Bring on the discussion... Peter wrote: "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. "
A couple of points. 1) i'd like to hear a bit thrown in from glenn (if he's out there) on this one. there are a few communities out there at the moment who are full of artists and musicians, this does not mean that the church is full of fantastic music (during "worship"). Infact in a lot of cases at the moment it means exactly the opposite, there is no music. For communities that work, live, breath music if I were to include music in the service it would be a distraction to them. Just imagine being a musician listening to a great song... "man, i like how he used the f chord in that way" or a great one played badly "ugh, this is aweful" the use of music in church has always been an interesting one, mainly because we've ALWAYS sung at church, but perhaps if noones singing there's a reason to it and it might not be that the songs are bad. 2) my church/faith communty doesnt sing. well, it does, but its a secondary thing. I "dj" the gig/service and play a lot of music in the background, some of its dance, some electronic, some soul, some U2, some Bruce Cockburn, some gospel... the music acts like a soundtrack to the service calling us on, allowing us to experience God with our ears as well as our eyes, hands, tastebuds... quite often singing songs doesnt allow us to experience the music, the words, the feel of the music. We're living in a world now where our souls and spirituality is deeply connected to our music. Its been like that since the beatles, its been like that years before then, but now we're seeing cultures developing around the music, around the expereience of the music. the act of singing the song is now secondary to how it affects me, how it connects me and how i can connect it to my spirituality. in our service people sing if they know the song and want to experience it differently, i hear a gospel song or U2 or a sticky music song and belt out some harmonies, not always perfect but harmonies none-the-less. I sing because I'm drawn into it, or I'll sing a verse because it affects me, or a line... 3) Its hard in church to react to music because its not ok to dance. I'd like to respond to the music but theres not that freedom to move. Im not a dancer, im not fit and im not that attractive, but i play the guitar and drums on occasions and music moves me. Imagine then how a culture of young(er) people feel when they hear music and cant dance, cant respond... sure, they can clap or make symbols with their hands (but who actually does that noewdays?). This is a culture of people who go out dancing lots, we hold underage dance parties through to nightclubs and rave's. People dance to respond to the music and how it affects them. Yet we play music thats not dancable and without the freedom to dance or respond. I have talked to many people in the rave scene who talk about raves being deeply spiritual events. interesting since there is not corporate hymn or sermon... In SA theres a church ive been talking to lately who set up a dance party 10 years ago as an outreach to bring people to church, 10 years has passed and it hasnt worked... but over 70 young people attend each week. I asked them "what about this dance party is not church?" a) the young people gather weekly and build one another up b) they react to positive music, dance, learn social skills c) they interact with the minister, the members of the volunteer/discipleship team d) they grow and build relationships and start to get involved in the volunteer/discipleship team e) they then continue to build posative relationships with other young people and peers in the community. f) its in a church g) there are images around the place that remind us that its a church i could go on... my point is that when we see young people "not singing" its not just that its not cool or not entertaining, ther are a swag of other things to throw into the mix, its not always a quick fix, its not always fixed by chucking in some parachute band or hillsong. and its definately not always fixed by creating a carbon copy youth service. cheers Darren www.tollsonline.org Shalom Darren Wright "Give us today, the bread of tomorrow" www.tollsonline.org --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.543 / Virus Database: 337 - Release Date: 21/11/03 ------------------------------------------------------ - 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 ------------------------------------------------------
