Comments on: What churches could learn from the Pub Choir phenomenon

By: Greta Colvin

Greta Colvin — Sat, 06 May 2023 13:25:46 +0000

Thank you! What a beautiful read!

By: GretaColvin

GretaColvin — Sat, 06 May 2023 13:24:45 +0000

These articles address many concerns I have about our churches and the designs for worship. With some of the performances I’ve seen, one could almost forget that worshipping our Lord is the reason for attending. The Pub choirs ‘ idea is ingenious! I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the read.

By: Beth Kennedy

Beth Kennedy — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:08:13 +0000

Love it Worth thinking about

By: Stan Johnston

Stan Johnston — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:53:08 +0000

J.S. Bach was a city-level worship leader and keyboard player who participated in similar ventures — in and out of the church. The “Collegium Musicum” became immensely popular, especially among emerging generations. It connected the churches to their communities (doing festivals, etc) and offered music to the masses. A valuable study: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collegium_Musicum

By: Nat

Nat — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:12:00 +0000

Great article. I’d also add that a lot of current worship leaders / songwriters seem to have quite high voices. Transpose worship songs down a third or even or fourth and it’s in a much more comfortable part of the average person’s voice. I do that in our church and you can hear a lot more of the congregation singing strongly.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:17:03 +0000

Another example:
Learning in 10 mins: https://youtu.be/O2qaLKnJNig

The result: https://youtu.be/Et1OniAWKlI

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 22:31:00 +0000

It’s all about participation verses observation of performance.
Pub Choir an interesting phenomena, as an Australian I’m proud it started in Oz

By: Ada

Ada — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 17:10:16 +0000

Yes! This is exactly what the church needs (at least where I’m at. A majority of churches I’ve visited do.)
No one at church should be passive or bored or feel unimportant. Everyone is important to God enough to die for, after all.
*In the church I’m currently at they don’t have a worship team. But they do have a great idea of having whoever wants to come up for a special music to either sing or play an instrument.
It really makes people feel included.
I’ve been meaning to ask if they could extend it further, so I could simply read poetry or quote a passage from say, Mere Christianity or something.*

I’ve always been bothered by “worship teams” & now I know why.
To add to Mike’s point, it creates an unnecessary divide & hierarchy, with an implication that the worship team is more essential & important than a regular church attendant (one could argue pastors hold similar implications).
It also leads to a passive & often bored (if you don’t count yourself a singer or like music) congregation.
Which is exactly the opposite of what church should be.
Church could be exciting & life changing & provocative.
Also, a worship team leads to a focus on the singers & the quality of their singing & entertainment, since, again, not everyone is on the worship team.
It also places an unnecessary strain on those in the worship team to perform well & can also lead them to the sin of pride.
Being passively entertained is not what church is about.
Again, the same can be true in regard to popular preachers or Christian speakers. People enjoy them sure, but are they really being transformed?

By: Fay Magee

Fay Magee — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 04:43:54 +0000

In reply to JJ. It seems 'worship' has come to mean 'singing' rather than the whole of our gathering together and this is distorting how we look at the songs we sing.

By: N

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 04:20:59 +0000

Oh Mike you have put my thoughts into words! I love Pub Choir and have been part of it a couple of times. I was at my old church recently and noticed I couldn’t hear the congregation singing, I could only hear the worship leaders. They are phenomenal musicians but I’m not there for a concert, I’m there to worship God collectively with others. I’ve recently been attending a different church which has much simpler worship style and it’s so powerful to hear communal singing/worship. Communal singing brings people together – whether at Pubchoir or in Church.