He who hath ears let him hear...

Originally Posted by Sister Alvear

sad some think noise is anointing however the most of us know when God is REALLY moving...
I am thankful for those loud services but I also enjoy the quite services when He comes in a still small voice.

I like it loud, I believe it is Biblical.

Artificial amplification beyond the point of the creator's design capacity is neither Biblical, nor wise.

This thread is in no way communicating that folks ought to be quiet or curb their natural ability to worship with a loud voice of triumph.

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by philjones

This site has become populated with nitpickers... not to be confused with the nose pickers who were already there. The majority of posters appear foolish in their quest to find the never ending "inconsistencies" that we all know are exclusive to Apostolics. You folks need to get a real life and start focusing on something eternal and quit trying to determine who is sinning with their PA systems.

Good Grief!

Yeah, but...Hey! How'd you get the Santa coat?

[Darcie]

Ok I'm not for loudness that hurts people's ears. But we were attending a church that was "volume stingy". But it made the music sound empty. If someone was singing a special you couldn't enjoy it. Song service seemed to drag. A good sound man is priceless!

Originally Posted by philjones

This site has become populated with nitpickers... not to be confused with the nose pickers who were already there. The majority of posters appear foolish in their quest to find the never ending "inconsistencies" that we all know are exclusive to Apostolics. You folks need to get a real life and start focusing on something eternal and quit trying to determine who is sinning with their PA systems.

Good Grief!

Well, I guess I will just align myself with the "nitpickers" then, since I don't think it is hunky dory that both myself and my son (who isn't even 10) both have hearing damage due to exposure to VOLUME....or the fact that said volume has run people out of the church...people whose ETERNAL SOULS were hungry and they left with nothing but a headache.

"The Nitpicker Mom"

[LifeGuide]

Originally Posted by Revelationist

Db levels are a big problem in a lot of churches and especially at campmeetings... I can't even understand what's being said because the speakers are distorting so bad. When the noise dies down, the shouting stops... I'm not sure it's all spirit...

Being a musician as well as the a/v department head, I concur that many of our churches equate loud with a move of the spirit. Let me throw another angle at this problem. Many of the churches that I've visited seem to put the audio system at the bottom of the list when it comes to the budget. Inadequate equipment trying to compensate will have a negative effect on the worship service. Folks on the front row have bleeding ears while the people in the back didn't hear a word the minister said. Can't blame the volunteer sound guy for this problem. You wouldn't have "Bro. Bob" who works at radio shack, hook up the electricity for the church. This is far too common in apostolic churches. A/v should not be a distraction to the service, but enhance it. A properly installed system fully covers the audience without deafening some while leaving others to guess what the pastor just said. My 2 cents.

[Ferd]

There was this couple that used to come to our church. life was good. they were workers. did lots of stuff for the church. never complained about the sound.

then after a while they started making demands of the pastor. what he should preach and stuff. they didnt like the fact that their demands were left with no reply nor any complience. all the sudden they started showing up with cotton in their ears and sour looks on their faces.

often the issue isnt the issue. and the sound more often than not, is not the issue.

[Ferd]

There once was an old guy who went to my church.

I ran the sound about a third of the time and every time i ran the sound he would come and tell me it was too loud. Same thing happened to the other sound guys. he would stand there and not move until you turned it down.

well, about the third time he pulled this on me, I grabed a slide on a dead channel and pulled it down and asked him how that was? he listened a bit, smiled and said perfect!

I told the other guys. they did the same. He did this right up till he decided he hated the pastor and left in a split.

my experience is the sound is the proxey for a bad attitude.

[Pragmatist]

I agree that some people complain about everything and for those people the volume of the service is something that they add to their list.

HOWEVER, there are churches that have their sound systems at decibel levels that do damage to hearing. This is NOT appropriate and people shouldn't be labeled as nitpickers and complainers because they want to continue to be able to hear.

[delta soundman]

I've been a soundman for a number of years. The first day I took over I was taken into a corner by the keyboard player and his wife. I was told that my position was critical to the moving of the spirit. That if I didn't have it loud the spirit would not move..........WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING!!! That was the question I was thinking. Instead I asked them did I then have the power to "make" a service? Oh yes they said. I left that meeting and proceeded to do everything in my power to destroy that mindset. Within a month the audience was telling me how nice it sounded, how their ears didn't hurt, how they didn't have headaches anymore when they left church. I took that and basically told everyone short of the pastor that I was cuttingthe strings the platform had on the the soundman. If they had a problem with it they could take it up with the congregation. The preacher was still a problem though. I simply informed him that from now I would be refering all complaints about how loud he was to him. It didn't take much of that till he left me alone about his mix. Not many could get away with such a hardline stand. Lucky for me I was the only one who knew what he was doing so they were pretty well stuck with me.

[NightOwl]

We used to have an organist and when she played, she seemed to have to override everything to the point things rattled when she played