Choirs in the Modern Worship Experience
The Significance of a Choir
Whether you sit in the camp of not having a choir in worship or having a choir in worship, we can all agree that when people hear a choir there is an immediate sense of awe at the sound that is produced. Whether it is the crispness of the consonants that each member enunciates or the smoothness and satisfaction of each vowel being perfectly blended together, there is an effect of the sound of a choir on the soul of each person. Choirs are a model that represent what worship is. Choirs also help lead and give individuals in a congregation confidence to sing along in worship. Choirs help enhance the worship experience in many ways and help a worship leader do many things that otherwise the worship leader would struggle doing.
The Choir Models
All choirs are models of what heaven will look like: everyone singing with one voice, praising and worship the Lord of lords and King of kings. When individuals see a choir in worship, they see a fragmented earthly image of what it will be like to be in heaven. Choirs model and show us the one voice that scripture speaks of when it says to “with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Each individual in the choir is offering up their voice together with others to form one voice, one sound, and one mind to praise the lord and offer worship.
The Choir Worships
Many times in scripture it tells us to lift our voices together or let us sing together to worship. The choir is a physical manifestation of those scriptures. When the choir sings, the choir worships. People within the choir are living out those scriptures, offering up their voices to become one just like it says in Romans 15:6. This helps others that see and hear the choir to join in worship as well.
The Choir Leads
It is a lot easier to do something when you see that others are doing it, especially a lot of other people are modeling that action. Social psychology informs us that the people around us in our environment have influence on us. We watch them and subconsciously study them to learn how to act in the situation we are in. Rob Henderson wrote an article in 2017 on why people follow the crowd and made the statement that “We take cues from our environment, especially other people, on how to act.” With this information it is hard to dispute how a worship can can help the worship leader in engaging with people in worship and lead them to sing together. When people see and hear the choir during a worship service, subconsciously it helps them be more at ease with singing whether they sing phenomenally or can’t sing at all. Individuals in the congregation seeing the worship choir singing together as one and hearing the worship leader asking them to sing together with them are more inclined to singing aloud together than an individual who is watching a worship leader in the spotlight singing alone. The second person, in fact, would be more inclined to observe and listen the worship leader who is sing alone.
The Choir Enhances Worship Services
Choirs do more than just sing in a service. Choirs help enhance and lead in our worship services. They model what worship will look like in heaven, they practice the scriptures, and they engage with others in the congregation and lead them to singing together as one voice. Choirs are an important piece of the worship service and help to enhance the worship experience.
