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April 26, 2022 Post a Comment

Worship leaders around the world are sadly changing their church's worship (oftentimes unintentionally) into a spectator event, and people aren't singing anymore.

Before discussing our present situation, let's expect back into history. Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. The music was performed past professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing which employed simple, accessible tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. Worship again became participatory. The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church'south love for singing increased. With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs on a screen, and the number of songs at a church's disposal increased exponentially. [1] At first, this advance in engineering led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon, a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation pew potatoes (spectators). What has occurred could be summed up as the re-professionalization of church building music and the loss of a key goal of worship leading – enabling the people to sing their praises to God. Simply put, nosotros are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should exist a participative worship environment to a concert issue. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess. Click To Tweet

I encounter nine reasons congregations aren't singing anymore:

1. They don't know the songs.

With the release of new songs weekly and the increased birthing of locally-written songs, worship leaders are providing a steady diet of the latest, greatest worship songs. Indeed, we should be singing new songs, simply too high a rate of new vocal inclusion in worship can impale our participation charge per unit and plow the congregation into spectators. I see this all the fourth dimension. I advocate doing no more than one new song in a worship service, so repeating the song on and off for several weeks until it becomes known by the congregation. People worship all-time with songs they know, and so nosotros need to teach and reinforce the new expressions of worship. (more)

2. We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing.

There are lots of slap-up, new worship songs today, just in the vast pool of new songs, many are not suitable for congregational singing past virtue of their rhythms (as well difficult for the average vocalizer) or also broad of a range (consider the average singer—not the vocal superstar on phase).

3. We are singing in keys too high for the average singer.

The people nosotros are leading in worship mostly have a limited range and do not have a high range. When we pitch songs in keys that are too high, the congregation will end singing, tire out, and eventually quit, becoming spectators. Remember that our responsibleness is to enable the congregation to sing their praises, non to showcase our great platform voices by pitching songs in our ability ranges. The basic range of the boilerplate vocalizer is an octave and a fourth from A to D (more).

iv. The congregation tin can't hear people around them singing.

If our music is too loud for people to hear each other singing, it is besides loud. Conversely, if the music is too tranquility, generally, the congregation will fail to sing out with power. Observe the right balance—strong, but non over-bearing.

5. We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance surroundings.

I am a strong advocate of setting a great environment for worship including lighting, visuals, inclusion of the arts, and much more. Nonetheless when our environments take things to a level that calls undue attending to those on stage or distracts from our worship of God, we have gone too far. Excellence – yes. Highly professional functioning – no.

6. The congregation feels they are not expected to sing.

Every bit worship leaders, we often go so involved in our professional production of worship that we fail to be accurate, invite the congregation into the journey of worship, and then do all we can to facilitate that experience in singing familiar songs, new songs introduced properly, and all sung in the proper congregational range. (more than)

7. We neglect to accept a common body of hymnody.

With the availability of then many new songs, nosotros often get haphazard in our worship planning, pulling songs from so many sources without reinforcing the songs and helping the congregation to accept them on every bit a regular expression of their worship. In the onetime days, the hymnal was that repository. Today, nosotros need to create vocal lists to use in planning our times of worship. (more than)

eight. Worship leaders ad lib too much.

Keep the melody clear and strong. The congregation is made upward of sheep with limited ranges and express musical ability. When we stray from the melody to advertizing lib, the sheep try to follow us and end up frustrated and quit singing. Some ad lib is nice and tin enhance worship, only don't let it atomic number 82 your sheep astray.

ix. Worship leaders are non connecting with the congregation

We often become caught up in our world of astonishing music production and lose sight of our purpose of helping the congregation to voice their worship. Let them know yous wait them to sing. Quote the Bible to promote their expressions of worship. Stay warning to how well the congregation is tracking with y'all and alter class as needed. (more)

In one case worship leaders regain the vision of enabling the congregation to be participants in the journey of corporate worship, I believe we can return worship to the people over again. Nine Reasons People Aren't Singing in Worship Click To Tweet Worship leader, are you connecting with the congregation? Click To Tweet

Are y'all experiencing STYLE conflicts in worship? more

[1] see David Murrow's excellent post, Why Men Accept Stopped Singing in Church.

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