A key part of our spiritual relationship with God is the time we spend in worship. It is an act of obedience, sometimes described in Scripture as serving the Lord. It is an act of holy devotion, as we set aside a part of our time to focus on Him. It is a time of celebration and praise, as we raise our voices in song to our great God and King.
That this last part is important is clear from Scripture’s emphasis on singing in worship.
Although singing is recorded from very early, King David seems to have been key in establishing it as a part of formal worship. He was himself a musician and wrote a number of the Psalms, and even established a team to lead singing in the temple. This led to more songs being written, and God has devoted a whole book of the Bible to these songs. The New Testament also recognizes music’s importance through its records of Jesus singing hymns at the last supper, disciples singing hymns, and Paul’s encouragement of singing to build up the body.
The early church picked this up, for even though they struggled with the form of music and how to differentiate it from pagan practices, they found ways to use it in worship. Sometimes it was just chanting, often without instruments, but they always found a way to keep it going.
As a result, music and singing is ubiquitous in Christian experience, especially in worship.
Consider the following narrative that illustrates someone’s church experience of music in church.
Nathan has started attending a church that he’s heard has a focus on music. He found that there are a wide variety of musical activities in which the church encourages everyone to be involved.
For example, almost every week someone gets up and gives a testimony about the music they’ve heard that week. Occasionally, musicians are brought in to demonstrate current trends and Nathan is able to experience firsthand some new musical styles. Often, special offerings are taken to support such people who are out performing music all over the world.
Nathan feels encouraged to integrate music into his spiritual life in several ways. For example, classes are occasionally offered for learning to sing or play music at home, and the church once even provided a CD so that people could experience religious music on their own.
For the youth, there is a yearly effort to raise funds and send a group to a concert where they can be immersed in music and maybe even do some singing themselves.
Over time, Nathan recognizes the special priority that music has in the church, and hopes to one day be able to practice it himself, just as the Bible teaches and just as it was done in the early church.
This probably doesn’t match most Christians’ experience of music in church – it places music at a distance from other church activity as something only a few practice, while normal experience has music as a central activity that everyone is involved in. The difference in this narrative is that the musical activities were patterned after the way evangelism is promoted in church (when it is talked about at all).
This difference might seem reasonable if we think that music was emphasized much more in the Bible. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Consider how Scripture, and Jesus in particular, presents the need for proclaiming the kingdom.
Although evangelism is referred to in the OT, Jesus was the one who made it an explicit part of the faith. He practiced it Himself and taught about relevant spiritual principles, established groups that were sent out in increasingly larger waves, and commanded its practice multiple times. This was echoed after His ascension, and God has devoted a whole book of the Bible to records of evangelistic activities. Later New Testament writing recognizes evangelism’s importance through Paul’s examples and teaching, the existence of a specific office for those especially gifted to lead in this area, and Peter’s encouragement to be prepared to explain the faith.
The early church picked this up like it did music, for we know that there was sharing in families and other personal relationships, from peasants to the rich and powerful. There are pagans who wrote about the pervasive nature of Christian evangelism, and one of the earliest (2nd century) Christian writings is an apologetic.
However, unlike music, something has changed over time. Despite the comparably strong teaching of Scripture and the example of the early church, evangelism is now treated as a minor activity compared to things like music. It is far from ubiquitous, is generally denigrated when compared to other church activities, and is often disregarded entirely.
We carefully practice things we naturally enjoy, like singing and festive gatherings. We also diligently work at things that make us feel good and that the world appreciates, like physical ministry and charitable giving. So then why, when both Jesus and Paul taught that we should pay attention to unbelievers’ spiritual needs, do we consider them, not just less important, but not important at all?
What changed from the early church? How can we claim to follow Jesus’ teachings when we are so selective about which ones we even acknowledge?
Perhaps one reason that the darkness seems to be growing these days is this decision we’ve made to ignore people’s eternal needs. If that’s true, then we need a changed heart. We need to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to all of His teachings, not just the comfortable ones.
Exploring Antioch 