Think Pastorally and Missionally About Worship Music [Podcast]

A distinguishing mark of Christians is how we sing. We express our joy through musical praise, and our gatherings rightly involve singing. Many world religions don’t involve singing. Some use repetitive chants, while in others only the clergy sing. The reason is simple: Other religions don’t have the good news of the gospel.

The liberated people of God are a singing people. Oppression and works-based righteousness don’t fuel praise, but grace does.

So we, as Christians, write songs, hymns, and spiritual songs; we sing them in good times and bad times; we sing them to God and to one another; our songs have theological depth and artistic beauty. We even sing songs at funerals and at gravesides, because when we grieve, we don’t grieve as those without hope. Listen Now

Tony Merida and Matt Boswell, when they refer to "tapes" or "canned music," they are not referring to the use of accompaniment CDs or MP3s or digital hymnals or similar electronic devices but to the use of recordings of vocalists singing hymns and worship songs in place of congregational singing.