Why Men Don’t Sing in Church 

I attend a church where most songs are contemporary. But I find old songs more God-directed and exalting the worthiness and majesty of God. Privately I sing what today's folks consider out-dated.

One more thing. Church organist and music director here. Did you know that most of the available church music is pitched for sopranos and tenors? And did you know that most men are baritones and physicality can’t reach those high notes? Yes. Transpose the music down one or two notes and, presto, change-o, more men start to sing. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself some time. Of course, you will need music chops to transpose. Skills and musicianship do matter.

Completely agree. Don't give me something that stirs my emotions! Give me something that PIERCES MY WICKED HEART

I'm a dude, I like to sing. Grown up in a traditional church, but get tired of the old lyrics. Went to a pentecostal church. What happened? I miss the psalms! How rich they are! Cherish.

God doesn’t want us to just sing songs to Him. True worship is also about repentance.

This is what i been looking for a long time. The church was build on the hymnals now the hymnal is been removed daily to facilate the praise songs, that have mix meanings. This is a beauty vedio

This needs to proclaimed from the roof top. Thank you brother! Music that makes you want to go to battle to for the Lord the rest of the week.

I never thought I would say this since I like the piano and such but one evening no one played and we all sang accapella, it was wonderful. Pianos should accompany not drown out. And no we are not a bunch of trained singers, It's much nicer when the congregation sings not listen to a piano and song leader who sings louder than the congreation even wearing a not needed mike. My story and I'm stickin' to it

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

I felt the glory fall during that song sample. It was beautiful.

My dad was a pastor, and we grew up teaching our congregation to sing. We had no piano and sang acapella. We sang with the young group, singing in four parts, and the young people loved it and helped their parents learn. We put a lot of focus on it. My brother eventually started leading a choir on weekday nights and helped with vocal technique. Now our church singing sounds lovely with gorgeous harmonies. Another thing, we do what churches used to do, we have separate seating for men and women. That improves the singing because you have the boys all sitting and learning the bass and tenor parts from the older ones.

The men in Our church sing.

We need more of this! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! Glory hallelujah!

Thanks Michael! This is great and much needed. Just shared on my channel.

Thanks for your clarity

Wonderful job on this video. I want to write a book on this topic some day...

I don't sing in church because the "worship" team never plays the same song again. Worship is supposed to be a sing-along, not a concert. I want to sing and worship with the team but how can I do that if I don't know the song?

Because modern church music doesn't have any grit. It's either too touchy feeling and emotional with little to no substance or some mundane message that Is barely a touch above what they are teaching the children in Sunday school. The old hymns have way more depth than the pop music that they play with all the bands and theatrical lighting. If it doesn't come from a deep place then we could care less. Theatrics and emotional prodding just aren't gonna cut it. It's like modern rap music with all the generic auto tuning and cheap beats. I think most men long for getting back to the basics Without all the fluff

I've woken up singing "I'll fly away" "swing low sweet chariot" and "jesus on the mainline" every morning this past month and a half. I got baptized last sunday on fathersday.

Thanks for this. Really helpful. Oh come let us worship and bow down.

I love all music, the old hymns, scripture songs, repetitive choruses, and many of the new contemporary songs. I was a worship leader for 10 years and two things that I learned about getting men to sing was 1) singing the song in a lower key than what it was written in. People who sing a lot have stretched out their vocal cords and don’t have much trouble hitting higher notes. But men who have not sung that much are shy about trying to sing songs that force them to push their voice. 2). Teach and convince people that singing is worship. There is corporate worship but worship is also an individual offering that you give to God. It’s not the quality of your voice that makes it worship (God made your voice so he knows it well) it is the heartfelt purpose behind your singing that makes it an acceptable offering. Do you think God wants a half hearted offering or an enthusiastic offering?

This is so well done, brother. This is the clearest explanation I've ever heard on this subject. More pastors need to listen to this

A lot of churches today have massively failed by: a) not actually teaching people how to sing, b) not singing any of the 150 Psalms, c) allowing performative vs participatory singing.

Nice to hear Michael Clary take a stand for biblical lyrics in church music. He is spot on. Effeminate, emotive, me-centered, unbiblical, word-salad contemporary music is vomit-inducing. Most men want substance over feelings. Most women want feelings over substance. Yet, there is music that has deep biblical meaning and a melody that invokes reverence for God. When I'm singing a new tune I'm checking the lyrics ahead, if there is something askew biblically, I'm done singing that song. If the tune is dripping with emotion and repetition, NOT gonna sing it. If the choir is singing, I'm not competing with them (so the best churches have NO choir). If the song is complex, not going to sing it. If it is in a high key, not singing. If the pastor is amplified and singing through the mic, not going to sing. If the worship leader is singing over the congregation, not going to sing. If the song has a dull uninspired melody and banal lyrics, not interested in singing it.

As a music minister for a Catholic Parish, I am with you 100-percent. We play a mix of traditional and contemporary, but I don't mean "Praise Music". The majority of our music is based on biblical text. For example, during the Liturgy of the Word, a Psalm is sung following the first reading. After the second reading, we sing an Allelujah with a verse taken right from scripture. At every mass, save Advent and Lent, we sing the Glory to God which is based on Luke 2:14. Look through any Catholic Hymnal and you will find many, if not most songs are taken right from scripture, sometimes word for word.

Great video!!

Really well done 👏👏👏

"And your cookie aunt who thinks Obi-Wan Kenobi is Jesus" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Psalm 144:9 I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you. Amen. Thank you for the video ❤️

Interesting facts about worship music that you can very rarely hear that clear. And btw. great guidelines for song writers.

I love Hymns with the organ

Thank you this is exactly how I feel as a man

I lovie it, it remains me what I have forgotten. Thank you God for reminding me.

Never thought about this before, interesting

I don't like the music today either, -- and I am a female. I too often feel like the "music ministry" is performing -- flashing lights, "come on!", and all.

Thank-you-this was fun. Watching all that fun makes me want to learn that acapella one. And I am so sick of trying to find a church with God-centered music not from apostate pastors. God Bless You! Thank-you, also, for the music references. They will be a fun exploration!

Without Liturgy you can’t have real worship. What megachurches do are concerts that only transmit feelings. And I never have read in the Bible that “feelings” have to do with real worship. Don’t confuse worshipping with The Spirit with goosebumps.

The blending of melodies to form harmony is a magnificent ability. It is something you CANNOT do by yourself! Churches currently have a trend (fad) of building churches to look and sound like rock concert halls. The congregation voices are dampened, so that everyone feels like they are singing a solo. If you don't have a microphone, nobody can hear you - - and you can't hear them! It takes someone with unusual musical boldness to push past all that. I was pleasantly surprised to see that you included "Sacred Harp," "Shaped-note" singing here at 11:00 as an example of the kind of thing we should strive for. Wow! I'm speechless. God bless you! One other thing... Music has its own wordless message. You can have the best doctrinally excellent words Wesley or Watts or Bonar ever wrote, but if the music contains musical elements of what the world and the Christian Entertainment Industry is currently selling, you have to ask yourself some hard questions. The further you get away from the notes in that hymnbook, the more you alienate the people who are trying to sing them..

There is a so-called Christian Contemporary radio station here where I live, but I can't listen to it because all the songs sound like secular music. I prefer to listen to BBN radio where they play traditional hymns and songs that honor Christ. If I walked into a church where they were playing CCM, I would turn around and walk out.

Some songs may be written by Christians but that doesn't make them songs for Christian worship. Some are for performance & heard at concerts but may not be suitable for congregation participation (maybe a special item occasionally but it has to mean something important). Q) What makes a song "old"? A) Playing it almost every week. Praise, worship, scripture/gospel based and/or prayer - use a mixture to match the parts of the service. Build up, slowdown, up again matching sermon theme & go out on a high. The last verse/chorus will be stuck in a loop in their heads as they leave so make it important. If they can't remember Bible verses & sermon quotes, atleast they can learn an appropriate Bible verse/concept by learning a song (or part of a song). Playing too fast & we usecso much effort to keep up that we don't absorb the words & meaning. Too slow, we loose interest, switch off, get bored & easily distracted. Both extremes we loose our breath.

There is no need to sing in our modern, contemporary worship services anymore. The praise team (or rock band) does it for us. How convenient.

This is very interesting. I have heard that people especially in the Western church treat the New Testament like dessert. So I like the meal analogy. We don't want to eat our broccoli and vegetables to make us strong which would be like taking in the Old Testament. I think this is why I prefer the balance of Messianic (Jewish believers in Yeshua/Jesus) songs. They love to stick to the Psalms and bring out a balance. I find balance to be very helpful in spiritual battles. I want choirs again because of the SATB parts. Anyway, I am going to pray the God will lead us so everyone is ministered to in worship and have that direct connect to God's heart. Note: I heard that the "Choir Director" or "Chief Musician" in the Psalms in Hebrew refers to eternity and a conquerer. That is our destiny.

Get the Trinity Psalter hymnal and sing out of it. All the Psalms are there, numbered for their actual Psalm. Men, sing bass if the melody is pitched to high. Sing with a little less volume if you're not confident. But sing!

Amen brother. Alot of these songs don’t even mention the name of Jesus.

I failed to include Tim Bushong’s music in the original show notes. Error corrected! open.spotify.com/artist/3LugX3HQKwyflxGdGzME2s?si=QGgIhH8IRrKxZ2_XPtqS7Q&nd=1&dlsi=98448f9188a24755

I was tenor and meanwhile more baritone. Have access to Songselect and so I can transpose the songs, that they fit. But I sing "contemporary worship songs" long after they became obsolete, as you claim. I never meet cat songs, also when a song says "God, thank you, that you define, who I am". But I focus on worship, the times are over, where I sang "musical 3 minute sermons". This includes also hymns. So I can partially agree, but not that you call some of the worship music something that is obsolete after 5 years in general. "The lion and the lamb" is about victory. "Our God Is An Awesome God" is in Minor. 13:26 It's not a cat song, you can't isolate the first words. It's about to allow the holy spirit to lead me into difficult circumstances too and to trust God in this. And so many people understand it, except you. Could it be, that you dislike the song and may think, this would the author's fault? When we sang the song in 2019, our pastor said, we should be aware, what we sing, what we ask God, that it is something, what doesn't feel good, when we are in circumstances without any other option to trust God with no limitations. And when this church began to transform to lukewarm in 2020, I noticed, they limited to trust in God, they try to get permission for walking on water. Don't mess you personal musical preferences with something spiritual. Also some older hymns can have weird lyrics on one hand. And when Jesus our bridegroom accepts the love songs from the Bible, why should he feel insulted, when we write comparable songs. We have a value, because God decided it. We are important to God. When we are aware of this, it helps against being arrogant. We shouldn't sing songs, where we focus on calling us some beings, that God sees as mistake and can tolerate, because Jesus convinced him to do so. We are God's children and that has a meaning.

Michael, you make some excellent points, notably #1, 4, and 7. There is a lot to disagree with, (and I do) but the discerning reader can separate the wheat from the chaff: E.G. "pop worship music is emotive and effeminate..." That's far too broad brush (don't make me make a list of songs that prove you wrong). ALSO, many hymns have less than stellar lyrics, to put it charitably, and average music (at best), so point #1 is eminently applicable when choosing hymns IMNSHO.

It's sometimes hard to follow contemporary style chuch music where the piano/keyboard are just chords/fill & not melody, the melody is the Tenor/Alto vocal lead. Guitar chords & drums don't give melody to follow. So, how do us baritone/bass singers find a note to follow (a bass note, sing 1 octave below the female or guess a 3rd below the lead)? I can't hit the top notes of the usual tenor part. If there's no baritone/bass singer (backing) on stage with a mic, then we don't have an example to follow.

I don't know what church you've ever been to but I always sing and there's plenty of male pastors and music ministries full of men I understand you said that but it doesn't matter what the song is wr sing old and brand new songs

Amen brother! We believe one of the big reasons is how modern worship became effeminate. Songs that treat Jesus as a boyfriend, which is a distortion of the doctrine of Christ being the bridegroom, and the Church, as a whole and not individually, being the bride. The solution is robust biblical singing, specially from the psalms and hymns composed in a similar way to the psalms. We have been working on versifying the psalms one by one, applying some down-to-earth melodies to them, and introducing them in our local church. We would be happy to provide the scores for pastors and worship leaders that would like to introduce them to their churches.

I like the way he said it some pagan flower god lol 😅😅😅

That the Pentecostals would disagree. I personally like to sing hymns during service

So where are the resources that he mentioned in the video?

Not me I enjoy worshipping my Lord at home at church driving anywhere I go

The men in my Church sing, and often lead the worship music. And "good songs" are all a matter of opinion. Contemporary Christian music should not be played in Church. I went to a Mercy Me concert a couple years ago and it reminded me of the days of my misguided youth going to rock concerts. The sound was so loud, lights so bright that I came out with a migraine. Never again...

Pride.

Box churches have failed to teach the true gospel..I'm not worried about music...

Da RU-vid inzwischen Kommentare übersetzen kann, schreibe ich einfach mal auf deutsch :) Prinzipiell sollten wir bei Lobpreis-Songs zwischen zwei Dingen unterscheiden: dem Text (also dem Inhalt) und der musikalischen Hülle (also der Verpackung). Zuerst einmal muss der Inhalt stimmen. Der Text muss Gott die Ehre geben, nicht uns. Der Text muss den Fokus von uns Menschen weg und zu Gott hin führen. Ja, da gibt es auch eine gewisse künstlerische Freiheit, aber wenn wir Lobpreis nicht für Gott machen, für wen dann sonst? Okay, hätten wir das mit dem Inhalt also geklärt - aber die musikalische Verpackung finde ich auch nicht so ganz unwichtig. Was meine ich damit? Ich kann nur aus meiner Perspektive sprechen: ich selbst liebe modernen Schlager (das ist der Grund, warum ich eigene Lobpreistexte schreibe und sie - da ich selbst nicht über die Fähigkeiten verfüge - durch eine KI als Schlager umsetzen lasse), und Schlager sprechen mich von der Musik her seelisch an und holen mich dort ab wo ich gerade bin. Dann wäre es doch eine tolle Idee, wenn sie mich schon abholen, wenn sie mir den Weg zeigen, wie ich von dort wo ich gerade bin vor Gott kommen kann, oder? Ich meine, es steht geschrieben, wir sollen Gott von ganzem Herzen, von ganzer Kraft und von ganzer Seele anbeten - nur, wie geht das mit Lobpreisliedern, wenn die Songs meine Seele ... sagen wir mal, "so la la" bis gar nicht ... ansprechen? Wenn man denkt, "och nee, schon wieder so'n oller Schinken" oder "na super, schon wieder nur so'ne Rock-Möhre..." Wie kann ich mich dann von ganzer Seele auf den Lobpreis einlassen, wenn ich mit der Musik in meiner Seele eigentlich gar nicht viel anfangen kann? Das ist so als wenn man an einer Haltestelle steht und auf den Bus wartet, aber der Bus den man eigentlich bräuchte entweder gar nicht fährt (wie bei Schlagern - es gibt nämlich sonst keine Lobpreis-Schlager!) oder von einer anderen Haltestelle, bei der einem keiner sagt wo man sie findet: klar, über Umwege und einiges Umsteigen kommt man sicher irgendwann auch mal in die ungefähre Nähe des Ziels, aber so richtig straight vorwärts und genau wo man hin will landet man irgendwie doch nicht. Zumindest gefühlt trifft es das eigentlich ganz gut. Ach, und nur damit ich richtig verstanden werde: nein, es sollte hoffentlich überhaupt keine Rolle spielen, wer vorne auf der Bühne steht. Damit ich zu Gott kommen kann, ist das genau genommen völlig humpe, ob da rein musikalisch betrachtet eine Helene Fischer stehen würde oder ein John Doe. Lobpreis sollte in Gemeinden so sein, dass man theoretisch auch einen Vorhang vor die Bühne ziehen könnte, tatsächlich wird oft viel zu viel "Kult" um die Musiker selbst gemacht, dabei stehen sie doch eigentlich genau auf der gleichen Ebene wie jeder einzelne im Gottesdienst.

The video should perhaps be titled: "Why Men Don't Sing in Many Protestant Churches". In the Orthodox Church, lots of men sing, and enthusiastically. Visit a Russian Orthodox Church and you will not miss the basso profundo of lots of men singing vigorously. We sing a capella - no rock bands, no pianos, etc. And unlike most "Bible Believing" Protestant Churches, the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Church hymns are simply Bible verses set to music, from the Psalms to verses of the Beatitudes, etc. Want more men to sing and participate in Church? Come back home to the Church founded by the Apostles, and which has never felt the need to "reinvent" itself every generation. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

I agree with some of this - but that’s not the definition of a hymn in Scripture. Come thou fount was written a long time after Colossians 3

Give me those good old fashion hymns packed with reverence for The Lord and Biblical teaching that glorifies God. Throw out all of the fleshly sensual and vague music that barely mentions Jesus, many of which contain unbiblical ideas.

Best thing I ever did was walk away from church ❤

Dig into Sacred Harp and you will find that many / most are embarrassed of the words and concepts.

I'll sing old hymns but none of the shaow souk deadening sentimentalist modern sacherin

When you have the concept, you have to see yourself as dirt, it is pretty easy to find so many cat songs. God wants us as his children, not slaves. To be humble doesn't mean to think "I'm not relevant", because when Jesus died for us, God told us, that we ate relevant. It means, to accept our own value, to be aware, that we cannot do anything by own strength. When I take it seriously to be God's child, I never would claim to be God. But when I keep to say, how bad I am, this doesn't increase God's glory, because it's not, how God sees us.

For the most part good points, though your hatred of some modern music seems like a bit much.

I don’t sing because if God hears me sing I’ll never get into heaven.

I thought some people doesn't sing because they can't sing?

I've always thought they were insecure with tier voices. Ice not sing at times for the reason you are saying. In not a man. Main stream is money making.

Thats not God in Church

Michael I am so tired of the absolute arrogant noisy cocky music performances in any of the churches around my area that I have actually, very sorry to say, have stopped going to church. I went to one and would stay in the car in the parking lot for the allotted time that the self-serving irritating worldly music portion was over, then I could just listen to the actual sermon. It was too awkward and it did not work very well. Usually had to sit in the back pew. I have been visiting churches for over 3 years and the closest to how you describe the song service should be is over an hour away and I can't afford to go that far. It is another tool that Satan is using to diffuse the effectiveness of his people and water down our witness. Very much a hot button with me. Why does the church so closely follow the world. We are nearly in tandem with it in look and sound. I think the statistic is a ratio of 7 years at that point where the world is, the church will be in 7 years after. I really could scream. It makes me sick. I wish we could go back a hundred years and be able to choose any church and be pleased with it's song services focusing on giving all the glory to Only God instead of the performances and our own sissy pathetic little Hang-Ups and problems we selfishly guard and carry around with us.

I don't like your cat idea.

I see where you're coming from, but disagree. I think if you look past the modern melodies and production quality there are a lot of biblically sound and declarative modern worship songs. I can't speak for all of them, but they are out there in droves. Psalms, hymns and spirituals are great in theory but often use words that people under the age of 50 don't resonate with. Also, referencing a Christian sea shanty as more singable is a goofy argument to me. That might make sense to your middle-aged, white, American ears but it's 2024 man. A lot of young people coming to Christ have a different melodic language, and believe it or not, the same passion for Jesus and The Word. Vocal range and difficulty are a factor in all worship music made these days. Also, there are songs engineered for radio play that don't consider the congregation and there are songs that do heavily and don't stray from the abilities of all voices. Also, these songs have harmonies sung by worship leaders and recordings which are simple to digest because most congregational worship songs are simple for the audience lol.

Most dudes are not good singers, nor do they want to sing- especially the type of the songs found in churches which for some reason must always be extremely effeminate. Would you ask a piano player to fumble through a song on the tuba? How does something that sounds awful glorify our Heavenly Father? This obsession with the idea that everyone must sing is absurd and completely out of touch with reality. Why force someone to express themselves in a way that is not natural to them, they’re not good at nor comfortable with and which causes social embarrassment? The result is that virtually no one participates. Why not just have everyone chant the prayer. Seriously, what’s wrong with that? Then EVERYONE will participate because everyone knows how to talk. Lastly, the most unholy thing ever is having the congregation face the musicians which are up on a stage. The musicians are being worshipped, this is terrible! Put them in the back where no one can see them like they do in many Catholic Churches if it truly is about the worship. It’s like whoever’s in charge of the service is so bored having to be at church all the time they try to make it fun for themselves by playing with a bunch of mixers, automated fog machines and audio visual toys so they can enjoy the ego massage of showcasing their own musical and theatrical talent instead of being present at a worship service. It is completely irreverent and inappropriate.