How to lead your church to sing louder

Editor’s note: This column was written by a member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Shepherds Collective. For more information, visit sbtexas.com/networks/shepherds-collective.

Years ago, my pastor friend commented after guest preaching at our church, “Your church is quiet.” He wasn’t only referring to a lack of “amens” during sermons—he was mainly commenting on our singing.

I can gladly say our church has grown tremendously in this area since then. While the greatest change has happened by the grace of God, there are several practical changes we have made to encourage our congregation to sing louder.

Teach it

From sermon application that encourages singing loudly to regular pastoral encouragement in the worship service, we are to lead our people into worship. There is a vertical and horizontal element in the gathered church singing, as Ephesians 5:19 says we are to address one another “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.”

Model it

If you are the senior/lead pastor, you are the worship leader. It is important to be present in your seat/pew before the first song begins. Even though I do not have a great voice, I stand and sing from my belly, considering the truths I am proclaiming as both a praise to God and an encouragement to those around me.

Look around

Singing on Sunday morning is more of a corporate act than a personal one. Keeping the lights on allows us to look around and see those we are to encourage and be encouraged by in song. As I look around each Sunday and consider the stories and struggles of those singing rich truths of God, my soul is filled with great joy as I not only sing with my brothers and sisters, but listen to them declare and persevere through life with the truth of God.

Find the right volume

Creating a sound mix that encourages people to sing loudly without drowning them out is difficult. While there can be arguments to be made for louder or quieter mixes coming through the speakers, we got a decibel reader and sought to find out how quiet is loud enough. We aim for 75-80 decibels, give or take (our worship leader prefers 78 decibels, and our church tends to sing loudest at 83 decibels).

Select songs intentionally

From how singable the key/melody is to where songs are to be sung during the service, this should be a prayerful, intentional consideration. We do not want to sacrifice truth, but there are some incredibly rich theological songs we do not sing because of their musical difficulty. We also try to keep instrumental interludes to a minimum, as we are seeking to emphasize the words we are putting in people’s mouths more than the instrumentation of the musicians. Lastly, we want our people to be familiar with the songs, so we try not to introduce more than one new song each month. When we do, we sing it two weeks in a row, take a break for a week, then sing it again in addition to messaging new songs to our church and adding them to our weekly Spotify playlist.

Begin with a responsive reading

Each service, after our short, silent prayer, we try to always have our call to worship be a responsive reading from God’s Word. Getting people talking before we sing helps engage their vocal responsiveness.

Sing a cappella

Beginning the worship service completely a cappella tends to get people singing louder while also communicating that the congregation’s voice is the primary instrument. We also end service each week after our benediction singing the doxology a cappella, which is one of the sweetest ways my soul is encouraged.

For the worship ministers …

Sometimes our worship leader reads a verse or a chorus from a new song before we sing it or a passage of Scripture that communicates the truth of the song. Once or twice a week, we will sing the chorus a cappella, either at the end of the song or after a bridge that builds musically.

Pray for it

God delights when people sing boldly, confidently, and loudly to Him in praise. Pastor, ask God throughout the week that He would fill your church’s hearts with such gratitude, confidence, and joy that their singing would be an overflow of their worship.

The goal here isn’t a loud church for loudness’ sake. The heart behind singing loudly is to encourage each believer to sing wholeheartedly to the Lord, encourage their brothers and sisters around to do so, and show those who don’t yet believe in Him why Jesus is worth singing from the depths of our hearts, for He is great and greatly to be praised (Psalm 145:3).