In the MB congregation I grew up in, in the early years the only instrument regularly used was a piano. (Later an organ was added, but often was not used. Guitars, harmonicas, accordion, wind instruments, etc. were used on special Sunday evening services, and guitars were used a lot in our youth meetings.)
So when I came into the Swiss Brethren type of 'conservative' setting, I was very 'taken' with acapella. I had participated in our church choir back home, and had learned enough to be able to follow another man who was singing close to me where I was standing. I really enjoyed acapella singing, just not so much when it did not involve audience participation. (Too much like performance.) As other forms of singing and music came into use in our congregation here in Holmes County, although I agreed with those who wanted to keep to the acapella singing, I began to sense a great deal of pride associated with it. It was like the vague sense of 'disapproval' I felt about performances in acapella, where the human voice was forefront - that uneasy feeling spread to most acapella singing. Maybe that was a wrong reaction, but I wanted to shy away from things that create pride, and that's a good deal of what I saw. So to be completely open about it, I now prefer just simple accompaniment, such as a non-electronic piano only.
Since I'm doing this spin off on pride, I'll also say that not all solo music gives me that discomfort. Growing up we had solos, trios, quartets, etc. as "special numbers" as a common part of our Sunday morning services. In fact, it was a woman singing a solo that gave me my first deep enthusiasm for singing - she so totally entered into the song, the emotion of praise, that I saw that singing was something much, much more than "just a normal part of the service".
Can accapella singing be done w/o the pride? Certainly. (One totally off-topic comment about visiting choruses - If you want to do an ethnic song, do it the way the culture out of which the song came would do it. If you cannot pull it off, then give it up & just sing your own culture's songs. Yes, I thinking specifically of "Negro Spirituals". Don't try to "white-ize" them. Something just rises up in me when I hear that.)
