This Is A Public Service Announcement. Please, Turn The Volume Down!

This entry is not particularly on topic. Nevertheless, as a public service, I post this.

I had seen the following video recently. After attending church last Sunday, I thought it appropriate to post it as a PSA, for evangelicals are in danger of losing their hearing. What happened Last Lord's Day? An elderly man with two hearing aids sat directly in front of my wife. When the "worship band" began to play its introductory piece the poor man jumped with a start because the volume was so loud. His startled motion was quite noticeable, so noticeable that the couple who sat on either side of him (presumably a daughter and her husband), reached out to console him.

The volume has decidedly increased at our church the last two Sundays. Someone, almost surely within the "worship band," somehow assessed, counter-intuitively, that the band instruments were not loud enough for the congregation to hear. So, now they are amplifying the piano, as if no one could hear the piano before. Thus, when the band began to play on Sunday, it was fully understandable that the gentleman in front of us jumped with a start. The volume actually hurts one's ears.

Someone dubbed in a real-life complaint about the volume of "worship music" into this Dora cartoon, which I've watched many times with my three granddaughters. Listen to the short clip and you will discover how pertinent it is to what we have experienced at our church recently.

Oh, one other thing. If John Stackhouse can publish an article on this topic (“Memo to Worship Bands: Five sound reasons to lower the volume”) in Christianity Today (2009), I think that I can post this entry on my professional blog. 

So, this is a PSA on behalf of all Evangelicals who desire to retain some level of hearing capacity. To all you "worship band" members and to sound board engineers, please, TURN THE VOLUME DOWN. Thank you!