{"id":1752,"date":"2011-11-18T14:31:44","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T19:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/?p=1752"},"modified":"2011-11-19T09:09:03","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T14:09:03","slug":"make-a-joyful-%e2%80%a6-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2011\/11\/make-a-joyful-%e2%80%a6-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Make a Joyful \u2026 What?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1750\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/11\/GrecoGuitar-300x249.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/11\/GrecoGuitar-300x249.png 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/11\/GrecoGuitar.png 577w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><em>Today\u2019s post is written by Jo Anne Taylor, Director of Music and Worship at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bethlehemcov.org\/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Bethlehem Covenant Church<\/a> in Minneapolis, MN.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/em>It doesn\u2019t take much to get a bunch of musicians arguing about decibel levels. Just post a picture of some earplugs and wait for the responses to start flooding in. This week, in the Better Together group, I made the confession that I wear earplugs during worship at the Midwinter Conference. To some, my admission was an open door to acknowledge that, for a variety of good reasons, some of us often find electronically amplified music to be \u2026 well, <em>too loud<\/em>. Others were quick to defend the value of volume as artistic expression, especially for an instrument such as the electric guitar, which uses an amplifier to create specific tonal colors. The discussion quickly moved from \u201cthese amps go up to <em>eleven<\/em>\u201d (no one actually quoted <em>Spinal Tap<\/em>, but it kept coming to mind as the week progressed), to the implications of music volume for worship.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Context is everything. Each congregation has its own worship culture, and part of that culture includes how loudly we sing together. Some people love singing with a loud band (or organ), because it allows them to sing freely and anonymously. Some find joy in hearing how their own voices blend with others in full-voiced harmony, and a loud organ (or band) prevents them from experiencing this. Some would rather listen to the professionals perform, while others are eager to participate. This is church, in all its messy glory. Whether our congregations are led by a band or an organ, however, there will always be some for whom the music is \u2026 well, <em>too loud.<\/em> At what point, then, do we ask musicians to suppress their full artistic potential for the comfort of those who find high volume distracting, annoying, or even painful? The Psalmist encourages us to \u201cmake a joyful <em>noise<\/em> to the Lord.\u201d When does the noise of worship become too much?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1751\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/11\/640px-StPierreVieuxP04-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/11\/640px-StPierreVieuxP04-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/11\/640px-StPierreVieuxP04.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>An interesting thing began to happen this week in the Better Together group. As we expressed our artistic opinions, our concerns for aural health, and our views of what it means to worship authentically, we also began to listen to one another in new ways. Strong opinions became opportunities to learn from one another, and grace to listen made it possible for all views to be expressed. This is church, in all its messy glory. Thanks be to God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=1752&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s post is written by Jo Anne Taylor, Director of Music and Worship at\u00a0Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN. It doesn\u2019t take much to get a bunch of musicians arguing about decibel levels. Just post a picture of some earplugs and wait for the responses to start flooding in. This week, in the Better Together [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14503,16,7],"tags":[23349,23],"class_list":["post-1752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-better-together","category-music","category-style-of-worship","tag-music","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Make a Joyful \u2026 What? - Worship Connect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2011\/11\/make-a-joyful-\u2026-what\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Make a Joyful \u2026 What? - Worship Connect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today\u2019s post is written by Jo Anne Taylor, Director of Music and Worship at\u00a0Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN. It doesn\u2019t take much to get a bunch of musicians arguing about decibel levels. Just post a picture of some earplugs and wait for the responses to start flooding in. 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