Isn't That Just Preaching to the Choir?
Why it's important to be reinspired over and over again.
When someone says, “Isn’t that just preaching to the choir?” I always think, “But isn’t that who’s in the church?”
While one can always try to change people’s minds about something, it’s important to share ideas and inspirations with those who already understand on some level, because we need it.
People don’t go to church to be convinced, most of the time they already believe it or they wouldn’t be there. They are there looking to be reinspired with regular insight and information, (and music).
All of us want to discover an exciting new angle on what we already think we know or believe, and re-experience that feeling when something clicks for the first time. That is what preaching to the choir is about: inspiration.
Don’t Underestimate Inspiration
This ‘preaching to the choir’ is often underestimated. The same goes for anywhere the metaphor is applied. When Joan Didion writes about California, she’s probably ‘preaching to the choir’, but isn’t that why we read her?
What’s dangerous is when inspiration turns to reinforcement, calcifying and justifying our opinions instead of exploring and expanding them. It’s a nuance that is lost sometimes, especially when in the realm of things we already think we know.
But we need information to back up our opinions, and even to question them and answer our own questions. It doesn’t mean we don’t know or want to know anything different. Maybe we have a high opinion of art, or California, but we also listen to podcasts about science, or Japan.
To enjoy hearing or reading about things we know something about, and within that context, augmenting our opinions, is what forms our identity, and expands our sense of community. One thing that’s true, for better or worse, everyone is in some choir, and wants to be preached to sometimes.