In the previous weeks we’ve asked the questions “why do we sing” and “what do we sing”. Now, we ask the plain and simple question: what do we prioritize in our singing? Is it our priority to ‘perform’ well, play skillfully, without distraction or mistakes? Or, is it to not perform at all, taking a minimalist approach in the way we structure our musical ensembles, thereby maximizing the congregation's voice as much as possible? What is the priority of the singing portion of our corporate worship service?
Before we ask that question, we need to ask: where should the emphasis of the corporate worship service be? At Rose City, we stand in the Reformed Baptist tradition and a distinguishing feature of faithful reformed churches is the centrality of the proclamation of God’s Word in our corporate gatherings. God speaks - that is why we gather: to hear the word of the Lord. Revelation then response. Our response will be natural, if we have ears to hear: we will respond with worship. The zenith of our worship service is in communing with God as He speaks to us through faithful expository preaching.
As a result of this conviction, our singing is contingent to - dependent upon - God speaking to us. Devon Kauflin warns against making a church ‘music dependent’ or ‘production dependent’. He exhorts churches to “being faithful to make room for the voice of the people of God and to prioritize the proclamation of the Word…” (1) Let us be a church characterized by an intent to hear God and so worship him in response.
Naturally, we will want to respond. Our joy will not be consummated, or completely fulfilled, until we are allowed to respond. But the tone-deafness of the evangelical church in North America often assumes that the lynchpin of the worship service is what we bring to God in our praise. And that is an inversion of the Biblical model of worship. The Bible is clear: God does not need our stuff. He does not need anything. As Leviticus 17:11 shows us, the offerings Israel brought were graciously given by Yahweh to make atonement for Israel. Not the other way around. We seek to be a church that acknowledges this pattern in how we structure and emphasize the proclamation of the Word in our corporate gatherings. “What do you have that you have not received?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)
Now, more pragmatically: do we prioritize skillful musical finesse over simplistic stripped down congregational singing? This is a bit more murky as the Bible does not give us explicit instructions on the issue. On the one hand we are commanded to sing and play skillfully (Ps 33) but on the other hand we want to acknowledge that the primary instrument of corporate worship is the voice of the congregation (2). So our voices, our musical instruments, our drum beats - all of these should be used to complement the voice of the congregation. And they can be done skillfully, as the Lord enables. This isn’t a zero-sum game: all worship-band, no congregation or vice-versa: no band, all congregation. The whole point of the worship band is to encourage exuberant singing from the congregation, and different people in the congregation are encouraged in different ways. Some like to hear their voice apart from the harmonization of an instrumental band accompaniment while some sing louder when the beat from the kick-drum is felt through the floorboards! The church is an eclectic group, so its musical tastes can be expected to be varied as well.
It is our aim at Rose City Baptist Church to have the only offense heard on a Sunday morning be the offense of the Gospel (2 Cor. 6:3). The Gospel is truly offensive enough to our culturally captive sensibilities. Contrary to the humanistic principles of our day, it tells us we are all wretches in need of a Saviour. But it is on the grounds of this glorious truth that we sing as a response to the good news that we have been justified - declared righteous - in spite of our wretchedness. In light of this, we prioritize singing in such a way that is inoffensive to those in the congregation, as much as we can be. This includes, but is not limited to, playing and singing as skillfully as we can to avoid distraction. It also includes being aware of the congregational voice.
The main point is that the pragmatic priority of any worship band should be the magnification of the voice of the congregation. And the worship service should be structured in such a way that the proclamation of the Word of God is central, as we acknowledge that our worship in song is truly just a response to God’s self-revelation to us.
The last entry in this series will look at the question: what do I do when I don’t feel like singing?
References:
(1) Devon Kauflin - Sound + Doctrine Podcast S4E02 (at the ~21:45 mark)
(2) Bob Kauflin comments (in Sound+Doctrine podcast S04E08) that the word melody is translated a number of times in the English translations (12 times in the ESV bible), each time referring to melodic praise. However the word harmony is only translated 3 times (in ESV), and never in reference to music. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sing harmony’s, or provide harmonic musical accompaniment to congregational singing - that would be an argument from silence. However, the repeated explicit command to ‘sing and make a melody to the Lord’ should impact us with the emphasis on melodic congregational singing.