Change in the context of the gathered church’s music is difficult, laden as it is with tradition and emotion. This resistance to change isn’t always a bad thing. With this in mind, the following is not a prescription, but a suggestion.

I believe the church needs to consider moving towards an emphasis on unison singing in its corporate worship. There are several reasons for this consideration:

1. Unison singing is simple.

This point presupposes several essential truths. First, the point of all music in corporate worship is to act as an effective (and affective) vehicle for truth. Music should stir the spirit, but it must never hold the place of prominence that is reserved for truth. “Sanctify them in your truth,” Jesus prayed, and Paul echoes this in Romans 12: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  For music to serve its rightful purpose, it must serve the text, not distract from it. How easily our minds are drawn away to the beauty of God’s creation (read: music), instead of to God himself!  Augustine acknowledged the benefit of the mystical union of music and text in worship, but then he counters:

“I ought not to allow my mind to be paralyzed by the gratification of my senses, which often leads it astray. For the senses are not content to take second place. Simply because I allow them their due, as adjuncts to reason, they attempt to take precedence and forge ahead of it, with the result that I sometimes sin in this way but am not aware of it until later.”

The beauty of harmony isn’t wrong, and it doesn’t necessarily draw the mind away from the text… but it certainly can. If we are to be singing truth to God, to one another, and to ourselves, we have to consider anything that might distract us. Unison singing won’t create a spirit of worship in a distracted soul, but it is one less distraction to be managed.

The second presupposition is that music education has no place in corporate worship. It’s not a secondary consideration: it’s simply no consideration at all. We may bemoan the precipitous decline of music literacy in America – as a music educator, I certainly do. But we must resist the temptation to address this within the context of the gathered church. Should we seek to invest significant time and energy to cultivate our musical abilities?  Of course: in choir rehearsal, private music lessons, and singing classes – but not in corporate worship. We ought to encourage the congregation to sing to the best of its ability without placing on it the burden of music literacy.

Let’s be careful to not foster a culture of musical elitism that makes it difficult for our musically-untrained brothers and sisters in Christ to worship in song. We must face the reality that we no longer live in a singing society, and it should be our goal to instill truth into young (and mature) believers through hymns – not to teach them to read music or sing in harmony.

2. Unison singing is powerful.

This point has a dual meaning. Unison singing is powerful in volume. We’re given few specifics in Scripture regarding the details of our corporate worship, but the Psalms repeatedly exhort us to sing loudly. It’s simple physics: when everyone is singing the same pitch, the increase in volume is unmistakable. Loud singing is a good thing.

Unison singing is also a powerful display of unity. The beauty of unison singing reflects the singleness of mind displayed by the early church in Acts 4:24, where the apostles lifted up their voices “unanimously” or “in one accord.”  To be clear: dogmatically translating this as unison singing would be going beyond the text. Nonetheless, there is a wonderful sense of unity presented by unison singing, which certainly captures the spirit of this passage and others that describe the early church.

3. Unison singing has long-standing historical precedent.

It may be immediately countered that part-singing also has a long-standing historical precedent. That’s true – but the musical heritage of the Reformation is one of simplicity and accessibility, and a move away from complex musical expression. Calvin clearly prescribed singing exclusively in unison. Luther allowed richer and more elaborate forms of musical expression in worship, but the congregation still sang in unison (while the choir sang in parts). And the Puritans and pilgrims sang in unison. This historical precedent isn’t prescriptive, but it certainly is permissive.

Let’s consider how we’re defining “success” in our music ministries. If our priority is to make beautiful harmony and teach music literacy, we’ll fight to preserve part-singing and sight-reading at all costs. If we seek to encourage singing that is simple and powerful in order that we may proclaim God’s truth and edify God’s church, we ought to consider the value of simple, unadorned unison singing.