Have you ever heard the term "congregational response?"

I can't place it exactly, but I'm sure I've heard that term or equivalents.

I'd think it would have a range of possible meanings.

- Words said or sung by the congregation as part of worship/liturgy; (eg; in responsive readings of Psalms; in litanies; in call-and-response songs etc).

- The way a congregation responds more or less spontaneously/personally to an experience of worship as a whole, or to particular parts of a worship service. So this might include interjections during the sermon, or expressions of emotion (crying, or laughter, or whatever), or how people feel.

- Feedback, questions, comments, or the like given to preachers or worship leaders after a service.

Simply describing.. the pastor reads aloud from a passage then the congregation reads the intended response in unison.

It's done on a regular basis depending on the occasion.

justme6272 said:

What are those? Once a sermon starts, everything else stops.

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That depends on your church culture, doesn't it?

A few denominations do it often.

Quoting fwGod:
Simply describing.. the pastor reads aloud from a passage* then the congregation reads the intended response in unison.
* liturgy?

The congregation has a copy so they can read the responses aloud. I think they had pages in the back of the Methodist hymnal. The way I remenber it was the pastor or lay person read a few lines, then the congregation responded, then the pastor's turn, then the congregation. I didn't like it that much because I have trouble concentrating.

Paidiske said:

That depends on your church culture, doesn't it?

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Okay, I'm not knowledgable on this. Do some churches interupt the sermon and then continue the sermon?

Phoebe Ann said:

Okay, I'm not knowledgable on this. Do some churches interupt the sermon and then continue the sermon?

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All sorts of things happen in different contexts. I've preached in places where the congregation was small and the sermon was more like a small group discussion, with input from others present and sharing of ideas, for example.

Paidiske said:

All sorts of things happen in different contexts. I've preached in places where the congregation was small and the sermon was more like a small group discussion, with input from others present and sharing of ideas, for example.

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Oh, I haven't experienced that. But I've heard people shout "Amen!"

justme6272 said:

If so, how many times, or how often, do you think you've heard it, approximately?
What do you think of when you hear it?
What do you think it's talking about?

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A response is the part of the Liturgy when the congregation "responds". The most common response is "Lord have mercy". It has been part of the Liturgy since the beginning. An excerpt from the Liturgy of St. James:

Visit Your world in mercy and compassion.

Exalt the horn of Christians by the power of the precious and quickening cross.

We beseech You, most merciful Lord, hear us praying to You, and have mercy upon us.

The People (thrice).

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Pliny, in describing the "crimes" of Christians to emperor Trajan in 112 A.D. wrote "They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god..." Note that the Christians sang "responsively". That is the singing of the Liturgy. The "fixed day" was "the Lord's Day", i.e., Sunday.

Heard of it?

After Moses told them what God had said:
"And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord." Exo 19

They were the congregation "And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them." Exo 35



(Interesting God doesnt seem to be concerned about our theological differences as He is about us loving Him and each other).

At our service during the reading of the psalms the reader reads the first line and the congregation replies (responsively) with the next line.

In my Church's tradition, there are many congregational responses. In addition to "Lord have mercy" that is common to all of us, as mentioned by HTacianas in post #10, we have responses for the Gospel reading, the Praxis (this is what we call the reading of the Acts of the Apostles), and so on. (I've been told by EO people on this website that the Coptic Orthodox Church has more readings during its liturgies than other churches do.) These have their own variations according to season. Like here is the "annual" (Arabic: سنوى sinawi) Gospel response, to be said on days without specific feasts or fasts:


The shorter, simpler responses you're probably thinking of after seeing "Congregational response" are a lot of "Amen"s, "it is meet and right", "we have them with the Lord" (referring to our hearts), "And with your spirit" (to the priest, in response to his "Peace be with you" -- this is another thing that seems to be common across all historic liturgical churches), etc. Those are all over the liturgy.

There is also the very common antiphonal (I think that's the word...) response types, wherein the priest or deacon will begin the proclamation, say before reading the Gospel, and the laity will finish it, as below. The deacon (now priest!) intones "May his blessings" (referring to those the Gospel writer) and the people respond "...be with us all, amen." I always kinda like that...probably because it's the closest I'll ever get to being a deacon.


(Maybe it should be stated here that the Orthodox liturgies require this participation -- i.e., there is no notion of a mass said absent the people, as there is in the Catholic Church with its 'private' masses. There are things you can do if you can't get to liturgy, but you can't have a liturgy by yourself.)

Since this is a Worship Ministry forum I'm going to guess you are referencing it on that context. It is simply that - how a congregation responds to a song, set, or part of worship. Do they seem open and freely joining you or are they stiff necked and standing like statues?

I suggest to NOT gauge your ability to lead by the "congregational response" to worship. Doing so would mean you are judging the quality of their worship. If you are called to lead worship, then all you simply have to do is worship Him, and they'll join you. Let your focus be Him, not them. You aren't leading a concert for people - you are worshiping the Lord of all creation!

Of course, as also stated, this phrase "congregational response" means different things to different denominations.

WoshipWarrior said:

Since this is a Worship Ministry forum I'm going to guess you are referencing it on that context. It is simply that - how a congregation responds to a song, set, or part of worship. Do they seem open and freely joining you or are they stiff necked and standing like statues?

I suggest to NOT gauge your ability to lead by the "congregational response" to worship. Doing so would mean you are judging the quality of their worship. If you are called to lead worship, then all you simply have to do is worship Him, and they'll join you. Let your focus be Him, not them. You aren't leading a concert for people - you are worshiping the Lord of all creation!

Of course, as also stated, this phrase "congregational response" means different things to different denominations.

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True, but as worship leaders we can set an environment that invites the congregation to respond in worship rather than just watching. What works probably varies depending on the congregational culture. One church we attended found that only slightly dimming the lights and keeping volume at a point where the congregation could easily hear themselves sing resulted in greater participation. There were times where the worship team would stop singing and just let the congregational voices ring out. Music style didn't change - instruments didn't change - still drums, guitars etc. - but those subtle changes had a big impact in leading the congregation.

WolfGate said:

True, but as worship leaders we can set an environment that invites the congregation to respond in worship rather than just watching. What works probably varies depending on the congregational culture. One church we attended found that only slightly dimming the lights and keeping volume at a point where the congregation could easily hear themselves sing resulted in greater participation. There were times where the worship team would stop singing and just let the congregational voices ring out. Music style didn't change - instruments didn't change - still drums, guitars etc. - but those subtle changes had a big impact in leading the congregation.

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This is true, and I wouldn't suggest to persist if everyone seemed like they were not engaging in worship. At that point it's time to ask certain questions like, what are we doing, can we do anything different, are we appearing to be uninviting, or the hardest "is the right person leading worship". I like your example and thing many churches would do well to adopt that style of participation.

Paidiske said:

All sorts of things happen in different contexts. I've preached in places where the congregation was small and the sermon was more like a small group discussion, with input from others present and sharing of ideas, for example.

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I like this idea of church; to me congregants should be able to speak up when appropriate. In my church it's so conservative people barely like to say an 'Amen' out loud. Which brings about a common dialogue of the preacher having to punctuate sentences with 'Amen?'. But I reckon that's more to do with our conservative 'British-ness' than our enthusiasm!

I see this participatory style of church more in theme with how I suspect the early church would have been. If someone made a statement that didn't make sense, maybe a listener would ask for an explanation. I don't know for sure though.

EDIT: In answer to the OP, I've only heard the term in two different ways. Firstly, it's a response given in liturgy in more Church of England/Catholic style services; i.e. priest says one thing, the congregation respond with scripted lines. Secondly, it's been said in reference to how a congregation is responding to a worship session; i.e. hands raised, loud singing etc.