There have been a few articles in the evangelical press recently about the demise of congregational singing. I was told only a few weeks ago that the singing at St. Helen’s (where I run the music) is dreadful.
I think our singing is not bad as it goes, but the person who made the comment was Welsh, so there are different expectations. That’s my excuse anyway.
Audiences not congregations
There are many reasons why our congregations don’t sing well. Sometimes it’s related to cultural insecurities, sometimes the skill of our musicians, sometimes even the humidity. I’ve talked about these in a previous article, with practical suggestions as to how to overcome some of those obstacles. However, here I want to highlight one of the major problems that I’m grappling with at the moment: the fact that most of our songs these days are written for an audience, not a congregation. Songwriters have got into the habit of writing for the market or label rather than for the people of God.
