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I oversee the sound and visual in a small Penticostal church (about 120 members). we have set an upper limit of 84 decibels (average) and still I get complaints. We do contemporay Christian music (Hillsong, Mett Redman, Jesus Culture, etc) and are very very very selective about the songs we do to make sure they are sound doctrinally etc. We also try to mix older songs with newer songs from time to time to give the older demograpic a fair go too.
I have found that in our situation the people saying it's 'too loud' is seems to be more due to an objection to modern Christian music and would rather we old played hymns and choruses only. I understand this is not the case everywhere and have been to plenty of places where the sound level is just plain offensive (95dBa plus) chest pouding sub woofers etc.
A few years ago I tried an experiement where I would have the hymns turned up louder than the modern songs and found that the 'same' people who complained about the noise and stared at the sound desk and stormed out of the church mid song, didn't seem to have a problem when the 'old' songs when they were loud but as soon as the modern songs were played (at the lower 84 limit) all of sudden they were too loud.
I personally don't love hyms but I'd never be so rude as to complain, when I am part of the band I also play them to the best of my abaility and put in as much effort as I do for the songs I like and I on purpose choose to worship and take part in the singing hymns, it amazes me that people who don't like modern music feel they have the right to cause a fuss.
My reply is a bit off topic but it puts forward my view that often there are more things at play then the actual volume.
I oversee the sound and visual in a small Penticostal church (about 120 members). we have set an upper limit of 84 decibels (average) and still I get complaints. We do contemporay Christian music (Hillsong, Mett Redman, Jesus Culture, etc) and are very very very selective about the songs we do to make sure they are sound doctrinally etc. We also try to mix older songs with newer songs from time to time to give the older demograpic a fair go too.
I have found that in our situation the people saying it's 'too loud' is seems to be more due to an objection to modern Christian music and would rather we old played hymns and choruses only. I understand this is not the case everywhere and have been to plenty of places where the sound level is just plain offensive (95dBa plus) chest pouding sub woofers etc.
A few years ago I tried an experiement where I would have the hymns turned up louder than the modern songs and found that the 'same' people who complained about the noise and stared at the sound desk and stormed out of the church mid song, didn't seem to have a problem when the 'old' songs when they were loud but as soon as the modern songs were played (at the lower 84 limit) all of sudden they were too loud.
I personally don't love hyms but I'd never be so rude as to complain, when I am part of the band I also play them to the best of my abaility and put in as much effort as I do for the songs I like and I on purpose choose to worship and take part in the singing hymns, it amazes me that people who don't like modern music feel they have the right to cause a fuss.
My reply is a bit off topic but it puts forward my view that often there are more things at play then the actual volume.
This story sounds like my mother's old church. They were "Church of God" which I reckon is pentecostal. At my grandmother's funeral (same church) I was stunned by how loud they sang the hymns. And my mother never did like contemporary Christian music much. Oh well - we all like different things. It's good that you are gracious about the issue.
Did you know that the early church did not have musical instruments. There is no evidence of it in the New Testament, and there isn't anything written about MI's in early church history.
From what I can gather, MI's didn't come in until around 600 A.D.
Anyone can research this for themselves. There's plenty of info on the net.
People will argue and say they had MI's in the OT. Well, they're right. They did. But we don't live under the OT anymore.
We had someone from one of the area churches which has loud music come to our services. She and her hubby couldn't stand it where they were because they couldn't even hear themselves sing. I can imagine how aggravating that could be. So there church's loss was our gain. They're real nice folks, and we love having them.
How anyone could think our God would trouble Himself over such trivial matters is completely beyond my understanding.
Exactly my thoughts too Mystic.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, loud or not loud music but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, Romans 14:17
I have seen congregations disfellowship even split over the issue of instrumental music.. They seem to have no problem however in using the pitch pipe when the choir performs..
They forget that the early church met in homes. They were not man organized at that time in buildings with a stage and all seats facing the front where the performance takes place. If there is a Sunday morning worship performance of by a few selected men I see no problem with a musical instrument to enhance the performance..
But I certainly understand it is a persons personal choice and I have no problem with that
e have great musicians and singers ,but the decibles are increasing the drummer can easily drown out the rest of the group. Our worship leader sings very loud and in addition to that the chorus is redundant to a point where it becomes nearly intolerable or distracting . The drummer has a pexiglass shield and all our drummers are studio level The real deficency here is a lack of knowledge of how sound (which is a technology in itself) isn't understood. When we has a equalizer/light/conductor things were melow to a greater degree. I prefer likea single guitarist with perhaps backup singers to "knock the sound down a knotch" As a caveat I would consider loud music for the sake of youth (which our church heavily supports) wonderful,
but when worship becomes a horror chamber it's rude. When I do aoustic gigs around town the first thing I say is I'm not here to be the focal point or play above your conversation so just talk amongst yourself!
Das
Last edited by DASULAR17; 02-27-2012 at 07:10 PM..
How anyone could think our God would trouble Himself over such trivial matters is completely beyond my understanding.
They don't
He doesn't
Hope that helps
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