Psalm Singing in the CanRC

The Impact of Psalm Singing in Corporate Worship in the Canadian Reformed Churches: Perspectives of the Congregants, Jan Frederik Ezinga.  Doctor of Worship dissertation for Liberty University, Lynchburg VA, 2024.

As the Canadian Reformed Churches continue to age, we’re beginning to see more interesting research about different aspects of church life.  While there has been more research at master’s degree levels, in 2021 we saw the publication of Mariia Alekseevskaia’s Ph.D.dissertation on CanRC education.  Now this year, we have Frank Ezinga’s work on psalm singing. 

Now before going any further, let me assure that though this is an academic work, it isn’t going to be out of reach for the average adult reader.  It’s speaking about a world with which we’re familiar, using language that many of us have grown up with.  Not only will you find it accessible, I’m quite sure you’ll find it fascinating.

But who is Frank Ezinga and what qualifies him to write this thesis?  If you live in the Lower Mainland of BC, he probably needs no introduction.  He has been the long-time organist of the Langley Canadian Reformed Church.  He is a consummate professional at his musical craft.  The church has been richly blessed with his breadth of experience, height of knowledge of things musical and Reformed, and depth of passion for meaningful Christian worship. To learn more about him and his interests, see his website here.

Frank wrote this thesis as the culmination of his studies for the Doctor of Worship degree at Liberty University.  He began his research hoping to answer two main questions about psalm singing in the CanRC:

1. What do 21^st century Canadian Reformed congregants in British Columbia understand about psalm singing?
2. What factors influence 21^st century Canadian Reformed congregants’ perspectives on song selection?

To answer these questions, Frank had a research pool of 2,689 communicant members in the CanRC congregations in BC (and the two churches in Washington state).  Out of that pool, 316 people responded to his research survey.  Frank acknowledges that this is a limited data set, but he thought it was most workable to focus his attention on one geographical area.  Moreover, 316 participants still provide a large enough pool to reach some legitimate conclusions. 

So what kind of questions did Frank ask?  Here are three of them:

• Why do you think we sing psalms in corporate worship?
• What value, if any, can be found in our church’s practice of psalm singing?
• Do you think singing all psalms in corporate worship is a valuable practice in today’s culture?

You’ll notice how these are open-ended questions.  Frank was looking for a sentence or paragraphs in response.  That makes the results more difficult to analyze, but it does allow participants to have the nuances of their views heard.

Without giving too much away, what surprised me most about Frank’s findings was how the majority of respondents were positive about psalm singing in general.  I’m not sure what he was expecting, but when I began reading it I was expecting that perhaps it would swing the other direction.  Frank writes:

Most congregants are like-minded regarding the conceptual aspects of the purpose and value of singing the psalms in worship. They share the same priority of psalm singing in worship as the first-generation Canadian Reformed Churches and agree with their church’s confession about who determines the elements in corporate worship. However, some opinions differ about the practice of psalm singing in worship, the selection of songs in worship, and what or who determines corporate worship. (p.110)

It appears that there remains a hopeful future for psalm singing in the CanRC, at least in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

If you’re an office bearer in the CanRC, I think this research will prove interesting and helpful.  It may even inspire consistories to do similar surveys in their own congregation – with today’s tech, that’s certainly feasible.  Finally, please note that Frank’s work isn’t available in any bookstore.  However, you can download it as a free pdf from Liberty University.           

Originally published in Clarion 73.12 (September 20, 2024)            

Tags: Canadian Reformed Churches Frank Ezinga Psalm singing