Have you ever wondered about the different musical elements of worship at the Our Saviour’s Campus--say, what the Canticle of Praise is all about, or when and why the Kyrie rotates?

In a recent conversation, Nicholas Davis, who serves as worship director for our 9 and 11 a.m. worship services as well as director of the Sanctuary Choir and the Women’s Chorale, shared what goes into his worship-music planning and why we sing what we sing.

We talk about the “liturgy” and different liturgical seasons of the year--what is the liturgy, exactly? What does it comprise?

ND: The liturgy is basically the parts of the service historically called the Mass, but in the Lutheran church we call it the Divine Service of Holy Communion. The Lutheran service as we know it, the structure, came about in 1888, when lots of different Lutheran churches got together and created what then was called the Common Service. It has pretty much stayed the same since then. We start with a Kyrie, which is a prayer for mercy.

It's followed by the Gloria or the Canticle of Praise, which contains the words sung by the angels to the shepherds that we would find in Luke. In our church, as in many churches, we won't sing a Gloria, we'll sing "This is the Feast." Then we have the the lessons, the first reading. In response to the lessons, we sing the Alleluia--literally a response of joy to hearing God's words and preparing to hear the Gospel.

Later in the service, when we get to the communion liturgy, we have a call-and-response preface called the Great Thanksgiving (The Lord be with you.” “And also with you...”). Our sung response to that, the “Holy, Holy, Holy,” is preparing us for the highest point of the service. Sometimes I'll actually play that part of the service much louder, and there's a reason for that: That comes right before the words of institution, where we hear that we are about to partake in the body and blood of Jesus. Those are words that come directly from Isaiah and Matthew, when we say "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Then before communion we'll sing the Agnus Dei, a song of praise where we're remembering that Jesus is the lamb of God and is present when we're taking communion. Those are the liturgical parts that we use normally in our services.

When and why do some musical elements of the liturgy change?

It really changes I guess with the season. For example, the first Sunday of Advent we'll be changing to a different setting of the service. That comes about through discussion with the worship planning team--what is our focus for that season? I try to switch between a traditional ELW setting and maybe something from our other resources in the Lutheran church; I try to give a variance to what we do.

Besides the liturgy, you’re also selecting our gathering song, hymn of the day and sending song, which do change each week. How do you choose those?

Every song I pick, every liturgy I choose, I choose so very intentionally because I want to make sure it matches what's being done that Sunday, and also, is it going to be effective when people hear it or sing it?

In addition to selecting from the ELW, I’ll use things from Hymnal Supplement 1991; we have a hymnal called “This Far by Faith”; and then I'll actually pull from other denominations that might have songs that are very fitting that we don't have in any of our books.

I do a lot of prayer and discernment in picking not just parts of the service itself but my prelude and my postlude. Every piece of music that I am tasked with selecting takes prayer and discernment in that moment.

What do you love most about your job, and how does it challenge you?

I love music; I love being a Lutheran; I love the church, and I get to have the opportunity to play the organ every Sunday and play the piano or lead a choir or help lead a congregation in song, all while trying to make the world a better place. I think the challenging part is holding on to traditional Lutheran service ideas and hymns but also moving forward as the church and the world changes and tying those together. Because change is hard, but sometimes we have to do uncomfortable things. From a personal standpoint, I'm a traditionalist, so sometimes it's even hard for me to try to bring in something different, like a more praise-style song, but when we do it differently and it has an effect, that's pretty cool. It’s about helping people understand that it's OK every now and then to do something a little different.

My favorite thing about what I do is that I get to do a job that I truly love.