Your Worship
 

I was wondering how many of us use what you would consider more contemporary music versus those of have stuck with the more traditional hymns. For those using the newer music, do you find the congregation to be singing less and watching more? I guess maybe I just sing so badly that I can't figure the new stuff out!:donuts

Re: Your Worship
 

Contemporary, and it really depends on the song and how often it's been sung. Even a new song gets old after awhile.

Re: Your Worship
 

Does your church use projection of some kind?

Re: Your Worship
 

Full screen behind the musicians, monitors further back in the sanctuary so everyone can see a screen, and alternate screens in the corners that generally have some sort of words describing Jesus, or praises, or something along those lines projecting on them. It's not a huge church, but they try to accommodate everyone's needs.

Re: Your Worship
 

i think that some of the contemporary songs are more difficult to sing along with, since you almost have to be a singer to be able to know where they are going with the song. Many of the new contemporary songs i really love, but some of them really don't say anything at all. Most of the time, I have found that when an old song is sang, you will get a greater response of worship to that song, then to a more contemporary song with very little meaning in the words.

I do like both styles of music, the newer, contemporary music, and the old style hymns/praise songs, but the distinguishing feature for me is if the song has lyrics worthy of singing to the Lord. Many of the new contempory songs, just repeat lines over and over without really saying anything at all.

Re: Your Worship
 

We use contemporary music and add new songs at different rates. Sometimes a new song every week... sometimes one song every few weeks.

We use a mounted projector to project lyrics using MediaShout on the computer.

We have a service one Saturday a month that is youth oriented and we just pull out all the stops and have a great time. We call it WOW (Worship... Our Way) and it's (almost) a no holds barred night and we have a visiting minister come in and preach the service.

Re: Your Worship
 

What are some examples of the songs you are talking about?

We use almost exclusively contemporary songs and they have some powerful things to say.

Re: Your Worship
 

I've heard a lot of repetitious songs through the years, but the songs we sing now are for the most part Biblically correct and meaningful. It's the ones like "I know God is God", "Shout, shout, shout all night", and "God's not Dead, He's Alive" that, though they can be fun once or twice, we used to sing wwaaaaayyy too long. And we even chose parts of them to repeat again and again, as though the songs themselves weren't repetitious enough.

*I'm not saying these songs can't be encouraging or whatever once in awhile. Just the way they were used at my church and the fact that they were sung every week lacked some meaning for me. The first time I heard "Shout, shout, shout all night"... and maybe even the second or third time, I really enjoyed it. And I loved "God's not Dead" until it became popular to sing the phrase "I feel it all over me, I feel it all over me..." repeatedly. I got bored one night and counted. That phrase was repeated 90-something times before they moved to the next line of the song.

We sing some hymns with the contemporary music. I feel badly for older members, though. They like the church, but it's pretty obvious some of them miss the songs they have fond memories of and are reminded of God's blessings through. It's sad that we stop singing some of the old ones.

Of the new ones, some groups are hard to sing to, like David Crowder Band. Others are easier, like Michael W Smith and Chris Tomlin.

Re: Your Worship
 

Bump

Re: Your Worship
 

We sing songs from David Crowder, Israel Houghton, Ricardo Sanchez, Kari Jobe etc etc.

I find the contemporary songs that we sing to be reflective, worshipful and often prayer like in themselves. They are worship... praise... and prayer. I much prefer them over the "get excited about what God is going to give you while I sing it 7 times over again" songs that we used to sing.

As a matter of fact portion of The Revival Hymn come to mind when I typed that.