The Music Exchange

This is a final instalment on congregational singing (until I change my mind in a few years’ time).

Over the summer I’ve been wondering how to encourage our congregation to sing more heartily. This is partly because the topic is at the forefront of my mind at the moment, but also because of my pride: I’m still smarting after two people in the 14 years I’ve worked here have said that their congregations sing better than the one I run music for. I’m sure that there are many congregations that sing better than St. Helen’s (not that it’s a competition), and both of the people who spoke up were from Welsh churches, which is a small consolation for me, but it still hurts.

Wesley’s directions

It was as I was talking this through with a friend that I was reminded of John Wesley’s ‘Directions for singing’. This is a seven-point introduction, which can be found in some Methodist hymn books, including Select Hymns (1761).

What I like about Wesley’s instructions is that he focuses not just on the importance of engaging with God in song, but impresses upon the Christian the importance of singing in such a way that we are blessed both personally and corporately. I’m also comforted that the issues we face today are similar to those Wesley faced in the 18th century. Maybe he’d been challenged by someone from a Welsh church too.

Sing lustily

Wesley is also very practical in his instructions — he says in his most famous fourth point: ‘Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, then when you sung the songs of Satan.’

There is nothing I would want to add to this point on a practical level — it speaks of a commitment not just to the doctrine of a song but also of the proper response, expending energy and passion to sing praise to God. It also shows that Wesley was as familiar with the use of music as an instrument for evil as we are today. It’s wonderful that he was able to use something so negative to illustrate how music should be used for the good.

‘Do not bawl’

Some of the other points show that there may have been many among his congregation who were maybe a little too unashamed of singing: ‘Do not bawl so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation’. He’s a stickler for keeping in time too — those who don’t are classed as lazy. Come to think of it, nowhere does he blame musicians for the poor quality of singing — only the congregation members. That’s what I should have told those people who gave me a hard time — it was all their fault that we didn’t sing well when they visited us, not mine!

Sing spiritually

Wesley ends his instructions with the following point: ‘Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.’

Wesley is not suggesting salvation by works here (not if his sermon ‘Salvation by faith’ is anything to go by), but that this is the type of singing that pleases our Father — singing that is centred on God’s Word and on God’s glory, and which is concerned less about the style, sound or volume, but more about having a heart filled with reverential praise.

‘It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night’ (Psalm 92.1-2, ESV).

Sing up like a good Methodist!

Wesley’s directions

Sing lustily

‘Do not bawl’

Sing spiritually

Richard Simpkin

Main Articles

Other articles