Why Men Have Stopped Singing in Church

Patheos ^ | May 8, 2013 | David Murrow

[Benito Cereno]

It happened again yesterday. I was attending one of those hip, contemporary churches — and almost no one sang. Worshippers stood obediently as the band rocked out, the smoke machine belched and lights flashed. Lyrics were projected on the screen, but almost no one sang them. A few women were trying, but I saw only one male (other than the worship leader) making the attempt.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***We attend a Southern Baptist, but I have to agree that no one sings like (non-instrumnetal) Church of Christ. ***

Unfortunately non-instrumental music has been raised to HIGH DOCTRINE in the CofC.

I was in a CofC church one time in which the preacher wasted the whole Sunday sermon on an anti-instrument rant. After he was done, he had the children’s choir come forward, then he pulled out a pitch pipe, blew a note, and the children sang.

I thought some of those older members would have a stroke when he blew on the pitch pipe.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Psalm 151.

[ravenwolf]

Psalm 151.

---

It is 150 in my bible, at any rate he must have got sick of it and told Amos to shut them up.

[daniel1212]

Your choir is likely larger than most NE churches! Thank God for for work of past evangelical missionaries, which is often part of why some areas are more open than others today.

[the OlLine Rebel]

OMG, don’t even get me going on this! Which is emblematic of the whole modern church experience.

Although it came at an inconvenient time, when I started having all kinds of medical problems, we decided to cut ties with our church of several years. All based on the change to this hipster casual approach. After my major surgery we did manage to amicably talk to our pastor about stopping membership.

It will be hard, but I really want a more formal church.

I don’t want to hear all the hipsters telling me I’m just a fuddy-dud day who doesn’t like that rock music.

I DO like rock. It does not belong in church. Or anything I see as not reverential.

Rock does not belong in a military procession either, but I don’t see anyone clamoring for incongruous music in those settings.

[Viking2002]

'How would smoking affect your feet? Did you already have circulation issues due to diabetes?'

Yep. On both counts. In the last few years, I developed a little diabetic neuropathy in my feet, then I actually got gout(!) in my left ankle, of all places. Then I noticed that there was a lot of mottling on the front of both lower legs. Turns out my capillaries were collapsing. One disorder was exacerbating the other. To top it off, I ended up with edema in both lower legs. That's cleared up to a degree thanks to the Lasix I'm on, but I shovel a fistful of pills in my mouth every morning with all the creaks and groans I've developed. I'm a mess. LOL

[usconservative]

Your choir is likely larger than most NE churches!

Our choir is the entire congregation. With the exception of Christmas and Easter when we do have a "formal" choir up on stage to sing for the congregation after worship.

Today we sang two of my favorite songs -- both of which speak to my heart. The first was Kristian Stanfill's "Always." The second was Victory In Jesus which I don't think I've heard in almost 25 years, when I attended a different church. The words came back to me like it was yesterday and our church BELTED it out -- LOUDLY!

Not only did that catch me by surprise, our Pastor was caught off guard - happily so! As he began his opening remarks he commented how surprised he was that so many of us knew the song. "Must be alot of baptists out there today!" he said. Our Pastor is from Oklahoma so sometimes the things he says is pretty funny to those of us who live in Northeast Illinois.

Wish we had the video up of the congregation singing "Victory in Jesus" up on our website -- we normally post the worship and sermon videos but I don't see the worship video yet. Ahh well.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Per my other post, I’m leaving my LCMS church. It’s already small in a business park, but pastor is a rocker and has changed it totally to a rocker church. We will be trying another LCMS not too far and see if it is good.

[JRios1968]

[Jack Hydrazine]

Not enough cowbell? That’s gotta change!

[stayathomemom]

Hey! I knew the lady who translated that! She went to my church when I was growing up.

I think people do a pretty good job of singing at my church. Although, our Christmas morning service was not that well attended and during communion we all lost count as to what verse we were on because the louder singers were at the first table. I really wanted to sing too! It was From Heaven Above to Earth I Come. 15 verses unsung.:-(

[Luircin]

I know what you mean. My father recently left a traditional-worship ELCA church (because he wasn’t getting the Gospel at ALL) and now goes to a contemporary service church which is LCMS and very traditional in its beliefs. I’ve attended a few times and while I personally prefer traditional worship, I don’t see it teaching anything wrong, and I’ve seen the benefits that such worship has on his spiritual life.