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“Most of them seemed to have been written with the band in mind more than the congregation. What I mean is that they were unpredictable and often went beyond my vocal range and ability.” Challies

Discussion

Fri, 03/24/17

[Bert Perry]

Possible difficulties can be encountered when the actual spacing isn’t close to physical size, and because the divider limits the freedom of the person in the seat to rotate to interact with people to his sides, or to the front or back. As such, the structure of theater seats tends to, above and beyond the orientation of the seats, reinforce the notion of attendees as an audience. There also may be an effect where people act according to what they see/are sitting in, in the same way that people act differently in the parlour vs. in the family room. The furniture sends a cue of what is expected.

…..churches of all types (including IFB) somehow manage to get by with theater-style seating.

I’m attending my church’s growing, six-month old 2nd site (serving in various roles). We’re meeting in a school with a 500 seat auditorium, which has theater-style seats. We greet & talk to others around us, shake hands, heartily sing together [I’ll bold that, since I take Challies’ point to have been that theater-style seating results in passive congregational singing] , and enjoy worshipping and fellowshipping as a congregation. It’s unclear to me what might be enhanced in these regards if we were in an auditorium with a different style of seating.