Interesting thread here about young people and singing Peter!! Some generalisations are dangerous, however it seems the case that recent generations of young people have moved away from participation in singing.... in events the Synod Youth Unit is involved with where particularly fringe kids or those for whom its their only experience of worship... singing is simply not part of their culture... even your musically trained sons probably don't sing anywhere else [even Waltzing Matilda at the rugby is a new thing for Aussie crowds per se and when it first got going it was perceived as something small crowds do on OS tours and somewhere its caught on enough to gain some prominence] BUT back tpo the original point, these generations by and large don't gather round the piano, belt out ditties at the pub or participate strongly in anything like group singing except at church. If they are in anyway not quite sure of their place in the scheme of things, faith or just why they are there then singing will be the first thing to go...
Related to this its also become extremely taste driven, like the rest of music... I would rarely use any music let alone Top 40 as input to a High School because if its not their favourite band students will just talk right thru it [movies are different... show a scene and unless its a real dud they will all at least watch it]. So whether its Hillsong, UCA NCYC, Parachute, the Brown book, Iona etc will matter... I'm rambling a bit now, but the point I was trying to make is that the lack of singing elsewhere and a generation of young people who do not know the church has permeated even those who do and singing is on the outer except where groups have such a strong culture and vibe that you would choose that over not singing and identifying with your school or age based circle of friends outside the church. Rob H If this email relates to work matters its contents are confidential and intended for the recipient only. Using information in any other context may be a breach of privacy legislation. Midnight Oil 1976-2002 "Failure requires no preparation" The Sandman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter R. Ellis & family" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 1:11 PM Subject: Re: \\\"Has Guy made God cool again?\\\" > James, > > As I have seen in someone's email by-line, "Disagree: I learn." > > > I put it to you that the only reason you liked it was because it was what you wanted hear and others to hear (and I guess it's possible that the reason I don't like it is it's what I don't want to hear). > > Well, actually, I felt very happy that there was a POSITIVE story in the media about someone's faith, rather than a snide, off-hand or back-hand dismissal of avowed faith (Guy Sebastian's, and family's, his church's, and others' faith.) It could so easily have been a hatchet-job. It was not. > > While the sub-editors and even editor may have shaped it a bit, and there was an un-missable cartoon head, I felt that it was not a cartoon article. > > > ... so many young people are willing to settle for church that is simply as it always has been, just pump up the music and excitement. > > The implication of this that I take is that you actually sing; That 'entertainment' is too shallow and you want real involvement! Then, please understand that I see young people sitting or standing in church and making no effort at all to participate in singing. Why? "Please explain?" (Maybe it is just our part of our city that has bred this reaction to any music, but particularly church music.) I see my sons offering no effort, despite years of music training; I see their friends doing the same, despite many also being musicians. > > Music in church is something of a soap-box subject of mine. > > I'm an occasional muso at our church, but not this weekend. Let me tell you about one service we had: The place was full with a baptism; two songs that no-one knew and another that few knew, i.e. a musical fizzer for an otherwise wonderful service. One of the two unknown songs was by Darlene Zschech, and is undoubtedly a wonderful song performed on one of her CDs. Then why not perform it, so that a church full of visitors and locals do not feel stupid by not knowing it?! The words were on a screen, but everyone was standing so that some at the back might not have even seen the words. As a muso and singer, I could get by, but only just. This song was a great candidate for sitting and reading the words while one or both of the wonderful singers performed the piece. (I'll leave aside the accompaniment by a plonking, thinks-he-can pianist. It's very hard for other musos to play with him; singing is barely possible.) > > I guess that I have just given an example of your premise of "church that is simply as it always has been, just pump up the music and excitement." > > Peter > > > -----Original Message----- > From: James Tonson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, 24 November 2003 12:11 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: \"Has Guy made God cool again?\" > > > I'm sorry Peter, but I couldn't disagree with you more. > > To me that article was a shallow piece of twaddle. It's the sort of drivel > about young people and church/religion that you read all the time, I could > write that in ten minutes. > -- > Peter R. Ellis > > ------------------------------------------------------ > - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) > See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm > ------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
