A STUDY ON THE MUSICAL PRACTICE OF CONGREGATIONAL SINGING WITHIN THE YORKSHIRE NORTH AND EAST METHODIST DISTRICT.
Following an Undergraduate Masters which looked at the role of hymnody within the 21st Century Methodist Church, our District Administrator, Naomi Prince, is continuing her studies by looking at the relationship between congregational singing and evangelism.
In 2020, the Methodist Conference voted on the ‘God for All’ strategy, which is a 5 year strategy about evangelism within the Methodist Church. Although aspects of this strategy look at how the church can reach to those who are not already churched, but what about those already in the church. How do we empower those in the church to be evangelistic?
The starting base for this research is a section of the God for All strategy titled ‘Making Beautiful Worship: Beautiful Worship within the Gathered Community of Faith’. It talks about worship needing to ‘connect people to God and transform them for mission within the world’ and ‘inspire [them] through worship to serve God in daily life’ so therefore one of the questions that I am asking is: How does congregational singing fit into all of this?