Please be nice.
This blog has several million viewers every year, and many of them are not believers. They are watching your interaction with one another.
I know I am touching on several sensitive subjects in one post: the loudness of music; lighting in the worship center; music preferences; and performance versus participatory singing.
But here is the clear reality in many congregations: congregational singing is waning in many churches. In some churches it seems to have disappeared altogether.
I will try to discuss this reality from a dispassionate perspective, at least for the most part. And I don’t consider myself the expert in this area, so I asked the guru of church worship, Mike Harland, to help me understand some of the technical decisions we make.
Ultimately, though, this blog is my own, and I take full responsibility for its content. What then are the primary reasons fewer people are singing in church? Why has that act of worship before God become nominal in so many contexts? Here are six reasons:
- Some church members do not prepare themselves for worship. We come to judge, to check off an obligation, or to go through the motions of a habit. We have not prayed for God to do a work in us through the worship. If we do not have a song in our heart, we will not have a song in our mouths.
- We don’t know the songs. We sing the songs we know. That is obvious. But if we are introduced to a steady influx of new songs without sufficient time to learn them, we don’t participate. The best congregational singing includes both the familiar and the new, but the worship leaders teach the new songs until we know them and love them.
- The songs are not sung in a range where we can participate. Many trained musicians have a wider range in which they can sing. Most of the rest of us don’t. If we are expected to sing in a range that is beyond our ability, we won’t try. Worship leaders make the decision, intentionally or not, if they want to lead the congregation or perform for the audience.
- The lighting communicates performance rather than participation. We participate in singing when we can hear each other and see each other. If the lighting for the congregation is low, but it is bright for the platform, we are communicating that a performance is taking place. We thus fail to communicate that the worship by singing should include everyone present.
- The music is too loud to hear others in the congregation. There have been quite a few comments at this blog about the right decibel levels for music in a worship service. The greater issue, however, is whether we can hear others. If we hear the voices of others, we are encouraged to join in. If the music is so loud that we only can hear ourselves, most of us will freak out. And we will then be silent.
- The worship leaders are not listening to the congregation. If worship leaders truly desire to lead the congregation in singing, they must be able to hear the congregation. Some can only hear the instrumentation and platform voices from the monitors. And some have ear monitors where they are truly blocking the voices of the congregation. Congregational singing becomes powerful when it is well led. And it can only be well led if the worship leaders can hear those they are leading.
Your own perspective about this issue may be one where you really don’t care if the congregation can be heard singing. But if the desire is truly to lift all the voices before God, some things will need to change.
Now it’s your turn to comment. Be kind. Be gentle. Be Christlike.
Posted on October 24, 2016
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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212 Comments
I have to respectfully disagree with the stereotypes within this post. I go to a small start up where we do (gasp) all contemporary music with the lights down during the worship time. (I know, I know..). We have all ages in our body right now. And we have a great , deep time of worship, with everybody singing. Personally I love the lights being down…it really lends itself to an intimate time with God.
It is a little tiresome with the recurring theme of these posts concerning worship. Lights down, bad. Contemporary music, people don’t really worship. 2 different services, one being contemporary, bad. Have to have “multigenerational”. (Which is really just code for cram everybody back into one service that isn’t near as contemporary as the contemporary one was). And the insistence that the pendulum is swinging back the other way, that the whole contemporary music thing is shallow and people don’t really worship and we need to go back to hymnals.
Come on guys. Sounds more like sour grapes from the traditional crowd than anything else.
Ha – that’s the first thought I had too… If the post was “Here are some reasons I might not sign” that’s one thing. But to (with no formal surveying) say “Here are THE reasons OTHERS don’t sing” is just out of character.
You, sir, are one of the reasons we cannot have an honest discussion on this issue. I’ve seen this tactic too many times: if someone raises even the slightest criticism of current worship trends, proponents of contemporary worship began questioning their commitment to Christ or their concern for the lost. That’s nothing but spiritual manipulation, and I resent it greatly. Is it too much to ask that you try to see things from someone else’s perspective without attacking their motives?
I love contemporary worship but the idea that turning the lights down improves worship is just stupid. First, light is good, the Bible says so! Jesus is the Light of the World and sin hides in darkness. Second, the greatest effect I’ve seen of dim or dark lighting is that people use it as an opportunity to ignore the worship service and just talk to each other.
And unfortunately, some men have done worse than talk on a phone or to each other in dark worship service. It happened at my church during worship sadly a young girl happen to observe part of it before the man left.
I realize that ALL of these are opinion, to a certain extent, and therefore are subject to the writer’s experience. As a music director/worship leader for over 30 years, I have a differing opinion on #4 and #5. All one has to do is attend a secular concert and see how people there react to lighting and high dB levels. IF your church is reaching people who have no church background, then #4 and #5 are not true for your church. People react from their experience, so the ‘darker room’ and ‘louder levels’ cause them to have that ‘concert mentality’. However, for them, that mentality is to sing along and participate even more.
If this is not your congregation, then a higher lighting level and a lower dB level will work.
The real key is found in #6 – but not necessarily in the way it’s listed. All of these boil down to worship leaders paying attention to their congregation. Sometimes that means taking them down a new musical road. Other times, it is going down a road that they want to go down (revitalized hymns, anyone?). Be sensitive to your particular situation, and your people will participate with you. That, dear friends, is our end goal.
Sometimes a worship team sings from the stage- a song the congregation does not know.
Thom, not to use a pun, you really “struck a chord” this morning. I have been a congregational song leader off and on for 45 years. We are far more evangelical in our music but our congregation sings with energy.
I truly believe in these 4 keys: the music has to be singable, the attitude of the song leader has to be energetic, the leader has to connect with the congregation, and the de-emphasis has to be on performance.
I have been in 3 churches in the last year where the percussion was so loud and so pointed that you could not hear the lyrics….or the person next to you.
I may be a dying breed but I truly feel congregational singing is best when the emphasis is far less on entertainment and performance and far more on meeting the needs of a congregation. I’m not sure that we haven’t drifted far away from that.
Thanks so much, Steve.
Although I am a pastor, I love music and have a musical family. I believe that this is a concise and very accurate summary. Ultimately, worship, whether it is singing, praying, giving, or preaching must point us to Jesus and not to the personalities on the stage. Thank you for courageously addressing this important subject.
You are so right. Congregational singing is a way for each one to participate in worship. No one should be intentionally denied that privilege.
#7 reason: Worship leaders aren’t teaching people to worship?
I’m a lead Pastor, who has had to sing the last few years due to missing a strong male vocal lead. One of our regular practices is to start the service by LITERALLY reminding/teaching people:
– these songs are to honor God, not simply for us to enjoy
– our singing is commanded in Scripture as a response to God’s amazing qualities & deeds
– we exist to worship God
It helps, a lot. Even with our loudspeakers going, and one of my ears covered with an earpiece, and the lights darker in the Sanctuary, I can still hear our congregation singing.
Our service is very loud & ultra contemporary.
I’m not sure what a “worship leader” is, but if the word of God is preached and taught in a systematic way the worship issue will take care of itself.
Just as people have to be taught the Word, people also have to be taught how to live out Ephesians 5:19-20 and sing corporately. If you grew up in church in the 70’s or 80’s or before, you learned that by your environment and by your leaders.
Well if that’s what it takes to draw people to the church, I’m not so sure God is pleased with that. Especially with drums and guitars. It sounds too much like the world.
The only thing I can say in contrast to any of this is that for numbers 4 and 5. I think you can have a balance. We recently found that people under the balcony were not participating in worship. So we planted some people and hired a professional to come and listen during a service. What we discovered was that the fills we have under the balcony were turned down way too low and people were having trouble hearing and therefore not wanting to stand out or be heard making a mistake. We turn up the fills so that the sound matched better what was going on in the rest of the room and presto! People started singing their hearts out. So I do agree that too loud can be a distraction and too dark can draw too much attention to the stage, but I think too soft and too bright can have negative effects too. In my mind the lighting is also slightly preference. I know some places where you can barely see your neighbor and the people are singing so loud you can barely hear yourself. I blame it on the attitudes and action of leadership too, of which I am one. What we present is super important.
The Reformation removed the chains from the Bible and delivered it to the people in the vernacular. The Reformation did the same thing for worship music, taking it from a group of trained professionals and delivering it to the people. Now, we are coming full circle again, where singing has been moved from the congregation to trained performers on stage. Your practical points were spot-on. Congregational singing can return if we apply these changes.
Fascinating perspective, Jon. Thank you.
#1 is a key issue. Thanks Dr Rainer, you’ve given us much to think about. You all should listen to the podcast of this blog post with Thom and Mike Harlan.
Thank you, Chris. And you are right. Mike is an an incredible leader and resource.
point 2 – i agree, but could you speak to the shifting availability of media? it seems that much of the newer music is radio-ready (which can amplify or alienate) and easily available for participation beyond sunday morning (perhaps coupled with point 1) . and yet, how many are taking advantage of this availability? my experience is that Millennials do; Boomers don’t.
Most of these are legitimate yet subjective issues and the most effective formula will be different for different churches.
However, I just don’t get the whole lighting issue. I have a youth pastor, who helps with worship, who is obsessed with dim lighting. He even wants the lights in the gym to be dim during 5th quarters. For that matter, every youth pastor I’ve worked with has been obsessed with dim lighting. I’m just not sure how we got the idea that less light equates to more worship. Maybe I’m just getting old, but why do we turn the lights down when we worship the Light of the World?
I’ll admit I’m no fan of contemporary music, but I respect the fact that others like it, so I try to be open-minded about it. However, I have to agree with you when it comes to the lights and fog. I really fail to see how any of that brings us closer to God. On the contrary, I fear we may be using visual stimuli to stir up people’s emotions, and then attributing the results to the Holy Spirit. In my opinion, that’s very dangerous.
Just to clarify, I wasn’t referring to the raising or dimming of lights during worship. I agree with some of the criticisms of that practice, but that’s a minor issue to me. My quarrel is with all the psychedelic lighting effect like you would see at a rock concert or a nightclub. Such effects are designed to stir up people’s emotions, and as I said, I think it’s dangerous to stir up people by mechanical means and then attritube the results to the Holy Spirit.
When I was a teen, we used the same kind of overhead projectors for our songs as you’d find in a typical school classroom – old, and sometimes not really visible without turning the lights down. It was a necessity in some rooms so the kids could see the words. That may have influenced the dim worship ideal, if it’s what they were used to.
With that thought – why would dimmed lights dim the Light of the world? Where do we find that bright lights is conducive to worship? Why can’t each church do what Holy Spirit leads them to do without criticism from others?
You still haven’t answered the question of how less light equals more worship. For the most part people do things in dimness or darkness because they are ashamed of what they are doing. Have we gotten to the point where we are ashamed of publically expressing our worship or too embarrassed to even sing in front of other believers? Many people assert that the dim lights create a more intimate setting, but is that appropriate for church? Intimacy implies an exchange between two people, usually romantic in nature, like being on a date. That’s the opposite of corporate worship. However, I think the reality is that many people use the dim lighting to do anything but worship, such as talk or check their phone.
I’ll answer it for you…we are children of LIGHT…not darkness.. Some of this stuff that is FORCED down our throats as “worship music” should be in the prayer closet, not the sanctuary.