Resounding Body

Building Christlike Church Communities through Music

Andy Thomas

• Publisher: Sacristy Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781789591125
• eBook ISBN: 9781789591149
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

In the many worshipping communities, music leaders perform a vital function. They help to build Christlike, inclusive communities – what St Paul described as the "body of Christ". However, resources can be in short supply.

In this insightful and practical guide, an experienced church musician describes how, according to Paul, individuals and communities are transformed into the body of Christ, and how music-making enables this process, even when resources are in short supply.

This valuable book encourages music leaders to step-up and persevere in low-resource contexts, and challenges all those who lead music in worship to focus not just on producing musical results but on building Christlike communities. It is essential reading for music leaders and those who train, oversee and nurture them, such as clergy, elders, worship committees and educators.

Notes

1 See, for example, John Bell, The Singing Thing Too and Mike Brewer’s Warm-Ups for sound, practical guidance on leading a choir; and the RSCM’s Sunday by Sunday series for advice on hymn/song and choir repertoire choices.

2 Paul seems to say some things about women and about same-sex relationships that have been—and still are—extremely divisive. However, there is dispute over whether Paul wrote 1 Timothy, which contains one of the two key “anti-women” texts (“I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet” (1 Timothy 2:12)). The second appears in 1 Corinthians 14:34 and states that women “should remain silent in the churches”, but appears to contradict an earlier verse suggesting that women can prophesy, leading some to suggest that it must have been added at a later date and not written by Paul. On same-sex relationships, a useful discussion of the complexities of reading Paul is offered by Jeffrey John in Permanent, Faithful, Stable (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2007), pp. 13ff.

3 Many Taizé chants are free to download on their website: <http://www.taize.fr/en>. For a list of Iona songbooks, see <https://www.ionabooks.com>.

4 See Dan Peterson, Engaging with God (Leicester: Apollos, 2002), pp. 177–9 and Archbishops’ Commission on Church Music, In Tune with Heaven (London: Church House Publishing, 1992), p. 39.

5 Paula Gooder, Body (London: SPCK, 2016), p. 119. See also Peterson, Engaging with God, pp. 153ff.

6 N. T. Wright, The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988), p. 176.

7 The notion that formal Christian gatherings are a practical expression of koinonia is suggested by Peterson, Engaging with God, p. 155.

8 Cf. Jonathan Arnold, Sacred Music in Secular Society (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), who argues that “ . . . there can be no divide between the church and the concert hall, or between religious and secular society, for the art of music is received by everyone alike” (p. 147). Arnold’s argument is that sacred music enables individuals to contemplate themes such as suffering, loneliness, joy, peace or anger, and to explore “the indefinable, the inexpressible, that unknown to us and yet that for which we search and long” whether or not it is performed in church or the concert hall. My point is that there is an important difference in the expected response to music when delivered in a church rather than concert setting, in that the former is meant to facilitate the building of an active, Christlike community.

9 See Michelle V. Lee, Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 129ff; 153.

10 For a brief description of the competing views, see Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), pp. 604–5.

11 See Lee, Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ, pp. 132–3. Another passage in which Paul draws a connection between individuals and the Spirit, in virtue of which they are knitted together, is Romans 8:14–16: “ . . . those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

12 See Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 628; Lee, Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ, p. 179.

13 See Lee, Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ, pp. 194–5.

14 See, for example, Brian Wren, Praying Twice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000), who opens his sub-section “Clergy and Musicians” with “ . . . relationships between clergy and musicians are not always marked by understanding and respect” (pp. 140–1). See also In Tune with Heaven, which reports a “widespread impression that breakdowns in the relationship between clergy and musicians are common” (p. 190).

15 Robin Rees, Weary and Ill at Ease (Leominster: Gracewing, 1993), p. 180.

16 Rees, Weary and Ill at Ease pp. 100–5.

17 There is a debate over whether Paul authored Ephesians, although even some who are unconvinced of his authorship are willing to describe the epistle as “Pauline” (e.g. John S. Spong, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World (New York: HarperCollins, 2013), p. 289).

18 Mary McGann, Exploring Music as Worship and Theology (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 71. © 2002 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN. Used with permission.

19 See, for example, In Tune with Heaven, pp. 48–9; Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Pneumatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), pp. 91–2.

20 See, for instance, Arnold, Sacred Music in Secular Society, (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), p. 118, 146.

21 See Gordon Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), pp. 106ff; 124.

22 Rowan Williams, “The Holy Spirit in the Bible”, in Jane Williams (ed.), The Holy Spirit in the World Today (London: Alpha, 2011), p. 65. See also Graham Tomlin, “Life in the Spirit”, in Jane Williams (ed.), The Holy Spirit in the World Today (London: Alpha, 2011), p. 83.

23 Williams, “The Holy Spirit in the Bible”, p. 70.

24 Steven Guthrie, “The Wisdom of Song”, in Jeremy Begbie and Steven Guthrie (eds), Resonant Witness (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), pp. 398–403.

25 This is suggested by the way the behaviour described by Guthrie reflects the “fruit of the Spirit” as outlined by Paul in Galatians 5:22–23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” For a useful fleshing out of what each fruit means, see Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, pp. 116–23.

26 Quoted in Lucy Winkett, Our Sound is our Wound (London: Continuum, 2010), p. 77.

27 Guthrie, “The Wisdom of Song”, p. 401.

28 Guthrie, “The Wisdom of Song”, p. 402, his italics. Begbie points out how music is naturally inclusive in that a single note can fill my “aural space”, yet there is still room for harmonizing notes: “ . . . an uncrowded, expansive space without clear edges, where distinct voices mutually establish and enhance one another.” (Jeremy Begbie, Resounding Truth (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), pp. 286–90.)

29 See also Begbie, Resounding Truth, pp. 248–50; and Thomas H. Troeger, Music as Prayer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), “The human creature who comes to terms with finitude is the one who lives most fully and most freely.” (p. 34).

30 Karkkainen, Pneumatology, p. 92.

31 Guthrie, “The Wisdom of Song”, p. 399.

32 Guthrie, “The Wisdom of Song”, p. 399.

33 McGann, Exploring Music as Worship and Theology, p. 72.

34 Stacy Horn, Imperfect Harmony (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 2013), p. 172.

35 See Lee, Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ, pp. 148–50. As Lee points out, Paul’s likening of the body of Christ to a human body is strikingly reminiscent of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who also considered membership of a body to be an essential component of identity: “Do you not know that the foot, if detached, will no longer be a foot, so you too, if detached will no longer be a human being?” (Quoted on p. 141.) Lee’s overall thesis, throughout her book, is that the Stoics enable us to understand in more depth Paul’s concept of the body of Christ. (See also Begbie, Resounding Truth, pp. 269–70.)

36 As Paul puts it: “But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?” (1 Corinthians 12:18–19).

37 McGann, Exploring Music as Worship and Theology, pp. 70–1.

38 Erik Routley, Church Music and the Christian Faith (Chicago, IL: Agape, 1978), pp. 15–20, 85.

39 See Matthew 5:41: “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”

40 Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, pp. 100ff.

41 Jeremy Begbie, “Faithful Feelings”, in Jeremy Begbie and Steven Guthrie, Resonant Witness (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), pp. 349ff.

42 For instance, Begbie argues that, in the last movement of his “Pathétique” Symphony, Tchaikovsky differentiates “reflective grief from despairing grief”. (“Faithful Feelings”, p. 350.)

43 Arnold, Sacred Music in Secular Society, p. 10.

44 As an example of a group being “emotionally represented” by music, Begbie describes the funeral of a young mother who had committed suicide. At the graveside, her only son played a lament on bagpipes. Begbie’s friend, who led the service, remarked that it was as if the son summed up for everyone ...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Building the Body of Christ
• Engaging with the Spirit
• Discerning the Body of Christ
• Engaging those Beyond Your Worshipping Community
• Implications for Church Music Today
• Postlude
• Bibliography
• Notes