Congregational Singing: Part I
Understanding Our Worship at FBC
Earlier this week, I had a conversation with a man about the church I pastor and the church he and his wife occasionally attend. At one point, he said something to the effect of, “The message doesn’t really do anything for me. It’s the worship I love the most.” As a pastor, I cringed inside. In that moment, I felt a sudden urge to exclaim, “The sermon we hear is just as much worship as the songs we sing!” Needless to say, I refrained. At the end of the day, I understood what he meant. I knew that when he said "worship," he was referring to the music and the singing. To be fair, he is not alone. The majority of Christians and churches today associate the word "worship" exclusively with the singing in a worship service or with the “worship team,” “praise band,” or “worship music.”
Not to beat a dead horse, but can you imagine someone referring to the sermon or prayer as “The worship sermon” or the “Worship prayer”? That would be something! I digress.
All that to say, you will notice in your bulletin the phrase “congregational singing,” with the songs we will sing listed below. Have you ever wondered why the heading is titled “congregational singing”? Why don’t our bulletins simply say, “set list” or “worship set”? Or, if we really wanted to be contemporary, “playlist”? The reason is simple: None of those terms capture what the people of God are doing when they come together to sing. None of those terms are appropriate to what the Bible tells us our singing should be like. Terms like “set list,” “playlist,” or “worship set” suggest performance, production, and consumerism. It’s concert language, not church language. These terms belong in the same category as “occasional church attender,” “online church,” and “knowing Jesus as Savior but not Lord.” Such categories simply didn’t exist in the early church, nor can they be found in Scripture. Moreover, these terms introduce foreign ideas and notions about what singing and music should be like in our gatherings. They are cultural, not ecclesial, and are inadequate substitutes for how the Bible portrays the worship of God’s people when they gather.
Congregational singing, on the other hand, captures what Scripture teaches about what the church is doing when they sing together. Far from being a private moment (though personal, to be sure), singing is congregational. It is a time when the emphasis is not on the few on stage but on the whole congregation. Congregational singing is also meant to be instructional. Consider a text like Colossians 3:16, which is the driving force behind why the term “congregational singing” is preferred at FBC, as well as the basis for the kind of songs the pastor(s) select. Paul tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Col. 3:16, emphasis mine) Notice the “one another” dynamic in this instructive kind of singing that Paul exhorts the church to engage in. Two other texts point to a kind of singing that is both instructive and communal in nature:
• Ephesians 5:19 says, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord.” (emphasis mine)
• 1 Corinthians 14:26 says, “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a psalm or teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All of these must be done to build up the church.” (emphasis mine)
While there are many questions raised by a passage like 1 Corinthians 14:26, it is clear that the penultimate goal of everything the church does when it gathers—including, and especially, singing—is to build up the church. Therefore, the language we use when describing what we are doing when we sing should reflect the congregational nature of it. When we gather to sing, we are not spotlighting a group of people who are particularly gifted musicians. We do not want to hear exclusively the lead singer’s voice, the guitarist’s skill, or the drummer’s creative fillers. Based on God’s Word, the church should want to hear the congregation’s one voice. We should strive to elevate the multitude of voices, the praises of the saints, not the performance of the skilled. As good as giftedness is when it comes to musical abilities and talents, they are not to be the focus. Giftedness and talent ought to be a means to an end, not an end in and of themselves.
If we come away from our gatherings admiring the people on stage or the quality of the instrumentation or the stage setup, did we really behold our God in our singing? Did we truly join in with the lofty singing of the multitude of voices in heaven? (Rev. 19:6) Is the word of God dwelling in us richly as a result, or was it an experience built on a performance?
Ultimately, words matter. What we call things matters because what we know something by shapes us, directs us, and dictates what we do and how we understand it. What we know something by will also determine our expectations. Now, I don’t pretend to think that “congregational singing” is the only faithful term that can be used. But I do think it is better than most modern designations for the time of singing in many churches today. Whatever nomenclature a church decides to employee for this time of the service, it shouldn’t be the only thing that captures what worship is, and it should also speak to the togetherness and communal nature of the church’s singing.
One final thing: Does it matter what we sing? Short answer: Yes. Long answer? That will be in part II of congregational singing.