Praise Bands

Among other things, I think there may be two that are the main inhibitors of congregational singing: the songs are not designed (written) with the congregation in mind in the first place, and the songs are not played/sung with the congregation in mind in the second place.

 

Did they project the words of the songs onto a video screen?

Sent from my Moto Droid Turbo.

 

Reformed, I had some further thoughts about Congregational Singing that I posted in the Music Ministry forum (click preceding link). I thought those thoughts kind of went a different direction from your opening post here, so put it there rather than in your thread.

 

My generation has to move over and give way to the next.

However a hymn or two of my generation's songs are usually included in the Lord's Day repertoire at our local church.

There are some of the modern hymns that are very good IMO and I am able to worship the LORD while singing.

My granddaughter leads the singing using amplification, she is loud, articulate and carries a tune/melody very well making the words and melody easy to follow while reading the words on the overhead screen.

A good song leader is very helpful.

The lights are dimmed during the song service, a very good effect with distractions minimized.


HankD

 

Exclusive Psalmody is an interesting topic, though I think it is one that runs off the rails. On the other hand many churches run off the rails by ignoring the Psalms altogether. If we adopt exclusive psalmody we can take the New Testament as the basis for our scripture readings, the texts for our sermons and the rule for our faith and practice – buy we can't sing it in our assemblies! Under the Exclusive Psalmody doctrine the very words spoken by Jesus Christ Himself are rejected as inappropriate singing subject matter for the New Testament churches. Something isn't right about that! I wrote on Why the New Covenant revelation should be included in hymning the Lamb, which I'll just link and not reproduce here.

 

Reformed, in going back over your posts I see that a main thing you are concerned about is "excluding an entire generation from the worship service". I think this is a legitimate concern, regardless of which generation it excludes. One generation shouldn't have to move over for another generation. As a church all the generations of the congregation should move together. One thing that American churches seem to be hung up on is style over substance. But the praise band issue you're talking about goes beyond that, in that many of the songs they are singing truly are performances with little interest in or attention given to whether or not the congregation sings. If it is important that the congregation sing, then this is a bad approach.

As annsi notes, there are some people who just aren't going to sing. Like the poor, that has been with us always, and we'll never fix it completely. I think there are also cultural factors that have led us as Americans generally away from singing and toward listening. But we can "fix" the songs in the sense of putting forth songs that can be sung by more of the congregation rather than fewer of the congregation. Many of these songs "performed" in churches are not written with a congregation in mind. Beyond that, the leader of the praise band may be setting it in the key that suits him or her with little or no consideration of whether anyone else can sing it. These factors are just wrong, and wrong for congregational singing.

I don't frequent churches that sing "off the wall" but I have attended them and have sung "off the wall". I have no objection to the 7-11 choruses per se, and have found some I like. Others are just Pablum (but that can be true of some hymns also). The issue of performance and praise bands and generations transcends whether we are talking about hymns or choruses. We must first address the issue of congregational praise versus featured performance, in my opinion.

 

I have been in my church 24 years and watched us transition from hymns with a full choir, to a mixture of hymns and choruses, to full contemporary with a full blown band and that concert feel. I was very resistant to it at first but now I enjoy it. I sit in the front row and the singing from the church is amazing, young and old. If you do some study on this topic you will see that the debate on music in the church goes back to the very beginning. Congregational hymns with piano, organ, and choir do not go back to the early church. It might be the way we always did it, but it's not they way it was always done. The music and style of singing has transitioned through the years and there was always someone saying "That's not the way we did it!". I quit complaining and now I enjoy it and sing louder than ever (that's why I sit in the front row, nobody can hear me).

 

Did they project the words of the songs onto a video screen?

 

You're not alone. I too prefer congregational singing and I honestly don't think much of the trend towards the music many fellowships are gravitating to. We visited a fellowship closer to home a few weeks ago and to be honest, it kind of felt like we had gone to a night club.

And I hate to say it, but it seems more like a showcase for the musicians rather than something the entire Church is part of. Sure, most of them post the lyrics, but it isn't the same. And the volume is a little too much usually.


God bless.

 

Sez who?




God bless.

 

Me.

HankD