We recently installed a new PA system in our church building. It increases the potential volume considerably. That’s not strictly why we bought it, but now that increased volume is a possibility, it is also quite often a reality!

It has led me to wonder what are the pros and cons of loud music for congregational worship…

At my church (Holy Trinity Adelaide), our biggest and most successful congregational worship event of the year is our Christmas carols service in the Adelaide Town Hall. (Quick plug: you can buy the DVD and check it out at www.emumusic.com/albums/carolsinthecitydvd)

Things are loud. A combination of a large reverberant room and a lot of people singing songs they know very well, and the decibel metre is reaching high numbers!

Yet rarely do we get any complaints about the volume. There is something awesome about that kind of singing experience. It’s not about the PA. It’s about the 1000 voices. There’s actually an old hymn by Charles Wesley called, “O for a thousand tongues to sing”, which delights in the awesome power of that number of voices singing in unison, and longs to have it for oneself. When we encounter the true God in our lives, we can be spurred to sing with all our might. Imagine having the power of a thousand voices to express praise of my maker and saviour…

Having said all this, it’s not every Sunday that we experience hearty, loud singing. Many factors come into play to prevent it. Uninspiring song leaders, uninspiring preachers and service leaders, a building that deadens the sound rather than resonating with it, a band that cannot get it together and express the heart of the song. And, of course, an inadequate PA is one of the biggest constraints on congregational singing.

In a sense, this seems like a contradiction, since it’s not the band we’re ultimately trying to amplify, but rather the voices of the members of the congregation. But in the end, there really is only one reason that there is a band in the first place, and that is to urge the congregation to sing! You could do the same with a pipe organ, or a choir or an orchestra. But then you’d probably be playing traditional music, and not all churches want to do traditional music, especially not your youth service. So the contemporary equivalent is a good band and a good PA. For any reasonably large sized congregation, you will need both, from my experience.

The problem with a small PA is that it is like trying to use a small portable CD player. No matter how good the CD is, it won’t sound any good in anything bigger than a small room. It’ll just sound tinny. And if you push it loud, it’ll sound harsh. Harshness, in my opinion, is the main cause of “volume” complaints in the churches I’ve attended. I know that in some churches, it is just plain too loud. And I know that some sound operators can manage to make it sound harsh no matter how good the PA system is! But often there is an impression of loudness created by the fact that the sound source is not adequate for the building size.

It’s the same principle at work that led our forefathers to build large pipe organs for our old church buildings. If you want people to be moved by the music, then the music needs to be generated by a source that can actually, literally move people. Rarely do people complain about the volume of the organ (not these days, anyway!). I wonder if that’s because over the centuries of organ-building they eventually got the size and volume right!

In the Adelaide Town Hall, the organ effectively occupies an entire wall, protruding several metres from it. It is a massive sound source. With modern technology, we can be much more efficient of course. We can use loudspeakers to move large amounts of air, and give the warmth and fullness that is required to spur on loud singing.

But there are still limits. You’ll never get that warmth and fullness if you use small speech-oriented speakers. You need a bass speaker. And subwoofers are not just for showoffs in their hotted up cars! They’re for churches.

At Holy Trinity, we are trying to use our new PA to inspire loud singing. I always think that the volume of the congregation is a good place to start when working out if our music ministry is effective or not. It’s not everything, but people need encouragement to praise with strength and volume.

As a music director, my role is not really to direct the music at all. It is more importantly to urge and encourage the singing.