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  #1  
Old 01-07-2006, 04:43 PM
geardaddy geardaddy is offline
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Default opinion re: church music...

Reading people's signatures on this forum, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that a lot of folks are christians...so my question is this: why does "contemporary" church music suck so bad? My personal opinion is that music ministers have no taste in music, and people in these bands basically are stuck playing what the director wants. these guys seem to be typically a little nerdy, and into vocal stuff, and don't really understand...anybody got any opinions, re: this? My old church started becoming very musically oriented over the past 5 years, and I just couldn't bare to sit through it anymore...so what is up??, bill
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Old 01-07-2006, 04:58 PM
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I am not sure what you mean.
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:05 PM
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I think you need to visit a few more churches.
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:05 PM
geardaddy geardaddy is offline
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I think you know what I mean...I say that because I just read your post on "leading worship...". You pretty much prove my point. My guess is that if you were able to pick the music, a guy like me would probably want to go to your church. the problem is, pastors, or music ministers or whatever tend to take a big dumpp in the punch bowl when it comes to music, and frankly I'd rather listen to a sermon then to bad music...
...just my opinion though.
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:09 PM
Jer1400 Jer1400 is offline
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Well, I know what kind you're talking about and from a musical stand-point, it does seem that it's all too similar and the lyrics lack originality and creativity for the most part. But there's other stuff, too. I'm in an old school hardcore band (though I'm bringin' classic rock riffs to it in the breakdowns!) and that's definitely not more of the same. There's plenty of stuff out there, it's just not all as mainstream amongst ministries as the stuff you're talking about. I think it might have to do with the fact that a lot of worship teams try to do a lot of different songs so they can't be too hard... We have to learn 5-8 songs every week and we get maybe 45 minutes to do it so 'more of the same' is welcome. :/
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:13 PM
geardaddy geardaddy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bnjp
I think you need to visit a few more churches.
That's what I was thinkin"...
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:14 PM
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Well, it all depends on personal taste and preference. In our church, our P&W leader does not coordinate the song list with the Pastor ahead of time, something I don't agree with. Having your P&W list synchronized, thematically, with the Pastor's sermon can create a very powerful effect for the Congregation. However, one should always guard against picking songs because "I really like that song" instead of the songs that fit the moment. When it's my turn to create the song list, I pray about it, a lot. I will ask our Pastor what theme he's going for and then I'll assemble a collection of songs that are compatible and known by the Congregation.

If you don't like the music at your Church, have you offered to assist in the music ministry? Have your voiced your concerns? If you have and nothing's getting better, it's time for a new church. P&W music should NEVER be a distraction to the Congregation.
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobalouie3
..... In our church, our P&W leader does not coordinate the song list with the Pastor ahead of time, something I don't agree with. Having your P&W list synchronized, thematically, with the Pastor's sermon can create a very powerful effect for the Congregation. .........
Me too. I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting in the choir box listening to the priest's homily and thinking, man I wish we had known he was going to say that!
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:40 PM
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You would have to further define "sucks" for me to elaborate further.

In most cases I've seen, people are doing the best they can with what they have. Large churches have the luxury of choosing the picks of the litter, or going with hired guns. They can then have a highly technical, elaborately complex and polished sound with lots of intruments doing lots of fancy things.

Smaller churches rely on volunteers of varying and sometimes very limited skillsets. For example since I moved over to guitar/worship leader from bass, our replacement bass player has only 9 months experience and I sometimes still have to map out songs for him chord root by chord root.

It's not really about entertainment or catchy tunes however, it's about worship. The praise and worship segment of a church service is supposed to be just that, Praise and Worship. To do this, the congregation has to be able to participate.

We've tried some complex songs before, which had cool intros, flashy turnarounds, slick instrumental breakouts...and we simply lost the congregation. They might be able to clap their hands in time or something, but they were'n't really worshipping. They do best with traditional hymns that they grew up with, and praise songs that they can learn relatively easy and quickly be singing themselves, which is in itself, a form of worship for them. We are not there to perform for them. Much of the music I play, I would probably never listen to in my car. A lot of it is repetitive verse chorus verse chorus tag stuff and the verse may be even be the same one over and over. In service however, this allows people to not worry about trying to remember what they do when we DC Al Coda to another section of the song, or do a fancy instrumental bridge etc.. In true worship, sometimes the KISS principle is truly best.

An example is the song linked in my sig. This would probably be considered pop-rock simplicity of no real theological significance. When we kick off a Sunday night service with it however, you can see/feel/hear the joy and energy in the people and it carries over into the subsequent songs that follow and even into the reverent hymms that lead into the sermon.

The funny thing is, no matter what kind, style, tempo, characteristic, level of complexity of music we've tried, at least some portion of the congregation has found it:

Too fast
Too slow
Too traditional
Too contemporary
Too complex
Too simple
Too theologically deep
Too shallow
Too loud
Too soft
Too instrumental
Too vocal
Too...insert adjective here.

It's simply the way it works when you gather people of varying backgrounds, heritage and taste. We just do the best we can.

Here's a funny read:

Worship Styles
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Old 01-07-2006, 05:43 PM
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Hi bill...

You post makes me feel like I just woke from daydreaming and missed half of a conversation.

Our church has been the frontrunner in our city for contemporary worship music, and worship leading. Currently as a teacher I have 3 worship leaders and 10 guitarists from 7 congregations (all different denominations) in lessons.

We must be very fortunate if your post is accurate in describing the ''normal'' condition of contemporary music as ''suck''. Most of the contemporary churches in our city have music which is well played, well arranged, sensitive, message rich and tastefully presented, in a variety of contemporary styles.

It is sung in tune, played skillfully and embraced by the congregations.

Maybe a better explanation of your point of view would help my understanding.
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  #11  
Old 01-07-2006, 06:37 PM
HereIGoAgain HereIGoAgain is offline
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First, in defense of the pastors, they sometimes have to strike a balance between doign new things and keep the long-time church members happy. I do not agree with this concept, but it happens. (Church politics can sometime be as bad as United States politics.)

It mostly comes down to the audience at a church typically wants to here what they're used to hearing.

Here's a link:

http://www.pcusa.org/today/archive/f.../feat9809b.htm
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Old 01-07-2006, 06:40 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HereIGoAgain
First, in defense of the pastors, they sometimes have to strike a balance between doign new things and keep the long-time church members happy.
I don't envy them having to arrive at a good balance between musical stagnation and ADD.
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Old 01-07-2006, 06:48 PM
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modern worship band tunes are meant to attract the young unchurched who don't know the old hymns..
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Old 01-07-2006, 06:50 PM
Bluelew Bluelew is offline
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Sometimes I feel like a rock-n-roll preacher in an easy listing church I think the "church" formula is "Psalms, hymns & spiritual songs..." A good balance.
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Old 01-07-2006, 06:50 PM
gteague gteague is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geardaddy
Reading people's signatures on this forum, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that a lot of folks are christians...so my question is this: why does "contemporary" church music suck so bad? <del>bill
Hal Leonard The Praise & Worship (Fake Book) Product #904555
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