Do Church Worship Bands Keep People From Singing?

I don’t have enough examples to draw a firm conclusion, but it strikes me that one of the issues I see a fair amount is people are buying expensive instruments and not learning how to play them, not even at a cover band/garage band level. On the flip side, even the most mediocre church pianists/organists tend to get the melody and a portion of the harmonies played.

Another reality is that too much modern music goes to an extreme in terms of the balance of doctrine vs. response to “mostly response”, and if the congregation isn’t feeling that particular response on Sunday, they’re going to be quiet. This is a key problem with a lot of “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs—that’s obviously particularly offensive to most men. If you can change five or ten words and have it work for “Air Supply”, choose another song.

Well of course they’re not singing. Many churches have deliberately copied the secular concert format - music, staging, mood lights, special effects. My wife and I recently went to a funeral at a local large CCM church. Bizarre experience. The funeral basically copied their normal worship service. Worship team sang for 20 minutes while people stood the entire time, whistling, shouting, and dancing little jigs (Although I have seen some Ind Baptist churches come close to the whistling, shouting, & dancing jigs). We sat down and eventually left.