Nine Reasons People Aren’t Singing in Worship

Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing, which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. Worship once again became participatory. …

With the advent of new video technologies … 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 music and the loss of a key goal of worship leading—enabling the people to sing their praises to God. Simply put, we are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should be a participative worship environment to a concert event. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess. more…

I suspect independent Baptists would not agree entirely with this writer’s music philosophy, but he makes several strong observations about the current church music scene here. — dcsj