Come Before Him with Joyful Songs: Recovering Congregational Singing - Free PDF Download

By Robin G. Jordan

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!” Psalm 100.1, ESV

Among what Thom Rainer identifies as what may be 15 trends in 2015 is “more emphasis on congregational singing.”

In many of our churches, both traditional and contemporary, you can hardly hear the congregation sing. There will be an increased emphasis on intentionally bringing the congregants into worship through singing.

Rainer places this trend near the bottom of the list. It is third from the bottom of the list in order of greatest magnitude for their potential impact on churches.

At the top of the list he places “smaller worship gatherings.”  He writes:

The era of the large worship gathering is waning. Churches that are growing will likely do so through multiple services, multiple venues, and multiple sites. This trend will accelerate through the growing influence of Gen X and the Millennials.

At the same time he identifies as a trend for 2015 “continued flow of people from smaller churches to larger churches.” In regard to this trend he notes:

There will be a continued increase in the number of attendees in churches with an average worship attendance of 1,000 and larger. Churches with an attendance of 400 to 999 will be collectively stable in attendance. And the number of people attending church in congregations with an attendance under 400 will decline.

This trend is higher up on the list than “more emphasis on congregational singing.” It did not, however, make the top 8 trends, which “smaller worship gatherings” did.

Rainer admitted that his predictions are not perfect. However, he believed that he does have a good track record.

I personally hope that he is right about congregational singing and worship gatherings. They would be welcome developments. I am particularly concerned about the state of congregational singing in North American churches.

On Sunday I was part of a discussion about the worship music selections of the church in which I am involved. The discussion was prompted by a question as to why the band did not sing more new songs. The person who posed this question to a worship team member admitted that he listened to the songs. He was not interested in singing them. He was what so many churchgoers have now become—a consumer of worship music. As a worship music consumer he was interested in hearing the latest in worship music.

One of the things that has happened in the last two decades or more is churches have turned churchgoers into worship music consumers. A number of factors have contributed to this development. I may in a future article take a look at these factors.

This has happened in the past. As Betty Pulkingham points out in Sing God a Simple Song: Exploring Music in Worship for the Eighties, the pendulum has swung back and forth between participation and performance over the centuries.

Whenever the Christian Church has experienced a time of spiritual awakening, of renewal, of revival, it has also experienced a resurgence of congregational singing. Whenever the Church has entered a period of spiritual stagnation, it has also experienced a decline of congregational singing.

The Old Testament is full of references to worshiping God in song. While the New Testament has far less references, those it does have are important. In his letter to the Church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul writes, “…speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord…” (Ephesians 5:19, HCSB) To the Church at Colossae he writes, “Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16, HSCB). In these two passages Paul is talking about the whole gathered church—what liturgists call the worshiping assembly—not the band or the choir.

In the Book of Revelation the apostle John describes his vision of heavenly worship:

And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Revelation 5:9, HSCB)

They sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, but no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. (Revelation 14:3, HCSB)

They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the Lamb: Great and awe-inspiring are Your works, Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the Nations. Lord, who will not fear and glorify Your name? Because You alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship before You because Your righteous acts have been revealed. (Revelation 15:3-4, HCSB)

What stands out in these passages is that all the redeemed are singing, not a band or a choir.

One thing can be drawn from the Old and New Testaments. If our Sunday morning worship is to be in step with what the Holy Scriptures teach, then whole gathered church must sing. The role of the worship leadership group, whether we call it a band or a choir, is to enable the entire assembly to worship God in song. Whatever our reasons, no matter how well-intended, when we allow those attending our churches to be consumers of worship music rather than participants in worship music, listeners rather than singers, we are really not engaging in Biblical worship.

Download Betty Pulkingham's Sing God a Simple Song: Exploring Music in Worship for the Eighties free in PDF format.

Photo: Center Point Church of Christ