Most traditional churches of Christ have a minimum of three traditional songs that are required of every Sunday service. First is the song before the Lord's Supper, second is the invitation song, and third is the closing song. Some churches add other required traditional songs, these include: (1) the opening song (a call to worship); (2) the song before the main prayer (a call to prayer), and (3) the song before the sermon (a call to God's Word).
Some churches are moving away from tradition and slowly dropping most of these songs as a required part of a public assembly. But these churches represent a minority of congregations. Since most song leaders deal with traditional songs, the least we can do is help song leaders manage these songs in creative and refreshing ways.
The focused paradigm is a song planning model that says that only a few songs qualify as candidates for each type of traditional song. Only a song about the death and resurrection of Jesus should be used for a communion song. Only a song that calls people to obey the gospel should be used for an invitation song. Only a song about preaching God's Word should be used before the sermon.
The focused paradigm tends to create monotony in public singing in a long-term frame of reference. The monotony comes from the fact that we do not have a very large repertory of focused communion or invitation songs. Monotony tends to cause people to lose interest in immersing themselves in the real meaning of the song. Monotony tends to cause people to sing songs in a mindless fashion.
The unfocused paradigm is a song planning model that says that a song need not focus directly on the theme of the occasion in order to be used. A song of salvation might be used for a communion song. A song about the love of God might be used for an invitation song. A song that is a prayer might be used as the song before a prayer.
The unfocused paradigm allows us to use a wider repertory of songs for those traditional moments in our song service. This wider repertory tends to solve the problem of monotony.
The unfocused paradigm is a way of thinking that is strange to many song leaders who are deeply enculturated to traditional ways of thinking about song planning. This concept, however, does not violate any Biblical principles. Furthermore, this concept is not offensive to most church members. This concept is not offensive because most people do not pay very close attention to the details of songs selected for a public service. So, we recommend this model to song leaders.
Success in using a wider selection of songs for the Lord's Supper or invitation songs will take some practice. Some experiments may not succeed, but others will. Learn by doing!
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