Latest / The Daily Writer / Whatever Happened to Singing in Church? Part 2: Cultural Factors

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Whatever Happened to Singing in Church? Part 2: Cultural Factors · The Daily Writer

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everybody to the Born to Create podcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm your host.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an author, musician, and teacher.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But most importantly, I'm a husband and a dad.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the show we talk about practices, habits, and strategies that help us live out our creative calling.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode twenty-four, and today our topic is whatever happened to singing in church, part two, cultural factors.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the post that accompanies this episode, as well as all the links at Kent Sanders.net slash singing dash cultural dash factors.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is the second episode in a five part series looking at the important but rarely discussed question of why people don't sing as much in church anymore.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: In part one of this series, I shared three reasons why singing is an important part of our faith.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's so important, why do so many people in church seem disengaged during the music?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a variety of factors, and several of these are cultural.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, I'm going to highlight three specific ones and share my thoughts on what we can do about them.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, people aren't used to singing publicly in groups.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In modern culture, people don't publicly sing in groups very often.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now there are some exceptions like when we sing Christmas carols, happy birthday, if you go to a ball game and sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the National Anthem, things like that.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But in general, public singing in groups is not something we really do that often.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So when people come to church and they sing in a large group for an extended period of time, it might feel a little unusual to visitors or to newer believers.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So what can we do about it?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think the most important thing is to be patient with people.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: One of the realities of being a church musician is that you spend a lot of time thinking about and practicing worship music.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: By the time you introduce a new song in a worship service, you've already listened to it dozens of times, rehearsed it repeatedly, and probably memorized it.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: However, the average church member only thinks about worship songs on Sunday morning.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Most people need time to learn new songs, and they need a l and they need a lot of encouragement to participate.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, art and music programs have been reduced or cut in some schools.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The arts do not seem to be as high a priority in the average school system as they used to be.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: In some school systems, funding has been cut or entirely removed for arts and music programs.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: The result is that students go through their education with little or possibly even no formal interaction with the arts.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: This lack of awareness and exposure to the arts, especially singing in groups, means that in the long run, young people are less interested in participating and engaging in the arts.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this doesn't affect just students.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It also affects parents, teachers, and the entire community.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Think about all the concerts, recitals, and performances that are part of music, drama, and arts programs.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So what can you do about it?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the church's response will vary according to the situation, but on the whole, churches have a great opportunity to help expose people to music and the arts in a biblically grounded context.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Over the long haul, we'll have to pick up the slack and help educate people.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: What we're seeing in the big picture is a breakdown of the Western educational model.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not only public schools that are struggling, it's colleges and universities as well.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I believe what we're going to see over the next twenty years or so is the emergence of a new model that's actually based on a very old one, and that is the medieval church academy model.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: The cutting edge churches of tomorrow will not only continue to use technology to reach more and more people, they will also take more responsibility for educating people.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: A prime example is my own church's Merrill Institute for Ministry.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's named after one of our former pastors, Ben Merrill, who is an amazing man of faith and an amazing pastor.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Merrill Institute is not focused on arts education specifically, but it's a model of what the future holds, I think, for forward thinking churches.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see more and more of this old slash new model taking shape in the coming years.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, singing in the church has been professionalized.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today's worship services are more professional than ever.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: We take a lot of care to ensure that well equipped and talented people are leading, singing, and playing in worship services.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this is definitely a great thing.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: However, one of the side effects of an increased focus on excellence in the church is that there is a wider perceived gap between gifted people and non-gifted people.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: When a church begins to raise the bar of excellence, some people won't measure up just by default.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: When they see talented people on stage, they may feel that they're not gifted enough or worthy enough to participate.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't anybody's fault, it's just the nature of the beast.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, this effect is amplified when you have auditions or other processes in place to determine who can participate on stage.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now personally, I've always felt right at home on stage with the worship team.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: But if I were to walk into a locker room, let's say, with a bunch of football players going over some game strategy, I would feel completely lost and really out of place.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's how some non-musicians feel when they come into a worship service where singing and music is such a heavy focus.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So what can we do about it?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we can make sure people know that they're welcomed and wanted, even if they're not musicians.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's also important for people on the stage to set an atmosphere of humility, inclusion, and acceptance for the whole congregation.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to pause here for a second and really brag on my church for a bit.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think our worship teams do an exceptional job of balancing excellence and diversity in an atmosphere of humility.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're ever in the St.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Louis area, I'd love for you to join us for a service and we'll grab a coffee afterwards in our cafe.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you raise the bar of excellence, there will be people who don't make the cut.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's just that just goes with the territory of trying to raise the bar of excellence.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: As a young worship leader, that was really difficult for me because I had to determine who did and who didn't to make the worship team.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that sometimes people's feelings are going to be hurt because they're not included, and that's simply the price of leadership.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: In those moments, we have to remember that we not only have a musical responsibility, we also have a pastoral responsibility.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody's not a good fit for our worship team or some other role, then our job as a pastor, as a leader, is to help direct them to a ministry or some place of service where they can make a contribution in a meaningful way.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think if you're going to work with musicians or artists, you have to accept that there's always going to be a certain amount of personal drama and hurt feelings on some level.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's just part of the artistic personality for a lot of people.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are going to get their feelings hurt no matter what you do.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: But there's another layer to this whole issue.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: We need to understand that some people in the congregation don't connect with God through music, and that is perfectly okay.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: When these people don't seem to engage in worship, it's easy to feel like, as worship leaders, we're doing something wrong or they're upset with us or something is amiss.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, honestly, it's just not the way that they engage with God.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Music is not a spiritual touchstone for everybody.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: It is for me.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the arts are a huge spiritual touchstone for me and for many people, but for a lot of people they're simply not, and music just doesn't really do anything for some people, at least worship music doesn't.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that is totally okay.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: It would be easy to see these cultural factors in a negative light, all that all the things that we've been talking about on this episode.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But every challenge, I believe, represents an opportunity.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: When the culture shifts, the church has to respond.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Will we see the realities before us as liabilities to be avoided or opportunities to be seized?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have an opportunity for the church to usher in a new renaissance of the arts.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are poised with the talent, technology, and cultural savvy to make a huge impact.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: The question is the same one it's always been.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Will we rise to the challenge?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: In the next episode, we'll look at several factors in the church environment that can impact singing as well as the opportunities those challenges represent.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you think about my analysis of the cultural factors impacting worship in the church today?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: What other factors would you add?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your thoughts.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can join the conversation and find the post and the links that accompany this episode at KentSanders.net slash singing dash cultural dash factors.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: When you visit my site, you'll find all kinds of great resources to inspire your creativity.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'd also love to share a gift with you when you subscribe to my newsletter.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out and learn more about my books, writing, and services at KentSanders.net.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love to connect and you can tweet me at Kent Sanders or find me on Facebook and Instagram as Kent Sanders.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you'll also check out our Born to Create Facebook group by visiting KentSanders.net slash Facebook Group.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: What will you do with the time you have left?