I’m a man. I’m a worship leader. I actually think the reason why men don’t sing worship songs is because most CCM worship songs are too in high pitch. This would be kind of fun to research. Ask guys in church what songs they sing along to on the radio and find out what range those melodies are, then compare it to CCM worship songs. I’m pretty sure CCM songs are recorded with a much higher vocal pitch on average compared to other genres.
I think men can often sing higher than they try. I think women are willing to try and men are scared to fail so they hide their voice in low rumbles rather than lifting their voices high. I was in a church where every song was set to a key the worship leader thought everyone can sing in and most the men didn’t sing, and the music was uninspiring and bland. I believe quality matters otherwise their is no reason to have a leaders or organized music in the church, yet from early on writing songs and professional music directors have been a part of old testament and new testament worship and throughout the ages. Men have beautiful voices and hide them far too often because of exactly what these two discuss..
As a teen I enjoyed singing in church, but it was in the context of an all male boarding school, with a genius choral leader, and a full blown church organ. We sung in three distinct ranges, complex harmonies, and the building shook. Every one had a space and register they could easily sing in. As an adult in regular church settings, the lowest register in the music is pitched higher than I was singing when I was fifteen. My voice has deepened enormously since then. Hill Song prevalence has ruined church music. The choral range, and song construction does not lend itself complex harmony, or male undertones. Even the Protestant use of song from scripture has broken due to the light airy feminine shrieking the music supports - a far cry from what it was 50 years ago. I suspect the emphasis on higher registers reflects the fact that women are discomforted by the male voice, and prefer higher register tones in music. Tones men hear less well.
The more the church has morphed into the “concert / performance model,” the less people are actually INVOLVED in worship and became instead just watchers. Lighting, LED walls, hazers, LOUD LOUD LOUD… sadly, these are the goals! The worship leaders and churches promote themselves and their performance over TRUE worship, and this is what you get: shallow to no involvement. Additionally, you pose the question (but don’t answer) WHY has there been a decline in interest in “worship music” positions. Perhaps it is also because of the wrong pursuit of the massively produced (and choreographed) concert atmosphere of most modern churches. This model sets up the young person to feel that they could NEVER achieve that high level of musical perfection, artistry, production, concert, etc. So, they say, “Well, I could never do that, so just let the ‘professionals’ do it.” As you said at 20:00, churches can produce these really “slick” productions.
Congratulations on the interview, and for the courage to look at this problem in depth. If more people look at this subject, there may be a chance for us to recover the involvement of the ordinary citizen in worship. I am a musician, pianist, keyboardist, with more than 30 years of experience in congregational praise here in Brazil, and here we have gone through the same problems that you describe in this beautiful interview, and I believe that this cultural massification has somehow extrapolated the borders of the USA and arrived in other countries, influencing our culture a lot, and unfortunately in a negative way. I believe that the introduction of pop music in churches has caused many inconveniences. First of all, the tones are so high-pitched, especially if they are being sung by a male worship leader, that most men, who have a medium baritone voice, need to try very hard to sing, which makes the task tiring and exhausting. And not only for men! Women end up singing the melody one octave below their normal tessitura! I have noticed that most women can no longer even go from a C4, they simply can no longer sing in the natural region of female singing. With this, men screaming in the treble, and women singing octave below, the congregational singing is closer to a cheering song of some sport such as football. I believe that there is a big mistake in this issue, because leaders of praise should worry about making a song that is comfortable for the congregation, but sometimes I think that they act more like artists, and seek the tone of the songs in which their voices can shine. The disappearance of the culture of graduated choirs, where you have children's, adolescent, young people and adult choirs, is also an important factor in this legacy, because the musical learning that happened in the past, now no longer exists, and the consequence of this is that fewer and fewer people develop musically. Another thing is that musical learning is something that takes time, years of study, and the current generation no longer have the patience to deeply learn an instrument, not to mention that contemporary songs do not bring any technical requirements, which discourages many people from investing time in acquiring knowledge that will become useless in that scenario. I grew up listening to Michael W. Smith (the old one), Ron Kenolly, and so many others who made rich music melodically, harmoniously and rhythmically. It was a challenge to learn a song by Ron Kenolly, not to mention that they were cheerful and festive songs. Today, the music of worship has become something boringly sad, emotional and appealing, in addition to being repetitive and without creativity. Not to mention the difficulty we have in introducing genuinely Brazilian songs, with Brazilian rhythms, partly because our culture has been massacred by this mass culture, and partly because our musical styles require a little more musical knowledge, something that less and less young people are interested in absorbing. I'm sorry to be a little direct, and I'm not judging here the attitude of worship of people, just telling my experience as a church musician of more than 30 years, and how I see the impact of this change on contemporary worship.
I came up in the era of Enter the Worship Circle and small, intimate, acoustic worship bands. I led worship in small groups and played drums for our Sunday services. But somewhere in the 2010's it became something else, and the worship music that's being produced is entirely inaccessible to non-professionals and small settings. And given the number of prominent Christian musicians who have proven to be anything but Christians, I'm not even interested in listening to anything that's been recorded in the last 5 years. It's essentially studio-polished trash. The vocal range is too large, the arrangements too complicated, the technical ability required too professional, the writing too lacking, the lighting too theatrical, and the image too fussy for any volunteer vocalist or musician or congregation to approach. (I'm intentionally painting with a broad brush here) If you can't lead the song with a single instrument, then it's not going to work for the vast majority of churches. You can always build layers on top of a song that's intentionally written to be played alone. But if the entire thing depends on three overlaid drum loops, autotune, and perfect, precise, cadence so it doesn't become a train wreck... well, there ya go. That leaves me with tired 20-year-old-no-longer-contemporary songs; and hymns. And of the two, I'm finding hymns to be just... better.
It's general music trends, which CCM and worship music tend to lag behind by a few years: specifically, the trend in pop music of moving to more hip-hop/EDM inspired backing tracks, with fewer real instruments. This necessitates the use of backing tracks to get a sound that remotely matches the original song, unless a church happens to have a really good synth player who can do it live - whereas pre-2010s, most worship music was largely replicable by a standard four-piece rock band plus keys and acoustic. Just look at Phil Wickham's career to see evidence of this trend - something like Divine Romance is a far cry instrumentally from Battle Belongs.
Most modern "worship" music is written largely to evoke an emotion or feeling. Artistry seems to be at the forefront in order to create a moment. I believe this is why there is a lack of shelf-life, substance is short and we all know feelings and emotions change by the day, thus the "moment" is lost and a new moment must be created.
45 years ago, I was a part of a traveling Praise Team in College. I remember very clearly exhorting the team that if we appeal to the emotions through our music, we will get an emotional response. If we appeal to the Spirit, we will get a Spiritual response. Our churches are way too obsessed with trying to duplicate Bethel, Elevation, Hillsong, etc. with complex and challenging arrangements, and to look and sound good on the live stream. Let’s focus on developing the spiritual lives of the next generation and growing authentic and true worshippers. Favor that over musical “excellence” and worship will thrive.
@@Anonymous99997 I play songs from all sources in my venue, but I don’t listen to the major sources until I have to learn songs for a service. I don’t like the standard Bethel/Hillsong production and distorted verbed/delayed guitars, and prefer the cleaner Nashville style production. And never “covers.” Our group also does a good amount of vocal and instrumental improvisation.
Great interview. We are a SBC that merged a contemporary congregation into the hymns only one. Initially very blended which has morphed into more contemporary. I’m the pastor and a shallowly competent bass singer and… why do most men not sing in church? In general… previously it was very very rare I or baritones even could actually sing in congregational music. The key simply wasn’t reachable for us. I purposely had my worship leader and music director move the keys on songs to what both men and women can actually reach. And we recruited and trained musicians that can instantly change the key if needed. Light years different.
I’d say lyrics have much to do with it, men don’t want to sing about Jesus as if he’s a boyfriend. Also more classical hymns are preferred by men in my experience leading worship for about 5 years now in a small congregation, less than 50 people.
I found this discussion to be really helpful in understanding what's going on in churches these days. I didn't expect the conversation to be so wide ranging and insightful. Good job!
As the lone male worship leader with ZERO technical music knowledge, this hit home w/ me. I have a really good ear, and im also the sound and media leader. So I can get away with a lot through natural talent, but it can be super difficult to pull off the new songs that are out there now. but luckily I have several incredible people around me that have that experience to help me along... and can speak to me in crayon 😂
1. I find it interesting how she immediately dismissed the views of the entire opposite gender. Before she even brought it up my initial thoughts were, "if we're honest it's obvious why men don't sing." Boom, right away she tells me I don't matter. Sounds like she didn't even want to look into it. I'm sure she's a fantastic researcher but that threw me off a lot. 2. I've been very curious at our current fixation on 'congregational worship' and how that affects how we choose songs, arrangements, etc. But go to any normal concert, Christian or not, and it's 1000% not an issue. Just look at it at face value, don't overthink it, and be curious about it. It's a legit question. Good interview though. Probably going to go subscribe to CT after this.
(I am a worship bassist at a medium size church) I am a man . (Rare that I start a comment saying that :-) . I have the ability to sing but no interest in it at all . I think Kelsey hit it on the head , with the thought of its about "style" of the song . The " Jesus is my boyfriend " analogy . If you look at me ,playing bass in the back of the band ,during Graves into gardens , I'm singing when moved to . But yes alot of our songs ? ,ahh no . Not to mention her thought of ..... Not only , "this songs not me ,but I'm making this song worse by singing " . So I just let the young ladies up front carry this one ,and then the song sounds right . So its about song selection for me . Thanks guys ,great video .
Sharing this in hopes of inspiring other churches, but also to share what God has been doing at our church since Covid to give hope to those trying! Our church used to have a choir sing EVERY single Sunday. They would sing one "special" but would also sing the hymns. When I took over the part-time position in 2013 we started to slowly shift to a praise team (which is one of the main reasons why I was hired) and the amount of people dwindled down to where most Sundays I would only have 1 soprano or 1 tenor (NOT GOOD!). I've been told that a healthy adult choir is around 10% of your typical service attendance. Our participation went down to about 6% before Covid. So, during Covid we stopped. We stopped doing Adult Choir for about 2 years. Then we decided to attempt it again and delegate the responsibility to an older, retired gentlemen who's been at our church for a while and was already helping conduct the Handbell Choir. This was great because now I could participate as a tenor (don't worry yall...I picked up more duties to offset being in charge of the adult choir...). We did two bigger presentations during the last 2 years. The members of the choir have grown to around 15% of a typical Sunday attendance! Amazing what He is doing for that ministry. And it honestly seems like we're gaining some traction because we've slowly increased participates each time. Another event that we just attempted this past semester is something we call "Pack the Loft" Worship Choir. I complete the song list to a service that will happen in a month's time and simply made a playlist on Spotify and RU-vid and shared it with people. I try to find 3 common congregational friendly songs and then we sing 1 "special" song that we would perform during offering. Anyone who wanted to be involved signed up for our Remind class and I would send 1 encouraging Remind a week about listening to the songs and worshipping through them. The week leading up to that Sunday I sent a different Remind each day. Some were super short devotions, others were clarifications on the arrangements or reminders of what to wear and when to be at church that Sunday. Basically uplifting things, but also messages that made it sound like we were family because well...we are! Me and the staff would set out a decent amount of chairs and pray over each chair that week. The day of I would require them to show up 30 minutes before service in the choir room. The first 20 minutes were spent fellowshipping with one another and then 5 minutes were spent on a break down of the service; when they would be called up and when they could go back down. We would pray and then have a blast while worshipping. We did this 3 times this past school semester and averaged about 18% of our typical Sunday attendance. I even have fun and wear my "fancy" shoes...aka cheap WalMart shoes that one of my youth students "bejeweled" with cheap plastic gems. I had asked someone to come join us for Pack the Loft and made a bargain that I would wear those shoes if he showed up. It's now a fun way to get people singing EVEN if they don't know how to read music like the Adult Choir does. The interesting part about BOTH our Adult Choir and Pack the Loft events is that they reached different groups of people. I maybe had 2-3 people sing in both. So really, through these 2 different types of choirs we have up to around 30% of our typical Sunday attendance involved :) Feel free to try this! We are a small, rural church in the middle of nowhere Arkansas. I actually took the "Pack the Loft" idea from another church around here and adjusted it to what is mentioned above.
I am also a Choir Teach full-time at the local High School. I think that when schools started AP courses, as well as students being allowed to take college classes early (or online) while in High School extremely hurts the Fine Arts department/involvement. Some school districts hold sports practices as a class at the beginning or end of the day ,instead of strictly before or after school, which also hurts the Fine Arts department/involvement. Which is probably another reason why people don't want sheet music...because they don't know what they're looking at.
More and more, after having been involved directly and actively participating on the worship team I am not so sure it is a musical talent thing as much as it is an image/appearance, trying to fit the mold of the emerging stereotypical “preppy look” and dress of the current genre which alternates between prep and grunge. I believe this drives many away from participating on teams. Example, do I sport a crop top with stubble or wear my stocking cap over my “buttered my hair with toast in the morning, look”, to accentuate my sleeves of tats and tattered clothing, to justify my “forever story of hard times that they never really seem to break through? All this while trying to stay on pitch, smile at the congregation, jump up and down, twirl and maintain the proper key and hooks of the instrument you are playing. A lot of unnecessary tiring hoops and acrobatics. Keep it simple, Remember the why and the who you are engaging in worship for.
The "men don't sing in church" part of this is baffling. I'm not dismissing the research, but I've belonged to 4 churches in my lifetime (I'm 49), all SBC, starting with traditional hymn only through blended. All have been sub-350 member churches. And in my experience, it's not "men don't sing", it's "some people don't sing". Sometimes, it's the key, sometimes, it's the song, some people just aren't comfortable singing around other people. Sometimes, it's how they may be worshipping that day. God doesn't require words to come out of our mouths to worship. So, I kind of think it's a non-issue? IDK. I've been a Worship Leader now for 6 years and this hasn't been a problem in my church. YMMV.
Singing hymns and psalms, ive seen men who would otherwise never sing, sing heartily. The trend for seeker sensitive churches to use frankly pretty poor ccm music in worship, which focuses on hyper emotionalistic 'worship', rather than God and scripture centered worship deters men from singing. You cant go wrong with the good hymns (dont grt me wrong, theres some dumb ones) and the psalms.
We have a significant need for Seminaries to offer graduate programs to train worship leaders for churches. Undergraduate studies is better suited for musical development. Expecting 20-year old guitarists to lead congregations in mature worship is unrealistic. Effective Worship Leaders function as pastors and need training similar to pastoral training. It is an "elder" level responsibility of helping people pray and praise God through music, which should be considered in the context of revelation-response as an equal partnership with the teaching pastor.
I think the men mentioned here that are on line speak mainly to men. Men are much more honest with other men. Much of Christian music is effeminate in the sense of, it’s overly emotional, and musically, is geared more for women than men. Disagree if you’d like but, I’m a guy, and I’m telling you what I think, and what other men have said.
Nice discussion. Thanks. One of the things contemporary worship music was a correction against was performance. Transition from professional art to be consumed to participatory expression of praise. It is not much different from what happened musically in the protestant reformation. There was a musical backlash against professional singers who sang beautiful melismatic lines, sometimes singing one syllable continuously so that the text was forgotten. This was replaced with common music which became the hymnody we know today. (Think of the hymn We Praise Thee O God most famously associated with the tune Kresmer which was based on “I once met a girl and her name was Matilda) This change today leaves the church with fewer trained musicians involved in ministry. The pool is shallow. You can have all sorts of philosophical discussions about the change, but it is a reality. As is the need and mandate for the church to sing. So regardless of trends, we who are called to worship ministry must prioritize singing. There are verses about horns, and strings, and percussion; but those verses are in what is basically a hymnal. Thought about Kelsey’s comment about the internet comments about musical feminization. I get the sentiment of the comments but like you I know we need a deeper take on the thought. Likewise the comments I see all the time about 7 - 11 songs. Again , I get the sentiment, but have we heard Randal Thompson’s Alleluia? How about the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah? A few things men need to sing in church: A call to action An honorable place for masculine - heroic expression Songs that follow traditional male vocal structure in terms of pitch and style A clear connection to theology and the scriptures first, emotion second A finale thought that is entirely personal. When I hear a worship leader begin a song really low in their vocal register I know pretty soon they are going to flip up an octave. I understand the musical energy purpose, but there is a tradeoff with accessibility and maybe even authenticity. Is this too manipulative. I know it’s going to be too high for most guys and I immediately check out.
Love this conversation. We need to have more like this in the church. We have to take an honest look at why men especially seem to be uninterested in the church as a whole but especially modern church worship music.
When I was a kid in the 70's and 80's, I attended an Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), and there was no worship "team". There was a choir, and the music director who managed the choir. During services, the pastor would just say, "please turn in your hymnals to page...." The piano/organ would fire up, and the congregation would sing the hymn. It wasn't sappy. It wasn't emotional. There were no women with holes in their jeans swaying back and forth palms up with their eyes closed like they were in some kind of weird ecstasy. There was no hippy in shorts and sandals with a guitar. It wasn't cringy. Instead, it was dignified, regal and joyous! It elevated your soul. It sounded like this.... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vyedsfF6hNk.html
Interesting. And Kelsey is very pleasant to see talking -- beautiful and real without make-up, obviously intelligent, and somehow I get the feeling I already know her (but... surely I don't, wish I could).
As an LDS choir singer, I find the Churchfront videos really interesting as this is such a different musical worship style than our tradition. Yet, there's a lot of overlap with intent and goals and challenges in participation. Given the video made it sound like 4-port congregation, hymnal singing is rare, I thought I'd mention it is standard for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We use 4-part hymnals and congregational singing with larger congregations having choirs (all volunteer). Choirs typically may do one number a month with Christmas or Easter being 2-3 songs. Our hymns are arranged to try to accommodate the vocal range of all singers. A new hymnal is currently being developed (I believe the current one is from the 80s). We have a long history of the Tabernacle Choir started by Welsh immigrants bringing their tradition with them. Our Utah colleges have strong choral programs. Many of our public Jr High and High schools have solid choral programs. Having said that, it takes pushing to get participation and many of our choirs struggle even with a congregation that includes quite a few people that sang in high school choirs. So, at least in Utah, I'm not sure it is simply that men don't have the experience or men don't sing. It's more that they aren't singing or aren't willing to take the time to rehearse. In a world of dopamine hits readily available through doom scrolling, gaming, TV, etc, music participation is a slower path to a rewarding feeling of satisfaction, belonging, and spirituality. Practice and rehearsing are slow compared to 2023 dopamine hits. (As an interesting aside, unified singing is shown scientifically to produce endorphins and oxytocin and have a positive benefit in feelings of unification and lowering stress and anxiety levels. In choral singing, singers breathing and even heard beats can align.)
Pride, lack of intimacy, fear of man. Its not about the music. They scream and jump around for sports events and sign every anthem like they are getting paid.
We've trained our Catholic Music Ministry so that almost any singer or instrumentalist, male or female can lead any Sunday as the need arises at a moment's notice.
Lack of interest in ministry as a career is a problem across many areas on the church. It is understandable given the low pay for these positions (though I would argue they are highly spirtually rewarding), lack of young people in churches, and our culture's increasing hositility to church.
I'm male, in recent times have stood back from worship leading bevause I'm in my seventies and the livestream did nothing for anyone. I still sing and play bass, simetimes guitar. This in a contemporary Anglican congregation of about 120 in a village in England. But In another world I don a choir robe and sing first tenor in a choir that travels cathedrals in the United Kingdom deputising fir the standing choir. In these the congregations can be similarly sized. Neither of these is wrong they just support the different ways in which people can transcend the song and litergy to a place where they can engage with God. We seem to have lost sight if the fact that the majority of worahippers are not in mega churches, but in a quiet culturally appropriate way worship is alive in all its forms.
It was a bummer to hear her dismiss the “why men don’t sing” argument so quickly, in terms of it being related to the “feel and emotion” often driving most modern “worship music”. For me, and many men who I’ve worked with over the years (3 churches, varying from 50 members up to 2k) we just don’t like to sing high, and most modern music selected for church is that way. Truth is, the genre itself is largely not appealing or engaging either. It’s just simply easier. The people who disagree with me when speaking about this are female. I found her phrase “plug and play” very accurate, as church worship leaders seem to be more concerned with what’s convenient and easy to replicate - than they are about dynamic, broader approaches to music. I for one, can’t stand the fact that a genre is even used to define music that we give to God in a corporate church environment. The Psalmist mentions over 30 different instruments being used in that book to praise the Lord. Why aren’t we embracing that approach today?! Guitarists are being told to use digital boards only (which is a whole other conversation in itself…and yet, it’s related to the “easy over dynamic” choices being made…), drummers are kept behind shields (or forced to use electric kits), and the most variety we get is the “ambient noise” that either the keys or guitarist creates…for Every. Single. Song. All of this saddens me. I just want leaders to challenge themselves (and yes, their volunteers) to work hard and to excel at every song they learn. And to CHANGE IT UP song to song. Do a jazz song. Rock. Country. Pop. Or even, Metal - gasp! I’m not trying to attack anyone, and I’m not anti-female leaders…but I’ve been on both sides of the perspective, and every time I led worship at churches, more people sang more often because I was intentionally trying to offer a range of songs, and keys of music - and the men noticed, and commented every week on that. I feel that if someone wants to get their own way with music selection, let alone the key of music that they sing in, write and release that music on the side. If you want more men to sing, please just lower the key and add variety to your set. Have men sing lead, and women back and forth - never the same person as lead for the whole set. I say all of this in love, truly. Music is so subjective…but we shouldn’t be putting God in a box with only one genre of music to praise Him with, nor should we stick to what we as leaders prefer (key and song selection).
Too much focus on good musos who are good technically but which have no vibe. The best modern church music stemmed from hillsong united which was a bunch of mates who really had no idea what they were doing initially. These days its, "come audition" for the pro music team. The result, bethel and co, who can play/sing well, but its totally boring.
Interesting topic, professional worship leader and degreed musician, who has trained multiple worship leaders. We need to define terms. Lead musician, Worship Pastor, Worship Leader. Each of those definitions carries different expectations. Btw, i did my main worship leading for 14 years with no compensation. Not saying that is the expectation, but i was also a bi vocational pastor later in life as well. Paul made tents! And did ministry. As to why men quit singing, farmers sing, in their combine, if their artist of choice comes on in their tractor. So it is not the ability, or just a private matter, it is the lack of mentoring leaders performers in the skills of worship leading. How to be a excellent vocals person, lead or harmony, period. How to train youth how to play chords and lead with a guitar, how to play piano not like bach but like a rock musician or arranger of layered sounds, "being a musician" we have gotten lazy at teaching and mentoring these skills, and there are some absolutes, Shepards lead sheep, by the aound of their voice, butchers drive sheep, and do not listen to the flock... It is not hard to understand why men especially baritones drop out, it is because when they finally have a song in their range (usually an Alto leading) they begin to participate and the tenor octaves the melody, and because they hear no one singing "their part" they drop out, and have the perspective their voice just became unneeded, because they cant make the octave jump. Do the octave, just make sure to add the baritone in the mix as well. Also we have basically degraded to triad music which is essential 3 notes, we could do better helping our vocalst able to identify thei range and their parts in the musical land scape. Trained musicians can and should be doing this period. Having people holding placebo microphones on stage is horrible and dishonest. Shame on us all on that activity if is is going on in our churches. Unfortunately i know it is. Lastly i am hopful this is understood as a analysis and not a criticism, to help us all to do better serve better and be a blessing to the body of christ we all serve in! Blessings to one and all. Happy to assist anyone with how to do this, if interested.
If anyone grew up in churches in the 70s, 80s, 90s, people didn’t sing then either. Churches moved on from hymns as fast as they did because hymnal congregational singing was dead and stale. Unfortunately, singing/not singing is partly cultural and partly an issue of the heart. A congregation of cultural Christians will never sing like a group of on fire college students.
I don't agree with the first sentence at all! I grew up in churches in the 70s and 80s and have served in worship ministry in the early 90s thru the present. Prior to the Contemporary revolution, most churches were singing hymns, many with vigor. The one I was raised in did. I didn't love all the hymns, but I learned them all from within a singing church with great lively acoustics. Like other peers, I gravitated toward the new contemporary styles breaking out in the 80s. I started playing in worship bands and then leading them. Early on, we sang congregationally oriented worship songs in keys friendly to normal people's untrained voices. Several things have happened since the 90s that have been "good" for "worship performance" and bad for congregational engagement. 1. "Worship Music" was always supposed to be different. It was for the masses to sing, with limited vocal range expectations, symmetry (so average people can learn by ear), and simple structure for engagement. There was a stark difference between CCM (for artists) and Worship Songs for normal people. These categories got increasingly merged. Initially, CCM artists would record a worship song on an album. Then a worship album. Now, the only artists "making it" are seemingly doing "worship" music almost exclusively. Except that it's artist music brought into a worship context and played as worship music on stations. It sounds amazing - by Hillsong, by Wickham, by Houghton, by Tomlin, but not by average congregational worship singers. 2. This transformation of artists leading worship, rather than worship leaders, affected key range. Most recording artists are tenors. There are reasons for this. That range peaking between high F-A simply sounds amazing! Bach knew that. So now the best most men can do is sing an octave below the artists, once they make that octave jump on the choruses. (That jump is an example of a spice that has become normative, and now songs commonly feature an octave and a 6th range; vs. the standard practice period of songs being within 1 octave). 3. The early worship choruses (Maranatha in the 80s) were simple. Nauseatingly simply in hindsight. But youth groups sang countless short songs around campfires. Everyone sang back then. But now with CD players moving to iPods moving to phones with in-ear setups, people have been trained to become consumers of sophisticated production rather than participants in song-making as a community pursuit. Songs have added to 1-2 verses plus chorus structures: pre-choruses, Bridges, chorus variants, bridge variants, climaxes, and variated tags. Again, it SOUNDS amazing when it can be pulled off at professional standards. We do in our church. But MOST churches cannot pull this off. 4. Schools and the public have denigrated singing this past generation. We used to have required Choral classes in schools. When I was coming through it was 2x/week rather than daily. Then 1x/week. Then optional to choose between Band, Choir, or Study Hall. Then schools committed to STEM and college prep and band and choir classes got moved to 0 period (who wants to sing at 6:45 in the morning, before school?). Nobody sings in public except for the 7th inning stretch, and professionals. The "middle class" of common people singing as a normal part of life has been largely erased in a single generation. 5. Many churches don't value participative worship. Whether they turn off the lights, play music from the stage so loud that people can't hear themselves, make is all about video or about performers on stage, or present terrible music -- there are just so many unhelpful models that churches copy ad nauseum. To lead a singing church: Pick great songs people want to sing, sing them in singable keys, let people hear themselves sing, spend money on acoustics and on room design -- not just on sound gear, model singing worship, celebrate the joy of singing worship, teach people to sing in your churches. Have the pastors and key influencers sing and value worship. And watch what happens!
@@chaddonal4331 I’m glad there were congestions out there singing hymns with passion. I never saw that in the 5 churches I was in growing up. I didn’t see it in my grandparents church or Aunt and uncle’s churches either. As the grandfather of the woman in this video said, “midwestern farmers don’t sing at church”. It’s been an issue for a long time. I went to college in the early 2000’s, and campus ministries were just starting to do the modern stuff. That was the first time I really experienced passionate communal singing. I could sing my heart out to hillsong united, Jesus culture, Shane and Shane, etc. I really connected with that music and worship style. We sung best when we couldn’t hear ourselves and the room was dark..lol. Hearing myself freaks me out, and the darkness means people aren’t looking at me. I do agree with you about K-love worship. 3 minute worship songs written for the radio just doesn’t work well. I know a lot of people worship to it in their car, and want to do the same stuff at church, but it rarely translates well. It’s going to be interesting to see where church music goes. I feel the pendulum swinging away from the 5 piece praise team model, but it’s not clear what’s “next”. I imagine it’s going to be a mix of things and people will gravitate to the church that best suits their “style”.
In those years you mentioned, they were already abandoning traditional hymnody (heavily inspired in the psalms) and were sing “hymns” that were very shallow, and feminism was already creeping into the church, deprecating manly virtues and over-exalting feminine virtues.
@@chaddonal4331 the bold proclamation of the gospel in the Lord’s day is definitely a manly task (proclamation) with a manly character (boldness). What we have today are men giving a seeker-sensitive speech, with a ultra-relational approach. And the songs follow those steps.
Just speaking for myself, singing would feel super dishonest. The high majority of guys I know seldom act like Terry Crews in White Chicks when Vanessa Carleton comes on, at least not ironically. That's not to insult guys out there who are vibing with CCM. But I and most guys I know are not those people. Worship music at some point became conflated with 2000's singer/songwriter ballads, which is not music that stirs me into feelings of awe or veneration towards God; it impedes those feelings if anything. The lyrics are also singer/songwriter takes on heady Biblical concepts that I haven't understood in life until much later. Lyrics like "he is jealous for me" require some unpacking, as the social understanding of jealousy is insecure possessiveness that is rooted more in narcissism than love. In study, I dove in and understood the Biblical concept of Godly jealousy, and I get it now. But I didn't before, and on those Sundays, singing that wouldn't make sense at all. So the worship portion of church is essentially proposing that in order to take part in a church-wide expression of reverence of God, I need to stand and sing lyrics I don't understand to music that I avoid in every other context of life. There's nothing about it that would be real or from the soul, it'd just be more for the sake of maintaining a persona, or just out of compulsion, which doesn't seem like the Biblical thing to do. So I sit it out.
As important as skill and ability are, it is only THE ANOINTING that breaks the Yoke! School may give you skill, but it cannot give The Anointing. What worship lacks in the US is The Anointing! We have traded the anointing in for entertainment and big business, hence we stay in our bubbles of self reflection, rather than Christ exaltation. This is not a criticism to this video, but just making a statement of great consideration. Worship leaders need to seek first the Kingdom. Seek in prayer the face of God before researching what others are doing. The real questions is, "What is Christ doing?" Not that we can't be encouraged by others, as iron sharpening iron, but if one can not raise their hands in the congregation, they don't belong on the stage, no matter how skilled they are.
Anointing, meaning the Holy Spirit manifesting (not just speaking) in bringing about supernatural ability and or impartation from Christ, as mentioned in the Word of God, the Bible.
Honestly..... Men will Naturally respond to Men leading in ALL. ( God's order) I see churches ( AG more-so) putting men in the back and dark of Worship Team stage and putting Women up from to lead. Sorry, but this is the problem ALL.
Men, get off your high horse and scoop those notes! Who sang along with Journey and other 80s acts which had lots of scooping and slides into notes? Enjoy the scoop. Though today's pop super-scoopy-doopy stuff is out of control :)
