Preferred praise and worship

Our church uses an eclectic style, singing for several minutes at the start of the service.

I enjoy it most when we sing hymns a capella because the church itself and many members came from Mennonite backgrounds and we're good at that

I was raised Catholic, with a very structured and routine order for readings, music, etc., and every Catholic church I ever attended was exactly the same. The past few years I've attended Lutheran services with my dh, and they are almost exactly like the Catholic.

We just recently attended a Methodist service, and I am really enjoying a service that's a little different!

A hymn at beginning and the end, plus the choir sings one song and last time the bell choir played a song. I really liked the service there.

Has anyone ever wondered why the Methodists have majored in bell choirs? Very cool -- seems like a lot of large Methodist churches have them.

HoosierCowgirl said:

Has anyone ever wondered why the Methodists have majored in bell choirs? Very cool -- seems like a lot of large Methodist churches have them.

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I wonder that. I've visited other Methodist churches with the bell choirs--and now this new one has it. I like it a lot.

I love bell choirs. A Methodist church in town has this "ringing of the bells" every September and I always ask to cover it. It is so beautiful.

Our church is Pentecostal - we usually start with fast, fun, upbeat songs before going into the slower, worship ones. I love Praise and Worship. It lasts about 30 minutes or so.

We attend a huge, full-gospel church that's racially-mixed. My wife and I are in the choir, and we likewise do a mixed-bag of music: gospel, Hillsongs, praise choruses, even a Newsboys tune or two. Our son and his wife attend a UMC, but it's a different type (he says their pastor is part a group that actively fights the non-Biblical, present-day Methodist junk, and is having some success).

I usually prefer full choir and instruments to the "rock band" style. I like traditional hymns, particularly those that have become American folk hymns (Amazing Grace, Old Rugged Cross, etc), negro spirtuals, and the like, but I also like the older more formal stuff.

For a few years, I was in a church that did not use muscial instruments for theological reasons. They sang a lot of difficult hymns acapella and often in rounds and everyone in the congregation seemed to know what they were doing. They tended to favor the folk hymns I like too. It was like having the choir sitting around you and surrounding you. That was very moving.

The only thingIi don't much like is "praise" music, because they lyrics seem to be so dumbed-down, repetitive, and focused on "me, myself, and I." But there are more complex praise songs I have enjoyed when the band is good, as I feel it is at my current church, which has contemporary and traditional services. I usually go to the traditional service, but it's the first church I've been to where I can say I really enjoy the music at the contemporary service as well. (Because they do favor the more lyrically rich praise songs and they sing and play in more than one style--American folk, Irish folk, rock and roll, etc.) rather than just the monotonous Christian pop sound.

Our church has 6-7 songs before the service, then 1 at the end. They range from Amazing Grace to the latest Third Day or Matt Redman song, to African songs in Swahili (we have a number of Kenyan members), in various styles. Our worship band has the usual - electric guitars, drums, keyboard - but it also may include violin, acoustic guitar, bongo drums and other percussion things I don't know names for, and recorder, depending on the week and the songs.

Since words are important to me, I'm thankful that the songs we sing point our eyes to Jesus and away from us, for the most part. I dislike the "me, me, me, it's all about me" style songs some churches seem to use often.

I recently joined the worship team as a singer, after years of only performing with the choir once a year or so (I was afraid until fairly recently that singing onstage would cause me to break down into tears, as I have often done in my seat since my daughter died in 93), and I love helping lead God's people into praise and worship. It's an awesome responsibility and an enjoyable task.

I do sometimes listen to secular stuff; this past week I've been alternating some Michael Bolton CDs, the Braveheart soundtrack, a Middle East percussion music CD and an Agnus Dei choir CD.