Gungor, the Concept Album and Worship

          A colleague of mine from a church plant in the East Coast posted an article by the creative Christian singer/songwriter, Michael Gungor (who I still have yet to get to know), about how the "concept album" can save worship music.

          "I don’t think most Christians today give much thought to the overarching stories that form not only what we claim to believe but how we live in the world. So, we wanted to try to be more intentional about the larger context of the individual songs. We wanted to move away from the more typical pop Christian method of trying to create the best short, inspirational sound bites we could, and instead try to create an experience that immersed the listener into a cohesive narrative of some kind."

          You can read the rest here.

          From my rock band years, I do remember the term "concept album." Gungor has some very good points, but they seem only applicable to the "listening" worshipers. If Gungor's good ideas want to be applied to the "sing-along" worshipers in a Sunday morning setting, there'd likely need to be some compromise on song time-length. And songs would need to be singable by the common congregant. (The latter compromise was actually a charge by Wyclif, who rightfully thought the complex, challenging and melismatic choral works of the Renaissance were a bit too hard for a born-again peasant to sing).

          Thoughts? Is/should your church's worship (be) a story or a sound byte? Something inbetween?