Sing Anyway: The Importance of Congregational Singing

As always, please see the 'ABOUT ME' section in the right sidebar for a full disclaimer. Scripture passages in this piece are quoted from the King James Version of the Bible; dictionary definitions are taken from the 2009 American Heritage Dictionary. The reader is highly encouraged to listen to Matthew West's "The Motions"—available on YouTube here—before reading this entry.

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I play a lot of our Praise and Worship music from memory. Sometimes, I will sneak a glance out at the congregation, just to watch people in the act of worship. Quite often, I am startled to notice a large portion of the congregation—perhaps a third—just ... standing there. Some are smiling, some are even moving a little bit to the beat of the music—but their mouths aren't moving. This obviously bothers me as a musician, but it also has gotten me to thinking about the implications of a worship service in which the congregation does not sing.

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"We have praise singers and a praise band; isn't the music their job?"

con·gre·ga·tion (kŏng'grĭ-gā'shən)

3. a. A group of people gathered for religious worship.

b. The members of a specific religious group who regularly worship at a church, synagogue or other meeting place.

The congregation's role, then, is to worship. What does this mean?

wor·ship (wûr'shĭp)
v. intr.

1. To participate in religious rites of worship.

2. To perform an act of worship.

Notice the words "participate" and "perform." These are both active words; words that indicate the involvement of the subject actually doing them.

Contrast these with the oft-used comment, "I attend worship at St. Andrew's." Well... which is it? Does the speaker attend, or does he worship? Look at it this way: a man comes in the door, greets the greeters, and sits with his friends and family. He then sits, pays attention to the pastoral greetings and announcements, stands when he is called to (omitting the singing portion), sits back down, listens to the Offertory music, pays attention through the Sermon, stands again at the end (listening as others sing the closing song)—after he has done all of these things, has he, at any point during the experience, worshiped? He has certainly gone through the motions of a dutiful church attender; his heart may have been touched at some point—by the music, by the Word, by the sermon—but he has not worshiped with the congregation in the truest sense of the word.

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"I don't have a voice like (insert soloist's name here); nobody wants to hear me sing!"

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise."
—Psalm 98:4
"Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear, just sing; sing a song."
—Joe Raposo, American singer/songwriter

This has to be the most common excuse I hear from people when asked why they don't sing in church. That's the beauty of congregational singing, though—there is no realistic expectation that everyone in the congregation will be the next American Idol winner, unless those people place that expectation on themselves. Notice that the Psalm reads, "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth. . ." and not, "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth—unless you're not a very good singer, in which case God will smirk at you for trying." God doesn't expect perfection; why should you? All He asks is for participation.

As an aside, I learned that singing along in church was the proper thing to do by watching and emulating my parents when I was very young. To those of you with children: Are you modeling the kind of worship experience you would like your children to have? Do you want them to be active participants, or passive spectators? The way you participate—or don't—in worship may have more effect on them than is readily apparent.

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"I don't like (X song)." or "This isn't 'my kind of music.'"

"Some days there won't be a song in your heart. Sing anyway."
—Emory Austin, American Writer and Public Speaker

In an effort to incorporate music that will reach a congregation as large and diverse as ours, we will all eventually come across something we don't like. With that said, I'm about to confess something, and it may come as somewhat of a shock: I am not madly in love with every song we sing in worship, either! It is my sincere hope that no one notices when we're doing a song I don't personally care for—because worshiping through song is not about me or what I like; it's about the people of God coming together and singing songs to Him. I have come to realize that there are songs that do nothing for me personally, but make some members' weekends when we sing them.

Every single song we sing in worship is not going to be everyone's favorite; however, when faced with one that doesn't resonate, remember Psalm 98:4. It also does not say, "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth—unless it's some Gospel tune you're not fond of, or some contemporary thing you never heard growing up. Then don't." Whatever the song, God asks us to sing anyway.

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"The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss."
—Thomas à Kempis, 14th- and 15th-Century Catholic Monk

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there may be a legitimate barrier to people's participation in our worship music, and this is where I will depend on reader comments and feedback. Following are two possible approaches to eliminating this barrier, or at least reducing it.

We don't use the Hymnal in worship anymore. Occasionally we pull songs from it, but we don't put them at every seat. (Where would they go?) In fact, the only guide congregation members have for our songs comes from the projection screens—which only show the words. The Praise Team is there to assist with the melody, but this real-time, by-ear learning experience is neither simple nor universally adaptable.

Some people (this author admittedly included) just feel more comfortable with sheet music in front of them—at least until something is committed to memory. Others, on the other hand, might not read music; but, after hearing a song several times, they are able to sing along just fine. In order to help both of these groups of people, I have toyed with the ideas of making both Worship Binders—which would include sheet music of our arrangements of the songs we use for congregational singing—and Praise & Worship CD Assistants—which would include our band and our Praise Teams actually singing the songs we use for congregational singing.

Neither of these proposed solutions is a 'quick fix,' nor can either one be undertaken lightly. This is where you, the members, come in: would you use either or both of these worship aids? If not, is there another kind of worship aid you would use?

Please leave comments, feedback, and questions here or via e-mail; all will be taken into consideration when deciding how to proceed.