The Music Exchange

It’s the annual reggae festival in the house behind us. It’s a very happy atmosphere — lots of singing, lots of laughter, all their children are running wild, and even the local dogs are joining in with the noise.

The trouble is, it’s nearly one o’clock in the morning and, if it’s anything like last year, the night is still young, so the happiness is confined to a very small, but very committed section of our street. Still, it gives me a good opportunity to get this article written ahead of my monthly deadline. The congregation at St. Helen’s will just have to suffer me playing with my eyes half shut tomorrow morning. Either that, or they’ll get a reggae version of ‘Amazing grace’, which I reckon might work quite well...

Importance of singing

I’ve been trying to write a booklet to help congregations understand more deeply the purpose and importance of singing. I don’t think I can have followed the brief very well (the publishers have gone very quiet), so I thought I’d use the next two articles to try and get the project back on track.

Sometimes there’s only so much the musicians can do to encourage congregations to sing. In our entertainment culture there can be an element in our churches of, ‘if you give us good music, then we might sing if we feel like it’. We must get rid of the idea that bands, organists or choirs provide the music for churches. Instead, it’s the congregation which makes up the choir that sings praises to God — the congregation is the main provider of the music that reaches God’s ears (and that we hope pleases him). Musicians may facilitate congregational singing, but that’s all we do.

Congregational responsibility

When I was at school we used to have congregational practices. We practised so that we sounded good for parents and visitors rather than for the Lord, but it strikes me that we could do more to encourage our congregations to take more responsibility for singing praise to Jesus. Congregational practices are a bit beyond the bounds of cringe-worthiness I think, but I’ve been at one or two meetings where the leader has made the congregation start again when the singing has been poor. If done with humour, this can be a very effective way of waking people up to their responsibilities in corporate worship. It’s also much better coming from the leader of the meeting rather than the musicians.

However, I think there’s a deeper, more theological problem with our attitude to congregational singing. Why, for instance, do so many turn up late to church? The assumption is that as long as we’re there for the sermon, then we’ve done church. The sermon, along with the reading of the Word, is rightly the most important thing we do together, as it’s where we’re fed from the Lord himself. But if we neglect to sing together, whether in praise, confession or encouragement, then we start to treat our meetings like lectures.

Pastors could do much more to help congregations understand the importance of all the elements of the Christian meeting, not just the sermon. We need to learn the importance of Scripture reading, intercession, confession and our corporate praise so that our response to the teaching of God’s Word is as deep as our hunger for understanding it.

Learning to serve

Members of the congregation, however, could learn to be much more proactive in coming to church, not just to learn, but to serve. Singing is hard work sometimes — especially if we’ve had a late night the night before — but obedience in all of life is hard too. About obedience, God doesn’t say, ‘I know you find it hard not to lie, so don’t bother trying’. God says, ‘Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always’ (Deuteronomy 11.1, NIV). Similarly about singing, God doesn’t say, ‘I know you’re tone deaf and you’re completely out of tune, so can you shut up please and give me some peace and quiet’. He says, ‘Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5.19, NIV). Whether you sing like a nightingale or a penguin, sing up!

Sing through the week

Another thing we can do as congregation members is to keep singing Christian songs through the week. One of the benefits of using song sheets rather than PowerPoint during church meetings is that people can take the sheets away and learn the songs. I’m always encouraged when I go to someone’s house and I notice that they have a song stuck to their mirror or fridge. It means that I’m doing my job of choosing songs which encourage, and it means that people are taking seriously the call to let the Word of God dwell in them richly.

More next month on this one.

Richard Simpkin

© Evangelicals Now - August 2009
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