A few years ago, I regularly played bass for one of the largest pentecostal churches in Sydney. There have been plenty of critiques of pentecostal music over the years, but I want to point out two areas where they get it right, and where we can learn from them.

Firstly, pentecostal churches invariably sing their songs in a block at the front of the service. By contrast, our churches tend to interleave the songs throughout the service (what is often called a “hymn sandwich”). The pentecostal approach is better. Singing requires confidence. Singing several songs in a row increases your confidence, so that by the final song the shyest person might find themselves lustily belting out the tune. By contrast, when the songs are interleaved throughout the service, you have to start from zero each time. Try blocking your songs together this week - I bet your congregation sings better.

The second area they do well is in limiting the playlist. When I was playing at my pentecostal church, I was given a book in January that contained all of the music we would be doing for that year. It had just 20 songs in it. No-one was concerned about repetition, and I never once heard anyone complain that we needed some new material. Having such a limited playlist really took the pressure off the band - we became very famliar with the material and were able to play it with great confidence. The congregation learnt the songs well too, and they sang better because of it.

Any of our churches, whether large or small, could implement these two strategies - and see some quick benefits. If you decide to give it a try, let me know how it goes…