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High-functioning Werewolf
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 Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:10 pm
My dad is a professional musician and has played in worship bands for Catholic churches since I was little. My brother and I were always discouraged from applauding for him when he played in church. His point being that when we applaud for him during service, we're taking attention away from God.
The church I attend now is non-denominational, and the congregation in general doesn't seem to take issue with applauding for the band (in fact, the Catholic services I've attended since then don't seem to discourage it either). I always refrain by force of habit, and I feel a little out of place when I'm the only one in my little section of church that still has my prayer hands up when everyone else is clapping.
What do you think? Is it right to applaud the worship band for assisting us in getting our prayer on? Or does it take our attention away from praising God?
This topic has been x-posted in the CCM guild, but I'm curious to hear your opinions smile
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 5:18 am
I always thought of "clapping" in the same vein of "snapping your fingers" when someone reads poetry: expressing that you agree and that you feel the same way too; you vibe with what's been said. One is a little more toned down but the concept is the same. Some people are excitable, others are not. Some people do it to be polite. Whether the audience claps or stays silent, how can you be sure they as individuals were focusing on the right thing: God and the message about God, or were they busy ogling the human vessel who articulated the message, holding their talents/visuals in esteem while God is the farthest thing from their mind and heart? He never spoke against recognizing the talents of others, so I don't think it's a problem. What is a problem: a person acting a certain way to deliberately receive applause from the world for themselves instead of living to please our Heavenly Father's will and to bring glory to him.
"Clapping" or lack of claps is not an indicator of what the crowd is focusing on (nor what the performer is focusing on for that matter). Let's say a person who doesn't clap was lustfully gazing at the artist instead of listening to the message. He/she is no better for having stayed silent than someone who did clap and actually listened to the praise being given to God. The glory goes to YHWH anyway: he gave the talent; he created humans. Their capabilities exist because he gave our bodies the capability to do so. As long as the person's thoughts stay focused on God, clapping or refraining from clapping is not an issue. For example, when you see a talented individual, do you in your heart think "this person is awesome" or "YHWH is awesome" for creating creatures capable of doing that?
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:57 pm
I've actually never been to a church service that had a band playing, so I can't really say first-hand how appropriate or not I would find applauding the band.
In theory at least, however, I agree with most of what Miss Real Eyes has said.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 6:35 pm
real eyes realize do you in your heart think "this person is awesome" or "YHWH is awesome" for creating creatures capable of doing that?
This ^
You can also let your dad know that you appreciate his music if you feel like clapping during service is not appropriate.
Personally we applaud WITH the music bad during the faster pased songs, Like yeaaaah God is awesome! we praisin'! *clap clap clap*
Also sometimes after service we just let them know we really like the way they praise God
But our focus as well as the band's is always to praise God because he's the only worthy of praise.
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