(pic credit: ‘Hillfire’ ©2017 by crisbaj. Used with permission)
When congregational singing drowns out the worship band… a metric of ‘job well done, lead worshippers’!!
There is a steady stream of commentary… blogs, articles, Facebook posts, etc… where people are increasingly feeling dis-connected by the ‘worship services’ of many churches and worship-events. This is especially true when the ‘singers and band’ take off into complex choral-vocal arrangements, and flashy instrumental displays, all in musical keys and methods that most regular people in the Congregation cannot even begin to sing to!
“They should sell tickets and just call it a concert performance!” exclaimed a friend as we recently were finding our car after attending a popular SoCal church, “I couldn’t even begin to sing to any of that!”
To be sure, the current ‘organic revolt’ in modern worship is in response to this shift to performance-based ‘worship services’. In many, many churches around America, worship bands and ‘ministries’ are engaging dozens of things in their weekly outing that directly squelch regular, average congregants from being able to ‘sing it out’ to the Lord in sacred song.
Worship Pastor Mark Cole, founder of Praisecharts.com has a fantastic blog post for Lead Worshippers…
… the keystone quote is: “if the congregation is not singing, we are not doing what God has called us to do”
I encourage you to read the entire post:
http://www.markcole.ca/strong-congregational-singing-12-things-to-avoid/
Along this topic, blog writer and large-church (traditional-style) worship leader Keith Getty recently had some helpful things to say in his recent post:
Analysis: Both blogs do significantly reflect the current ‘worship = the song-service portion of our weekly gathering’ assumption… AdoreTheLord is (hopefully) chipping away at this anemic idea…
However, since ‘sacred song’ truly is one of the un-named Sacraments of the Church, and a keystone practice from the Genesis to Maps, this area deserves discussion.
It’s time to swallow the truth, friends…
Mark Cole’s assertion, “if the congregation is not singing, we are not doing what God has called us to do” implies that when the congregation is not singing… and the metric I would propose is greater than 95% of the time the music is going on… then things are happening that prohibit and inhibit the Congregation from singing!
The other metric is that IF the Congregation is not singing, the onus of responsibility falls on the Pastors and Song-leaders (singers, band, etc), NOT the congregation!
I am personally weary of listening to the ‘blame and complain’ of pastors, singers, leaders and bands when the congregation is standing with the ‘deer in the headlights’ look, not singing… “c’mon, folks! Why won’t the Congregation sing? We put up the lyrics! We spend so much [money/time/effort/prep/budget] to have all these cool things… c’mon you guys, sing!”
Why is the Congregation not singing? Here it is: systems theory says that your system of production and delivery is perfectly designed to deliver the results you are experiencing.
It’s not the congregation that’s ‘the problem’, oh ministers of church worship.You, your band and your church’s ‘worship arts ministry’ are doing a hundred things that are directly inhibiting and prohibiting those wonderful people in the Congregation from singing!
TAKE-AWAY:
When congregational singing drowns out the worship band… a metric of ‘job well done, lead worshippers’!!
More to come in Part 2…
written by crisbaj
© 2017 by crisbaj/AdoreTheLord.blog All rights reserved.
All Scripture references from New International Version unless otherwise indicated.
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