Today (Sunday 7 June) I listened to two church services: one given via YouTube from the church I go to, and the other via YouTube from a large church in Orlando. There are reasons I go to one church and not to the other. I will talk of the large church first.
I will not attend the large church because of the music. It is too LOUD. Loudness does not make music more worshipful; it just makes it uncomfortable. To enhance the uncomfortable music, they use lighting. They use spots, moving beams, and streaming visual effects. To make these effects more visible they use smoke. This is all staged as a rock concert. For example, they use different stage levels for the musicians. All the vocalists stand in front in a line.
All this seems to me to be showmanship. They look excited, they jump, they yell the lyrics. Are they truly excited or is it just a stage act? What is the difference between this and a rock concert? This extends too to the announcements which seems to be hyped with faked excitement.
They also transition between the different segments with videos. Is all this technology necessary for an effective worship? Must this be done to reach today’s people? Will people not listen unless they are entertained?
Yet the actual preaching was well done. It had good content and was well delivered. All the stuff that went before (music, etc.) was a barrier to the content. Yet at the end of the preaching, while transitioning out to what followed, there was a keyboard droning behind the words muddling the speech. Why is that necessary?
The church where we attend is small, so it is possible to know everyone. The music is done by various people, not the same group every Sunday. The preaching is not always by the pastor but is sometimes done by others. The preaching today, for example, was well done by another, and very helpful. This type of freedom presents ministry opportunities to every member of the congregation.
At the big church ONLY the pro singers and musicians and ONLY the pastoral staff present the worship.
