Why we sing
“The Christian faith is a singing faith…. when you consider the sum of singing commands and the role singing plays at so many critical points in redemptive history, we easily come to the conclusion that our God really, really likes to hear his people sing.” - Baptist Press
It reminds me of a church I attended for two summers in LA, and one day, the pastor preceded his sermon by noting what Boswell notes here; God put the Psalms/Tehillim in His Word for a reason, and we do well to commit His Word to our minds and hearts in lyric form. Many in that church were showing up late just for the "meat" of the teaching, and the pastor tried to remind them that it was a package deal.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
There is a church in the area, not my own, that I only enjoy if I show up late. Well, I enjoy more if I show up late. Because the music is a show. It’s a pretty good show I suppose. They are talented. But it always feels like there is no point in singing. Which is awkward for me. I want to sing. So I’d rather not be there for the “awkwardly trying to sing along with a performance that discourages singing” part. The preaching is usually great though!
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I don't know entirely how to balance it, but I listen to less music as I get older. To me, the reason is that if I listen to it all the time, it just becomes background noise. I've come to appreciate a few things about music:
- Clarity of the words - I do have a hard time hearing in crowds, and much of the multi-layered "wall of sound" contemporary music, whether secular or Christian, is lost on me. Let me hear the words. What is the writer trying to say? When I say I listen to less music, I listen to more talk, or just prefer silence.
- A watered-down effect. As a result of hearing less music, when I do get to sing together with others, it is more effective in ministering to my heart.
- Spending more time thinking. With "tunes" in the background, it's easier to be distracted. More opportunity to think God's thoughts after Him. More thoughts to "take captive". Helps me be more thoughtful and leads to sounder thinking.
I love music, but I probably have a lot more conservative views than most here. But the "less is more" idea does make music more special to me.
There is a church in our area that is similar to what you described Aaron. I visited there with some friends who attend there. The message was very good, expository, deep, filled with truth and good application. However, the music part of the “service” was dark and loud with light effects, and seemed like more of a performance than a time for everyone to worship. I didn’t know most of the songs (they did have words on screen, but no music), and the ones I could sing along to didn’t matter as I couldn’t really hear any congregants’ voices over the music. I talked to some other people who attend there, and they said they always wait in the lobby for the music part to be over before they go in!
By all accounts, many of the people there are active in serving and evangelistic, so they can’t be doing everything wrong, but it definitely wouldn’t be the church for me, no matter how good the speaker.
Dave Barnhart
For those who describe some church music services as more of a show, I am wondering whether the music succeeds in helping to impart God's Word to our minds in lyric form.
(Scripture doesn't say that in as many words, but if we think of how we can remember an old song 30 years after we heard it on the radio, I'd guess that's got to be part of the point)
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion