Thom Schultz, co-author of Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore and the director of the film When God Left the Building, recently shared his list of four reasons why fewer and fewer people are singing during worship services:
- worship is crafted as a spectator event,
- quality is emphasized,
- professional music is incredibly loud, and
- musical selections are unfamiliar, hard to sing, or just cheesy.
So What?
Schultz concludes his article with a confession: he has stopped singing in worship. The change in his own behavior clearly upsets him as does the more general shift toward less participatory worship. I agree with Schultz that a Christian worship service should not be a concert. All people are participants, and all should be included in a significant portion of the singing.
- What percentage of your congregation sings during a typical song or hymn on Sunday morning? Do you think that number has declined significantly in recent years?
- Which of the four items on Schultz’s list do you feel has contributed most to the decline within your congregation (or name something not included on his list if you believe something else is clearly the most significant contributing factor)?