I enjoy the singing, but (like a few others in this thread) I’m in the band and sometimes lead worship. You can always tell if I’m in the congregation, though. I’m singing my heart out and driving the beat by clapping, even if no-one else is. I don’t care.
We are an anglican (episcopal) church with a charismatic bent. I like contemporary worship, unless it is from one of those worship leaders from the north of england who think that they are channeling Chris Martin (obviously from churches full of mid-thirties couples who buy Coldplay albums).
I still love hymns, though. I join in the special events choir at times (christmas, taize services etc), and our (non-church affiliated) community choir has done some really nice religious music for events (the entire Vivaldi Goria, for example, and Mahler 2nd).
I agree with a lot of others here. I was raised Roman Catholic but am no longer religious. During my time in the church I was part of the youth choir and eventually the adult choir. Our director was a tremendous opera singer and working actor/singer in the area. We had a huge choir, a very expensive grand piano, and an organ. A few times a month they would add drums and guitar. It was the only part of the service I ever liked and it was the only part of the service that made me feel like we were praising God. I felt like the music lifted my heart up to God. We rarely did the contemporary Christian music thank goodness. That stuff makes me feel icky. But the classics give me the chills in a good way. A few months ago I went to church because I missed that spiritual feeling.
Our choir also does a yearly Christmas show that is amazing. The whole church would be lit only by candlelight and our choir would sing and fill the whole space with that warm beautiful sound. Ugh. I’m getting extremely nostalgic now.
I can’t imagine a service with no music. That’s sound horribly depressing. I say the more music the better. I could spend half an hour in misery or a whole hour high on Jesus.
My mom dragged me to church when I was a kid. Mostly Salvation Army. I hated singing the hymns. I know I can’t sing, the only time I sing is when I’m alone in my Jeep with the radio cranked. My mom is tone-deaf so standing there in church listening to her beside me made my ears bleed. I did join their youth choir (“Singing Company”), because all the Cool Kids were in it, but after being bullied (yes, bullied in a Sunday School, I shit you not) I quit. The odd time I went to church after that I always lip-synched because I can’t stand to hear my own voice.
A few years back, as a grown-up, I decided to check out a prayer group because I would like a little spiritual influence in my life but really can’t stand going to actual Church (partly because I can’t stand the singing.) So what was the first thing they did at this little 2-dozen person prayer group? HAND OUT A FREAKIN SONG SHEET. Then sang like 6 songs. So much for that idea!!
But I will say that I would love to one day go to a…how to say it delicately…Black People’s Church. I LOVE how they sing and dance and really praise God, not the stuffy “stand still and drone from a hymn book” that I grew up with.
I’ve told this story before in one of those “brush with fame” threads, but one time I went to a black Baptist church by accident. The music was fantastic.
Catholic and I despise our music. Our Christmas Eve mass is the only one that’s tolerable, they have about 1/2 hour of choir music before mass even starts. Still, they have to sing The Little Fucking Drummer Boy which really has no Biblical basis. And they do go overboard with an arrangement that mixes O Come All Ye Faithful with Joy to the World.
And for the Love Of Jesus, The Lord’s Prayer cannot be set to music that wouldn’t gag a goat. Stop trying.
I grew up in a predominately black, Pentacostal church. Hated Sunday School. Hated the serial offerings. Hated the rituals. Hated the sermons (usually). Didn’t really care for the people, either.
But I love me some black gospel music. I still know all the songs from childhood church services.
I’ve gone to many churches since then, trying to find a place where I belonged. Never found a place and I’m fine with this. But I will admit that reading hymns is just not my thing. We didn’t do it in the church where I grew up, so it just feels strange. I like leaving the singing to the choir and clapping my hands along to the music. My voice does not need to be thrown in the mix!
I have gone to UU services a few of times. At the church here in Richmond, the music director plays a mean piano. I did enjoy listening to her play. But I didn’t like when we had to whip out the hymnals. Everyone would sing along, but I would just read the notes and hum the melody in my head. And those hymns…they are just a little bit dry. I like music that touches the heart. Most traditional hymns just don’t do anything for me.
“This is my STO-RY. This my SOOONG!”
Sorry, I need something that will make me catch the holy ghost.
Ah, yes, that old classic. Even my Catholic friends enjoy that one.
The last time I attended a church service (a funeral in a Presbyterian church), I was disappointed because they had singers performing the hymns, and those of us in the congregation were just an audience. I much prefer singing the (traditional) hymns, but I was in choirs for several years growing up, so it’s something I expect and enjoy. Everyone in my family sings.
I do not enjoy contemporary Christian pop. The stuff I have heard is dumbed down and off-putting.
I was lured into an Episcopalian church by being told I should be in the choir, said choir being composed mostly of people from a community-based choir that I joined last year. I love singing in a choir. Musical crack, it is. So I show up. Two choirs! Wheeeeee!
It doesn’t hurt that I really like this church, but I never thought I’d be this involved in a Christian church of any kind. It’s been a weird but interesting year.
I voted yes, but I think the OP and I have different views on what constitutes “singing”.
The OP mentioned his (? - didn’t note the username, sorry) experiences in a Catholic church, where they sing “everything”; I’m Protestant, and I can’t ever recall being in a Catholic service, but I have been to a few Lutheran services (we even married in a Lutheran church, as that’s where my fiancee’s mother attended at the time), and I get the impression that Lutheranism is just the Protestant version of Catholicism: men in robes, liturgies, feast days, and singing words that ordinary people would just speak (I’m guessing whoever designed Catholic and Lutheran liturgies was a big fan of musicals), and I didn’t like that that much.
In my own experiences, though, I attend an evangelical church (but, no, am not one of those close-minded evangelicals you hear about on that there CNN thing) and there are songs, when I started going 30 years ago it was all hymns, complete with hymnals, but now it’s slowly evolved into mostly all (meaning about 5 or 6 songs interspersed throughout the service) 'contemporary Christian music", the “praise and worship style” kind of thing. I don’t mind it - in fact I like singing, but I have a terrible singing voice, church is one of the few places I will because there’s lots of other people drowning me out - but some part of me kind of misses the hymns.
Christian & Missionary Alliance in my youth, Assembly of God for about 30 years now. If I didn’t enjoy the singing, I’d have bailed out long ago.
My C&MA era (age 8-20, 1970-82) was totally hymnal. The ‘liturgy’ was Doxology, Opening Prayer & Scripture, 3 hymns, announcements, special prayer, a hymn during Offering, Sermon, penultimate hymn, closing prayer, final hymn.
AOG was mainly hymnal but now blended with a trend towards comtemporary. Our ‘liturgy’- Welcome, 30 minutes of Choir-led Congregational singing, Spiritual Gifts (tongues & interpretation, inspirational proclamations), announcements, special prayer, Choir & Solo song, hymn during Offering, Sermon, altar call-singing-closing prayer blended together with informal dismissal.
I’m older, even fatter & can’t do 30 minutes of standing & singing anymore, and working nights has caught up with me so I usually catch a nap during the singing & if I’m lucky, I’ll be wide awake for the message. I do enjoy the music. No matter how loud, I am soothed & easily lulled to sleep. I wish I could enjoy it from the Waking side but those were the days…
