Driven Out By Drums

The other day I read a blog entry about an eighty-year-old lady who was forced to leave her church after spending most of her adult life serving willingly in any capacity she was requested to serve in.

Did she hate the pastor? No. Had she been involved in some huge disagreement with another church member? No. Had she suffered some terrible physical malady that would keep her from attending future services? No.

This dear lady had made the heart wrenching decision to leave her beloved church because the music was literally destroying her hearing.

My own church, regrettably, has done the same thing. A new worship team has replaced the old song leader. Instead of singing the tried and true hymns that have drawn countless persons to a saving knowledge of the Lord, we now sing chorus after chorus of repetitive lyrics. Hymnbooks have been replaced by choruses projected on an overhead screen at the front of the church.

Someone has recently decided that standing to sing is more spiritual than sitting, so we stand for about 30 minutes. A few of the older people who cannot stand that long, remain seated, unable to even see the words because of the people standing in front of them. If the choruses are new, those who cannot stand, sit, looking miserable because a very special pleasure, that of worshipping the Lord in song, has been ripped from their lives. Of course there is no music-just words so, if your song leader doesn’t decide to embellish the song with his own idea of how it should go, you follow along the best you can until you finally learn the tune to the new chorus.

In our church the worship team uses drums. Not that I have anything against drums, per se, but our drummer beats those drums until my back row pew starts to vibrate. The bass guitars, which are plenty loud, actually pale in comparison. Several weeks ago, I left the Sunday morning service to sit in the car because the drums were driving me insane. I could still hear the thump, thump, thump clear across the parking lot. I’m really surprised the neighbors living near the church have not complained. My husband is threatening to rent a decibel meter to check it out.

Like the 80-year-old lady I mentioned earlier, my husband and I are seriously thinking of leaving the church, and I know of several others who may soon follow.

Lest you think we are giving up too easily, I want you to know I have talked to several church elders about the problem, and, during a casual lunch with our pastor, even discussed the matter with him. He said he would talk to the worship leader. I didn’t see any change except that the worship team suddenly decided to add background music (played full volume) to any prayer being prayed and any scripture being read. I’m afraid I’m not too good at multi-tasking. If I am given a choice between listening to scripture being read or loud music drowning out the music, which one do you think I will choose to listen to?

About three weeks later, we were treated to a sermon about how a little old lady in the pastor’s last church was really unhappy with a lot of the changes happening in the church---especially in the music department. Then this little old lady found out that a teenager got saved at an evening service, and, guess what? The little old lady gave a testimony about how the changes in the church bothered her until she found out about the teenager. After that she testified that the important thing was that the church was reaching teenagers, and that the older people needed to realize that and be willing to adjust.

Come on. How do you think I (along with millions of other people) ever managed to find the Lord without all that racket? Since when do we change the church and its time-tested methods to satisfy the likes and dislikes of the world? If teenagers simply must have a contemporary service, why not schedule it on Saturday night instead of during the traditional worship time?

I don’t expect things to change in our church. I hope the same thing is not happening in yours. This Sunday, I expect we will be starting to visit some area churches to look for one that simply preaches the gospel and worships the Lord in music, not noise. From conversations I have had with others in this area, I have a feeling the search will not be an easy one. Wish me luck.