112 thoughts on “Audience Participation”

  2. That was actually lovely. Too bad the guys wouldn’t shut up.

    But, I can just see the preacher boys staring at those girls and seeing a big sign over them, in bright neon, that read, “SUBMISSIVE, HUMBLE, SERVING, BABY-MAKING PREACHER’S WIFE!!!” 😉

    3. At first, I thought the video clip was taken from a documentary on Tourette’s Syndrome. Loudly blurting rude comments and noises in the most inappropriate possible situations is a classic sign of the more severe forms of Tourette’s.

      But now some of you are saying this is customary behavior in some IFB churches (not even Pentacostal churches)? Wow. 😯

    4. ‘That was actually lovely. Too bad the guys wouldn’t shut up.’

      In truth, that’s not a very good song. But those three young women performed it wonderfully. Their pitch was superb.

    1. Wow! That’s a major fail! Natalie had time to first, get het butt cushion out, watch the video and recomment!

  5. I enjoyed the song………….
    the banner, the chart, a little Bible waving, shouting, preacher standing over your shoulder
    Whats not to like?

    1. You know, back when I sang in fundy church, it would always sort of frighten me the way the preacher boys would wave their Bibles toward me.

      I just knew I was going to get clocked in the head.

        3. But you did use “would” as a helping verb…which makes the verb tense past, right? 😕 Or no?
          “It would…frighten.” ?
          Ich weisse nicht. 😐

        4. I’m a grammar nazi, Natalie, and I second that you were right the first time, because you used “would.” :mrgreen:

  7. The loud mouths in the pews get to be animated to get thier message accross, but the 3 young ladies must be stoic or they be judged as worldly for sure. Nice song…

    1. So right! Singing must be emotionless lest we be considered worldly, but preachers and/or the preacher boys can be as emotional as they want as long as it’s shouting and hollering.

      1. And shouting and hollering is perfectly tolerable, but clapping, or moving along to the music isn’t, right? It’s just strange how, obviously some people are feeling like having an emotional outburst, but the legalism turns it into obnoxious shouting…

  8. Gross. I am happy to say I have never seen anything like this. The term “lecherous” comes to mind. Just don’t think they were thinking about the words of this song at all.

    1. I didn’t want to say anything, because, you know, I’m really concerned about making people think I have a clean mind. 😉

      But, I thought the same thing.

      1. Yeah, I could tell by your previous post! But seriously I would feel very sorry for one of these girls if they were caught alone in a dark hallway of the church with the guy who was “laughing.”

  9. one time in my old IFB church, me and another guy played a Third Day song (“all the heavens”) as a “special.” no one in the church knew the song, obviously, so we got a lot of “HAYMEN!!!” and “GLORY!!” during it. it’s funny what passes as rebellion in that world…:)

  10. Not that anyone cared but; That song and the way they sang it should produce a quiet contemplative mood about the Saviour. I liked it.
    Lound mouth “ameners” do it like Pavlovs dog. They heare special, that means yell, spit & make a fool of yourself to get the crowd ready for the MOG. That is the whole point for these folks anyway. They don’t care about the special. It’s just there to get the crowd ready for the show that’s about to begin.
    This is more of an invitation type song in it’s delivery. To start things off you always need a “Fight Song”. Stand up for Jesus, Hold the Fort or something like that. The special music coordinator needs to get with the Fundy program!

    1. Yeah, you’re right, Fred! You notice how the “amens” and the other nonsense slowed down and became fewer and quieter as the song went along. If they had sung a barnburner, they would have torn the roof off the place.

  11. As a singer and a chior director I think I would have been inclined to block vital airways with precious body parts on those guys. 😈 Those girls were great.

  12. they sound like hecklers.

    there was a church like this in the BJU area… Tabernacle Baptist? People would shout like this during the song numbers, and sometimes run down the isle for some reason. I guess it’s a southern thing?? because they were not Pentecostal. I’d never seen anything like it.

    2. The preacher there once ran up and down the aisles with a potted plant in his hands, telling everyone to kiss the plant. True story. My hubby saw it.

    3. My family went to that church when I was a kid. During that time, there were two pedophiles in charge of the childrens’ home. The pastor sold books and tapes from the altar during the service. Not too sure, but weren’t those things Jesus specifically had a problem with?

      1. Wow, that is crazy. I remember going there a few times with my friends just because it was so bizarre. I remember the preacher kept addressing “all you out there in Radio Land” during the sermon, because it was on the radio.

        The choir was a riot too. I remember they loved the song “Wonderful the Matchless Grace of Jesus” which they sang with great enthusiasm and all sorts of instruments.

        I assume the pedophiles got caught! I hope!

        1. The services were bizarre at best. The men would scream and yell so loudly you couldn’t hear what was being said or sung. Someone would inevitably run down the aisle, leaving his sport jacket in the aisle. Sometimes, one would run up on the stage, run around screaming, and run back down the other aisle, all the while looking around to see who’s watching him. Wednesday nights were just plain weird. It was then that I discovered that God must be hard of hearing. Otherwise, why would all the men of the church be yelling and screaming their prayers at him? That explanation made sense in my 4th grade mind.

  13. Here are three young ladies who display earnestness for the Lord and genuine talent (the pitch was spot-on), and the guys in the congregation act like ignorant yahoos. Oh, wait a minute — I’m wrong. They ARE ignorant yahoos. I don’t suppose the pastor would tell them that, though.

  15. It always irritated me when people would shout above the special. If you like it so much, shut up and LISTEN! 👿

  16. I was wondering where Kayleigh, Kylie and their friend Kelly had disappeared to. Thank you for discovering them.
    In Bogwulf Baptist church we treat women with far more respect. Otherwise Marjorie deals with the miscreants. Under my authority, of course.

    1. I KNEW I’d get a chance to admire Kayleigh & Kylie somehow! 🙂 So glad to hear that Marjorie is back in her place under your authority!

    1. I like Samuel’s commentary on this, you know, when he asked Saul,”So what’s this I’m hearing—this bleating of sheep, this mooing of cattle?”
      1 Samuel 15:24 (The Message) 😉

    2. It’s because they can’t handle seeing that appearance of evil dipping neckline on the girl in the middle.

    2. “I think that these are the only remaining unmarried dauhters.”

      Brother, they are lucky, those girls is really pretty and young. I’m still trying to marry off three of my sisters, they plenty pretty enough but getting a bit old in the teeth. I’m wondering how come we don’t never hear of no travelling family with a bunch of unmarried brothers in it, brother I’d like to run into that lot and get these sisters off my hands. They about to eat me right out of the revival business.

      1. Bro. Lyman!! I was wondering if you would ever show up over here!

        Welcome, sir. How is the evangelizing business these days?

    3. Wow! They used to come to Charity Baptist Church in Dayton (Beavercreek), Ohio quite frequently. I didn’t recognize them.

      On the whole, despite the over-funnymentalism … they are a great family. At least you knew they would combine their honest love for God with fantastic talent.

      1. Whoa Don, small world. I grew up going to Vandalia Baptist Temple. Is Charity the offshott of when Jerry Siler split from Dayton Baptist Temple? Seems to me it is but I may be wrong..

  22. You beat me to it Phil, I thought that was the Marshall family. They had a nice sound, and I have dozen tapes from them. My mom sent me tapes of their music all the time, being the only ordained music my parents would listen to outside of hymns. Only having 9 kids in our family, My mom aspired to be like Mrs Marshall, us kids weren’t that keen on learning instruments and singing.

  25. I’d like to chime in have listened to this several times, and the parts you can hear of singing are fantastic. I really love that interlude part whatever it is. Probably well known, but I’ve never heard it. Hope the dipsticks in the crowd are just that and not the potentially dangerous monsters you hear about.

  26. Why do fundy churches always look like flea markets? Honestly, is there something about mismatched junk placed randomly about the pulpit/platform and garage sale finds hanging on the walls that somehow lends itself to worship?

      2. My wife got me two brand-new dress shirts with the tags still on them for $6 last week.

        I’m a fan of Goodwill.

        1. I have found some very good things selling for very low prices at Goodwill. When I was a social worker, some of my clients (people with developmental disabilities) worked there. It’s a good thing all around.

  27. Wow. They were very good. Yeah, the shouters were probably lusting. But still the harmony and arrangement were very good. Too bad the men were probably not thinking of Jesus. I’ve actually always been uncomfortable with singers on a stage at church. It always feel sexual to me, and I’m a pretty normal person I think.

  28. Oh my God! those -HAY-MENs are so annoying and those girls sound really good! Those yahoos definitely sound like they’re catcalling. Or like hearing themselves instead of listening to women.

    1. This chart you speak of is that thing above the Baptistry? I haven’t seen one in a long time, but I assume that’s one of those rapture/tribulation/millennium/eternity chart? I wouldn’t have even noticed let alone recognized if it not for the mentions.

  30. Those guys shouting kinda scare me. I don’t think I could sing with a straight face while they were shouting like this…poor girls, beautiful voices, creepy audience…

  31. If anyone thinks there’s no lust involved with this hooting and hollering, just imagine how this video would have changed if the singers were three young, attractive males. Would the gentlemen in the audience still be so eager to make their “appreciation” widely heard?

    1. In my experience the answer is “yes.”

      I really don’t see lust as necessarily being the motivation for all the shenanigans. It’s more about putting on a show of spirituality than anything else.

      Of course I can only speak the churches I’ve been in..your mileage may vary.

      1. Thankfully, I have never, no never, been in a church with hootin’ n hollerin’ like this more than once. *shudder*

        1. I know there’s an SFL video of a guy singing that had to restart his song. It was about the Bible, I have the tune in my head, but I can’t think of the exact lyrics to find what the song title. But they hooted & hollered for him as well.

  32. That weren’t no fundy church them gals was sanging in. That gal on the right was holeing her micraphone and e’en holed upen her hand wile she was a warbling. We’s all know fundy churches don’ ‘llow none of that there stuff!

    1. I’m a thinkin’ that gal on the right was really expressin’s her rebelious nature by holdin’ up her purty little hand to tell that blowhard to shut his pie hole.

  33. The first thought I had when the song started and the dude started chuckling was “Man, didn’t know Beavis and Butthead were fundies.”

  34. a spiritual person may not shout. However a spiritual person doesn’t mind it when others do.

    2. If that statement is intended to defend the jerks in this video, then consider this:

      But all things should be done decently and in order. – 1 Corinthians 14:40

      Shouting during someone’s song is rude, disruptive, and prevents others from being able to hear and appreciate the message. And, as shown by the prooftext above (as we all know, fundies love prooftexts), it’s clearly wrong. Even without the prooftext, there is no reason to defend this ridiculous behavior.

    3. True, Trex. Why are we afraid of someone who is engaged in ridiculous behavior in the assembly? What are we so afraid of, anyway?

    4. Our churches would be overflowing with love if your dictum were applied in more areas: “A spiritual person may not raise hands when singing. However a spiritual person doesn’t mind it when others do.”
      “A spiritual person may not close eyes or sway when singing. However a spiritual person doesn’t mind it when others do.” “A spiritual person does not own a television. However a spiritual person doesn’t mind it when others do.” (Not that I think it’s wrong to do those things, just picking a couple fundamentalist no-nos and wondering why they get so upset when someone doesn’t follow their traditions.)

      Honestly, I think the hollering while someone’s singing is taken care of in I Cor. 13: “Love is not rude” or in the KJV, “doth not behave itself unseemly.”

  35. I’ve sung at those kinds of churches. Nearly jumped out of my skin the first time it happened. A few years later I was at a church (in Michigan, of all places) where they had set up a literal “amen corner” (I think slightly tongue-in-cheek, but only slightly) where the loudest of the loud gathered and over the course of an hour, which included during special music and preaching, tried to outdo each other until it became something of a side-show. It didn’t register with me at the time, but they were so much a spectacle that I doubt if anyone left that service knowing what the message was about.

  36. Agree with the general sentiment (the girls sounded great, good song choice), but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it was that got the guys making so much noise.

    (Side note: Could part of the noisemaking have been amplified by the acoustics?)

  38. I read most of the comments before I saw the video b/c I was at work. I was expecting a lot worse. I have lived through a whole lot worse. At some camp meetin’s I went to in fundy land, especially the Phil Kidd types, you literally couldn’t hear the singing at all. This was mild. A 4 out of 10 at best.

  39. I went to a Christian high school back in the early 80s and was in the choir. We would sometimes sing at different churches for a Sunday night service. One time was going to be at the church that a friend’s dad pastored. She warned us in advance that it was a “shoutin’ Baptist” church.

    I don’t remember the response to our singing, but there was incessant “Amen”-ing for the preacher-boy who spoke afterward. My favorite part was when he was giving some background on the Appian Way. He noted that the “stones were hexagonal”. This got loudly “Amen”-ed. 😀

    2. At that point someone should have held up the red octagonal stone and waved the pedestrian traffic through the cross-walk. A-men?!

  41. Whether I agree or disagree with the ideas expressed in the comments here is beside the point. What I find most troubling about these comments is the attitude of superiority that runs through just about all of these comments.

  43. I know them! The Marshall Family Singers. I grew up with them way back in my fundy days. Glad God has brought me out of that. They had like 10 singing kids. I hope some of them have recovered. These three girls are all in their 30’s now and still not married, travelling with dad and mom, and singing to crowds like this every night.

    WOW.

  44. Ahhhh. The Marshall sisters. They came to our church regularly with their parents. Very sweet girls with natural (forced upon them) talent.

    Our former pastor was in love with the family, and had them regularly. I don’t know that we’ll be having them back now that our church is trying to be more normal.

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