At first, this advance in technology led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon, a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation pew potatoes (spectators).
With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs on a screen, and the number of songs at a church’s disposal increased exponentially. The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church’s love for singing increased. The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. Worship leaders around the world are sadly changing their church’s worship (often unintentionally) into a spectator event, and people aren’t singing anymore.īefore discussing our present situation, let’s look back into history.
