Worship Matters: What Kind Of Music? (Part 2)

So we're talking about ways that music helps us in worship, and gleaning some wisdom from Bob Kauflin's book "Worship Matters: Leading Others To Encounter The Greatness Of God."

CLICK HERE for the first post to get caught up.

2) Music helps us reflect the glory and activity of the triune God.
God sings! "He will rejoice over us with singing"(Zeph. 3:17), "Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples on the night before he died" (Matt. 26:30), "be filled with the Holy Spirit [who enables you to address] each other with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs..." (Eph. 5:18-19).

We see each member of the trinity involved in the act of singing, and are reminded that music was given to us to "deepen and develop our relationship with him. The Father sings, the Son sings, and the Spirit sings. How can we keep from singing?"

3) Music helps us remember truth about God
God initiated this method of memorization with his people in the Old Testament. The Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, when God told Moses to teach them a song so that "when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring)" (Deut. 31:21)

This goes back to singing in spirit and in truth. Singing with an actively engaged spirit often produces worshipful emotions, but when the experience and the emotions fade, the living and active Word of God will continue "working in our hearts, renewing our minds, and strengthening our faith."

4) Music helps us express our unity in the gospel
Most references to singing in the Bible are talking about the corporate gathering. The people are singing together. Passages that specifically refer to singing include "addressing one another" and "teaching one another" (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16). When we sing of the gospel, it glorifies God as the collective voices of the redeemed magnify his name. This unity can sometimes be overlooked when churches offer different "style-based" services (you know, the "traditional" and "contemporary" ones...), as this tends to lean more towards the "church consumer mindset."

As a worship leader, I try to incorporate many different styles of songs, including "traditional" and "contemporary" songs, but maintaining a certain balance of "preference" based songs isn't my primary concern. My primary concern is leading God's people in songs that glorify GOD, and aren't primarily intended to make us feel good, although that often is a welcomed by-product!

There is sure to be a song or two, or ten, that aren't going to be every person's favorites, as far as "style" goes. This is the beauty of diversity of our tastes, and of the span of different songs and styles that glorify God, and try to reflect his own creativity and complexity back to him. We minister to each other in showing deference for the tastes of others, and seeking to appreciate all the different styles as a palette of colors with which to paint our portrait of praise to God!