{"id":12269,"date":"2011-11-16T11:15:37","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T16:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/16\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\/"},"modified":"2011-11-16T12:38:08","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T17:38:08","slug":"new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/16\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\/","title":{"rendered":"New Book on Worship Music Practices in U.S. Congregations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Sounds of our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music <\/em>has just been published (2011) by the Alban Institute in cooperation with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.  The work details a research project involving nine congregations: three Catholic, three Episcopal, and three Presbyterian, located in the Northwest, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast of the United States.  Representing inner-city, suburban, and urban locations and ranging in size from seventy-five to thousands of members, these churches were chosen because of their proximity to the researchers and because they were consistently identified as having \u201csuccessful\u201d music programs.<\/p>\n<p>Its principal author, Charlotte Kroeker, is executive director of the Church Music Institute in Dallas, TX, and a pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Asia and England, frequently in the context of worship services.  Her fellow researchers and co-authors include Annette Conklin (two chapters) and Linda J. Clark (one chapter).  The research method is well articulated in the \u201cPreface\u201d: \u201cEach pastor and musician [leader] was interviewed individually, with the researcher using the questions in appendix A.  Then the researcher attended worship services to observe the liturgy in action.  A second interview with pastor and musician followed, based on the questions in appendix B.  We later returned to the interviewees to ask questions about congregational perspectives, listed in appendix C.\u201d  The three sets of questions printed in the appendices alone would make the book worth its price for those interested in systematic study of congregational music leadership.<\/p>\n<p>After chapters devoted to each of the nine congregations researched, the work concludes with three chapters summarizing the findings (\u201cCommonalities Across Denominations and Contexts\u201d), dreaming about ideal environments for worship music (\u201cCharacteristics of Special Note\u201d) and suggesting courses of action (\u201cImplications for the Future\u201d).  As one might expect, there is a strong emphasis upon education: of clergy-musicians, of musician-theologians, and of life-long worship music learners in the congregation.  Since so much of the acrimony of the discussion on the <em>Pray Tell <\/em>blog seems to arise from varying understandings of what \u201cthe best\u201d worship is, I found the author\u2019s five statements on striving for \u201cthe best\u201d worship music in a particular place and time to be quite helpful:<\/p>\n<p>1.\tOur best is the accumulated wisdom of the gifted people in our midst.<br \/>\n2.\tOur best is the accumulated wisdom from the fields of both theology and music.<br \/>\n3.\tOur best is a congregation equipped to fulfill its task in worship.<br \/>\n4.\tOur best is the development of a repertoire of music within a congregation that has lasting value over the years, music that provides nourishment for the Christian journey.<br \/>\n5.\tOur best is the development of leaders of music for the future.<\/p>\n<p>I hope these few reflections will encourage readers of the <em>Pray Tell <\/em>blog, especially those involved in clerical and\/or musical leadership, to put \u201cThe Sounds of our Offerings\u201d on their \u201cto read\u201d list.  I also hope that this research will encourage others to refine the method and continue the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><I>The Sounds of our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music<\/I> has just been published by the Alban Institute in cooperation with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. The work details a research project involving nine congregations: three Catholic, three Episcopal, and three Presbyterian, located in the Northwest, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast of the United States. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,41,19,20,51,23],"tags":[1672,1671,1673,1675,1676,1674],"class_list":["post-12269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecumenism","category-episcopalanglican-liturgy","category-mass","category-music-general","category-protestant-worship","category-recently-published-books","tag-alban-institute","tag-charlotte-kroeker","tag-church-music-institute","tag-church-musicians","tag-presbyterian-liturgy","tag-worship-music"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New Book on Worship Music Practices in U.S. Congregations - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/16\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Book on Worship Music Practices in U.S. Congregations - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sounds of our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music has just been published by the Alban Institute in cooperation with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. The work details a research project involving nine congregations: three Catholic, three Episcopal, and three Presbyterian, located in the Northwest, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast of the United States.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/16\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-16T16:15:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-16T17:38:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Joncas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Joncas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Joncas\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/201cd62fc298764277b119d6ef510d4f\"},\"headline\":\"New Book on Worship Music Practices in U.S. Congregations\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-16T16:15:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-16T17:38:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Alban Institute\",\"Charlotte Kroeker\",\"Church Music Institute\",\"Church Musicians\",\"Presbyterian liturgy\",\"Worship Music\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ecumenism\",\"Episcopal\\\/Anglican Liturgy\",\"Eucharist\",\"Music: General\",\"Protestant Worship\",\"Recently Published Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/\",\"name\":\"New Book on Worship Music Practices in U.S. Congregations - Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-16T16:15:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-16T17:38:08+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/16\\\/new-book-on-worship-music-practices-in-u-s-congregations\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Book on Worship Music Practices in U.S. Congregations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"description\":\"Worship, Wit &amp; 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