Sing, Sing, Sing

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Ephesians 5:18-19 (ESV)  
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, 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,


Something special happens when we sing in worship together, maybe even more special than any other moment we share as Christians. Maybe that’s why God reserved more pages in His Scriptures for a book full of songs than anything else. In the book, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer wrote,

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

As we join in singing together, we are being tuned to the same fork. Our attention is being drawn away from ourselves and being united with those around us to our tuning fork, Jesus Christ. In these moments of song, we are praying prayers of adoration and praise, confessing our sin and our need for Him, proclaiming our faith and the Gospel to each other, and encouraging one another to believe it.

When we sing together in worship, Jesus is our tuning fork, and He unites us around Himself. Does this mean we should only sing together or that singing is the only way we can be unified in worship together? Absolutely not! Does it mean that we should skip prayer and preaching to sing? Of course not! But it should highlight the importance of the songs chosen and these moments together and how important it is for each of us to participate.

The Songs We Sing
Singing together in worship is a distinctly Christian activity. You can sing along with others to your favorite song on “secular” radio or at a “secular” concert. Even then, those songs cause you to consider your own life and your own dreams and desires. But when Gospel-centered, Scripturally saturated, theologically accurate, and Jesus-exalting songs are sung by a people who have been made spiritually alive together by the Holy Spirit something transcendent takes place.

It is unfortunate that in today’s Christian culture, our corporate singing and song choice has been riddled with such controversy and is now dominated by discussions of style and personal preference. Music has caused such division that local churches split over it. It got so bad the name “Worship Wars” was coined. In an article Gordon MacDonald wrote in 2002, he observed, “For many young people choosing a church, worship leaders have become a more important factor than preachers. Mediocre preaching may be tolerated, but an inept worship leader can sink things fast.” This was an issue in 2002 and continues to be a central factor today.

At The Way, we don’t ignore musical style, and it is not that we don’t care if a song is singable. In the world we live, these have to be considered. But musical style will never be the highest priority as we choose songs or arrange worship gatherings. If we are defined by our style more than the content, we have missed the point. We are not simply striving to provide a cool experience but are striving to tune each heart to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are confident that when we do, this is the only experience that will provide any level of satisfaction. So our songs are chosen and arranged each week intentionally with that in mind.

Before we consider style, tempo, or even our personal preferences for a song we sing, it must meet four criteria.

1. Gospel-Centered
The Gospel is our only hope and the motive for our living. On his blog, Joe Thorn puts it like this, “to be gospel-centered means that that the gospel - and Jesus himself - is our greatest hope and boast, our deepest longing and joy, and our most passionate song and message. It means that the gospel is what defines us as Christians, unites us as brothers and sisters, changes us as sinner/saints and sends us as God's people on mission. When we are gospel-centered, the gospel is exalted above every other good thing in our
lives and triumphs over every bad thing set against it.”

2. Theologically Accurate
We aren’t opposed to artistic language and metaphor. But if a song blatantly opposes what the Scripture teaches about God, His identity, or His work of redemption and restoration, we will not sing it no matter how catchy or popular it is. Just because 99.5 Hit FM or 88.3 The Wind will play it on the radio doesn’t mean we should sing it in the church. But the opposite is true also; just because it is played on the radio doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t sing it. Rather what is the content of the song?

3. Scripturally Saturated
This doesn’t mean we only sing scripture set to song. But the doctrines of God’s word should be readily apparent in them. For example, one of my favorite songs that we have sung is All I Have Is Christ by Sovereign Grace Music. It doesn’t just define God and His work but also clearly agrees with the biblical perspectives of who we were apart from Jesus.

4. Jesus Exalting
There is a perspective that if we sing songs that focus on us personally, we are not exalting Jesus. But when these first three criteria have been met, there is great joy and encouragement as we think about the implications of the Gospel in our lives. The psalms are full of these expressions of God’s work on a person’s behalf. So as we sing a song like How He Loves, we can only gratefully express the tangible reality of His love for us by exalting Him as the One who loves supremely and whose love is proven through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

What we are singing together matters and Sunday Morning Missionaries come ready and longing to sing and tune our hearts to Him in song together. In fact, there aren’t many
things that would keep us from it.
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