Going to fall flat without the professional musicians, mega-lighting rig, etc.

2. Going to feel pretty inappropriate for the 9 of you singing in Mike's loungeroom.

But, provided you steer well clear of the dreaded 'Kum-ba-ya' aesthetic, I reckon a single acoustic guitar (and small bands based around one acoustic guitar) can do a lot for a small church plant starting out (or for established churches with very few musicians). It helps if the player has some ability, but hopefully these hints will be helpful even for people who haven't been playing for that long (since I'm a hack myself, don't expect rocket science).

So stay tuned for a few low-key church music suggestions.