Trends: Recycling Old Church Buildings

Why construct a new building when you can upcycle an old one?

Pastor Mike Connaway’s newly planted VLife Church hasn’t started holding official services. Yet the youthful nondenominational congregation is already embracing its new home (House Painters In Bergen County New Jersey are one the ones who helped us in the transformation) at the previously vacant Trinity Presbyterian Church, one of the oldest church buildings in McKinney, Texas.

“All of our 20-somethings love this old building,” he said. “This reminds them of a time when life wasn’t broken.”

Across the country, old mainline and Catholic sanctuaries are finding new life as evangelical churches upcyle and renovate them for modern use, says Gary Nicholson, director of LifeWay Architecture.

Seattle-based megachurch Mars Hill made a name for itself using the warehouse-church model. Yet it recently signed a five-year lease to use First United Methodist Church in downtown Seattle, one of the oldest churches in the city. It also purchased the downtown First Congregational Church building in nearby Tacoma.

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Characteristics of a Praise Choir

I’ve talked before about how some church choirs are morphing from traditional 4 part SATB to a praise choir format. Here are a few characteristics I’ve discovered:

Most men can’t read music. A traditional 4 part SATB church choir is most likely made up “choir people” who have sung in choirs all their lives – in grade school, high school and college. A praise choir is usually found in a contemporary, seeker oriented church and has a good number of members who haven’t had formal musical or “church” training.

When I arrange for SAB (soprano, alto, baritone) I’m thinking of a praise choir. The men often sing melody, doubling the male worship leader. When the men are singing a part, they’re all singing the same note – no separate tenor or bass parts to confuse non-readers. Out of the entire men’s section you probably will have a core of 2 to 4 guys who can read music enough to lock everyone else in. A few more can tell if the notes on the page go up and down enough to sort of read music, and the majority of men are singing by ear.

Unisons and 2 parts. Nuances of SATB part writing are lost in a praise band setting. Lots of praise choir unison and 2 part writing is what cuts through the mix. Plus, with all the rhythmic intricacies of contemporary melodies, thick part writing gets clumsy and muddy. A good portion of your rehearsal is spent just getting the rhythms correct.

For Easter a few years ago I arranged “Love Is Here” by Tenth Avenue North for a local praise choir. I’ll explain my thought process in creating this praise choir arrangement, so take a look at the PDF and follow along with the MP3 below. You may not arrange music yourself, but these ideas might help you tweak and simplify an otherwise complicated SATB version of the latest praise song.

Use this sheet music and vocal demo MP3 in your own ministry FOR FREE.

 
If you need charts or more resources for your band, here’s a link to the song on PraiseCharts.com. RIGHT click to download the files, then select something like “save as” or “save link as”

First of all, the original recording is in B and I don’t want the sopranos singing that high – they can’t sing high and contemporary at the same time. I have 2 choices: let the tenor worship leader lead the song and the choir will sing a lower background vocal harmony, or lower the key and let the praise choir drive it. Since the song was the finale of the Easter program I decided it should be choir driven and lowered it considerably – my version is in F.

The original ends on a minor chord and is a bit “down.” I felt this version should end big on a major chord. I also created a key change on the last chorus to add punch, something which I haven’t done in a few years. Key changes have been out of vogue for awhile but I think they’re going to make a comeback this decade 🙂 That’s another reason why I start in F – because I want the song to end in the brighter key of G, and G is still not too high for the sopranos to carry the melody while singing in a contemporary style.

The verses are unison and the prechorus at measure 9, “all you who labor in vain,” has men on a harmony part to build interest. Like I said before, contemporary rhythms are a little complicated for the average choir. I even smoothed the melody out a little in some places compared to the original, so keeping everyone on melody keeps it tight and clean.

Then the praise choir breaks into SAB on the choruses. A praise choir will often sing in a tight, 3 part harmony. But in this case, tight harmony would put the men up to an F (G on the keychange) and that’s just too high. So I made the harmony wider on the first phrase “Love is here, love is now” then they return to melody for the rhythmic second phrase.

The bridge continues alternating between melody and 2 parts. The chorus is repeated in SAB and the choir goes to unison for the keychange for added strength at measure 36.

The song ends with tight SAB harmony on a major chord for “Love is here” at measure 46 while the band continues rocking.

There you have it – a typical 21st century praise choir SAB arrangement – lots of unison and 2 parts with a smattering of SAB. Traditional ears hearing the piece will find it too simple and boring for their SATB choir. But the purpose of the praise choir is not to perform an intricate anthem for a passive audience. They’re leading a congregation in worship, appropriate in the style of today’s popular music.

Dallas Megachurch Opening $130 Million Campus by Easter

First Baptist Church of Dallas, led by nationally known pastor Robert Jeffress, will complete what is believed to be the largest church building campaign in modern history, opening a new state-of-the-art $130 million campus on Easter Sunday, March 31.

“At a time when suburban megachurches are the norm and research shows that many people no longer feel the Church is relevant, First Baptist is committed to the Bible and to downtown Dallas,” said Jeffress. “People are hungry, not for religion, but for the Word of God. First Baptist Dallas is built on the Bible, and because of that, we are growing.”

This growth prompted First Baptist Dallas to embark on a building campaign in 2009, during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Though the popular trend among many churches is to acquire and retrofit unused buildings or open smaller, satellite campuses in the suburbs, First Baptist chose to remain in the heart of Dallas—a place where it has been located since its founding in 1868—in order to continue to serve the residents, business community and guests of Dallas and the surrounding Metroplex.

The new First Baptist campus is part of an extensive and impressive ongoing revitalization of downtown Dallas, following the recent opening of several multimillion-dollar museums, theaters and parks.

“For more than 140 years—through cycles of both decline and growth—First Baptist has been steadfastly committed to the city of Dallas,” Jeffress said. “That dedication continues through this contribution of what we believe is the finest facility in the heart of downtown—a concert hall of worship that truly represents, and is dedicated to, the greatness of God.”

The new campus highlights the landmark sanctuary alongside a new 3,000-seat Worship Center, which includes the latest high-tech features, such as a 150-foot-wide viewing screen. It stretches nearly two-thirds across the room and consists of seven high-definition projectors blended together, making it one of the largest viewing screens in any church in the world.

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Has Rick Warren Gone Off the Rails?

Last week Warren sent out the following call to his over 900,000 followers on Twitter: “Join me today in fasting and prayer for the 115 Cardinals seeking God’s Will in a new leader.”

I can think of a lot of things that should be prayed and fasted over – Catholic Cardinals wouldn’t be high on my list. Perhaps he needs a refresher course on the Reformation?

Read more about the controversy. “I would encourage Christians to [reach out to] Roman Catholics and point them to the true head of the Church — the Lord Jesus Christ.”

How Church Choirs Are Changing

For literally hundreds of years, back to Bach, choirs led and performed church music in SATB four part harmony: Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass.

This SATB format can be seen in your hymnal. If you’ve ever read my “Hymncharts Secrets” you know this was one of the first problems I discovered when I became a music director for the first time – praise bands (specifically guitars) can’t play SATB music because the chords usually change on just about every beat.

Pop music has drastically changed the musical landscape of the Church in the past thirty years. Chord progressions propelled music in the past, rhythm propels today’s music. And that’s why guitars can’t play out of your hymnal – a pop song will linger on a single chord for as long as a measure or more while the guitars rhythmically push the song along.

SATB choirs are found in traditional and blended churches. They’re made up of fairly experienced choir members who have grown up in grade school and college choirs and they can sight read at a decent level. These choir members enjoy learning a challenging anthem and performing it for special music.

A new type of pop choir has been born in recent years, emerging from contemporary Churches using modern worship methods. This pop choir has a mix of “proper” sight-reading choir members and untrained singers who have no clue what those dots on the page mean (in a megachurch praise choir I once worked with, only a single tenor out of the entire bass and tenor sections could read music!) But that’s ok, because the pop choir’s purpose is not to perform a complicated anthem but to lead and bolster the congregational singing.

The truth is, as the styles of church music change, so should the style of choirs. Choirs are mentioned multiple times in the Bible (2 Chronicles 5:13, Psalm 68:25) so they’re not going away anytime soon – but we’ve got to adapt them to fit modern worship! Pop choirs are the perfect solution. They can incorporate the driving rhythms and simpler chord progressions of contemporary praise music while still supporting and encouraging congregational singing. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Choirs have been leading God’s people in worship for centuries, and with a little creativity and flexibility, they can keep on doing just that – no matter what style of music is popular at the time. Let’s embrace the change and make sure our choirs are always ready to help usher in the presence of God, whether it’s through a majestic SATB anthem or a simple, heartfelt worship chorus.

Continued: More about Praise Choirs.

Chris Tomlin, King of the Sing-Along

The capacity crowd at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore is bouncing in unison to the most widely sung music on the planet today. The catwalk above the arena is shaking.

Chris Tomlin grabs the microphone and asks the crowd if they’re ready.

“I feel alive, on God’s great dance floor!” He leads the packed venue in singing and jumping.

Tomlin is out touring the country with his latest studio album, “Burning Lights.” In January, it topped the Billboard 200 charts. But unlike those who’ve enjoyed performances by Beyonce, Johnny Cash and a host of others who’ve played this Baltimore hall, after these fans stream out the doors they will have ample opportunity to sing Tomlin’s songs again, as one.

That is the secret to Tomlin’s success – the stage, the lights, the band – aren’t about him. As lively as his shows are, the point is not to get you inside the doors. The point is to get you singing in church.

“I strive for trying to write something that people can sing, that people want to sing, and that people need to sing,” Tomlin explained before the show.

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