I wrote a post yesterday that stirred the pot a bit when it come to long musical sections of worship songs. I think for particular churches this is not an issue, part of the norm. But I think for other churches long breaks in lyrics and singing becomes uncomfortable for a good majority of the congregants. This is an example of what I talking about:
My question is, would a 12 minute song go over well at your church? Why or why not?
Is there an awkward space that happens in your worship set?
Do things ever feel too long?
How do you assess the feedback you receive?
READ the related post here: The Awkward Space in Worship Music
In my opinion, there are a few factors that can play into this: the style of the worship music, the worshipper’s preparedness, and the influence of popular music.
I’m thinking this isn’t just about church though. Maybe it’s magnified a little in church but if you think about almost all popular music, the “music” rarely gets a chance to breathe. There isn’t much musical silence. The vocalists are singing runs all over the place to fill in that musical silence. I find it frustrating.
I wonder if we are getting generally uncomfortable with all kinds of silence (in and out of church) or if we are just getting accustomed to not hearing the silence anymore so now it becomes awkward?
I’m also thinking that attention-span may play into it a little as well. If I can manage to clear my head and prepare my heart before worship begins, a 12 minute song would seem like a blip for me; much like the music prior to beginning of our Ash Wednesday services. When I haven’t done that properly and I’m still thinking about how chaotic my life is or where I need to be after church, maybe a 12 minute song would seem like an eternity.
Connection to the music and the energy probably plays into it as well. Ok, it does for me. I find that I do not connect very easily with the energy and musical style of traditional hymns or hymns that are played in a traditional manner.
My favorite worship music moments have actually come from the Crash services where the band would perform 2 to 3 songs with only an acoustic or keyboard transition in between, effectively making a set into one 15 to 20 minute song. 🙂
No question that many of us culturally are uncomfortable with silence. But what interesting is that the average worship song is about 5 minutes, were the average pop song is 3 minutes. moreover, many times over worship sets include long sustained songs or beds as well. Almost making a statement that for the modern worship music experience in the service we are doing the opposite of hustle and bustle pop songs. this is a trend i see, anyway.