We live in a culture that doesn’t sing. Our culture listens (quite a lot) to other professionals who sing. But for most cultures in history, singing was an activity for common people. And certainly throughout the Bible, singing is crucial to a life lived to God’s glory. 

But my impression is that many Christians view singing as a take-it-or-leave-it aspect of Christian discipleship. Many Christians only ever sing at church, and even then often in a mumble. Sometimes churches blast their music so loud that it unwittingly encourages the congregation to simply sit back and listen, as if worship is a concert to be enjoyed. The sounds that are heard are not the unified voices of the bride of Christ but just the music made by the band.  

One of the best things that our church can do to encourage the spiritual vitality of our life together is to sing on Sundays like Jesus was a king for whom we would gladly go and die.

This is not the model of the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New. As Psalm 22:3 puts it, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (KJV). The Lord is in some way present, or dwelling within, the songs of praise from his people. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, which are largely about the organization of worship by the kings of Israel, also convey the sanctity of singing. Even before the temple was built, king David established a place of singing, called “the booth/tent of David” mentioned in Amos 9:11. The centerpiece of this place of worship was singing (see the organization of singers in 1 Chron 25). It became the precursor to New Testament church worship (Acts 15:16–17).

Similarly in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul in multiple places calls God’s people to sing (Rom 15:5–6; Col 3:6). In Ephesians 5 he uses five verbs to describe a person who is full of the Holy Spirit, and four of the five verbs relate to singing:

“...but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph 5:18-21)

God gave music to deeply shape our affections and devotion to our Lord. It is integral to the movement of the Spirit in our community.

And so we must ask, how are we to integrate singing into the spiritual life? 

Of course the first answer to this is to sing at church. One of the best things that our church can do to encourage the spiritual vitality of our life together is to sing on Sundays like Jesus was a king for whom we would gladly go and die. We should sing such that, were someone to visit, the roar of the congregational singing would so envelope them that they sense, “These people really believe what they are singing about.”

A second way is to get intentional about it. One way you can do that, especially if you don’t feel confident singing, is to attend our church’s monthly hymn sings. This might be the kind of event most evangelicals are not used to; maybe you’ve never been to a church that had hymnsings. But it is a wonderful experience. 

May our voices be louder than the band at our church. May the Spirit fill our mouths with praise for the Triune God throughout our life together as God’s people.

Third, I encourage you to sing at home. Take home our new CCB Songbooks and put a stack of them near your dinner table. Before you pray for the meal, or during a time of worship with Bible reading after the meal, include one of our hymns of the month or a service song. We have been trying to incorporate that into our family. (I’m learning and growing along with all of you!) But it is a great resource when we have visitors for dinner, maybe on a Sunday afternoon. We love to have God’s praise attend our fellowship and meals.

Now, a quick word about these songbooks. 

One of the main ways we hope to develop a culture of singing in our church is through what we call “service songs” or “liturgical songs”. Anyone who attends our church is familiar with these short, one-verse songs that are easily memorized as we sing them week in and week out. The two most familiar are the Doxology and the Gloria Patri. But during Advent and Lent we have also sung O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; the Franklin Gloria; the Franklin Santus; and the Kyrie Eleison.

This next year, we will be introducing a few more of these service songs, and they are included in the back of the CCB Songbook, and they include another Sanctus and the Franklin Agnus Dei. Our hope is that our congregation would have these short songs (and their parts) memorized in our hearts, so that spontaneously at home group or family meals or church gatherings we can adorn these gatherings with songs of praise.

In a world otherwise void of singing, may our neighbors hear songs as they pass by our homes. May our children remember the dinner table as a place for singing. May our voices be louder than the band at our church. May the Spirit fill our mouths with praise for the Triune God throughout our life together as God’s people.