Chords for Graham Kendrick - Why Aren't We Singing? Graham teaches about participation in worship services

_ _ _ _ _ Very often I find myself in worship contexts.
The band is pumping out some great music.
The worship leader is lost in wonder, love and praise,
an expression of intensity on their face.
I look around, a lot of people are barely mouthing the words,
and I'm thinking, why?
And I think actually there are quite a number
of pretty straightforward reasons why we're not singing.
_ There has been a shift of culture.
It's ironic in one sense, there is more music than ever,
but singing actually has, I think, become rather specialized.
So in a sense, we're kind of singing against the tide in church
because we're actually expecting people to do something
they're not quite so used to doing.
I sometimes actually deliberately begin worship with a vocal warm-up.
But I get people humming a note and maybe doing a little scale.
Sometimes I turn it into a little song, Hallelujah,
and really I'm putting out a message that we've got voices,
let's use them.
Now we're blessed presently with masses of new songs,
and that's fantastic.
The downside is if we don't really teach those songs
or let them bed in.
I really think we have to, in a local church situation,
really think about the number of songs that we introduce
and how well we introduce those songs.
I'm obviously making an assumption that it's a good thing
that we should all sing,
and I suppose some people might question that.
And I think Psalm 103 sets that out really beautifully.
_ Praise the Lord, O my soul,
All my inmost being, Praise the Lord, everything.
When you sing heartily, it involves your whole body.
You have to give your whole self to it.
And you could argue that the very gift of voice and singing a melody
and the ability to do it together _ is gifted to us
so that we can give it back to God,
even though you might not consider yourself a very good singer,
you might not be the holder of a tune very well,
but you've got a voice, you can make a noise,
make that noise, that joyful noise, you know, back to God.
Another reason why people aren't singing
is very simply that the songs are too difficult.
_ And the big test of that is that you just listen to the leap in volume
as soon as a well-known, accessible song pops up in the set list.
It's astonishing.
I've sometimes heard the volume multiply, you know, two, three, four times over
because suddenly, oh, we know this one, and it's easy to sing.
And I think that whilst we_
Let's enjoy all the great songs that have been written
and the recordings and so on,
but when we come to picking songs for our local congregation,
we really have to ask those questions.
Is this suitable for our people and where they're at?
And can we really sing this? _
Think of _ the people of different generations
and different ages and different backgrounds,
and it can be quite a challenge,
but we just cause frustration if we're asking people to sing songs
that are too complex, too high, too sophisticated.
And actually, the other point is that if the band
can't quite deliver what they heard on the album,
you know, somehow it can fall apart.
If the song hangs on an arrangement,
as opposed to just a really singable melody,
it can start to fall apart as well.
I would suggest that another one of the factors in all of this
is that we have, much of the church has embraced a performance style.
I think to a great extent, we have copied the sort of concert model
_ so that what's coming from the platform
is kind of almost complete in itself.
We're surrounded by screens and all sorts of personal devices
that deliver entertainment to us,
that deliver performances to us,
and we've come to expect that what happens on that screen
is going to do something to us.
It's going to entertain us or it's going to inspire us,
it's going to make us laugh or cry,
and it's very easy to find ourselves in church
and what's happening up the front is just another screen,
and we are looking to that screen to do something for us.
But of course the essence of being part of the body of Christ,
of being church, is that everybody brings something.
You know, the singing can be a symbol, if you like,
or an example of everybody together bringing something.
Don't come to church to worship, _ _ come worshipping.
And it's very easy to think that worship is all about what happens in this building,
but I think if we begin to think in terms of _ coming,
already worshipping, and bringing something [Eb] that contributes to the whole,
then we'll, for a start, we won't exhaust our leaders quite so much,
_ demanding that they deliver this thing to us.
The Psalms, of course, have to be our model
for what worship is really all about.
And it's very interesting that as a collection,
_ _ the Psalms end with a total exclusive focus upon God. Psalm 150.
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary.
Praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power.
Praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet.
Praise him with the harp and lyre.
Praise him with tambourine and dancing.
Praise him with the strings and flute.
Praise him with the clash of cymbals.
Praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Now that is where we are heading.
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