Who Turned the Lights Out?
“More and more churches have chosen to turn down the house lights when the congregation sings. Search for ‘worship’ in Google images and the majority are mostly dark or shadows. For a number of years I’ve wondered why.” Who Turned the Lights Out?
I always find this practice helpful when I’m trying to pick out a harmony in the hymnal. :^)
Seriously, churches that turn the lights down tend not to use hymns, but….
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Anyone else here have candlelight services on Christmas Eve?
I would submit it can be quite reverential to worship God in lower-light surroundings.
If the lights are low we are less likely to:
- See who has a tie on :)
If we expect congregants to have a Bible on their lap and follow along, the lighting has to support that need
[Jim]If we expect congregants to have a Bible on their lap and follow along, the lighting has to support that need
Don’t get me wrong, I’m entirely for this: but I would submit that (at least the presumption of) universal literacy & the invention of the printing press have more to do with such an expectation than any inherent Biblical standard.
Given that Acts speaks glowingly of the Bereans, it strikes me that the early church had something of an expectation of literacy and Biblical engagement, especially among the Jewish believers. I would guess that this expectation was reduced as more and more of the Church was composed of gentiles, especially those who were slaves and would not be expected to have learned to read.
But that said, the expectation of Bibles in the pews would have to have followed Gutenberg, as books were simply unaffordable prior to the development of the printing press.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
If one’s ability to worship is dependent on the lighting or being in a certain mood to worship then that person is departing from the faith.
Discussion