WOW!! These last two posts, one by a professed atheist and the other by a professed believer, have really caused me to think about some things. Steve LeBlanc brought up some very good points....
"why are you playing for people that don't want to hear you?"
"but if you aren't free to express yourself it makes even less sense to me."
"If you're still too loud after doing this...you'll never win."
Well... to answer the first, although it may sound kinda holier-than-thou..... but we are playing for God, the only reason we play in the services is to allow people to praise God with us. To answer the second..... that actually doesn't make much sense does it?? I mean, if you can't express yourself... are you really playing music?? But then again.... if "expressing ourselves" means going out and making human sacrifices (not saying that we do, of course).... I don't think that would fly in the church, you know? I mean... I think there's a limit to the "self-expression" rights we can take. For the third point...... we probably will never win, there's always gonna be somebody who says "Drums aren't meant to be played in church", etc, etc.
B3Wiz said....
"Can you imagine Jesus complaining about the drums being too loud?"
"He spent much of His leasure time with His friends eating and drinking in taverns"
"Once you solve that problem you might be lucky enough to enjoy a couple of weeks of "spiritual bliss" before you must address some other "demonic" spirit of contention."
I don't think Jesus would complain at all..... after all, there's a verse in the Psalms that says "Praise Him with a crashing cymbal" or something to that effect. I think I qouted it directly up above. And Jesus did spend a lot of time in bars and taverns, with sinners at that!! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif.... the church today seems to get off on this thought process that says "Oh my goodness.... he's sinning, we can't let him in our church... he might corrupt us".... but what Jesus did was go to the sinners. I don't know if that really has anything to do with the topic at hand.... but I felt like bringing it up anyway...
The last thing that B3Wiz said is way too true........ if we fix the drums, pretty soon someone will complain about the tempo..... or the attitude.... or the guitar player.... or..... or...... etc, etc. So, I think with all this said, I'm going to completely forget about a drum shield. I mean, if I happen to come across some really spectacular deal on one.... I might get it just for the heck of it. But I'm not gonna worry about it.... if problems arise, we'll deal with them as they come. In fact, we're playing this Sunday night.... and on our "set list" we have one of our fastest loudest songs. And the drummer will be sitting about 5 feet in front of the first row. Maybe handing out earplugs isn't such a bad idea....... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
Anyway, nobody else needs to reply about the drum shield issue anymore.... unless you have some REALLY AWESOME deal to report... like $50 for a 5 foot high, 2 inch thick, clear as crystal drum shield. Thanks for letting me ramble on and on about nothing http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif..... I'm done now.
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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.