Drop the church pop bands and let the people sing
by Julian Mann, The Conservative Woman:
O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!’ wrote the 18th century evangelical hymn composer Charles Wesley.
It must have been an extraordinary experience to be present as, for example, a chapel-full of Cornish tin miners and their families, recently converted to having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through John Wesley’s preaching, sang their hearts out to his brother’s hymns.
But sadly these days, even in large evangelical churches with lots of young people, congregational singing is dying out. Why?
Because of the ‘worship band’, according to a penetrating analysis by Mike Raiter, director of Australia’s Centre for Biblical Preaching in Melbourne.
An upfront group of singers behind a bank of microphones backed by guitars, keyboards and drums is disenfranchising congregations by drowning them out. There may be a thousand people present but no longer a thousand tongues to sing – just the elite few on the stage.
It is not only congregational involvement in hymn singing that is disappearing. So is congregational participation in spoken liturgy.
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