Church Entertainment Fatigue—Are People Tired of the Church’s Glitzy Stage?
“When a local congregation creates a culture of church entertainment in an attempt to build a congregation, it will only be a matter of time before they begin to experience the negative consequences that emphasis will bring.” - Christian Leaders
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The way I’d phrase it is that when the goal is entertainment, you are simultaneously NOT going to be achieving the central goal of music/praise in the Church; to impart God’s Word to God’s people in lyric/poetic form, and to give them a chance to return praise to God in that same form.
So we might say that the problem is not that we’ve got an entertainment ethic, but rather that we’ve forgotten what we were trying to achieve in the first place. We might also posit that we can fall into an entertainment mentality in many ways in both music and preaching when we cultivate the attitude of “just sit and listen”.
Another thought; those who lead singing can do a huge service to the church by noting how people are,or are not, participating. Not in a judgmental way, but rather for a time of self-examination to say “how are we doing?” Who is, and who is not, singing? Same basic thing with the sermon, really. Not getting through? See what you can do.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
While away for family reasons, I attended an SBC church where some of my family are involved. Music was the focal point of the service - small choir, a larger singing group in front of the small choir, mics and speakers everywhere, and a very small stand for the pastor to place his Bible. The pastor was literally surrounded (a prisoner?) by the mics and speakers. The pastor had to wait 10 minutes past starting time for the “music group” to arrive on stage. The symbolism of all this was obvious.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
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