I want to turn some attention to men and worship culture, writing from the perspective of one who is in the arena and not carping from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
I do have things to say but all my comments and thoughts come from a passion to see blokes not only become full on followers of Jesus but to see them integrated into healthy, vibrant, life giving, radical, dangerous churches that are good for everyone involved.\u00a0 These blog posts are about evangelism \u2026 not about the Christian ghetto.<\/p>\n
So here we go.\u00a0 Time to put a head above the parapet!\u00a0 And boy is this dangerous territory.\u00a0 If worship is our highest calling then it is no wonder that it\u2019s the area in most churches that causes the most debate, ungodly aggression and immature reaction.<\/p>\n
Important: when you start engaging with this, please don\u2019t think from your personal perspective. Remember, these posts are about missional thinking (i.e. doing stuff that isn\u2019t about what we like) so, think for the rest of this article about your bog standard average bloke who walks into church; try to think from his perspective.\u00a0 It might be useful as well to think about what God likes.\u00a0 There\u2019s a radical thought!\u00a0 (More on that point later.)<\/p>\n
Here are some subjects I will be commenting on:<\/p>\n
We begin by looking at \u201cvolume\u201d a seemingly harmless issue but the cause of so much tension and ungodly reaction in congregational churches.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I was once invited to go to a classical music event called \u201cProm Praise\u201d at Christmas with a contingent from my church.\u00a0 Some of the party were people who were being quite forthright in their complaint that the worship in church was too loud. However, that evening I saw the light! It was so loud in the Royal Albert Hall that I couldn\u2019t hear myself sing!\u00a0 Man, the hall was rocking! So why weren\u2019t the complainers complaining?\u00a0 Why were they glowing after?\u00a0 Why wasn\u2019t the volume in this context offensive?<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, the whole time they hadn\u2019t really found the volume in church worship offensive.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t have!\u00a0 After all, I had the evidence in front of me.\u00a0 What they were finding offensive in church was the style!<\/em> Drums, bass, lead guitars, jeans etc.\u00a0 But where there was an orchestra causing the noise by people who were classically trained, that was ok!\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how often we aren\u2019t aware of what is really upsetting us and blame something else.<\/p>\n So what about blokes and volume? (Be aware that I write as someone who isn\u2019t always into high volume.\u00a0 I appreciate peace and quiet! For example I appreciate the subtle tones at the start of Barber’s Adagio for Strings<\/a>, although I like the volume cranked up later!<\/em>).\u00a0 Here are some brief thoughts:<\/p>\n High volume levels are bloke friendly because I suspect that most men don\u2019t like to hear themselves sing. This is because most men can\u2019t sing very well.\u00a0 When the volume is up it feels safer and better for all concerned!<\/p>\n We will talk about style later but for now I also want to make the point that men like songs that have objective truth in them that speak about who God is and what he is about.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like stuff that tries to tell us how we feel! The sort of songs that men like to sing need to have a bit of welly! It\u2019s no good singing the praises of the living God who made something as outrageously huge and spectacular as the Eagle Nebula<\/a> at reduced volume.\u00a0 What\u2019s that all about!?<\/p>\n