Welcome to the world of Church Acoustics

Since the advent of digital technology, it was hoped that church sound would improve. You would think that better sound would mean higher church attendance. Instead, overall church sound for Christian Worship in all denominations has continued to worsen. In a way, technology is killing the church, and Christians are letting it happen. The decline in church sound has pushed many churches into an entertainment style of worship in the hope of slowing down the drop in overall church attendance. The entertainment style of worship has turned services into a spectator event rather than a participation experience, which is what worship is supposed to be.

When tested, the overall speech quality in most churches is a low-level passing grade, and many more houses of worship fail a basic computerized speech test. Music quality in most churches come up short as well, even when the musical talent is entertaining enough. No matter what song leaders do, getting the audience to engage in congregational singing seems like a fruitless effort.

For many churches, the live worship service falls very short of expectations. It fails to compete with YouTube quality broadcasts. As a result, there is often no compelling reason for a person to attend a worship service that does not engage the person while attending. Congregational singing is the single most compelling reason for people to attend a worship service, second only to the preaching of the Gospel. Fellowship is another reason for Christians to meet, but fellowship is not part of the worship service. However, it does get people to church if they like the people they meet.

It is no secret that many pastors and worship leaders lament how the audience fails to participate during congregational singing. It’s not that the people don’t want to sing; they do. Instead, it is because the room cannot support congregational singing, no matter what technology is used. Churches seem blind to this fact. Instead of turning to the Bible to fix the worship space, for the past 30 years,…

For the rest of the Article, Is Technology Killing the Church?

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