It feels as if communal singing is almost gone from our culture. Think about it: where do you regularly get a group of people together, just normal people, and everybody sings? Maybe at a ball game when you sing the national anthem, or at a birthday party when everyone sings “Happy Birthday.” But outside of that, communal singing is basically gone. There used to be a piano in every living room, and families would stand around and sing, almost for entertainment. It was a folk experience. Now that is mostly gone from our culture, except in church, and I think that is what makes congregational singing worth protecting. Hi, church, and welcome to this week’s video. This is a video on congregational singing, which is what we spend most of our time on at church apart from the preaching; it is the single biggest thing we do in our church services. If you are new here, my name is Ryan Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, California. I just got back from preaching these thoughts at Southwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, where I went to church while I was in Bible college. We have had an annual congregational singing emphasis month at our church, and they saw some of the materials we had put together and asked me to come preach to their congregation on congregational singing. They have their seventy-fifth anniversary coming up, and they are launching a new hymnal and everything. So I tried to take five years of preaching and thoughts on music, all our bulletin notes and so on, and condense them into one sermon, and this video is a summary of that sermon.
Singing in the Kingdom of His Dear Son
I feel we have to preach regularly on music and congregational singing, because even in churches, music can easily become something the professionals do up on the platform or stage while everybody else watches. You have talented musicians, good instrumentation, nice arrangements, an excellent music service, and eventually the people in the pew can feel like the audience. But we are not the audience. The Bible shows music as something the congregation joins in, something we actually do together. We have been studying Colossians at our church in a series I have called King Jesus. Colossians 1:13 says, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” So Colossians is a book about what life looks like with Jesus as your King. You have been translated into another kingdom, so your life is different from the kingdom you used to live in. Your values are different, and your priorities are far different when you are serving King Jesus. When you get to Colossians chapter 3, even the way Christians sing in this new kingdom reflects that kingdom. Colossians 3:16-17 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” The word of Christ is to dwell, to be at home, in us richly, and we are teaching and admonishing one another, and we are singing to the Lord. It is all of that. It is communal: we are singing to each other. It is praise: we are singing to God. And it is the truth-saturated word of Christ dwelling in us richly. The parallel passage, Ephesians 5:19, says essentially the same thing: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” The word is yourselves, plural, not thyself. We gather together as a group and sing to God and to each other. When I think about what congregational singing ought to look like, I break it into three areas: assembly, content, and feelings. Who is doing the singing? What are we singing? And what role should emotions play in that singing? Those three questions give us a framework for thinking biblically about church music.
Assembly
First, assembly. We are called in Scripture to assemble, not just to get together for what we can get out of it, but for what we can give. I am not against livestreaming, for example. We use our livestream as an outreach tool at our church, and I want it to be the best it can be. But a livestream is not a substitute for being there in person. Someone might say, “Well, we just do church at home.” No, you do not. That is not church. Church is an assembly, and part of the reason we assemble is to do what Colossians 3:16 says, teach and admonish one another. This is a communal event we get to take part in. When it comes to congregational singing, there are three principles, three subpoints, that I laid out in our bulletin several years ago. The first under assembly is participation over performance. The people on the platform are there to help us sing together, not to sing to us. Even during special music, when a soloist or a trio sings, they are not really singing to us. We are collectively, as a congregation, praising the Lord, singing to Him through the mouthpiece of that soloist or choir or whoever is singing. We agree with the message and say amen to it: “Man, we get in on their talent. God, I am not good enough to sing it quite like that, but amen to that. This one is from all of us, God.” So the music comes from the people, not the professionals. Second is corporate over individual. When we gather, we worship God as a whole. Various things I have read over the past few years have helped me see that our Americanized Christianity is hyper-individualistic, but biblical Christianity is very communal. It is about us worshiping, not just me worshiping. If I have been translated into another kingdom, I am here with others; I am not an island to myself. So this idea of closing my eyes and singing “just me and Jesus,” sealing everybody else out, is not right. No, we are here with others and for others. Have you ever thought about the fact that when you sing in church you are teaching and admonishing one another? When you sing, you are there for the people next to you, and they are there for you. That is how God thinks of congregational singing, and that is an interesting point. The third subpoint under assembly is singable over likable. Historically, hymns are basic on purpose. They are easily learned and simple to sing. They are designed for corporate singing, not necessarily for recording. I am not downplaying the importance of good music. I am decently picky about some of the songs and tunes we sing. There are some songs with good lyrics I have come across that I do not like because of the tune. So I am not saying we should just sing trash. But if we adjust our preferences, we can learn to see the benefit of repetition in hymns. I am not one who says, “We have to spice up the hymn to sing it or enjoy it. Let us add a bridge, add a tag, change up the beat a little so people will like it.” No. When you realize the repetition is a feature, not a bug, I think it helps you appreciate the structure of a typical hymn: several verses, maybe a chorus, usually no bridge, usually no interlude. You do not have to be a professional musician to keep up. It is very predictable, very steady. You repeat the tune multiple times, so by the time you have sung it a couple of times, you can participate and sing out loud without getting caught off guard and accidentally singing a solo. The melody often stands on its own without accompaniment; with just your voice you can sing great tunes like “Amazing Grace” or “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and those songs are rich with truth. That is the point of congregational singing: it is really congregational, and if so, our music ought to help the congregation sing. So under assembly: participation over performance, corporate over individual, singable over likable.
Content
That brings us to the second main category, content. In our bulletin I put it like this: communication over platitudes. Congregational singing is about communicating. We sing rich doctrines to God and to each other. Singing communicates thoughts to God, to self, and to each other. So what are we communicating? We are letting the Word of God, the rich truth of Scripture, dwell in us. Psalm 9:11 says, “Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.” So we sing the actual things God does. “Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.” There are attributes and characteristics of God that we sing about. “Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.” It is not just saying, “How great is our God,” but why is He great? What does He do that is great? Well, He is King. He is triune. He is sovereign over time. Everyone should rejoice. Give me the specific truths about God. I once did a whole sermon analyzing the song “10,000 Reasons,” which was in the top charts for several years in a row. It is based on Psalm 103, but many lines in it become more about the singer than about God. Douglas Bond deals with that well in his book God Sings. I know at our church we are not batting a thousand on this with our own songs. But I really want the bulk of our songs to be rich with the Word of God, truth-saturated hymns. That is what I mean by communication over platitudes. We are not just trying to say something that sounds worshipful; we are actually communicating rich biblical truth. That leads right into the next principle: specifics over inclusivity. Many modern songs avoid specific biblical truth so they can be broadly marketed, and I am a little leery of songs that cross all denominational lines. I am not trying to reach a broad crowd with watered-down truth. The word of Christ is supposed to dwell in us richly. So under content: communication over platitudes, and specifics over inclusivity.
Feelings
That brings us to the third major area, feelings, and that is a big one. Under feelings I put substance over experience. Instead of aiming for a moving worship experience or a moving song, we should aim for rich truth, and I believe songs with substance will be moving. I believe the emotions come from the truth of the song. Instead of, “Man, worship was fire today.” “Why?” “Well, it was that part of the music where everything dropped out, and it felt like Jesus was there. Man, I got goosebumps. I got chills. I loved it.” I am not saying you cannot love music. Music is inherently emotional. But why did it move you? What was it that gave you chills? Sinclair Ferguson referred to the danger of using music for its own sake in worship. He draws a line between going to a service for the worship and going to a service to worship the Lord. The distinction might seem small, but it implies a difference between the worship of God and almost the worship of music. That works both ways. Some people are sitting there saying, “Yeah, get them! Get that contemporary crowd. They want music they like, and they are bringing the world’s music into church. They should not choose a church because of the music they like. They have made music their idol. That is their problem. Get them!” Hang on a second. I have been told lots of times, “Pastor, I like Calvary Baptist Church because I like the old hymns. That is why I am here. I grew up in a church that sang the old hymns, and I just like them. They remind me of my childhood.” And that is fine. But if you are coming to church just because you like the old hymns, is that not the same logic you condemn in the contemporary crowd? Are you moved by the song, or by the God of the song? So I am calling God’s people to view music not in terms of what you like but in terms of what most reflects God. We want to sing music from another kingdom. I do not want our music to be mistaken for this secular world’s music. Hebrews 12:28-29 says, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” I believe hymns best reflect that nature of God. So in the area of feelings, it has to be substance over experience. Next, incidental over intrinsic emotions. As I said, music is inherently emotional, but emotions are the byproduct, not the goal, of church music. I call it emotion versus emotionalism. If your goal is to get chills and you do not get chills, does that mean the song failed? Are you judging a song by your feelings instead of by a biblical judgment? Is that not what the Mormons do: “Here, read the Book of Mormon and see whether you get a burning in your bosom”? No. We are not the end goal, and the feelings are not the end goal. That is the idea of church music: the emotions should come from the truth. And the final one is truthful beauty over technical beauty. The truth is the beauty of church songs, even more than the music itself. I love beautiful music. I am a musician myself, so I get music, and I always want to elevate our music to glorify God. That means we are going to work at it, always improving our music, cutting out music that is not excellent, and all of that. But I never want to strive for excellence so much that the excellence overshadows the whole point of the music. The whole point is that we can all participate, all singing together and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another through these special, unique, kingdom-of-His-dear-Son kinds of songs called psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So under feelings: substance over experience, incidental over intrinsic emotions, truthful beauty over technical beauty.
Three Practical Ways to Sing on Purpose
Eisenhower once talked about something he noticed between the two world wars. He said the American army in the First World War was a singing army, but in the Second World War it was not. He was not questioning their loyalty or patriotism or courage, but he said that somehow, somewhere along the way between those two wars, we had lost something. I feel what he is saying. I am afraid that if we in the pews do not take congregational singing seriously, we are losing something, in church culture, yes, but even in the broader culture. So let me close with three practical ways we can make congregational singing purposeful every time we come to church. First, prepare your heart. We are singing to the Lord. We sing to each other. It is a sacrifice of praise. We are singing truth, and our heart needs to be in tune with that. So pray before you sing, and mean what you sing. That leads to number two: engage your mind. 1 Corinthians 14:15 says, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” Think about the lyrics the whole time you are singing. Maybe research the hymn story. Maybe connect lyrics to Scripture and meditate on the song throughout the week. Sing with understanding. And third, use your voice. Sing boldly and clearly. John Wesley said, “Sing lustily and with a good courage.” I like his example of singing. Encourage the people around you to sing by singing with gusto yourself. Sing by example. Your kids are watching, and new believers are learning from the long-timers at church whether singing is important. So, men in the church, sing. Ladies in the church, sing. Sing with power and earnestness to the Lord. Really, the summary of all this is Colossians 3:17: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” There is nothing passive about that. When you come to church, come ready to sing. God bless you. We will see you in the next video.
