From “Singing to Yourselves” to “Sing Along”?
July 18, 2024
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
For more on this subject see Transforming Congregational Singing in the 21st Century, www.wayoflife.org.
Since the turn of the 20th century, there has been a major transition in most Bible-believing churches from the “teaching one another” pattern of congregational singing found in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 to the “sing along” pattern.
Consider a description of this phenomenon:
“In the twentieth century congregational singing underwent yet another paradigm shift, to what we might call the ‘sing-along’ model, which led congregants to forget that they were supposed to be addressing one another. When this model was practiced in earlier centuries it was usually considered an aberration—a regrettable straying from a genuinely congregational idiom by a cultivated and professional ‘leadership’ trying to control the song. Choirs and organs introduced in eighteenth-century England and nineteenth-century America with the purpose of leading congregational singing, if not restrained by a clear sense of that purpose, sometimes transformed psalmody and hymnody into something more choral or instrumental than congregational. Such developments tempted musicians and congregants alike to concentrate more on enjoying the music than on meaning the words.
“Most twentieth-century western Christians, however, came to view the ‘sing-along’ model as the right and desirable way to sing in worship. At first it was a song-leader holding a microphone or an organ playing at high levels. More recently it has been the praise team. In either case the voice of leaders projects above, and often overpowers, the voice of the congregation, while the voices of individual worshippers are lost altogether. A typical balance, as perceived by a congregant, might be 50% praise team/band, 30% congregation as a whole, 20% one’s own voice, and 0% individual voices in one’s vicinity. The performance practice resembles that of a pop concert in which attendees sing along with their favorites” (“Audience,” The Biblical Model of Congregational Singing, congsing.org).
I was born in 1949, and for all my life Baptists and fundamentalist Bible churches in America have followed the “sing along” model. Having known nothing else, the churches assume “sing along” is the biblical way.
If a church cares today about keeping the singing sacred (which is becoming rare), the focus is on keeping the lyrics biblical and the music sacred, but no thought, generally, is given to the dynamic of whether or not the congregation is actually singing to the Lord and to one another according to the biblical pattern.
The change in the style of congregational singing was a product of the revivalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its interdenominational evangelistic crusades that focused on exuberant song leaders (e.g., Ira Sankey, Charles Alexander, Homer Rodeheaver) who could create an exciting atmosphere.
There were large city-wide campaigns across America, England, and many other parts of the world, led by evangelists such as D.L. Moody, John Wilbur Chapman, R.A. Torrey, Sam Jones, Uncle Bud Robinson, Gipsy Smith, Billy Sunday, W.B. Riley, Mordecai Ham, Bob Jones, Sr., and John R. Rice.
Multitudes of souls were saved. A great many churches were founded. The spiritual climate of America, England, and Australia, was uplifted. It was the era of Fundamentalism, pre-millennialist Bible conferences, the Bible school movement, major new Bible study tools (e.g., Strong’s Concordance, Scofield Study Bible, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge), and the return to Israel movement.
The crowds at the evangelistic campaigns were mixed multitudes composed of the unsaved who made no profession of faith in Christ, nominal Christians, and members of a wide variety of churches. The singing was geared to prepare for the evangelistic preaching.
“When the evangelist himself is ready to preach, the crowd has been worked up into a glow and fervor that make it receptive to his message” (William Ellis, Billy Sunday the Man and His Message).
Homer Rodeheaver kept everything pepped up, instructing the choirs to “go at it like selling goods” and encouraged the accompanying pianists to “hustle along with a swing.”
The revivalist song service was not designed for a New Testament church that functions as a spiritual body as we see in Ephesians and Colossians. “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19) and “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16) is an entirely different thing from a congregation singing along with a song leader whose voice is amplified and accompanied by musical instruments that overwhelm the voices. In such an environment, if the congregation tried to sing to one another, it would be a difficult matter. The individual voices of the congregation are drowned out.
The change in the style of congregational singing reflects a change in church polity.
In the era of revivalist evangelistic campaigns, a great number of churches were transformed into evangelistic preaching stations, and church attendance became a competitive sport. Lost in this was the concept of the New Testament church as a spiritual body after the pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16.
This change occurred under the leadership of prominent American pastors.
In the north was WILLIAM BELL RILEY (1861-1947), pastor of First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1897 to 1942.
Riley’s goal goal was to “make First Baptist a center of evangelism.” “On Sunday nights Riley established what he termed permanent revivals, with ‘attractive’ sermon topics, musical specials, and youth participation in the services. ... In the Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and special services there was one primary goal--soul-winning” (William Trollinger God’s Empire: William Bell Riley and Midwestern Fundamentalism).
The problem with this is that while evangelism is one of the church’s goals, a fundamental and essential one, it is not the one primary goal.
W.B. Riley was an evangelist more than he was a pastor. (This is true for the other men listed here: J. Frank Norris, John Rice, and Lee Roberson.) It was typical for Riley to travel four months of the year on evangelistic crusades. He had city-wide campaigns. “In Dayton, Ohio, 66 churches constructed a tabernacle seating 5,000 and after a four-week meeting, some 1,200 were added to their memberships. In 1933, at Worcester, Massachusetts, some 25 churches participated with 400 professions of faith. He also held individual church campaigns, a notable one being at First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas. Three hundred and fifty two people were converted in the twelve-day crusade. Nor was he confined to America--his overseas ministries started in 1911 when he went to England in response to the invitation of A.C. Dixon, pastor of Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle. ... He spent four weeks there and another four weeks in other cities in England and Scotland. In 1929, in response to a call from the Bible League of England, Riley brought his wife and ministered in England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, and France” (William Bell Riley, Pastor, Educator).
Even when not touring, Riley turned his church’s services into evangelistic campaigns patterned after the revivalist crusades.
Under Riley’s leadership, the membership of First Baptist grew from 500 to 3,500. As is typical for churches that are focused on being evangelistic preaching stations and are geared to building the largest possible membership, a large percentage of the members were not faithful or even active. There was no emphasis on maintaining the regenerate membership that we see in Acts 2:41-42 and that Baptist churches sought to maintain in former times. It was more a frenzy to “get as many as you can as fast as you can.”
We have no doubt that W.B. Riley was a sincere man of God; he was a warrior for the truth; he preached the blessed gospel to multitudes. We aren’t trying to tear the man down and discount the great good that he did. We are trying to obey God’s Word to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Th. 5:21).
Riley trained hundreds of preachers who copied his model of church polity. The Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, founded in 1902, had a full-time student body of 800, with another 1,000 attending evening classes. By 1945, there were 346 missionary preachers and pastors ministering in various states.
In the south, the major influence was J. FRANK NORRIS (1877-1952), pastor of First Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, Texas.
In 1913, Norris determined to build the world’s largest Sunday School and hired Louis Entzminger to lead it. Norris’s Sunday School grew from 250 in 1913 to 3,000 in 1920 and to 6,000 in 1931. Norris pioneered the bus ministry and promotionalism. “Norris and Entzminger devoted long hours every waking day in the effort to get a larger and larger crowd” (Michael Schepis, J. Frank Norris). There was a constant emphasis on numbers. The numbers business increased when Norris jointly pastored Temple Baptist in Detroit and First Baptist in Ft. Worth. In the front of his 1946 booklet Practical Lectures on Romans, Norris reported on 11 years of joint pastorate as follows: 18,200 additions; $1,900,000 raised; $2 million in real estate; 15 million copies of the Fundamentalist paper distributed; traveled 854,000 miles. Norris boasted that the two churches had “the two largest Sunday Schools in the world judged by the average attendance.” The combined membership of the two churches in 1946 was reported to be 25,000.
These numbers had little meaning when measured by Scripture. The 25,000 members were not the type of members we see in Acts 2:41-42. The church auditoriums could not seat nearly that many people. A large percentage were nowhere to be found or were “Sunday morning only” members. The fervor for numbers and lack of attention on maintaining a regenerate church membership produced a mixed multitude. The concept of a New Testament church as a spiritual body after the pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16 was lost.
Norris had a vast influence on fundamental Baptists. John Rice and Jack Hyles were associated with Norris in Texas. Lee Roberson named Norris as one of the three men who influenced him the most.
Evangelism is a major and essential part of the church’s task for Christ. It is commissioned to preach the gospel to every creature (Mr. 16:15). But the New Testament church that we see in Scripture is not just an evangelistic preaching station. It is a spiritual body that is to build up itself toward perfection in Christ (Eph. 4:11-16). The congregational singing that is described in Scripture is not chiefly evangelistic. It is for the purpose of worshiping God and building up the saints spiritually. That is overwhelmingly the emphasis of the New Testament epistles themselves.
Another major influence in transforming churches into revivalist preaching stations was JOHN R. RICE (1895-1980), probably the most influential preacher in the fundamental Baptist movement, certainly one of the top five. The influence of The Sword of the Lord paper, Sword of the Lord books, and Sword conferences cannot be calculated.
Rice was called to evangelistic work in 1921 while working in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago (Man Sent from God, pp. 62, 63). Returning to his home state of Texas, he graduated from Baylor University. From 1924-1926 he pastored First Baptist Church of Shamrock, Texas. He was associated with J. Frank Norris, preaching on Norris’s radio station KFQB, and preaching at First Baptist of Fort Worth when Norris was out of town (Robin L. Smith, John R. Rice, the Sword of the Lord, and the Fundamentalist Conversation, 2013). Rice’s evangelistic meetings were “heavily promoted by Norris’s newspaper and on his radio station.”
In September 1934, Rice began publication of The Sword of the Lord, a weekly paper which expanded into a national circulation (100,000 in 1955, 200,000 in 1972, peaking at 300,000 in 1975).
John Rice was chiefly an evangelist. He said, “I am an evangelist by calling, by my heart’s burden and in constant practice, I work to win souls to Christ. I stir up churches and Christians to win souls. As an editor, I do the work of an evangelist. As a writer, I write as an evangelist” (Rice, I Am a Fundamentalist, p. 132).
In the pre-World War II era, John Rice had much success in city-wide meetings. He would set up a big tent or knock together a wooden building and preach extended meetings. He would have so many converts that he organized churches and called pastors.
This happened in Decatur, Texas (500 converts after a 12-week campaign); in Waxahachie, Texas (300 converts after 12 weeks); and in Sherman, Texas (300 members after 12 weeks).
In 1932, he did the same thing in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, organizing his converts into the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle and becoming its pastor for seven years. This was the first independent Baptist church in Dallas. By 1934, the church reported more than 900 members. By 1939, Rice reported 7,000 professions in that church and 1,700 members (The Captain of Our Team, pp. 30-31).
From these statistics, it is sadly obvious that John Rice was promoting a lot of bogus numbers even at that early stage in his ministry.
In earlier centuries, Baptist churches were intent upon maintaining a regenerate membership. Consider some witnesses to this. (Many more can be found in The Discipling Church.)
1656, the Somerset Confession:
“In admitting of members into the church of Christ, it is the duty of the church, and ministers whom it concerns, in faithfulness to God, that they be careful they receive none but such as do make forth evident demonstration of the new birth, and the work of faith with power.”
1774, Charleston Summary of Church Discipline:
“None are fit materials of a gospel church, without having first experienced an entire change of nature, Mt. 18:3. ... It is certain the Ephesian church was not composed of such materials, Eph. 2:1. ... The members of the church at Colosse are denominated not only saints, but faithful brethren in Christ, Col. 1:2, or true believers in him. None but such have a right to ordinances, Acts 8:37. ... if their practice contradicts their profession they are not to be admitted to church membership. ... Persons making application are to be admitted into the communion of a church by the common suffrage of its members; being first satisfied that they have the qualifications laid down in the preceding section; for which purpose candidates must come under examination before the church; and if it should happen that they do not give satisfaction, they should be set aside until a more satisfactory profession is made 1 Ti. 6:12.”
1859, Edward Hiscox, Manual for Baptist Churches:
“Church members are supposed to be regenerate persons bearing the image and cherishing the spirit of Christ, in whom the peace of God rules, and who walk and work in the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace’” (The Standard Manual for Baptist Churches).
1867, J.M. Pendleton’s Church Manual Designed for the Use of Baptist Churches:
“Let it never be forgotten that the only suitable materials of which to construct a church of Christ, so far as spiritual qualifications are concerned, are regenerate, penitent, believing persons. To make use of other materials is to subvert the fundamental principles of church organization. ... Great care should be exercised in receiving members. ... There is much danger of this, especially in times of religious excitement. Pastors should positively assure themselves that those who are received for baptism have felt themselves to be guilty, ruined, helpless sinners, justly condemned by God’s holy law; and under a sense of their lost condition have trusted in Christ for salvation” (Pendleton, Church Manual, 1867).
1874, William Williams’ Apostolic Church Polity:
“The members of the apostolic churches were all converted persons, or supposed to be converted. In the various epistles they are addressed as ‘saints,’ ‘faithful brethren,’ ‘the sons of God,’ sanctified in Christ Jesus. The many exhortations to a godly life and a holy conversation presume that they are ‘new creatures in Christ Jesus’ ... This--a converted church membership, a membership composed only of persons who are believed to have exercised personal repentance and faith--is, of all others, the most important peculiarity that characterized the apostolic organization of the church” Williams, Apostolic Church Polity, 1874).
The churches established by American Baptist missionaries in the 19th century, beginning with Adoniram Judson’s ministry in Burma in 1813, were very careful about receiving members.
The following is a description of how the Karens were prepared for baptism in about 1831 by William Boardman:
“Three days were devoted to the examination of the candidates who presented themselves for baptism. Eighteen of them were accepted. ... Aided by Mr. Mason and the native Christians who were present, he examined them in the history of their Christian experience, and in the doctrines of the gospel” (William Gammell, A History of American Baptist Missions, pp. 101, 102).
Of the Baptists in Germany, it was said in the 1870s,
“We do not know that there is a single member who is not doing something to help forward the cause of Christ” Missionary Sketches: A Concise History of the Work of the American Baptist Missionary Union, 6th edition, 1879, p. 370).
(Many more examples can be found in The Discipling Church.)
The biblical polity, and the old Baptist polity, of zealous maintenance of a regenerate church membership was largely lost by the turn of the 20th century, and it was not restored in the revivalist era. In fact, it was further was corrupted by the program of “get as many as you can as fast as you can.”
After diligent search, I have not found one prominent evangelist or pastor of the revivalist era who “went back to the Bible” to re-establish church polity on a thoroughgoing New Testament foundation.
John Rice followed J. Frank Norris’s program of building churches that were evangelistic preaching stations rather than the spiritual bodies we see in the New Testament epistles (e.g., Ephesians 4:11-16).
Another man who had a major influence on the polity of fundamental Baptist churches and the emphasis on “sing along” congregational singing was LEE ROBERSON (1909-2007). He pastored Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from 1942 until his retirement in 1983, and preached in an estimated 2,000 churches from then until his death in 2007. He founded Southwide Baptist Fellowship in 1956 and helped found Baptist International Missions (BIMI) in 1960, the largest fundamental Baptist missionary sending agency.
It was said that Roberson’s “influence and stature among fundamental Baptists in the South was unparalleled” (James Wigton, Lee Roberson: Always about His Father’s Business, p. 92). Roberson has been called “an icon of the Independent Baptist movement,” and his influence continues in the 21st century. He was called a mentor by Curtis Hutson, Tom Malone, Jerry Falwell, and Jack Hyles, among others. In a 2010 interview with The Baptist Voice entitled “Walking with Giants,” Bobby Roberson said, “Lee Roberson was a great inspiration to me.” The presidents of the two largest fundamental Baptist Bible colleges today, Clarence Sexton of Crown College and Paul Chappell of West Coast Baptist College, were greatly influenced by Roberson, by their own testimonies. Sexton was trained by Roberson and worked for him for several years and has a little museum devoted to his mentor.
In 1942, Lee Roberson accepted the call to pastor Highland Park Baptist Church. In 1955, under Roberson’s direction, Highland Park left the Southern Baptist Convention, began to support missionaries directly through mission boards, and became a real powerhouse for world evangelism (though the evangelism methodology was deeply faulty). In the 1970s, the average Sunday School attendance at Highland Park was about 4,500. The congregation was giving half of its income to church planting and world missions. It was contributing support to more than 500 missionaries through its World Wide Faith Missions program. Highland Park’s annual missions conferences hosted 75-100 missionaries. The church’s paper, The Evangelist, had a circulation of 75,000. The church’s radio station, WDYN, broadcast gospel and Bible programs to the tri-state area (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama) via a 100,000 watt transmitter and a 200-foot tower on Signal Mountain. All of the church services were interpreted for the deaf. The church’s Camp Joy ministered to thousands of children and youth. Union Gospel Mission ministered to hundreds of “down and outers.” The church’s 70 chapels were scattered across a wide area. In 1946, Roberson founded Tennessee Temple Bible Institute. Later a college and seminary were added. By 2001, there were over 12,000 graduates.
Highland Park’s theme was “The Church of the Green Light.” It was based on the GO of Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature...” A large replica of a traffic signal with the green “go” brightly lit was placed near the church. This sign was printed on the church stationary.
That’s a great symbol for the Great Commission! Tremendous zeal for evangelism (sound evangelism!) is biblical, right, fundamental, essential. Without it, no church should consider itself a New Testament church.
“[B]y the 1960s and 70s Highland Park Baptist Church had become the model church in America for the independent, fundamental Baptist movement” (Wigton, Lee Roberson, p. 151).
What kind of model was it?
Like First Baptist Church of Ft. Worth, First Baptist of Minneapolis, and Fundamental Baptist of Dallas, Highland Park functioned more as an evangelistic preaching center than a New Testament church. Highland Park was called “an empire of evangelism” by Elmer Towns’ in The Ten Largest Sunday Schools, and that pretty much sums it up. While evangelism is a major and essential part of the church’s calling, a New Testament church is much, much more than “an empire of evangelism.”
Highland Park wasn’t the regenerate church that we see in Acts 2:41-42, with every member showing evidence of salvation, growing, and being faithful in spiritual life and service. It wasn’t the church as a body that we see in Ephesians 4:11-16, with the whole body, every single member, being built up and, in turn, building up the church and doing the work of the ministry. It wasn’t the church as a pure lump, ever-purifying itself, that we see in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. It wasn’t the church as a spiritual house made up of living stones functioning as priests that we see in 1 Peter 2:5. It wasn’t the church in which every member is being perfected that we see in Colossians 1:28. The pastor and his staff didn’t even know every member, not the 3,000 who attended on Wednesday nor the 57,000 who were on the rolls.
The congregational singing at Highland Park in its heyday was glorious. It was the apex of a sing along congregational service. The music under Roberson’s pastorate was conservative and sacred on purpose. Roberson was trained in music and as a young man was offered a lucrative career in singing, which he turned down for the ministry. I have never heard more thrilling congregational singing than I heard at Highland Park in the 1970s. There was an organ, two grand pianos, a large choir, and sometimes an orchestra. The hymns were well chosen. The atmosphere was sacred. There was absolutely nothing contemporary in style about the music.
But Highland Park’s congregational singing was pure “sing along.” Every service was an Ira Sankey-style revivalist campaign. J.R. Faulkner, the main song leader, was cheerful, enthusiastic, and effective, and he brought out the best from the choir and congregation. As a sing along leader, he knew what he was doing. He said, “Pull it out of the audience so you sing thoughts instead of every word” (Wigton, Lee Roberson, p. 163).
Here we see that the emphasis was not on singing the words to one another and teaching one another, but singing for singing’s sake, singing to create a beautiful sound, singing to build an enthusiastic atmosphere, singing to prepare for the preaching.
A good song leader can teach the people to sing exuberantly but exuberant singing is not the same as “teaching and admonishing one another.”
We will mention one more man who had a major influence in the polity of fundamental Baptist churches and the revivalist style church service, and that is JACK HYLES (1926-2001), pastor of First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana.
In 1974 Elmer Towns wrote,
“The First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, has been titled the most ‘influential church’ because it is copied by thousands of other churches who have implemented the same type of ministry and experienced the same success all over the United States. According to Jerry Falwell, ‘There are more churches like the First Baptist Church of Hammond than any other church.’ The church is ‘the most copied’ because Jack Hyles has influenced thousands of pastors who have attended the yearly pastors’ conference; because Jack Hyles has influenced thousands of churches through the 18 books he has written; and because Jack Hyles has influenced thousands of ministers through the number of pastor’s conferences where he speaks each year” (World’s Largest Sunday School, p. 167).
Hyles was born and raised in Texas and began his ministry there. After graduation from East Texas Baptist College in 1951, he pastored Southside Baptist Church of Henderson, Texas, which grew from 100 members to over 600 in eight months. As was typical of Baptist churches in Texas, the membership statistics were nearly meaningless, as most of the “members” were not active. This same thing was played out through all of Hyles’ pastorates, and the percentage of active members in comparison to overall membership became increasingly smaller.
In December 1952, Jack Hyles accepted the call to pastor Miller Road Baptist Church of Garland, Texas, which grew from 44 members to 4,100 in six years. The membership rolls were filled with inactive people. Of the alleged 4,000 members, only a small percentage could fit into the church building, but that didn’t matter, since most didn’t attend services!
By 1957, Miller Road “was baptizing more than any church in the history of Texas.” But unlike the baptisms in the book of Acts, a very large percentage of Miller Road baptisms were of people who did not demonstrate biblical conversion. They were offered a “ticket to heaven,” and they took the ticket and went on about their business.
After being kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention, Hyles was befriended by John R. Rice. He was put on the Board of Directors of the Sword and was made director of the Sword conferences. Rice and Hyles preached together in every state except one and “shared the pulpit over 2,200 times during 22 years.” In 1957, Hyles spoke for the first time at the Southwide Baptist Fellowship at Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, pastored by Lee Roberson.
In 1959, Hyles accepted the call to pastor First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. In 1963, Hyles’ book Let’s Go Soulwinning was published by the Sword of the Lord. It taught salvation as a ticket to heaven by means of a sinner’s prayer. In March 1964, Hyles began his annual four-day Pastor’s School. By 1976, 4,000 preachers and “lay people” were in attendance.
This is a major part of the history of how large numbers of Baptist churches in America and worldwide stopped singing by “teaching and admonishing one another” and started singing by “sing along.” It is the product of a change in church polity.
These men--especially W.B. Riley, John R. Rice, and Lee Roberson--did a lot of good. They were men of good Christian character. They were leaders of broad vision and great zeal for the work of God. They were men of prayer. They were men of strong faith. They were warriors for the truth. They were leaders of broad vision and great zeal for the work of God. They fought against theological liberalism, humanism, communism, and Darwinian evolution. They stood for the literal interpretation of prophecy and the essential doctrine of Christ’s imminent return. They stood for the verbal, plenary, infallible inspiration of Scripture, salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone without works, Christ’s substitutionary, vicarious atonement, the universal offer of the gospel, a literal heaven and a literal hell, the autonomy of the New Testament assembly, a sense of urgency about fulfilling the Great Commission, the aggressive evangelization of one’s own community, rejection of the world’s pop music, commitment to sacred music, and a pilgrim lifestyle that entails non-conformity to the world’s ways, including in the matter of fashion.
These are big things, and they were unpopular stands even prior to World War II. In their heyday, fundamental Baptist churches were going against the grain of secular society and of Christianity at large. I thank the Lord that there were men willing to take such a courageous stand for truth in the midst of end-time apostasy. I’m glad there were fundamental Baptist churches that stood for these things when I was saved in the early 1970s.
But these men erred in their doctrine of the church. There is no evidence that they turned to the New Testament alone for their model. Instead, they built churches that were revivalist campaign centers. The church polity was geared to this pragmatic goal. The congregational singing was geared to this goal. Congregational singing patterned after a revivalist evangelistic service fit this church model.
Moving a church away from “sing along” to “teaching and admonishing one another”
It is possible, of course, to move a church away from “sing along” to the biblical pattern of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, but it isn’t as simple as it might seem. Traditional habits are powerful things. Further, effectual singing according to Ephesians and Colossians requires a lot more biblical knowledge, spiritual depth, concentration, and commitment on the part of the people.
- Conviction and Commitment. The pastors and music people must be convinced that sing along is not what we see in Scripture and must be committed to make changes. They must be committed to building churches on a solid, thoroughgoing Biblical foundation. They must not be pragmatists, traditionalists, man followers.
- The Word of Christ dwelling richly. The congregation must aim to be the congregation described in Colossians 3:16, one in which the word of Christ dwells richly in all wisdom. This is no small thing. This is not the typical Baptist or fundamentalist Bible congregation today. It requires a regenerate membership. It requires a membership that is far better educated in the Bible than the vast majority of church members today.
- Education. The congregation must be instructed from Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16. The instruction must be detailed and persistent. See the chapter “Congregational Singing According to Scripture.”
- Environment. The physical environment must be conducive to singing to one another. The voices have to be heard. Turn down the volume of the leader’s microphone and the volume of the musical instruments so that the voices are preeminent. A piano or keyboard can help the congregation keep the timing and stay in good order, but the sound of the leader and the instruments should not overwhelm the voices.
- Selection. Choose hymns of good substance. They need to be hymns that are good for “teaching and admonishing one another.” This means hymns of good doctrine (“teaching”) and hymns of exhortation (“admonishing”).
- Understanding. Study the lyrics as a congregation. Emphasize whatever the hymn emphasizes. Clarify anything hard to be understood.
- Sing responsively. It can help to divide the congregation into groups and have the groups sing to one another responsively.
- Sing Psalms. Transitioning from “sing along” to “singing to one another” is a good time to start incorporating Psalm singing, because this is also a necessary part of singing biblically. (See the chapter “Singing the Psalms.)
- Patience. It takes time to move effectually from “sing along” to “singing to one another.” It won’t happen in two or three weeks.
For more on this subject see Transforming Congregational Singing in the 21st Century, www.wayoflife.org.
Consider a description of this phenomenon:
“In the twentieth century congregational singing underwent yet another paradigm shift, to what we might call the ‘sing-along’ model, which led congregants to forget that they were supposed to be addressing one another. When this model was practiced in earlier centuries it was usually considered an aberration—a regrettable straying from a genuinely congregational idiom by a cultivated and professional ‘leadership’ trying to control the song. Choirs and organs introduced in eighteenth-century England and nineteenth-century America with the purpose of leading congregational singing, if not restrained by a clear sense of that purpose, sometimes transformed psalmody and hymnody into something more choral or instrumental than congregational. Such developments tempted musicians and congregants alike to concentrate more on enjoying the music than on meaning the words.
“Most twentieth-century western Christians, however, came to view the ‘sing-along’ model as the right and desirable way to sing in worship. At first it was a song-leader holding a microphone or an organ playing at high levels. More recently it has been the praise team. In either case the voice of leaders projects above, and often overpowers, the voice of the congregation, while the voices of individual worshippers are lost altogether. A typical balance, as perceived by a congregant, might be 50% praise team/band, 30% congregation as a whole, 20% one’s own voice, and 0% individual voices in one’s vicinity. The performance practice resembles that of a pop concert in which attendees sing along with their favorites” (“Audience,” The Biblical Model of Congregational Singing, congsing.org).
I was born in 1949, and for all my life Baptists and fundamentalist Bible churches in America have followed the “sing along” model. Having known nothing else, the churches assume “sing along” is the biblical way.
If a church cares today about keeping the singing sacred (which is becoming rare), the focus is on keeping the lyrics biblical and the music sacred, but no thought, generally, is given to the dynamic of whether or not the congregation is actually singing to the Lord and to one another according to the biblical pattern.
The change in the style of congregational singing was a product of the revivalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its interdenominational evangelistic crusades that focused on exuberant song leaders (e.g., Ira Sankey, Charles Alexander, Homer Rodeheaver) who could create an exciting atmosphere.
There were large city-wide campaigns across America, England, and many other parts of the world, led by evangelists such as D.L. Moody, John Wilbur Chapman, R.A. Torrey, Sam Jones, Uncle Bud Robinson, Gipsy Smith, Billy Sunday, W.B. Riley, Mordecai Ham, Bob Jones, Sr., and John R. Rice.
Multitudes of souls were saved. A great many churches were founded. The spiritual climate of America, England, and Australia, was uplifted. It was the era of Fundamentalism, pre-millennialist Bible conferences, the Bible school movement, major new Bible study tools (e.g., Strong’s Concordance, Scofield Study Bible, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge), and the return to Israel movement.
The crowds at the evangelistic campaigns were mixed multitudes composed of the unsaved who made no profession of faith in Christ, nominal Christians, and members of a wide variety of churches. The singing was geared to prepare for the evangelistic preaching.
“When the evangelist himself is ready to preach, the crowd has been worked up into a glow and fervor that make it receptive to his message” (William Ellis, Billy Sunday the Man and His Message).
Homer Rodeheaver kept everything pepped up, instructing the choirs to “go at it like selling goods” and encouraged the accompanying pianists to “hustle along with a swing.”
The revivalist song service was not designed for a New Testament church that functions as a spiritual body as we see in Ephesians and Colossians. “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19) and “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16) is an entirely different thing from a congregation singing along with a song leader whose voice is amplified and accompanied by musical instruments that overwhelm the voices. In such an environment, if the congregation tried to sing to one another, it would be a difficult matter. The individual voices of the congregation are drowned out.
The change in the style of congregational singing reflects a change in church polity.
In the era of revivalist evangelistic campaigns, a great number of churches were transformed into evangelistic preaching stations, and church attendance became a competitive sport. Lost in this was the concept of the New Testament church as a spiritual body after the pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16.
This change occurred under the leadership of prominent American pastors.
In the north was WILLIAM BELL RILEY (1861-1947), pastor of First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1897 to 1942.
Riley’s goal goal was to “make First Baptist a center of evangelism.” “On Sunday nights Riley established what he termed permanent revivals, with ‘attractive’ sermon topics, musical specials, and youth participation in the services. ... In the Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and special services there was one primary goal--soul-winning” (William Trollinger God’s Empire: William Bell Riley and Midwestern Fundamentalism).
The problem with this is that while evangelism is one of the church’s goals, a fundamental and essential one, it is not the one primary goal.
W.B. Riley was an evangelist more than he was a pastor. (This is true for the other men listed here: J. Frank Norris, John Rice, and Lee Roberson.) It was typical for Riley to travel four months of the year on evangelistic crusades. He had city-wide campaigns. “In Dayton, Ohio, 66 churches constructed a tabernacle seating 5,000 and after a four-week meeting, some 1,200 were added to their memberships. In 1933, at Worcester, Massachusetts, some 25 churches participated with 400 professions of faith. He also held individual church campaigns, a notable one being at First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas. Three hundred and fifty two people were converted in the twelve-day crusade. Nor was he confined to America--his overseas ministries started in 1911 when he went to England in response to the invitation of A.C. Dixon, pastor of Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle. ... He spent four weeks there and another four weeks in other cities in England and Scotland. In 1929, in response to a call from the Bible League of England, Riley brought his wife and ministered in England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, and France” (William Bell Riley, Pastor, Educator).
Even when not touring, Riley turned his church’s services into evangelistic campaigns patterned after the revivalist crusades.
Under Riley’s leadership, the membership of First Baptist grew from 500 to 3,500. As is typical for churches that are focused on being evangelistic preaching stations and are geared to building the largest possible membership, a large percentage of the members were not faithful or even active. There was no emphasis on maintaining the regenerate membership that we see in Acts 2:41-42 and that Baptist churches sought to maintain in former times. It was more a frenzy to “get as many as you can as fast as you can.”
We have no doubt that W.B. Riley was a sincere man of God; he was a warrior for the truth; he preached the blessed gospel to multitudes. We aren’t trying to tear the man down and discount the great good that he did. We are trying to obey God’s Word to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Th. 5:21).
Riley trained hundreds of preachers who copied his model of church polity. The Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, founded in 1902, had a full-time student body of 800, with another 1,000 attending evening classes. By 1945, there were 346 missionary preachers and pastors ministering in various states.
In the south, the major influence was J. FRANK NORRIS (1877-1952), pastor of First Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, Texas.
In 1913, Norris determined to build the world’s largest Sunday School and hired Louis Entzminger to lead it. Norris’s Sunday School grew from 250 in 1913 to 3,000 in 1920 and to 6,000 in 1931. Norris pioneered the bus ministry and promotionalism. “Norris and Entzminger devoted long hours every waking day in the effort to get a larger and larger crowd” (Michael Schepis, J. Frank Norris). There was a constant emphasis on numbers. The numbers business increased when Norris jointly pastored Temple Baptist in Detroit and First Baptist in Ft. Worth. In the front of his 1946 booklet Practical Lectures on Romans, Norris reported on 11 years of joint pastorate as follows: 18,200 additions; $1,900,000 raised; $2 million in real estate; 15 million copies of the Fundamentalist paper distributed; traveled 854,000 miles. Norris boasted that the two churches had “the two largest Sunday Schools in the world judged by the average attendance.” The combined membership of the two churches in 1946 was reported to be 25,000.
These numbers had little meaning when measured by Scripture. The 25,000 members were not the type of members we see in Acts 2:41-42. The church auditoriums could not seat nearly that many people. A large percentage were nowhere to be found or were “Sunday morning only” members. The fervor for numbers and lack of attention on maintaining a regenerate church membership produced a mixed multitude. The concept of a New Testament church as a spiritual body after the pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16 was lost.
Norris had a vast influence on fundamental Baptists. John Rice and Jack Hyles were associated with Norris in Texas. Lee Roberson named Norris as one of the three men who influenced him the most.
Evangelism is a major and essential part of the church’s task for Christ. It is commissioned to preach the gospel to every creature (Mr. 16:15). But the New Testament church that we see in Scripture is not just an evangelistic preaching station. It is a spiritual body that is to build up itself toward perfection in Christ (Eph. 4:11-16). The congregational singing that is described in Scripture is not chiefly evangelistic. It is for the purpose of worshiping God and building up the saints spiritually. That is overwhelmingly the emphasis of the New Testament epistles themselves.
Another major influence in transforming churches into revivalist preaching stations was JOHN R. RICE (1895-1980), probably the most influential preacher in the fundamental Baptist movement, certainly one of the top five. The influence of The Sword of the Lord paper, Sword of the Lord books, and Sword conferences cannot be calculated.
Rice was called to evangelistic work in 1921 while working in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago (Man Sent from God, pp. 62, 63). Returning to his home state of Texas, he graduated from Baylor University. From 1924-1926 he pastored First Baptist Church of Shamrock, Texas. He was associated with J. Frank Norris, preaching on Norris’s radio station KFQB, and preaching at First Baptist of Fort Worth when Norris was out of town (Robin L. Smith, John R. Rice, the Sword of the Lord, and the Fundamentalist Conversation, 2013). Rice’s evangelistic meetings were “heavily promoted by Norris’s newspaper and on his radio station.”
In September 1934, Rice began publication of The Sword of the Lord, a weekly paper which expanded into a national circulation (100,000 in 1955, 200,000 in 1972, peaking at 300,000 in 1975).
John Rice was chiefly an evangelist. He said, “I am an evangelist by calling, by my heart’s burden and in constant practice, I work to win souls to Christ. I stir up churches and Christians to win souls. As an editor, I do the work of an evangelist. As a writer, I write as an evangelist” (Rice, I Am a Fundamentalist, p. 132).
In the pre-World War II era, John Rice had much success in city-wide meetings. He would set up a big tent or knock together a wooden building and preach extended meetings. He would have so many converts that he organized churches and called pastors.
This happened in Decatur, Texas (500 converts after a 12-week campaign); in Waxahachie, Texas (300 converts after 12 weeks); and in Sherman, Texas (300 members after 12 weeks).
In 1932, he did the same thing in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, organizing his converts into the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle and becoming its pastor for seven years. This was the first independent Baptist church in Dallas. By 1934, the church reported more than 900 members. By 1939, Rice reported 7,000 professions in that church and 1,700 members (The Captain of Our Team, pp. 30-31).
From these statistics, it is sadly obvious that John Rice was promoting a lot of bogus numbers even at that early stage in his ministry.
In earlier centuries, Baptist churches were intent upon maintaining a regenerate membership. Consider some witnesses to this. (Many more can be found in The Discipling Church.)
1656, the Somerset Confession:
“In admitting of members into the church of Christ, it is the duty of the church, and ministers whom it concerns, in faithfulness to God, that they be careful they receive none but such as do make forth evident demonstration of the new birth, and the work of faith with power.”
1774, Charleston Summary of Church Discipline:
“None are fit materials of a gospel church, without having first experienced an entire change of nature, Mt. 18:3. ... It is certain the Ephesian church was not composed of such materials, Eph. 2:1. ... The members of the church at Colosse are denominated not only saints, but faithful brethren in Christ, Col. 1:2, or true believers in him. None but such have a right to ordinances, Acts 8:37. ... if their practice contradicts their profession they are not to be admitted to church membership. ... Persons making application are to be admitted into the communion of a church by the common suffrage of its members; being first satisfied that they have the qualifications laid down in the preceding section; for which purpose candidates must come under examination before the church; and if it should happen that they do not give satisfaction, they should be set aside until a more satisfactory profession is made 1 Ti. 6:12.”
1859, Edward Hiscox, Manual for Baptist Churches:
“Church members are supposed to be regenerate persons bearing the image and cherishing the spirit of Christ, in whom the peace of God rules, and who walk and work in the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace’” (The Standard Manual for Baptist Churches).
1867, J.M. Pendleton’s Church Manual Designed for the Use of Baptist Churches:
“Let it never be forgotten that the only suitable materials of which to construct a church of Christ, so far as spiritual qualifications are concerned, are regenerate, penitent, believing persons. To make use of other materials is to subvert the fundamental principles of church organization. ... Great care should be exercised in receiving members. ... There is much danger of this, especially in times of religious excitement. Pastors should positively assure themselves that those who are received for baptism have felt themselves to be guilty, ruined, helpless sinners, justly condemned by God’s holy law; and under a sense of their lost condition have trusted in Christ for salvation” (Pendleton, Church Manual, 1867).
1874, William Williams’ Apostolic Church Polity:
“The members of the apostolic churches were all converted persons, or supposed to be converted. In the various epistles they are addressed as ‘saints,’ ‘faithful brethren,’ ‘the sons of God,’ sanctified in Christ Jesus. The many exhortations to a godly life and a holy conversation presume that they are ‘new creatures in Christ Jesus’ ... This--a converted church membership, a membership composed only of persons who are believed to have exercised personal repentance and faith--is, of all others, the most important peculiarity that characterized the apostolic organization of the church” Williams, Apostolic Church Polity, 1874).
The churches established by American Baptist missionaries in the 19th century, beginning with Adoniram Judson’s ministry in Burma in 1813, were very careful about receiving members.
The following is a description of how the Karens were prepared for baptism in about 1831 by William Boardman:
“Three days were devoted to the examination of the candidates who presented themselves for baptism. Eighteen of them were accepted. ... Aided by Mr. Mason and the native Christians who were present, he examined them in the history of their Christian experience, and in the doctrines of the gospel” (William Gammell, A History of American Baptist Missions, pp. 101, 102).
Of the Baptists in Germany, it was said in the 1870s,
“We do not know that there is a single member who is not doing something to help forward the cause of Christ” Missionary Sketches: A Concise History of the Work of the American Baptist Missionary Union, 6th edition, 1879, p. 370).
(Many more examples can be found in The Discipling Church.)
The biblical polity, and the old Baptist polity, of zealous maintenance of a regenerate church membership was largely lost by the turn of the 20th century, and it was not restored in the revivalist era. In fact, it was further was corrupted by the program of “get as many as you can as fast as you can.”
After diligent search, I have not found one prominent evangelist or pastor of the revivalist era who “went back to the Bible” to re-establish church polity on a thoroughgoing New Testament foundation.
John Rice followed J. Frank Norris’s program of building churches that were evangelistic preaching stations rather than the spiritual bodies we see in the New Testament epistles (e.g., Ephesians 4:11-16).
Another man who had a major influence on the polity of fundamental Baptist churches and the emphasis on “sing along” congregational singing was LEE ROBERSON (1909-2007). He pastored Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from 1942 until his retirement in 1983, and preached in an estimated 2,000 churches from then until his death in 2007. He founded Southwide Baptist Fellowship in 1956 and helped found Baptist International Missions (BIMI) in 1960, the largest fundamental Baptist missionary sending agency.
It was said that Roberson’s “influence and stature among fundamental Baptists in the South was unparalleled” (James Wigton, Lee Roberson: Always about His Father’s Business, p. 92). Roberson has been called “an icon of the Independent Baptist movement,” and his influence continues in the 21st century. He was called a mentor by Curtis Hutson, Tom Malone, Jerry Falwell, and Jack Hyles, among others. In a 2010 interview with The Baptist Voice entitled “Walking with Giants,” Bobby Roberson said, “Lee Roberson was a great inspiration to me.” The presidents of the two largest fundamental Baptist Bible colleges today, Clarence Sexton of Crown College and Paul Chappell of West Coast Baptist College, were greatly influenced by Roberson, by their own testimonies. Sexton was trained by Roberson and worked for him for several years and has a little museum devoted to his mentor.
In 1942, Lee Roberson accepted the call to pastor Highland Park Baptist Church. In 1955, under Roberson’s direction, Highland Park left the Southern Baptist Convention, began to support missionaries directly through mission boards, and became a real powerhouse for world evangelism (though the evangelism methodology was deeply faulty). In the 1970s, the average Sunday School attendance at Highland Park was about 4,500. The congregation was giving half of its income to church planting and world missions. It was contributing support to more than 500 missionaries through its World Wide Faith Missions program. Highland Park’s annual missions conferences hosted 75-100 missionaries. The church’s paper, The Evangelist, had a circulation of 75,000. The church’s radio station, WDYN, broadcast gospel and Bible programs to the tri-state area (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama) via a 100,000 watt transmitter and a 200-foot tower on Signal Mountain. All of the church services were interpreted for the deaf. The church’s Camp Joy ministered to thousands of children and youth. Union Gospel Mission ministered to hundreds of “down and outers.” The church’s 70 chapels were scattered across a wide area. In 1946, Roberson founded Tennessee Temple Bible Institute. Later a college and seminary were added. By 2001, there were over 12,000 graduates.
Highland Park’s theme was “The Church of the Green Light.” It was based on the GO of Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature...” A large replica of a traffic signal with the green “go” brightly lit was placed near the church. This sign was printed on the church stationary.
That’s a great symbol for the Great Commission! Tremendous zeal for evangelism (sound evangelism!) is biblical, right, fundamental, essential. Without it, no church should consider itself a New Testament church.
“[B]y the 1960s and 70s Highland Park Baptist Church had become the model church in America for the independent, fundamental Baptist movement” (Wigton, Lee Roberson, p. 151).
What kind of model was it?
Like First Baptist Church of Ft. Worth, First Baptist of Minneapolis, and Fundamental Baptist of Dallas, Highland Park functioned more as an evangelistic preaching center than a New Testament church. Highland Park was called “an empire of evangelism” by Elmer Towns’ in The Ten Largest Sunday Schools, and that pretty much sums it up. While evangelism is a major and essential part of the church’s calling, a New Testament church is much, much more than “an empire of evangelism.”
Highland Park wasn’t the regenerate church that we see in Acts 2:41-42, with every member showing evidence of salvation, growing, and being faithful in spiritual life and service. It wasn’t the church as a body that we see in Ephesians 4:11-16, with the whole body, every single member, being built up and, in turn, building up the church and doing the work of the ministry. It wasn’t the church as a pure lump, ever-purifying itself, that we see in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. It wasn’t the church as a spiritual house made up of living stones functioning as priests that we see in 1 Peter 2:5. It wasn’t the church in which every member is being perfected that we see in Colossians 1:28. The pastor and his staff didn’t even know every member, not the 3,000 who attended on Wednesday nor the 57,000 who were on the rolls.
The congregational singing at Highland Park in its heyday was glorious. It was the apex of a sing along congregational service. The music under Roberson’s pastorate was conservative and sacred on purpose. Roberson was trained in music and as a young man was offered a lucrative career in singing, which he turned down for the ministry. I have never heard more thrilling congregational singing than I heard at Highland Park in the 1970s. There was an organ, two grand pianos, a large choir, and sometimes an orchestra. The hymns were well chosen. The atmosphere was sacred. There was absolutely nothing contemporary in style about the music.
But Highland Park’s congregational singing was pure “sing along.” Every service was an Ira Sankey-style revivalist campaign. J.R. Faulkner, the main song leader, was cheerful, enthusiastic, and effective, and he brought out the best from the choir and congregation. As a sing along leader, he knew what he was doing. He said, “Pull it out of the audience so you sing thoughts instead of every word” (Wigton, Lee Roberson, p. 163).
Here we see that the emphasis was not on singing the words to one another and teaching one another, but singing for singing’s sake, singing to create a beautiful sound, singing to build an enthusiastic atmosphere, singing to prepare for the preaching.
A good song leader can teach the people to sing exuberantly but exuberant singing is not the same as “teaching and admonishing one another.”
We will mention one more man who had a major influence in the polity of fundamental Baptist churches and the revivalist style church service, and that is JACK HYLES (1926-2001), pastor of First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana.
In 1974 Elmer Towns wrote,
“The First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, has been titled the most ‘influential church’ because it is copied by thousands of other churches who have implemented the same type of ministry and experienced the same success all over the United States. According to Jerry Falwell, ‘There are more churches like the First Baptist Church of Hammond than any other church.’ The church is ‘the most copied’ because Jack Hyles has influenced thousands of pastors who have attended the yearly pastors’ conference; because Jack Hyles has influenced thousands of churches through the 18 books he has written; and because Jack Hyles has influenced thousands of ministers through the number of pastor’s conferences where he speaks each year” (World’s Largest Sunday School, p. 167).
Hyles was born and raised in Texas and began his ministry there. After graduation from East Texas Baptist College in 1951, he pastored Southside Baptist Church of Henderson, Texas, which grew from 100 members to over 600 in eight months. As was typical of Baptist churches in Texas, the membership statistics were nearly meaningless, as most of the “members” were not active. This same thing was played out through all of Hyles’ pastorates, and the percentage of active members in comparison to overall membership became increasingly smaller.
In December 1952, Jack Hyles accepted the call to pastor Miller Road Baptist Church of Garland, Texas, which grew from 44 members to 4,100 in six years. The membership rolls were filled with inactive people. Of the alleged 4,000 members, only a small percentage could fit into the church building, but that didn’t matter, since most didn’t attend services!
By 1957, Miller Road “was baptizing more than any church in the history of Texas.” But unlike the baptisms in the book of Acts, a very large percentage of Miller Road baptisms were of people who did not demonstrate biblical conversion. They were offered a “ticket to heaven,” and they took the ticket and went on about their business.
After being kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention, Hyles was befriended by John R. Rice. He was put on the Board of Directors of the Sword and was made director of the Sword conferences. Rice and Hyles preached together in every state except one and “shared the pulpit over 2,200 times during 22 years.” In 1957, Hyles spoke for the first time at the Southwide Baptist Fellowship at Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, pastored by Lee Roberson.
In 1959, Hyles accepted the call to pastor First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. In 1963, Hyles’ book Let’s Go Soulwinning was published by the Sword of the Lord. It taught salvation as a ticket to heaven by means of a sinner’s prayer. In March 1964, Hyles began his annual four-day Pastor’s School. By 1976, 4,000 preachers and “lay people” were in attendance.
This is a major part of the history of how large numbers of Baptist churches in America and worldwide stopped singing by “teaching and admonishing one another” and started singing by “sing along.” It is the product of a change in church polity.
These men--especially W.B. Riley, John R. Rice, and Lee Roberson--did a lot of good. They were men of good Christian character. They were leaders of broad vision and great zeal for the work of God. They were men of prayer. They were men of strong faith. They were warriors for the truth. They were leaders of broad vision and great zeal for the work of God. They fought against theological liberalism, humanism, communism, and Darwinian evolution. They stood for the literal interpretation of prophecy and the essential doctrine of Christ’s imminent return. They stood for the verbal, plenary, infallible inspiration of Scripture, salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone without works, Christ’s substitutionary, vicarious atonement, the universal offer of the gospel, a literal heaven and a literal hell, the autonomy of the New Testament assembly, a sense of urgency about fulfilling the Great Commission, the aggressive evangelization of one’s own community, rejection of the world’s pop music, commitment to sacred music, and a pilgrim lifestyle that entails non-conformity to the world’s ways, including in the matter of fashion.
These are big things, and they were unpopular stands even prior to World War II. In their heyday, fundamental Baptist churches were going against the grain of secular society and of Christianity at large. I thank the Lord that there were men willing to take such a courageous stand for truth in the midst of end-time apostasy. I’m glad there were fundamental Baptist churches that stood for these things when I was saved in the early 1970s.
But these men erred in their doctrine of the church. There is no evidence that they turned to the New Testament alone for their model. Instead, they built churches that were revivalist campaign centers. The church polity was geared to this pragmatic goal. The congregational singing was geared to this goal. Congregational singing patterned after a revivalist evangelistic service fit this church model.
Moving a church away from “sing along” to “teaching and admonishing one another”
It is possible, of course, to move a church away from “sing along” to the biblical pattern of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, but it isn’t as simple as it might seem. Traditional habits are powerful things. Further, effectual singing according to Ephesians and Colossians requires a lot more biblical knowledge, spiritual depth, concentration, and commitment on the part of the people.
- Conviction and Commitment. The pastors and music people must be convinced that sing along is not what we see in Scripture and must be committed to make changes. They must be committed to building churches on a solid, thoroughgoing Biblical foundation. They must not be pragmatists, traditionalists, man followers.
- The Word of Christ dwelling richly. The congregation must aim to be the congregation described in Colossians 3:16, one in which the word of Christ dwells richly in all wisdom. This is no small thing. This is not the typical Baptist or fundamentalist Bible congregation today. It requires a regenerate membership. It requires a membership that is far better educated in the Bible than the vast majority of church members today.
- Education. The congregation must be instructed from Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16. The instruction must be detailed and persistent. See the chapter “Congregational Singing According to Scripture.”
- Environment. The physical environment must be conducive to singing to one another. The voices have to be heard. Turn down the volume of the leader’s microphone and the volume of the musical instruments so that the voices are preeminent. A piano or keyboard can help the congregation keep the timing and stay in good order, but the sound of the leader and the instruments should not overwhelm the voices.
- Selection. Choose hymns of good substance. They need to be hymns that are good for “teaching and admonishing one another.” This means hymns of good doctrine (“teaching”) and hymns of exhortation (“admonishing”).
- Understanding. Study the lyrics as a congregation. Emphasize whatever the hymn emphasizes. Clarify anything hard to be understood.
- Sing responsively. It can help to divide the congregation into groups and have the groups sing to one another responsively.
- Sing Psalms. Transitioning from “sing along” to “singing to one another” is a good time to start incorporating Psalm singing, because this is also a necessary part of singing biblically. (See the chapter “Singing the Psalms.)
- Patience. It takes time to move effectually from “sing along” to “singing to one another.” It won’t happen in two or three weeks.
For more on this subject see Transforming Congregational Singing in the 21st Century, www.wayoflife.org.
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