Dull and terrible services

[mathinspiration]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Find out, seek, and keep seeking, where Jesus is. Go there.
LISTEN to the SHEPHERD, FOLLOW HIM.

 

[chevyontheriver]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

Good music is a wonderful thing, but God with bad music is better.

 

[dreadnought]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

That's hard to say. If you are out looking for a church, you might try another. If it's a church that you've been attending all along and love, you might just grin it and bear it, or speak to someone in authority about improving the quality of the service.

 

[seeking.IAM]

If it is a good show you are looking for, there are better place to find it than church.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

I've been to churches with boring worship services too,and I just do my best to try
and worship God anyways.

 

[HouseCat71]

I'll be brave enough to agree, (which doesn't mean I'm right). A BAD song leader and incompetent musician distracts from worship (especially when you're a persnickety musician). People are focused on their ineptitude and not the words/purpose of worship. You can say allll day long, "but the point of worship is this/that", but people are going to be people. Someone sings off key, can't keep time, plays terrible....that's going to be the focus of worship...not the spirit or lyrics. Yes, we are there to PARTICIPATE in worship...not be entertained, but sometimes, you can't help it and depending on how bad it was, it can ruin your whole visit if you let it.

Problem is, that it's getting harder and harder to find people who will commit to being on a worship team or leading music. The church you went to probably couldn't find anyone else to lead/play music. It takes a lot of rehearsal, practice, & research. I've noticed that less kids & millenials are learning to play instruments. Why should they when they can download a program or app that can play all the instruments for them and arrange their own songs. Sad! Playing piano takes years of practice and mastery. A good church pianist needs to have a solid background in hymns, old and modern Christian music and be able to transpose, play a little by ear and adjust to the worship leader's singing style and impromptu performances. Such musicians are rare these days.

Now, should musicians and song leaders be mega church super star performers? No. Doing something right, doesn't mean you have to be a Chris Tomlin or Yolanda Adams. If the song leader kept decent time, sang on key, led the congregation properly, that's all they need. Same with musicians. They stayed in time with the leader and played properly according to songs tone/tempo, etc.

 

[1watchman]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

The content of a faithful Bible church will be Scripture --not entertaining stage shows. I always counsel sincere seekers to seek a Bible-only fellowship, and that is what I find at the sound site: www.biblecounsel.net on the Internet. Christianity is not for debate, but bowing to the Word of God in full. That is where we find truth and real blessings. Spending years floating from one sect to another is not wise, for we need to have confidence in proving all spiritual things by God's immutable Word, which He has preserved for us.

I will just add that music must be in praise of God, I believe, and should be a congregational praise rather than some vocalist or band doing their thing. Again, I say, the assembly must be unified in worship and not as a place to be watching performers. We can see in the Bible (Epistles), if we desire, what the early Church in various places worldwide were about.

 

[Bass4Jesus]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

Not much. I wouldn't return to any of those three churches.

Housecat71 is right: There's almost no one out there who's competent *and* who wants to play/sing Christian music. Dangling a little money as an incentive rarely works, at least in this part of the U.S. The really big churches have the budgets to attract and hire the best of the best, and demand the best of them, but no churches around here I'm aware of fall into that category.

I say it's better to have two A-listers or even B-listers playing and singing than a band full of C-listers (or worse), whether it's a single-campus church or a multisite. Nothing will kill attendance faster than a bunch of second-raters committing assault and battery on the latest Christian chart monster. Those churches have two choices: clean house, or get used to empty auditoriums and red ink.

Another negative effect of bands murdering Christian music is that good players who want to serve in music ministry might wander in looking for a place to deploy their talents, but when they see and hear that junk, I guarantee you they'll walk right out and never come back. It's true that good musicians attract good musicians, but it's just as true that bad musicians repel good musicians. Many churches seem not to want to acknowledge this fact. Like I said above, go small and excellent, because that will draw good players if they're out there.

A rabbit trail off the tough-to-find-competent-players problem: Oftentimes you'll find one who initially appears Heaven-sent, but his personal situation turns out to be so unstable, or he's already exhausted schedule-wise from work and/or kids and/or a high-maintenance family member, that the talent isn't worth the unpredictability/unreliability. You see this in bar bands, cover bands, original bands, Christian cover bands, all bands.

Of course the best way to avoid most of these problems is to vet the heck out of every applicant. "Can you play that Les Paul" should be just the first of about three dozen questions to ask anyone who auditions. A great general rule to follow is: Hire Slow, Fire Fast. Unfortunately, most organizations get it exactly backwards. Which is a whole 'nother topic...

 

[musicalpilgrim]

Most interesting reading the above...I go to my local Church with a good team of leaders, all loving the Lord. Good preaching, teaching...but...the 'music' is churned out at full volume from CD's ...loud speakers on every pillar in the Church. Ok I am not young anymore...but I seriously pray for a change for the sake of my hearing and sanity.

 

[Roseonathorn]

Maybe Amazing Grace will help You out. It certainly is one of my favourites. Print and send anonymously to the musical team.

 

[Roseonathorn]

Rarely the musicians and singers get paid but especially the musicians need years of practise. They too have to pay for music lessons. In some churches often only the pastor gets paid and the rest have to volunteer. So You get the villages pentecostal pianoplayer and guitarist that is willing and saved enough. They could not afford the best one and He or She might not want to be there or even be welcome because they would not have the right attitude or heart or some might claim they are not saved because they can play other songs than hymns too.

 

[Roseonathorn]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

Sounds like some Youthcamp with bored students.

 

[Bass4Jesus]

Sounds like some Youthcamp with bored students.

Or a bad dream where it's 1977 and I'm sitting on a stool in a biker bar in the summer with no A/C, drinking a cold, sweating long-neck Schlitz with a parolee on either side of me, and the $75-a-night metal band is in the middle of their first song -- something by AC/DC I do not recognize. Next up: Free Bird.

O the horror...

 

[Roseonathorn]

Or a bad dream where it's 1977 and I'm sitting on a stool in a biker bar in the summer with no A/C, drinking a cold, sweating long-neck Schlitz with a parolee on either side of me, and the $75-a-night metal band is in the middle of their first song -- something by AC/DC I do not recognize. Next up: Free Bird.

O the horror...

Why 1977? I was born then. Mom said 9 others was born too, evidently it had been a wild saunanight right before that is probably why so many was there but my mom had been on a mashine that spit out potatoes in the field...back to the subject... My little kids sound like they could do something like that at home but never ever in church. The other kids once told my son to chase them like a zombie and when He did that they all got so scared of Him so He wondered for a long time why they ran sway when they saw Him. I doubt He ever scare people again. Not even if they ask Him to. He does practise on the electric guitar and sing but I doubt He would do it in church yet. We adults only thought the kids were cute but evidently the kids thought He Was scary.

 

[HouseCat71]

Or a bad dream where it's 1977 and I'm sitting on a stool in a biker bar in the summer with no A/C, drinking a cold, sweating long-neck Schlitz with a parolee on either side of me, and the $75-a-night metal band is in the middle of their first song -- something by AC/DC I do not recognize. Next up: Free Bird.

O the horror...

That sounds like my last deployment to Guam before I got right with Jesus.

My worship team falls into that butchering the latest radio hit category. My worship leader..... Man she cant keep time as it is and gets mad when we correct her. She needs to stick to simple songs like We Will Glorify and Victory in Jesus but now she has us trying to do Old Church Choir and it is a train wreck. Its all I can do to keep from bursting out laughing at a bunch of extremely non-musical mountain women trying to “clap their hands and stomp their feet” cause they’ll never find that gospel beat.

Ill probably mess up this Sunday for complaining, but it gets on my nerves y’all! Its a struggle!

 

[Bass4Jesus]

Worship music train wrecks don't do the Kingdom any good relative to bringing in new believers -- or retaining them for that matter. Train wrecks actually drive attendees away. Get out of there and find a church whose worship team has standards at least equal to yours. Until you do, you're sowing your talents on dry ground, and it's all going to waste. You're the one who buried his talent in the ground rather than invested it in something that would generate a return (new souls saved).

And that part about its getting on your nerves: That's probably the Holy Spirit poking at you and asking, "Why are you still here?" Don't wait until you're too old that no one wants you on their worship team. It would be a shame if your church were to close because the deplorable music red-inked it out of existence, you found a new church whose worship team was competent, and you realized you could've been part of it for the last ten years. But now it's too late...

 

[Southernscotty]

I have been to dull service, lukewarm ones, and services where the songs, singers, and pianist are terrible. The pianist banged on the piano and the singer sang like a heavy metal rocker shouting the hymns. What do you think of that?

I have been to one of those services too, Arrrggghhh It was horrible. The guy couldn't sing for nothing and the preaching was just awful and I said I would never ever go back. But since I was the preacher and the one that did the singing I kinda had too again the next week.

 

[Phil 1:21]

That sounds like my last deployment to Guam before I got right with Jesus.

My worship team falls into that butchering the latest radio hit category. My worship leader..... Man she cant keep time as it is and gets mad when we correct her. She needs to stick to simple songs like We Will Glorify and Victory in Jesus but now she has us trying to do Old Church Choir and it is a train wreck. Its all I can do to keep from bursting out laughing at a bunch of extremely non-musical mountain women trying to “clap their hands and stomp their feet” cause they’ll never find that gospel beat.

Ill probably mess up this Sunday for complaining, but it gets on my nerves y’all! Its a struggle!

I almost cried I was laughing so hard reading this. Hilarious. Thankfully our worship team is great -- no showy, simple, low key and very talented. Every now and then they let someone else do a solo who maybe shouldn't have, but it's all good.

 

[1watchman]

One might do better to read what God has shown in the Bible for His collective gatherings (the local churches), rather than to keep trying to improve man's innovations within a local testimony.