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
Thanks for this post. The topic is interesting to me, because I often feel disconnected from the Lord during singing. I try to prepare for church: I’ve tried getting up early to pray, getting up early to exercise, I’ve tried sleeping later, etc. The truth is that when I get to church, I need the singing to help me focus on God (moving the traffic, kids, etc to the back-burner). But I easily disconnect if the music is too loud, too soft, too repetitious…truthfully, I’m not a “music” person in my daily life. I almost never listen to any music during the week and I’ve never loved singing, because I get distracted by how bad my own voice is. My MIL loves music and calls it her “therapy.” I prefer silence. So, all that to say, I enjoy the hymns at church, because they are about God and help me to focus on him, yet I am easily thrown off in worship times. In the end, I often feel guilty (and almost, unChristian) that I don’t like singing (shouldn’t we all love singing to Jesus?!) and I choose a service time that has as little singing as possible. As you can tell from the range of ideas and emotions I’ve conveyed even in this post, the struggle is real. I like the music, but I don’t want tons of it/the atmosphere matters, but can’t be shifted to suit every person/the song choice can point our thoughts above or distract us from the Lord…Thanks to all of the worship leaders who serve people by thinking about these things.
1. 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
Good point; did not read all the comments, so maybe it is already addressed –
that even still -it’s never too late – and due to these ongoing heart propensities and more- it seems valuable -to open together as one, with plea and petition to the Lord for renewed, clean, focused hearts and minds
question also – is it true congregational singing is waning?
“The songs are not sung in a range where we can participate.”
– Which is partially why part singing developed – there is a natural range for each person’s voice. You will almost never be able to pitch a unison song in a range where everyone in the room can sing it.
You are spot-on with this post, Dr. Rainer. Thank you for your insight. I’ve shared your post and commented at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=649782668521605&id=146292322203978
Thank you, Scott!
To loud music, light show distracts and 5 are 6 words sung over and over and over and over not getting any where. One can worship God without drawing attention to self with blaring loud noise that no one can hear and bright flashing strobe lights and smoke only draws attention to self preformance All distraction from worship being humble to be reveant and still before an almighty God. You may think I’m a old fuddy dud only my opinion that God is not truly happy with today’s worship grand preformance to much of self satificaton and less of humble before an almighty God.
No, you’re not an old fuddy-duddy. I can live with contemporary music as long as its proponents respect people with differing tastes, but I agree with you 100% about the flashing lights and smoke. These things stir up people’s emotions, and then we attribute the results to the Spirit of God. I think that’s dangerously close to blasphemy.
This whole post delves into the dreaded “Methodology” question. Ideally, a churches Doctrine and Theology should be based on Scripture and the NT Church versus traditions, dogma, or man made rules. However, the Methodology – the way the church “does church” varies by denomination, leadership vision, region of the country, etc.
When it comes to Methodology questions, if it is Biblical and it’s glorifying to God then we should ask ourselves:
Is this my personal opinion?
Or is there some compelling reason or research that says we should do it this way?
9 times out of 10 with Methodology questions, people want to worship a certain way or with certain lighting, etc. based purely on personal opinions.
Whichever way we chose to worship, we should ask ourselves:
Are new people coming to our church and our they excited about what God is doing?
Do outsiders see “Fruit of the Spirit” in our worship and service?
Are people growing closer to God and spiritual maturing through our worship practices?
Are younger generations excited about worshipping God in our current practices?
Contemporary, Traditional, Lights on, Lights Off, Sound up, Sound down – whatever glorifies God, brings more people to Christ, and fulfills the Great Commission.
I was a worship leader for several years. In my first couple of months at a new position I’d collected a list of complaints that included: too loud, too quite, too many new songs, too many old songs, too many fast songs, too many slow slongs… At the end of the day, I think it always came back to #1.
Such good stuff here! I have had to surrender a lot of my own preferences and personal experiences I held on to in my 20’s over to the Lord and learn to serve His Church rather than a dream of mine. I have learned that getting to know the people I lead every week through one on one conversations, small groups, prayer requests as well as close collaboration with our teaching pastors and lots of prayer helps me discern the songs we sing and what new songs we introduce, if needed. Every Church has its own culture, mission and vision and a specific sound God is wanting to release in us and through us. As worship leaders we aren’t just set makers and singers, we have been entrusted to lead God’s most precious children into the Inner Courts. If we place production and procedure over those people they notice. But if they feel included, when they know we care and we are praying for them, they come prepared and some will even show up in time instead of coming later after the music ????
Renee –
We took that option out because it was not being used. I will see what is involved getting it back.
thanks for letting me know, Dr. Rainer!
I’m glad you approached this subject the way you did, and having Mike Harland’s input was an excellent idea!
This is the very reason we started the Gospel Music Hymn Sing DVD series, and live events, across the country. We’re trying to reignite the excitement, passion, and corporate worship experience that happens with people sing together. There’s no substitute for God’s people, lifting their voices and hearts together to sing and worship.
Keep on singing!
Just out of curiosity, are you the same Gerald Wolfe who sings with Greater Vision?
Yep.
I’m honored, sir! 🙂
P.S. Is there a way to subscribe to comments? I would love to be able to see when there is a response to either my own comment or others contributing to the discussion!
I’m going to take “church” out of the answer. We don’t sing in our schools (not classroom singing sessions for all; only choirs). We don’t sing in our car with our kids (earbuds, everyone!). We don’t sing much in our homes (put on Silly Songs with Larry DVD). We don’t sing with our friends at a campout or at the ballgame. The change in just a generation from my youth to my kids was huge. Perhaps it’s the revolution of digital music that has quelled our voices. And perhaps it’s only for a time—these things wax and wane. Now that everyone can be a pop star on YouTube, maybe it will come back in our churches.
I don’t know that you can take “church” out of the answer. My family sings in our schools, in our cars, in our home, when we are on vacation, when we are alone. Depends on your context.