Philip Percival is the Ministry Director of Emu Music. Emu Music exists to equip the church in biblical, beautiful and transformative singing.

Do Australian evangelical churches have a problem with singing?

I think there are systemic cultural and theological issues that are reflected in non-engaged singing in many churches. Pastors and music teams often report that their congregations don’t appear engaged, although reasons for this can be theological, practical, or both.

On a practical level, the church might not have a suitable PA system or skilled operators. There simply may not be enough people in the room for critical mass. They might be choosing the wrong songs to sing.

The first thing we need to do is reverse our thinking. Don’t look to the platform to assess the quality of your church’s music – look to the pews. A healthy music ministry is not about what’s happening in the band, but rather in the congregation. 

Colossians 3:16 says that the word of Christ will dwell richly in us as we teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Where does the word of Christ dwell in us? Within the church. The word of God fuels our prayer, praise and thanksgiving. Our singing is, therefore, a vehicle for God to grow his church.

These biblical principles about singing don’t encourage us to look to the front, but rather to turn around and look at our congregations – the heart of music ministry.

However, encouraging people to sing still happens from the front, and a key reason many congregations don’t sing well is that they’re not being led well.

Leading well doesn’t mean having a big, cool sounding band. I mean clear and confident song leading that is intentionally trying to engage people with the gospel that they’re singing about.

We too often look at what bigger, ‘successful’ churches are doing – those with a big band, four song leaders and an amazing sound system. They’re very well rehearsed and polished. But having a great sounding band doesn’t guarantee good singing. The song leader is far more important.

Are there differences in singing cultures across churches in Australia?

In the last two years, Emu has led events across Australia. We’ve found the most heartfelt singing happening in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. It’s tricky to pinpoint why this is, but I think there are historical and cultural reasons why Sydneysiders are a bit more cautious about engaging their affections.

Looking back to the 1980s, there was nervousness within the conservative evangelical world towards anything charismatic, leading evangelical church leaders to be cautious about influences coming from the dominant pentecostal tradition of music – for good reasons.

But in some cases churches threw the baby out with the bathwater, and shut down anything that looked remotely charismatic, for fear of a slippery slope. This might be one reason why Sydney churches are still a little more cautious in their engaging their affections in singing.

What we perhaps should have done decades ago was to stop, reflect, and take the lead in developing a healthy, heart-engaged, biblically driven culture of singing – rather than taking a restrictive, defensive stance.

How do we know if we’re developing a healthy, heart-engaged, affectionate, biblically-driven culture of singing?

This is complicated – it’s more of an art than a science. I can’t read people’s hearts. I can’t tell what’s going on spiritually when they are singing; but the most obvious starting point is the volume.

The volume that congregations produce is an indication of their engagement with the truths that they’re singing about.

Assuming we are singing good gospel truth songs, the way I respond to the lyrics tells me something about what’s going on in my heart. Is the gospel message in this song engaging my affections?

Another thing I look out for is how people appear – what’s on their face and how their bodies respond. To be fair, I myself don’t display emotion fluently! But when you see an engaged congregation, you can see it on their faces to some extent.

It can be interesting to compare how people sing along to a secular song compared to how they sing in church. If someone is very animated listening to secular music, but deadpan in church, that’s a sign something’s not quite adding up.

So how do we develop a culture of heart-engaged singing? This starts with the role of the song leader. And good song leaders aren’t just the singers. They’re the musicians, the pastor and the service leaders.

What can song leaders do better?

One of the most important things the song leader can do is to know their entries.

If the song leader knows when they’re coming in and looks confident in doing so, the congregation will go with them. However, the congregation can smell fear. If they’re not quite sure if it’s a four bar or eight bar introduction, everyone picks up on this immediately. They might then only join in halfway through the verse, or even halfway through the song.

One reason it helps to have lyrics monitors at the back of the room is that often I’ll see song leaders with their eyes glued to their music stand.

My theological principle is that I’m teaching and admonishing others in the word as I sing. I model that by engaging them with my eyes so I need to be looking up!

Posture also shows how engaged we are. What we model at the front is what we get back from the congregation, and what we give out will be the maximum the congregation will give back. So if you are emotionally expressive then you are giving the congregation permission to be emotionally expressive.

This is also an important thing for pastors to understand. You may be in the front row while the singing is happening, but people are still watching your responses.

Are you intentionally modelling how you want the congregation to be engaging – or last-minute checking your sermon notes? 

Song leaders have a hard job because they’re often singing and leading a very deadpan looking crowd. I will often encourage song leaders to find the people in the congregation that are looking engaged and feed off them for encouragement.

Our song choices also have a huge impact on healthy singing, as it’s possible to choose songs that just don’t work for our particular congregation.

You have to know your church and what they’re capable of achieving. When they’re confident in a song, they’ll sing it. If I give them something that is too hard for them or the band, then they won’t open their mouths.

That’s why sometimes you can lead a couple of contemporary songs and you don’t get much back, and then do an old hymn and suddenly the volume lifts because people are now in their musical comfort zone.

What resources do you have for churches and music teams?

We have an online course called Word In Song Online to help onboard new musicians to church music ministry and train existing teams.

It includes six sessions covering the basic biblical principles of why churches sing and practical tips for song leading and musicianship.

Our newest resource is called hymnbook.app which is a free searchable database of trusted songs (by scripture, themes and styles).

With a premium subscription, musicians can access tools to help musicians learn songs, practice parts, and download lyric videos and backing tracking to lead singing in church.