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Next time you go to church, take a look around. Are the people singing? What's going on?
I've noticed it myself, Chris has noticed it too, and now the data is coming in. When you walk into a church, look around, and I'm not talking about just who's right next to you but the whole landscape. Fewer and fewer people are singing in church worship.
Remember the old days, when we sat in the pews with a hymnal? If you didn't sing, you mouthed the words, because you didn't want to be the only one not singing. That has changed, and it has changed dramatically. I think that's kind of bad.
Two Radio Lifers in the Pews
We've had a unique opportunity here. We were syndicated morning show hosts for 25 years. Chris has been in radio since he was 16, and we're both over 60 now. This show is our way of fulfilling our calling as best we can, by coming on the air and sharing with you.
Along the way, Chris spoke in over 200 churches, and Emilee spoke in about half of those. Some of those were comedy shows or presentations of some sort. We also moved a lot, so whenever we landed in a new city, we visited different churches. Phoenix, Tucson, Grand Rapids, Alabama, and more. Seven, eight, nine churches in a new city before we found a home. We've got a sampling like no other.
From Hymnals to Projectors to Drums
The music was a big deal in every one of those visits, and it's probably a big deal to you too. We've watched it go from hymnals and organs to guitars and drums. We even remember when the really hip pastor in the late '80s had the projector with the clear plastic sheets he wrote on, so the words could go up on the screen and you could sing along. Back then it was mostly praise choruses.
The Cows Out of the Field
Chris told a joke on our morning show once about the difference between hymns and praise choruses. Stumpy came home and told Stella, "This church I visited when I was out of town had praise choruses." She said, "What's that?" He said, "Picture a hymn where you say, 'The cows have gotten out of the field.' That's the hymn. A praise chorus goes, 'The cows have gotten out of the field. Out of the field, out of the field. The cows out of the field. Cows out of the field. Field, field. Cows out of the field.'"
That's a paraphrase of the potential joke, but you get the point.
Casting Crowns Wannabes and the Record Rep Racket
Being close to the recording industry shaped how we saw all this. Back then we had music directors, so we didn't pick exactly what went on the air. If we wanted to play an obscure song, we had to get permission. We could slip in a request here and there, but it was formatted for us. It was actually called a format.
Meanwhile, the record rep for MercyMe, the record rep for Jeremy Camp, the record rep for Third Day, and on and on it goes, would pound on those music directors to get spins and rotation.
So we'd visit XYZ church, somebody would know we were there, and at least a dozen times over those 15 years we were really in that space, somebody from the worship band would hand us their CD. I called them Casting Crowns wannabes. "Hey, here's my CD." Like they were going to get a record deal tomorrow.
The Intent of Your Heart
I appreciate everybody, even those doing YouTube now and those doing podcasts. There are two kinds of people here:
- Those who just want to be faithful to God and do what they're called to do with joy.
- Those who want the juice and the fame and the dome that comes along with it, because they've seen others get it.
Sorting through that is similar to music in church. When you go to a church that sings hymns, that doesn't make you better than the church where the lights are down and the band's jamming out. It comes down to the intent of your heart.
What we've noticed, as these things have developed over the last 20 years, is that people don't really sing in church. You can't deny the trend. If you go to church regularly, or you've been going over the course of your life, there's just no debate that it has changed and that there's not as much engagement from the congregation when it comes to worship.
Buckle Up: The Harsh Part
What I'm about to say is going to be harsh, and it's not going to sound fun. Buckle up, because it's going to be a bumpy ride.
The Exception to the Rule
First, the exception to the rule. Every time someone makes a rule, someone can come up with an exception. Here's a classic example that every born-again Christian who's been walking intentionally would know: abortion is wrong. And what's the immediate response? "What about rape and incest?" You go right to the exception to the rule.
Here's My Rule
The larger churches, or even the medium-sized churches, that want to act cool, dimming the lights, running the smoke show and the light show, with a worship band trying to be so contemporary and so relevant, tend to produce something I've noticed. The actual spiritual walk of most of the people I've experienced in and around those churches is weaker. Lesser than. Not totally, but not as strong.
Right now you're saying, "Chris and Emilee, I know a lot of people who go to a church like that, and I might be one of them, and I know I have a faithful walk with Christ." Again, there are exceptions to the rule.
But in general terms, you always want to ask: who's getting the glory? Are they building a church for church's sake? Are they building an experience for you through an experiment of trying this, trying that, to see what's going to keep people in the seats?
What Willow Creek Found
I did some research on this, and it's actually in a book I'm listening to. When Willow Creek did that seeker-sensitive thing, they found out that most people, even the ones who are seeking, want better Bible instruction. They want a deeper thing. They want to know the depth.
This show is about laughing louder, digging deeper, and living larger, and you only live larger in Jesus when you are surrendered. When you realize you ain't that great. You're going to make mistakes. People are going to hate you, and people are going to love you. You're going to try to find that body of believers you can hang out with, and when you do, singing is a big part of it.
Two Reasons the Singing Has Faded
Here's the issue with the music that's creating a lesser-than walk:
- Theology has been largely removed from a lot of the songs we sing.
- Engagement in worship has declined dramatically.
One Beggar Giving Another Beggar Some Bread
Here's the confession. I didn't really do a lot of research. I read an article, and I thought, "This article is so good, I've got to share it on the show, because it put into context the things we're seeing." But I don't want to just steal somebody else's stuff, so here's the credit.
The article was written by Scott Connell. I don't know who he is. All I know is that he's with the Southern Baptist denomination and has his degree in worship. And now that we've given him credit, let's steal his stuff. You don't write an article and not want people to talk about it. One beggar giving another beggar some bread.
The title is "10 Things One Worship Leader Stopped Doing That Helped the Congregation Sing Louder." If you want to Google it for yourself, go for it. I don't have all 10, and I'm not taking all of his stuff.
I'm assuming from the way it reads that this is firsthand experience of what he did. He stopped doing certain things, and after a period of time, things started changing. Isn't that what the worship leader is supposed to be doing? Helping the congregation get into worship?
The Hymnal Comeback
It ties into other articles I've read, too. One was about hymnals making a huge comeback in churches, because people are finding the benefit of holding that book, singing the same songs, and being united in that collection of songs. They love it, and they see the music written there, so they can follow along better. Sometimes the old ways are the best.
So, to get your congregation to sing louder, stop doing these things.
1. Stop Turning Down the Lights
How many churches do you walk into where, when it's time to start singing, it gets really dark? People think that's cool, but it's a concert model. Scott points out that concerts are specifically designed for listening, not singing.
Why Churches Dim the Lights
There's another reason to turn the lights down, and it isn't just to be cool. It's human inhibition. When you study how a concert hall is set up and how a stand-up comedy hall is set up, the darker the room for comedy, the more laughter you'll get, because people can't see your reactions. You can just be focused on the performer.
The perfect comedy setting is a room of about 100 people, all with a direct line of sight to the microphone, one spotlight, and the rest of the room pitch black. That's the best stand-up venue you can have. For safety reasons they don't do it quite that way anymore, since you still have to have exit lights and lights on the aisle.
The same thing is true for singing in church. You dim the lights so people lose their inhibitions and can just praise God the way they want to. But at the end of the day, think it through. That is still more self-serving than Christ-serving. It's an "I don't have to look bad, I can keep my self-respect if I sing badly" kind of thing, and it's still about us.
What Scott Found
Scott did these things and saw the reaction and the benefits. When the lights are turned down, people don't feel compelled to join in. When you actually see other people singing, that is one of the most powerful invitations to join in.
We've seen this elsewhere in the church setting. If they have special music and somebody gets up there singing, a few people might join in, but not everybody does. When you see someone starting to sing, you're more likely to sing. It's like a dance floor: when you see other people dancing, you're more likely to go up there and dance. Leaving the lights up and seeing the people around you singing is a bigger invitation to join than turning down the lights and letting everybody be in their own little world.
So dimming the lights sounds right, but it's actually counterproductive.
Where the Attention Goes
Chris makes a really good point about the comedy setting: all the attention goes up front, to whoever's doing the comedy or the concert or the singing. That's the point of turning down the lights. All the attention is now on the performer, and that's not conducive to worship, because the worship is for the congregation. That's who it's for.
Seeing other people sing is a great invitation, and it keeps the focus on the people, not on the people up front.
2. Stop Turning the Sound Up
This one has "grumpy geezer" written all over it. Turn that down and get off my lawn! But the volume in some of these churches is just so off-putting to the older generation, because we get annoyed much more easily than when we were younger. Oh, grow up, you say.
But if you're just cranking the sound in church, it's alienating a good portion of the people, and it's not bringing people together. You don't need that to worship. You need that for a concert. Are you doing a 30-minute concert and then sharing the Word of God? If that's your goal, fine.
The Barrier of Volume
Having the sound too loud is a barrier, because if you can't hear yourself sing, you won't sing. You can't tell if you're hitting the notes, and you don't know where you are. It's like going into a room with no light: you stop walking around, because you can't see and you don't know where you're going.
(Chris says he's got a scar right here that says otherwise. Okay, maybe you have to feel your way around.)
Again, the point of this whole article isn't about having the best worship experience. The point is that we want our congregations to sing and get engaged with worship, because that's really what it's all about: you lifting your voice in praise to God. That's what worship is. Standing there watching other people do it is, like Chris said, lesser than.
The Hymnal Trick
When we had those hymnals, I remember as a kid, if the singing got really loud in the church, I could adjust the hymnal so my voice went into the book, bounced back, and got into my ear. I could still hear myself no matter how loud the congregation got.
The good thing about having everybody around you singing really loud is that you can join in. If you're a terrible singer, no one's going to hear you, and no one's going to know. You can blend in, even if singing is not your spiritual gift. It doesn't matter. Everybody can. God wants everybody to be part of this.
It Cuts Both Ways
If someone next to you is singing off key, it can throw you off key.
"I'm sitting right here."
That's the fact. It's been no secret throughout my career that Chris can't sing a lick. He doesn't understand keys. A, G, he doesn't know what I'm talking about. Octaves render him catatonic. So with Emilee next to him, he had to turn his head and sing out the other way so it didn't go in her ear, and then he'd tone it down and listen more for others, and still have a worshipful experience. He's always wanted to sing real loud and proud, but it ruins it for a lot of people.
The good news is that a good singer can keep you on key. When you hear people around you singing and they're up here and you're down here, it pulls you up. It helps. That's all I'm saying.
"I'm here to testify."
The Tone-Deaf Testimony
Chris remembers elementary school music class, when they'd do the do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti and it all sounded the same to him. They were just making their voices lighter or heavier. People ask how you can be that musically illiterate, and he doesn't know. Some call it tone deaf, some call it something else. He hears the change in music and the change in tone. He just can't replicate it with his voice, and the few times he has, it's been totally accidental. Somebody says, "Wow, Chris, you were totally on key." A clock is right twice a day.
Emilee has heard him sing, and while it's not one of his spiritual gifts, he can hit those notes, especially in a song he really likes. He just doesn't know how he's doing it, and he can't tell when it's happening. That's why he likes singing in the car by himself, particularly to Jeremy Camp or Bear from Needtobreathe. He sounds good with those belts. That's probably more of an indictment on the public school system than on Chris. His music teacher was just giving him the basics.
3. Stop Using Long or Frequent Solos
This is a big one for Chris. It doesn't matter whether you appreciate the dark concert thing with everybody standing the whole time. He loves that sometimes.
A Favorite Worship Moment
One of his favorite moments of worship music in his entire life was at the hockey arena in Phoenix, which was called Jobing.com Arena at the time. Casting Crowns was the headliner, and Leeland was the opening act. We'd already done our radio thing, so we went up into the rafters to watch the concert and get away from everybody, and Leeland sang a song that touched him so much it was incredible. (Why did he start telling the story and not remember the song? That's how it goes.)
Tell Me You're Lost Without Telling Me You're Lost
Even in those perfect moments, what I'm about to say is still so off-putting. It's almost like tell me you're lost without telling me you're lost. When it comes to worship music, number three is stop using long or frequent solos.
Lickety-split guitar player, you and Jesus can applaud yourself when you're playing in your bedroom. When you come out on stage, you don't need the applause of the congregation. We're there to worship Jesus, not you and your lickety-split Eddie Van Halen wave. Just saying.
There's a quote in the article from Scott Connell that I think nails it:
"If the theology is solid and the musical setting works, let them sing it. Worship is not about the worship leader's preference."
Why Solos Cause Disengagement
Long solos, and interrupting the normal melody of the song, cause people to disengage. It's time for you now to do your thing, and I'm not really involved in this.
There's nothing wrong with having them, but use them sparingly and don't let them be too long, because once people disengage from singing along, it's harder to get them back. It's easier to keep them through the whole thing than to have people singing along, then stopping, and then you have to bring them back. That doesn't work so well.
Like everything else, there's always an exception to the rule, but the rule still stands. There are times when you want to pause or do a little something to let people absorb what they've just sung and expressed. But if you're just going to be lickety-split solo guy, that's just awful.
Gramster Rant: The Tom Petty Incident
Can we talk about what happens when the band decides the service is a stage? I've shared this hundreds of times, in settings whenever the discussion comes up, and I'm going to share it here on No Apology, because it still bothers me.
The Setup
We went to a good church in Tucson, Arizona. I like the founding pastor. In fact, one of our former producers left Christian radio, became an associate pastor, and serves at this same church. We were just attending there because we were trying to find where we'd end up. We did find our church, Thornydale Family Bible Church in Tucson, which became our home church. This was not it.
They had a little worship band with acoustic guitars, and we sang, and the lights stayed up. It was wonderful. We've seen the difference.
The Opening Act
But here's how it started. The band's up there, the clock is counting down, a minute fifty, thirty seconds, and the dude goes to the front of the stage and starts doing Tom Petty's "Running Down a Dream."
"That's a great impression, honey."
I was told that. So he's up there, a couple of people jump up going, "Oh, that's so cool," and he's smiling, he puts his foot up on the speaker, and keeps playing. Then the worship leader comes out and the guy goes, "I'm sorry, just a joke, just a joke." The worship leader starts the set, we're all standing, and you know me, I'm all for comedy if it works, so I gave him a pass.
The Encore
Well, the service is over, the band comes back up for the final number, they finish, they pray the blessing, the lights come up, and what does he do? He goes to the front of the stage again and keeps playing that over and over and over. About ten people, family, friends, younger people, come up and cheer him on like it's a concert.
To me, that was a bigger affront than it should have been. That's not why I came here today.
Why It Got to Me
In the world of worship, it's just awful. In the world of just playing around, having fun, being whimsy people, no problem, and I'm that guy a lot of the time. But here's why it was so awful. We got in the car, driving home, and that melody just kept going through my head for half the day. I don't want to leave church with Tom Petty in my head. Why would you do that? Why would you do that? It was so sad for me.
The Spiritual Application
Here's what it comes down to. Not everybody in worship is there to worship. Many are there for self-serving purposes, whatever that may be. I need to feel better about myself. I sinned this week, so I'm supposed to go to church.
A lot of people serve at soup kitchens, and some do it out of obedience to Christ and some do it because they've got to do good works or they're a loser. It's the intention of your heart, and keeping that heart pure is a big deal in God's economy.
Bring Back Special Music
I know there are people for whom music is their God-given gift, and we as a church should be able to give those people an outlet. Here's something that has gone by the wayside: a little something we used to call special music.
It wasn't always every Sunday, but it was an opportunity for somebody who was very much musically inclined to share their gift in order to edify the congregation. They could sing a song, play the piano, do a guitar thing, it didn't matter. It was a time for people engaged in worship to sit back and enjoy it with them, as an offering to God. And that's gone.
Many times we have witnessed that being a legitimately awesome offering. People even receive applause at the end, and it's not inappropriate to have applause at the end. This person just shared a gift with us, and it touched me deeply.
The Interpretive Dance
At a smaller church in Alabama, a heavyset lady did an interpretive dance to "I Can Only Imagine." That was her offering. I thought it was beautiful and brilliant, and it made me really appreciate that MercyMe song again. We'd gotten so tired of that song.
I asked Bart Millard live on the radio how sick he was of singing it, since the dude has sung it 350 days a year since 2001. He chuckled. He wasn't used to getting those kinds of questions. You could tell there are days they have to phone it in. (Artists want to talk about how sick they are of singing their own songs. That's why I asked.)
The Cowbell Lady
I think there's more of that in the South, where people share their talents and music is a little more diverse in the church setting. One of my shocked moments, almost an American Idol moment, was a Sunday morning when it was time for special music, and this woman, about 80 years old, got up with a table in front of her with cowbells, all different sizes. Twenty of them.
I was smiling in my mind, thinking, okay, I want to hear what this sounds like. And she started playing those cowbells, and it was drop-dead talent. Beautiful. She was nailing it. You don't think cowbells are going to sound great. When was the last time you heard cowbells described as beautiful? But it was amazing, in the vein of "Little Drummer Boy." Little cowbell girl. A little cowbell lady.
Bring back the special music if you have that kind of stuff. And definitely stop with the long and frequent solos, because it's not helpful for people joining in to sing.
4. Stop Chasing the Newest Worship Songs
When we visited churches, if Emilee heard a bunch of the songs we had to play during the week, she did not want to go back to that church. Kick Caleb out of the church. Again, we'd visit seven, eight, nine churches in each new city, so we got a good sampling.
Let Songs Prove Themselves
Here's the point Scott makes: the pace of new songs coming out is constant and impossible to keep up with, so let songs prove themselves over time first. I love that. Let's see how long this stays around, because a lot of times, even a very popular song can get so popular that it's not popular anymore. Give it a little bit of time. See where the popularity goes and see whether it's actually conducive to a worship service.
Scott's Practical Rules
- No more than one new song in a service. If you're going to teach the congregation a new song they don't know very well, don't do more than one.
- Don't do it every Sunday. They want to sing along.
This is why people show up for Christmas worship services: they know the songs, they'll sing along, and it'll be kind of fun. Do that for your people. You're feeding the sheep.
A Word About Radio Songs
I'll add one thing about radio songs. There are radio songs that are really good in church and shouldn't be excluded just because they're on the radio. Chris Tomlin's "How Great Is Our God." Rich Mullins's "Awesome God." I love singing those in church when they're done well.
But there are also radio songs that are just Jesus-is-my-boyfriend type stuff, very man-focused, very human-focused. The theology's got to be good. Just because it hit number one on K-LOVE's Hot Top 40 doesn't mean the worship band now has to learn it. And who the music publisher is matters in today's world, with a false teacher around every corner, but that's for another time.
So when you're doing new worship songs, bring them in slowly, bring them in a couple of times so people can learn them, and then they can become part of your repertoire. The worst is "I wrote this song, and it's available in the lobby after service."
The Church That Writes All Its Own Music
Chris, we've been to even worse scenarios. You walk into a church service and they write their own music. They don't sing other people's music. The worship team writes all of it.
When we went to that church, their pitch was that they were going to be theologically sound and we'd be unencumbered and unhindered from all the other stuff. Yet we couldn't sing a lick along with anything. Prepare to be amazed by the CD. If you want to sing, buy the CD and come back next week.
Don't do that. That's a place for special music. If you have a worship leader who wrote a song and wants to sing it, make it special music. Let the people sit back, listen, love it, and enjoy it for what it is.
But if you have visitors and all your music is unfamiliar tunes, they're not likely to come back, and even if they do, they won't be excited about it. Bring special music back. It doesn't have to be every week, just every once in a while, and it can be anything: an instrumental, kids singing. Just a little break.
5. Stop Getting Rid of Old Favorites
This goes hand in glove with what we were just talking about. The pressure is always "we've got to be current," and if they're hearing it on the radio, then... and I don't even know how many people listen to radio anymore.
Your Church Is a Family
When you think about your church in terms of a family, you have a history together, and part of that history is the music you've been singing over a long period of time. Keep that in mind as you bring in new music.
Keep the old stuff, because what you want to happen in the congregation is a toddler singing along with his older sibling, who's singing along with the teenager, who's singing along with the parents, who are singing along with the grandparents. They're all able to sing one song together. This is the body of Christ.
Look into the book of Revelation: up in heaven, what are they doing? They're all singing the same song together. That's what worshiping God is.
Suck It Up and Sing
So don't throw out those old favorites, even if it's a song you as a worship leader don't like very much and think is kind of stupid. Never sacrifice theology. But if your congregation likes it, suck it up, play it, sing it, and let them sing along with you. If they love it and it gets people engaged, it's a good song to have in your worship service.
6. Stop Using Complicated Melodies
Defend that. Two things are going on here.
Simple Melody, Not Simple Music
Chris, you were talking about the worship song that was just the cows, the cows, they're in the field, and that's very repetitious and very simple. That's different. Having simple chords or simple musical stuff is not what's necessary. What's necessary is an easy melody. You don't want a lot of change-ups, and you don't want a lot of off-kilter stuff. You hear those on the radio, and they're great when someone else is singing, but you can't sing them very well.
It doesn't matter how complicated the musical composition is. The question is how complicated the melody is. Can people join in right away? That doesn't mean it's repetitious or simple. It means the melody isn't so complicated that people have a hard time joining in. There are a lot of songs I'd never heard before, but by the second verse, after we've been through the first verse and the chorus, I can start singing along because the melody is easy to follow and doesn't have a lot of change-ups.
What the Church of Christ Gets Right
I think of our friends at the Church of Christ, who don't use musical instruments at all. We've been in a couple of Church of Christ services that I thought were fantastic: four or five people up there singing and everybody standing and singing along with them. It was great. And guess what? The lights were up, too.
I've been blessed to speak at the Duck Dynasty Robertson church, which is Church of Christ, and that was the first time in my theological journey, believe it or not, that I was taught that Church of Christ people don't use musical instruments. I thought it was harmony day, or a cappella day or something. I didn't even notice there were no instruments up there.
Having done a handful of services there, I think there's nothing wrong with that stance. I don't have the same stance. I don't think the guitar is inherently evil. I remember the same arguments in church history when they wanted to bring in, hold the phone, an organ. Controversial! Drums, too. But your melody point is good: let it be simple, let it not be complicated, and take the focus off a complicated melody and put it on worshiping the Lord.
The Hijacking of a Word
Music worship is so strong in the heart that we've actually called singing in church "worship" and the one leading it a "worship leader." That's kind of a hijacking of a word that I wish we could go back and turn the clock on, but here we are.
What Choirs Got Right
We used to have choirs, too, where no focus was on one person. In the Church of Christ it's the same: no focus on one person up front. It's not "oh, that person sings so well." It's a group of people, and there's no front-and-center leader.
They clearly practiced the songs, and they were very good at what they did. The way they did it accomplished a few things on this list. They didn't have to worry about the solos, the lights were up, and everybody was singing. What you hear is people singing. That's what you want to hear: the congregation's voice being raised to God.
7. Stop Piling On Too Many Songs
What does that mean? People have limits. They have limits on how much they want to sing, and limits on how much new stuff they want to learn, and each person's limits are different.
Too Many Songs
As a worship leader, you've got to gauge the congregation. If you're introducing too many songs, songs that aren't being sung on a semi-regular basis, it gets frustrating and non-cohesive. "Here's a song we haven't sung in nine months or a year. How does that song go again?"
Too Long a Set
It also applies to length. I've been in worship services where I'm thinking, can we sit down? We're on our fifth song, and we've been standing for a 35-minute concert. I'm kind of done singing. I've sung all I want to sing. How about we sit down and let the youth pastor get up and give us the announcements again? I'm really ready for the preaching now.
Know the Limits
So you've got to know the limits of the people. Singers love to sing. Musicians love to musician. But your people, your listeners, have limits. College professors know that, teachers know that, preachers know that. Know those limits.
"I have a limit in listening to you talk about limits. You've made your point."
Let's talk about limits.
The Bottom Line: Let the People Sing
The bottom line of this article, "10 Things One Worship Leader Stopped Doing That Helped the Congregation Sing Louder," is simple: let the people sing. It's not about the worship leaders. Put the congregation first. Put the focus on the congregation, not on what's going on up on the stage, so the congregation can put the focus on why they're there.
It's so hard for us to get our eyes off ourselves for one hour, an hour-ish, a week. Let's take the focus off ourselves and put it on our Savior, and let that help permeate throughout the rest of the week.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts: we've really turned it into a performance. I think that's really real, and part of it is that as we go through everyday life, we're so looking for highly processed, professional content that when you walk into church, the natural tendency is to keep doing that. You don't have to. You really don't.
What Podcasts Reveal
One of the ways we see this in human behavior is podcasts. Podcasts are becoming huge, and they don't even have to be great podcasts to get a lot of followers, because people don't necessarily need precision, professional, finely tuned stuff every moment of their lives. Church is a place where you can walk in, be human, have things be imperfect, and it can be absolutely beautiful.
Put Down the Devices
It's kind of like when pastors say, "Turn to your devices," and they have all this tech stuff and these screens. The reality is that when people walk into church, they want to escape the world. They don't need to measure up to the standards and ideals of the world in the church as well. Put down the devices, put down the techno, put down the high-polished whatever, and just be people worshiping God and opening God's Word.
And if the God's Word you open is on your device, God bless you. I don't have a problem with that. But sitting there answering texts in the middle of the service is a little bit... or fixing your fantasy football team.
The Text-Me-Your-Questions Service
I do remember going to a service where the pastor wanted the congregation to engage with their cell phones. "Hey, if you've got a question, text it to me right now, and I might talk about it later." That's a common thing, and it can be a strong teaching platform at times. Unless you've got two teens who don't have the latest iPhone, you know what I mean? Sometimes it's just leave it at the door. There are different people, and then there's the exception to the rule.
Let Them Sing
Singing in church was never meant to be a show. Turn the lights up, turn the sound down, sing the songs people know, and let the people sing.
Everything is available at freshroadmedia.com. For a gift of any amount this month, we'll send you the Bible Sidekick book, which has really been making an impact. Get into the Word of God today, and go serve your King.