A Holy Privilege
The first step a person can take to engage congregational singing more wholeheartedly is, first and foremost, to see the entire gathering of the church as a living miracle. When we gather as the people of God, it’s more than just a people getting together in a room. It’s a group of people who were once dead in sin, now alive in Christ. And so it is a high and holy privilege to gather in the name of Jesus. Period.
Second, I would encourage each of us to come on the Lord’s Day not with a scorecard but with a song of praise. We don’t want to walk through the doors thinking, What can I get out of this? and making sure all of our boxes are ticked, but we want to come with open hands and open hearts, meeting with the Lord, meeting with his people, encountering him in his great glory, and encouraging one another as his day draws near.
And so there are many different ways to think through ways we can sing differently. One of them is to sing not just for ourselves but for our neighbors. I think of a man in our congregation with lung cancer who would show up each Sunday, as he was able, while hooked up to an oxygen machine. And so he was singing his praise on borrowed breath. It was painful for him to sing. I asked him once why he still did it, and he said he had prayed that his singing would be an encouragement and a testimony to others.
Just recently, he went to be with the Lord, and so now we know that his praise is unhindered. He’s singing with fullness of lung and fullness of breath in the presence of his Savior. But we have a lot to learn from people who understand congregational singing like that—not what I can necessarily get out of it, but what I might bring to the people around me suffering. To those who find a hard time mustering through a song this Sunday, let’s sing on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Matthew Boswell is the author of What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music?.
Matthew Boswell (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a pastor at the Trails Church in North Texas. He also serves as professor of worship ministries at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an author and hymn writer, known for songs including “His Mercy Is More” and “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery.” Boswell lives in Texas with his wife and four children.
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