"For crying out loud"... Let the People Sing!

Have you ever considered the fact that the human voice is the only instrument that God created Himself? Humans have created every instrument from clavichords, harpsichords, pianos, keyboards, and synthesizers, to flutes, lutes, lyres, guitars, ukuleles, keytars, sitars, and so many more! But only the human voice was uniquely and intimately crafted by the God who formed each of us in our mother’s womb. God breathed the breath of life into the dust of the earth and created Adam with a built-in instrument that primarily exists to be lifted up in praise to God. How awesome!

Recently, I read an article by a highly recognized church growth and leadership expert that I follow closely. He wrote this article about ways to know that your church is reaching unchurched people. One of those ways was that "the congregation is not singing". As I read on with caution, I eventually accepted his observation on that particular point, although I continued to "chew on it".

I agree that unbelievers and even new believers will likely be the last ones to join in the congregational singing because either a) they are unbelievers and haven't heard the music, nor have they been interested in it, because church is new to them and they're just "dipping their toes in the water" or b) they haven't been in church long enough to become comfortable or solid in the outward expression of worship that singing represents. I get all that...

My concern lies in this: our contemporary worship culture seems to have created and sometimes perpetuates a worship culture that settles for the singing to happen from the stage. The voices in the microphone do the singing and the people in the congregation to stand idly and sway back and forth until the singing is over... I have seen this happen in churches of all types, modern and traditional and the in-between. While I am more than accepting of the reality that unbelievers or new believers will not be singing, I don't want us to excuse the lack of singing coming from the congregation for very long.

The human voice is so valuable to God that in Luke 19:40, Jesus says this to the Pharisees who are criticizing those calling out to Him in praise:

“If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out!”

When I studied music at Appalachian State, I learned a bit about the anatomy of the human voice, including the way the vocal cords shrink and expand to reach higher and lower pitches. The breath flowing through the larynx causes the cords to vibrate hundreds of times per second. The speed of the air flowing through the larynx determines the highness or the lowness of the pitch.

Image borrowed from https://www.hno-sarnen.ch/en/services/the-throat/the-human-voice.html

Consider this: every voice is unique, in spite of their basic anatomical structure. You don’t have to see someone’s face to know their voice if you have been around them long enough. From the language we speak to the region in which we are raised and even the family we grow up in, there are several surrounding influences that heavily affect the sounds of our voices.

But while we may often sound similar to others or imitate the voices and dialects of others or even impersonate famous people’s well-known voices, there is no substitute for the voice of the human that has been created in the image and likeness of God. And there is no sweeter sound to the Savior than the voice of His redeemed child singing praises to His Name.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Lake City, South Carolina, for the IPHC South Carolina Conference Camp Meeting. We made it just in time to attend the service where the Conference Youth Choir was ministering. The spirit of unity in the room was truly palpable as the choir led the worship. Then Evangelist Beth Stephens Johnson got up and preached the house down!

South Carolina Conference Youth Choir

Worshiping in Lake City, SC, for the IPHC South Carolina Conference Camp Meeting

The following morning, I attended the session where Dr. Terry Tramel was preaching. When the service opened, the congregation began to sing a few songs that were familiar to that crowd gathered in the room. It was so encouraging to me that as soon as the first chorus began, the precious saints of God began to lift their hands and voices in vibrant, expressive worship!

Back in Franklin Springs the following Monday, I “debriefed” with one of the two Conquest Worship teams that I lead here at Emmanuel College. The team had been on the road at youth camps for a month, so we took some time to talk about the trip and make plans for future ministry. As we were talking, the team told me about one of the opening services of a youth camp in South Carolina where the campers sang the opening lines of the fairly new song so boldly and so loudly that the worship team could hardly hear themselves! I can’t begin to explain what good it did for me to hear them share their excitement over this story.

I could not help but connect these worship experiences together: the blended crowd in the Wednesday night service led by the Youth Choir, the older saints gathered that Thursday morning, and the room full of young high school campers that my team boasted of... In each case, the people came "before His presence with singing" (Psalm 100:2) in a way that was meaningful and relevant to the generations represented in the room.

Every generation has its own songs, sermons, and stories that resonate with them, but the end of it all must culminate with God’s people singing to Him! There is no earthly sound more beautiful to the Father than that of His children singing to Him!

Not long ago, I had a “learning experience” here at the college; it was the aggravating kind that really humbles you. I realized that I had been lacking discernment in my song-selecting process. I came to Emmanuel thinking that I needed to try to sing the hottest new songs that would really evoke high levels of enthusiastic worship from the college students, but I was presented with a challenge by a colleague that initially frustrated – and even slightly offended – me, but later taught me something invaluable about corporate worship in my present setting. What I thought should happen or what I thought was going to work was not the only way, so when I tried my colleague’s suggestion, thinking that I would prove to him that it wasn’t going to work, IT ACTUALLY WORKED! Shame on me… Seriously!

So one of my goals for the future is to not choose music simply based on what I perceive to be popular or trendy or what I think people want to sing. My goal is to be more sensitive to the Spirit of God rather than relying on my musical intuition and savvy, to step outside of my own ideas and preferences, and to choose music that doesn’t seek to connect based on perceived popularity or crowd preference, but connects based on substance, sincerity, and singability.

Whether it’s “high church” hymnody, shaped-note singing, choruses, or modern songs, the end goal of every corporate worship service should be to let the people sing! Let’s be authentic, let’s be who we are, and let’s let the people sing!

This means we must sing new songs more than once so that people can learn the song, internalize it, and then express it in personal worship to God. It also means that we need to quit going back to the same old songs all the time just because they are familiar.

Corporate worship is the ideal location for the unchurched, the churched, and even the “over-churched” to learn to sing in a way that is both meaningful and authentic! And the songs we sing in corporate worship are often the songs that teach us so much about God and what we believe as Christians, yes – even Pentecostal/Charismatic/Spirit-filled believers.

Singing is such a unique, special, and personal expression of worship to God, but it is also a very Biblical expression of worship. Psalm 89:1 declares: "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 95:2 goes on to say, "Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."

Singing is also something we will do for all of eternity! As we near the back of our sacred book, Revelation 19:6 gives us an example of the singing in Heaven:

"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

'Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God

the Almighty reigns.'"

Let’s get started now and let the people sing!

I would love to hear back from you on your thoughts about this.

What have you found that works in your local congregations?

What kinds of music resonates the most with your people?

Please feel free to email me at tresward@icloud.com or leave a comment on the blog post.

Thanks so much for reading!