
I am dealing with worship on my blog today as well. http://www.pastorchrisjones.blogspot.com
We can only sing with joy if we are experiencing Jesus actively in our lives. Singing should be something powerful but your right all to often it seems we go on auto pilot for it.
I really struggle with sung worship. I'm just not musical. I'm the person who's generally listening hard to the sermon and really thinking about what it says, but during the singing I'm distracted by everything from the screwed-up eyes of the worship leader to the flat voice or unenthusiastic drone of the guy three pews back.
I particularly have this problem with contemporary worship music. I love the old hymns with their complex sentences and rousing tunes, or gospel music for its heartfelt simplicity. But the modern tunes (and this goes for most contemporary Christian music which is why I don't listen to it) mainly seem to be designed to create emotion, tug at the heartstrings, and get us into the right mood. It smacks of the TV commercial and the warmup man at a celebrity event.
I have the same problem with pastors who tell tear-jerker stories at the beginning or end of their sermon. The Bible's enough for me – I don't need tricks to get me into the right mood to listen to the Word.
When I was at school we used to sing the Psalms. Oh, how I wish we could do that in church, over and over again until the words sink into my memory. But, because I like the people in my church and enjoy the teaching, I'll keep going and paying lip service to the songs.
Sermons tend to have the same effect on me that singing does on you, Jane. I once told a pastor that if he could just hand me the transcript of his message and I could read it, I'd get a lot more out of it. (I'd probably get even more out of it if we could talk about it afterwards…but that's a different post.)
I like the idea of singing the Psalms to brand them onto our soul. We remember what we sing, especially the songs we learn in the springtime of our lives.
I find that I feel closest to God when I am singing. This is true for any type of worship music – traditional hymns or contemporary praise. I think that just as people have different ways of learning, we also have different ways of worshipping and fellowshipping with God. Some find the sermon riveting and sit on the edge of their seats – learning from the inspired word; some spend hours in prayer – weeping, listening & becoming energized.
And some, the category I fall into, get refreshed by singing our praise with our voices – calling out to God, begging for his mercy and thanking him for his grace.
I would encourage everyone to find the right worship style for them and grab on – as long as it keeps moving them towards God. 🙂 Peace.
Thanks for adding your encouraging thoughts, Kim! You touched on a core part of transforming singing into an act of worship. Taking singing vertical by calling out to God (an act of the will as well as the voice) can give us a glimpse of the transcendent, can't it?
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