The More We Know, the More Battles We Can Win
Do we know that our congregational singing is endangered and near extinction?
I am not sure if I am making a fuss about this matter or not. It has been long since large churches began to shift to more professional, performance-oriented worship music in their worship services. And it seems to me that smaller churches are also trying to adopt the trend with enthusiasm.
What’s even worse, church members tend to be attracted to more professional “performances” of music. I am sure that they are not the people who pay their money to see the performances intentionally in their churches. But, more than sometimes, they seem to wait for something which is designed to please them. Unbeknownst themselves, they come to their churches to watch or listen to well-performed worship music.
Even though we, Christians know that we are called to participate in worship with the presence of God as congregations, we often easily become audiences who expect to be entertained by worship music performed by professionals. Now is the crucial moment to re-think about the important role of congregational singing in our churches.
Do we know why we are gathering to worship corporately as congregations?
Dr. Aniol simply states about the corporate worship, saying that corporate worship is Christians worshiping together with other Christians. If we want to worship God, responding to truth corporately, we should assemble first. And then we can worship God corporately.
With regards to singing to the Lord in the assembly, we can find a clear command by God in Psalm 149:1, which says that “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!” While it is so important for us to worship the Lord in our private times as individuals, we are also commanded to worship in gathered worship by God.
Psalm 111:1 is one of clear examples for this, which says that “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.” This verse, in other words, says that one of the purposes for gathering was clearly worship.
As we expect that there must be some other evidences in the New Testament, we can find such an example in Acts 2:42: “And devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” In this verse, let alone other important commitments for us to do in our worship as a church in the assembly, I just want to focus on the lastly mentioned commitment which is ‘the prayers.’ Prayers in general can be considered as a private prayer, but Luke uniquely describes it as ‘the prayers’ which can be interpreted into a public prayer. In this regard, we can be reminded of that we should be devoted to this public time of prayer in our churches as congregations as well.
Do we know that we are not only singing to God, but singing to one another as congregations?
We all know the fact that singing can be a powerful proclamation and witness. The apostle Paul encouraged the earliest churches with his letters toward authentic worship. In light of Ephesians 5:19, he teaches Christians to encourage one another with singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Based on this verse, we can clearly assume that we can be a radical witness to each other when we sing to one another with worship songs. Especially, when we sing together of Jesus Christ, the grace of our Savior, or the love of God, our singing can be a good witness to those who visit our churches for their first time, to those who have yet to believe.
It is important to know that we are called to sing to God, to know that we are also called to sing to one another as congregations is just as important.
