Songs to teach the faith: songs to keep the faith

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Observation 3
Church Three Observation Report
10th July 2005

Once again, we received a warm welcome at a church where all the research team were well known to various members of the congregation. For the third week running we were observing a Common Worship Sung Eucharist and the similarities between the three churches, in terms of this research, were beginning to become clear.

Church Three are serious about ministering to their young people, so much so that just over a year ago they hired two youth workers - a husband and wife team - to live and work in the parish. This move, which sparked great interest in many other local churches, is already proving fruitful and the numbers of young people attending church there, particularly of secondary school age, have grown considerably. Church Three have a similar number of adults attending as Church One (around seventy on a normal Sunday) yet our observations showed that Church Three had almost double the number of young people in attendance (30) as Church One (16). So, here we see loads of children - but did they sing? Perhaps they would if they got the chance.

Like Church One and Church Two, Church Three have a Sunday School that monopolizes the children for most of the service. Here, however, the separation is even more distinct. The church has nowhere on site for the young people to meet separately, so instead they meet in a separate building, a five minute walk down the hill. The young people gather at the hall, and remain there in their groups (more about them later), joining the congregation for the final hymn only. During this hymn, the 3-9 year-olds go to the back of the church and have juice in the tower. They are not given hymn books or expected to participate in the sung worship in any way. The 10+ age group sit together in the north aisle, furnished with hymn books and the expectation that they will sing. The end result is that by the end of the service, ten out the thirty young people present have been enabled to sing one hymn (and only six of them sang confidently).

As I mentioned earlier, the youth work in this parish is taken very seriously. I was keen to establish, therefore, what the young people do in their groups while the adults are in church.

The leader of the 3-9 year-olds is a keen advocate of Godly Play and this is incorporated into her work with the children. Every session also includes about fifteen minutes of singing time, the songs being chosen from the list below. There is no provision for live music and rather than singing unaccompanied, the children sing along to CDs.

The 3-9 year-olds' Body of Song

Bailey, J. (1995) 'I Reach Up High' in Spring Harvest. Kid's Praise'95 (audio recording on compact disc) Eastbourne: ICC
Bing, M. (1998) 'Heel and Toe' in Myles Bing. Jesus…You're the Best, vol.1 (audio recording on compact disc) OuT LouD Publishing
Bing, M. (1998) 'Run and Jump' in Myles Bing. Jesus…You're the Best, vol.1 (audio recording on compact disc) OuT LouD Publishing
Brentwood Kids Company (1993) 'Hallelujah Hop' in Brentwood Kids Company. Hallelujah Hop. (audio recording on audio cassette) Brentwood: Brentwood Music
Hardwick, J. (1997) 'God's People' in Spring Harvest. Kid's Praise '97 (audio recording on compact disc) Eastbourne: ICC
Hawthorn, P. (1988) 'Jesus, Jesus, Here I Am' in The Lighthouse Album (audio recording on compact disc) Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88
Hemming, J. & Hemming, N. (2002) 'Our God is a Great Big God' in Spring Harvest. Kid's Praise 2002 (audio recording on compact disc) Eastbourne: ICC
Horley, D. (1993) 'We Want To See Jesus Lifted High' in The Lighthouse Album (audio recording on compact disc) Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88
Kendrick, G. (1997) 'From Where the Sun Rises' in Spring Harvest. Kid's Praise '97 (audio recording on compact disc) Eastbourne: ICC
Mullins, R. (1988) 'Our God is an Awesome God' in In the Lighthouse (audio recording on compact disc). Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88
Pearson, A & Pearson, P. (1997) 'Wake Up and Praise the Lord' in Spring Harvest. Kid's Praise '98 (audio recording on compact disc) Eastbourne: Daybreak Music
Price, A. (1994) 'We Praise God in the Morning' in In the Lighthouse (audio recording on compact disc). Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88
Price, A. (2003) 'Father God, I Come To You' in In the Lighthouse (audio recording on compact disc). Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88
Price, A. (2003) 'Life is like a big wide ocean' in In the Lighthouse (audio recording on compact disc). Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88
Pye, C. (2001) 'Clap Your Hands Together' in Colin Pye. Wide (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Pye, C. (2001) 'For God So Loved The World' in Colin Pye. Wide (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Pye, C. (2001) 'Lord's Prayer' in Colin Pye. Wide (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Pye, C. (2001) 'Wide' in Colin Pye. Wide (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Pye, C. (2004) 'If You Want To' in Colin Pye. Unique (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Pye, C. (2004) 'Trust In The Lord' in Colin Pye. Unique (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Pye, C. (2004) 'Unique' in Colin Pye. Unique (audio recording on compact disc) Little Kingshill: Red Sun Music
Smale, I. (1985) 'O Lord, You're Great' in The Lighthouse Album (audio recording on compact disc) Great Missenden: Lighthouse 88

It is worth noting that none of this material is used in church (the pew hymnals being Common Praise 1), nor are any of these songs in the idiom of those that are sung by the adult congregation. Whilst this particular body of song may serve to give the young people a taste of singing Christian songs together, it offers nothing that would help them to feel included or enable them to participate in the singing when they get into church for the last hymn. However, tapes of instrumental versions of more traditional hymns are played quietly during FOG's prayer time (Morning Has Broken, Amazing Grace, etc.) allowing the children to gain some familiarity of the well-loved tunes of their congregation.

In the past the children sang along to tapes to perform these songs in church, but latterly the performance model has been (rightly) shunned. FOG also sing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'. Once again, I heard the old lament that it is difficult to find songs where the language is both suitably accessible for the children and acceptable to the adults.

The leader feels strongly that children should not be expected to sing that which they are unable to understand and has chosen the above list with the accessibility of the language in mind. Some of the songs are valuable teaching tools, offering easily digestible nuggets of the faith that can indeed teach the children something of God. Colin Pye's 'Wide' and 'For God So Loved the World' are fine examples of this. 'Wide', always exuberant, is a great song through which singers pray for one another as they point to someone their prayer is for in each line of the verse. 'For God So loved the World' takes this well worn scriptural truth and makes it personal - 'Jesus is for you' …

(Pye 2001)

Less commendable is Myle's Bing's 'Heel and Toe' 2. In 'Praise and Worship in Kids Ministry' 3, Bing recommends, 'simple not silly songs' (author's emphasis) - but if this is not silly I don't know what is:

Is this really going to help children to enter into a meaningful relationship with God? 'Heel and Toe' is a prime example of where children's ministry has gone seriously awry, offering cheap entertainment in place of opportunities to enter into dialogue with God.

I am grateful to the leader for her in-depth sharing of the 3-9 year old's body of song and her willingness to discuss her work there. Church Three are one of the few churches observed where singing is routine in Sunday School and any enjoyable experience of singing together has to be better than none. If, however, some of the well-loved hymns of the adult congregation were also sung in the Sunday School there, the young people's integration into adult worship would perhaps be easier and feel more natural.

Chadwick & Dakers (eds.) 2000 Back to text
Bing, M. (1998) 'Heel and Toe' in Myles Bing. Jesus…You're the Best, vol.1 (audio recording on compact disc) OuT LouD Publishing Back to text
Bing, M. Praise and Worship in Kids Ministry. Online. Available from http://www.mylesbing.com [Accessed 22 September 2005] Back to text

Observation 3 Church Three Observation Report 10th July 2005

The 3-9 year-olds' Body of Song

Observation 3
Church Three Observation Report
10th July 2005