Problems that Face Reforming Singing in Worship

In our church community in Moscow, Idaho we speak a lot about the importance of hearty singing in worship. The way I've said it is that in many churches singing is one of the few really active things the congregation does in the service. It thus behooves us to sing well. Yet in our culture there are many obstacles to this goal. We live in a narcissistic age when comfort, ease, and pleasure seem to be man's "chief end." To the evangelical and world-ling alike the reality of sensuous entertainment in our lives has made us a culture of spectators, a right that in past ages belonged only to those of the highest social cast. We sit around like a bunch of nobles with our courtly entertainers parading before us in sensational splendor. In a sense we have more power than they of old, because we have electronic buttons and dials. In a digital age everything is tidy: no booing is necessary.

Instantaneous entertainment has made us flabby. Robust singing in worship would have not been a stretch to our lower and middle-class forefathers because it was simply part of their culture. Singing was a form of entertainment and a way of easing the drudgery of hard labor. In our time we let others do the singing for us in our leisure time and over the radio while we paint the trim. So if we would sing well in worship, we must first sing everywhere else.