A note from someone on a list I’m on:

Allow me to clear my throat and assemble my portable personal soap-box.

1. Have you noticed how few people sing music ‘in public’ these days? Thinking of when you were last in these situations, how many people in cars, or on public transport, at rave parties, etc, were singing with the music? Most people now LISTEN to music. However, they rarely sing along.

2. Thinking of the music we have in churches, have you noticed that the singing has ‘dropped off’ in recent years? Does this mirror society’s reluctance to sing?

3. We can exclude choral concerts, where people are not meant to sing with a choir or soloist. Yet, I think that band concerts are rarely venues for singing along, either. (Note: The recent Queen’s Jubilee concert was a rare exception, however, how many at home would have sung along? My teenage sons looked at me as though I was start raving mad for singing along with several songs!)

4. Karaoke is a mild exception, but has had a small take-up in Australia.

5. Singalongs around the piano have died.

6. Do your youth groups have young people bringing their guitars, saxophones, etc, for impromptu singalongs? (They MAY have a band/group providing music.)

7. Few churches put on musicals any more. (I speak as one who has greatly enjoyed participating in this in my youth.)

The churches may be the last bastions of public singing. But, are we doing ourselves a dis-service by being like that?

The bottom line for me is that, for our church’s music to be culturally relevant >>to non- or new-Christians<<, the music in churches should tend to be 'performances' rather than REQUIRE participation. Otherwise, we risk driving them away by requiring them to do something that they feel immeasurably uncomfortable doing!

Speaking as a musician (violin, guitar, singing, flute, mandolin, etc),

Peter