“In most churches today, the worship time has become a concert.”
“So the question becomes – in spite of today’s worship music often being meaningful, well done and engaging, what have we lost when a few hundred members of the congregation stand there watching 5 or 6 members of the worship team do all the singing?” - Phil Cooke
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….the part I don’t is that it’s not technically “worship” time, since the majority use of the words translated as “worship” mean “prostration” or “kiss the knee”. Try to sing well when you’re bowed down—I’d call it “praise” time. I know, train left the station centuries ago, but it’s still an important distinction.
Regarding concert vs. congregational singing, that point is well taken, and a big part of this is the question of whether a song is easily singable or not—there are things that sound great up front as special music that will just leave the rest of us rubbing our heads and wondering how to catch up. One thing I’d add is that the notion of music as lyric instruction (e.g. Jesus’ use of the Psalms) is all but lost in much modern music—the Gettys and a few others are welcome exceptions.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Bert Perry]One thing I’d add is that the notion of music as lyric instruction (e.g. Jesus’ use of the Psalms) is all but lost in much modern music—the Gettys and a few others are welcome exceptions.
I’d agree and even go farther. Most modern church music and even a good bit of the Getty’s music makes it hard to sing anything other than the melody line, at least given the rare times I’ve seen sheet music to the songs, which often has pretty poor part writing when there *is* more than the melody. (Usually, modern songs are presented as words-only on an overhead, with accompaniment that does not lend itself well to figuring out the parts by ear either.)
Our church doesn’t even do much special music, nor use a praise band, but we have used some of the modern songs. I get the feeling that much of the modern music is not really intended as choral music for the congregation. In churches I’ve visited that do use “worship leaders,” if the congregation sings at all, it’s just “background fill-in” for the people on stage, and thus they don’t really “need” choral parts. In our church, the congregation participates in nearly all the music, but modern music most of the time does little to encourage really learning the music and singing it well. It’s really meant only as music for a “concert.”
Dave Barnhart
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