Music’s Role in the Church

I like singing in church. Some of my first memories are of my parents singing in church, whether that be as a guest at another church, as the special music, or just my dad as the leader in Sunday morning’s worship service. But why do we sing in church? I tend to notice when we don’t sing, and it is always to my chagrin if we do not sing in a church service.

When we sing, we obey.

We obey the key the instruments are playing in. We follow the worship leader’s timing while singing the songs. I saw this even at the Relient K concert I went to the other night. I also see it regularly in worship sets, but in this instance I can give a specific example instead of just generalities. Because it was the 10th anniversary of their “MMHMM” album, they played all the songs on the album in that order. These are songs that most of the audience knew by heart, which is the case many times in church services. However, Matt Thiessen isn’t going to sing every line exactly as it plays on the album, which, if you recall, he recorded ten years ago. Humans aren’t capable of that kind of consistency! There were times where the audience singing along got thrown off by Thiessen’s deviations from the album timing, because they were singing along with their idea of the recording and not with the leader, as it were. I suppose one could argue that they were following the timing of the other instruments, but my point still stands: singing in a large group requires obedience.

Singing practices unity.

Because we are obedience to one another, the instruments, and the leader, singing in a church service is a practice of unity. It reflects how we are all different but are called to one purpose, just as we all may sing different parts (some of us off key at first), but are singing the same song.

I’ve found it very important to quote the Apostle Paul in context. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul is telling them that they have been raised back to life with Christ, and are to put off earthly, sinful things in order to put on new things.

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col. 3:12-17)

All of that kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, is required when we sing together in harmony and unity. Singing also follows (italicized above) the command to have God’s word dwelling in us (through the lyrics), be teaching each other (through the words we sing), and most obviously to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Melodies secure the lyrics.

Through an interesting tune, we get a song stuck in our heads. We know this from experience, in the way that we remember songs from our childhood because we sang them repeatedly. We use songs to help us memorize elements, prepositions, and even the alphabet. The same applies to theological truths as conveyed in often poetic lyrics within our hymns and choruses. Even if we are only regarding it for its beauty, the truth of the lyrics will stick in our minds as well.

Augustine describes a similar process when he tells of his listening to Ambrose’s preaching not for the message therein, but only as a way to judge how well he spoke.

I was not interested in learning what eh was talking about. My ears were only for his rhetorical technique; this empty concern was all that remained with me after I had lost any hope that a way to you might lie open for man. Nevertheless together with the words which I was enjoying, the subject matter, in which I was unconcerned, came to make an entry into my mind. I could not separate them. While I opened my heart in noting the eloquence with which he spoke, there also entered no less the truth which he affirmed, though only gradually. (Confessions, V.xiv)

Worship music is a practice in extracting spiritual truths.

Later in his Confessions, Augustine is going through what he recommends for worship and what has helped him keep his focus. Every waking moment, we are subjected to the physical world and its distractions. Augustine details how he sometimes gets caught up in the beauty of a song and instead likes it for that instead of the truth it gives him. Ultimately, he says that music in the church is a good thing. It conveys spiritual truths, not only in its lyrics but in its timing and melodic beauty.

I think singing as a church body is meaningful in itself, because it means all these things. I especially like to remember all the people who have sung these hymns or even choruses before me, who is singing them now, and the timeless truths that the lyrics contain. Rather than elevating the worship leaders, I like how even their leadership shows that they are just another part of the same body of Christ.