Praise band at West County Christian Church, Chesterfield, MO

The last twenty-five years have brought about the most significant changes in contemporary Christian music that churches in America have ever experienced. Previously, churches would quietly go about their Sunday morning worship as the piano and organ played and volunteer worship leaders waved their arms to mark time for the congregation. The choir would occasionally back the worship leader and would certainly be there to present their Easter cantata, but traditional hymns were the accepted songs of worship all across America.

Today if you walk into almost any church across the nation, you will see the stage or choir loft filled with a variety of instruments including keyboards, guitars, and drums. Signs in front of churches state the times for both traditional and contemporary services. Many churches no longer have pews, an organ, or hymnals. The praise band has displaced the grand pipe organ, and the worship team has replaced the volunteer choral leader. Significantly, today's praise music is first and foremost guitar-driven. How did we get to this point, and how do today's musicians and congregations deal with such changes and the inevitable friction associated with them?

In the early 70's we began hearing names like Andrea Crouch and Keith Green. Bill and Gloria Gaither and the Gaither Vocal Band were also drawing people to faith with a new style of worship music. People from all churches and denominations were going to Christian concerts to hear The Imperials, Keith Green, Sandi Patti, Amy Grant, and Michael W. Smith to name a few. People were longing for music that could relate to their daily lives. They enjoyed the revival atmosphere and the passion they sensed in these new songwriters and performers, and they wanted more of it in their lives and in their churches. The so-called "Jesus Movement" in California brought in another new age of simplicity as young people, some even barefoot, simply brought their guitars to church and began lifting their hands in worship.

Maranatha Music www.maranathamusic.com/ and Hosanna Integrity Music www.integritymusic.com began putting out new kinds of music books to assist local churches in using "praise choruses". Many churches began using overhead projectors that morphed into Power Point presentations, and have now evolved into even more sophisticated forms of visual worship using DVDs and live streaming video with lyrics. We have realized that "one size doesn't fit all" in worship any more than it does in a pair of shoes.

Songwriters like Chris Tomlin, Darlene Zschech, Paul Baloche, and Matt Redmond, are turning out music and CDs that include some of the most used songs in our churches today. While traditional hymns of faith taught us deep theological truths, the praise songs of today speak with emotion and emphasize a relationship with a living, personal God.

Twenty-five years ago, serious debate was given to the question of whether nontraditional instruments should be used in our worship services at all. Some ventured to employ the piano as well as an organ while others sang a cappella and sought total simplicity. We have come to realize that in the Bible, all kinds of musical instruments are mentioned, the tambourine, the lyre and the harp among others- and people even danced as they sang. The Bible also speaks of people raising their hands in worship.

Today, church sanctuaries in America are filled with the sound of every imaginable instrument. Through contemporary worship we are seeing people who are experiencing God anew or for the first time as they respond to classic songs like "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" or "How Great Is Our God".

As a high school student I played the piano with the organist (my mother), and today as a worship leader I have the privilege of playing with a praise band and praise singers every week. I play an electric keyboard with my fellow praise band members consisting of two acoustic guitarists, an electric guitarist, a bass guitarist, drums, hand percussion, and a variety of instruments such as flute, trumpet, violin, and saxophone which rotate from week to week. Of course, we also have a core group of skilled vocalists and many of the instrumentalists sing as well.

We use multiple guitars to obtain a variety of sounds and full, layered complexity. Our electric guitarist often supplies creative fills and various pedal effects. He may also play lead on certain songs. Our trumpet, sax, violin, and flute players also alternate in carrying the melody or supplying a harmony part. Some songs may be keyboard-driven and others may be guitar-driven, depending on the requirements of a particular song. Variety in style and sound is part of the freedom imbued in the arranging process for each song. Working together as a team is a must and we all know when we have been successful as an ensemble or somehow missed the mark.

This is an exciting time to be involved with Christian or secular music. Every year, new technology comes out which greatly expands our capabilities. For example, at West County Christian Church in Chesterfield, Missouri we presently use Roland's top-of-the-line V-DRUMS electronic drum kit. These futuristic looking drums can be fine-tuned for volume and sound quality and can render a variety or realistic percussion sounds. The ability to balance the sound of the Roland drums with the rest of the worship team is very paramount. We also use electric keyboards rather than an acoustic piano as keyboards never go out of tune and can be easily balanced with the other instruments.

The personal monitor mixing and audio networking systems by Aviom www.aviom.com/ are another new feature which we have found to be particularly helpful. With an individual control panel and headphones or monitor, each instrumentalist or group of singers can establish their own settings and hear exactly the mix they want through their own monitor. Recently, I've been wearing headphones as I sing and play the keyboard. I can run my own mix through the phones with the Aviom mixer. In the right ear I can hear my voice and in my left ear I can hear a mix of voices and instruments set at levels of my choosing.

We also use a computer program called Easy Worship www.easyworship.com/ that runs all of our onscreen lyrics and visuals. It is very user friendly and a great new resource for us. In the days of hymnals we really didn't have to deal with licensing issues but as lyrics began appearing on screens such issues were unavoidable. Churches that use modern-day songs must report them to Christian Copyright Licensing International [CCLI], an organization that monitors use of contemporary praise music.

CCLI has come out with some very helpful resources for churches. They post online the top 100 praise songs in America for each season. As a worship leader I can go to this website and see what songs are most often sung throughout the nation. In selecting songs, the CCLI website helps me to make sure that I include songs that many visitors would know previously to coming to worship with us.

Christian Copyright Licensing International also offers a program called Song Select http://www.ccli.com/SongSelectDemo/index.cfm?c=US. We have the premium version, which enables me to listen to an audio clip of just about any new song that I would want to perform with the praise band. I can also print out a chord chart, lead sheet, or hymn version in whatever key is needed. Our trumpet player and sax player need their parts in different keys than the C instruments in the group, and Song Select will print their transposed parts for them as well. I can click on the hymn version and listen to any vocal part (soprano, alto, tenor, or bass). I can also listen to the rhythm of a new song as I am learning it. With such advanced tools in hand, I've truly come to appreciate this amazing technology.

Now then, CCLI requires an annual fee for its services. Their fee is based on which services and software program you choose. We have chosen the Premium edition of their service package which includes Song Select Premium. Some churches choose to pay just their annual dues and do not use Song Select. The normal annual fee gives you permission to use any of the songs that are copyrighted under Christian Licensing. At certain times during the year, however, churches must report which songs they use and how many times they have used them.

The most recent edition of Song Select Premium even reports your songs for you, and facilitates printing of songs in any key in three formats: lead sheets, hymn sheets, or chord charts. So, each member of the band can have music printed for them in whichever form they choose. I typically run off three styles of packets weekly. This is really a great tool for all of us!

Each week as I prepare for our time of worship, I try to include ingredients that will appeal to a broad spectrum of people. Every worship time should include a couple of traditional hymns, a couple of the congregation's well-loved favorite songs, a brand-new song and a newer or recently learned song. Each service should contain some exciting up-tempo tunes that wake us up and get us praising. Some songs will be more contemplative in nature and give us a chance to reflect. Others remind us of our heritage and what we believe.

These songs will be tied together through a worship theme for the day. What are we doing here and why are we doing it? How does the music relate to the message that we will hear? As we grow as a church our desire is to offer more services with more styles of worship. There may be a casual evening service, which is even more contemporary than our morning service. It may have a "coffee house" feel and high-energy music. The target group reached here may enjoy more upbeat songs vs. traditional hymns.

Our goal is a simple one with music being just a tool. We can enjoy freedom in style, instrumental sounds and genre but we still have one simple purpose- to offer a message of hope and faith and sing the praises of our Lord..

Debbie Sempsrott is the worship leader at West County Christian Church in Chesterfield, Missouri. She has enjoyed a lifetime of serving in the area of music. She grew up as the pianist in her home church playing each week with her mother who was the organist. Debbie began playing for a deaf worship service while in high school- "a great way to practice your musical skills!" she points out- and lead weekly worship meetings in nursing homes for those who could not go to a church.

Debbie went on to become a piano major at Lincoln Christian College in Lincoln, Illinois. She then acquired her teaching credentials and became a music teacher in a large Christian elementary/junior high school in Southern California. All the while, she continued to serve as a paid or volunteer worship leader in her local church. She finds special joy in writing songs, directing musicals, and in working with praise bands and praise singers. She presently teaches piano lessons and continues to grow through new opportunities in contemporary Christian music.