On Congregational Singing
Why it’s important to hear the congregation during worship service
Yesterday my church—which runs approximately 115 on any given Sunday—sang “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” It always fuels my heart and lifts my eyes toward heaven. But that happened even more yesterday for two reasons. One, because a fellow brother—one that reads this…thank you brother!—taught a lesson on that very hymn. He gave biographical information on the person who wrote it, and went line by line through the hymn with Scripture references. But two, our worship team does a fantastic job of letting everyone hear each other sing.
There’s nothing more beautiful on earth than hearing God’s people sing God’s praise in unison. Just listen to the live versions of “It Is Well with my Soul” from the T4G soundtrack. Hearing thousands upon thousands of believers, together as one, lift up their voices high to sing songs—it is an extraordinary sound. Talk about a preview of Heaven! Friends, being able to hear the congregation singing is paramount to the service. Hear me out.
“We have a ginormous worship team,” Jared C. Wilson once said. “It’s called ‘the congregation.’”
This thought, though tongue-in-cheek, is quite precise in its criticism. It speaks to a glaring issue within the evangelical church. When most churches want the worship team to be large, flashy, and concert-like, we need to regain the beautiful, harmonious noise of congregational singing.
Congregational singing — including the one who sings like it’s an American Idol audition and the one who can’t find the right key — is the most heavenly sound you’ll hear on earth. Because of this, it’s important to find a church that has congregational singing. To me, one of the most annoying things is attending a church service where the worship looks and sounds like a concert.
Like I mentioned above briefly, my family attends a church that has about 115 congregants on any given Sunday. We are small, relatively speaking. But we are also noisy! With a mix of different worship teams, their goal is focused on one thing: leading the singing. The worship team doesn’t drown the building out with ear-busting drums and hurricane-like vocals, but merely leads the congregation in the song.
We have lost the gravitas that is congregational singing. To many, they don’t want their voices heard in the first place. This is partly due to insecurity—which we can all experience—and partly due to putting on a show. We are more concerned about our appearance than losing ourselves in singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19) to God.
When the congregation is focused on the glory of God, the glory of man dwindles. In a very real sense, the reason we care about being in a church that has congregational singing is because it reveals the attention is not on man, but God—the object of our worship.
Fundamentally, this comes down to what transpires in congregational singing. “When we lift our voices in song, we are speaking to God, hearing from God, and testifying to each other,” Josh Irby wrote in an article at Reformation21. “This means that singing is one of the most dialogical elements of a worship service.”
When we are singing, we are talking to our God who saved us. This should compel us to fearlessly and freely lift our voices high in harmony! It is what we will be doing—and thoroughly enjoying—in glory for all eternity!
Not only will it edify you, but you will understand more deeply why congregational singing is so important to the life of the local church. Without congregational singing, worship (in song) is reduced to a performance. And that’s the problem. The worship team does not exist to put on a performance, but to simply lead the congregation. That’s a drastic distinction.
This isn’t to say a church can’t have a full worship team along with quality instruments. It doesn’t even mean they can’t dim the lights. These are all preferential things. But we err when the worship team is simply too loud that we can’t hear the congregation sing. It becomes more of a performance than worship. This is even true of bigger churches. Even if it’s a large church and the instruments are loud, make it a priority to sing some of the song a cappella, so everyone can hear the congregation singing.
Next time you go to church, try your best to hear the congregation singing, and you’ll hear a sweet noise to the Lord of all glory.
Thankful that even with our worship team and orchestra our worship pastor prioritizes and invites quiet moments as well where all we can hear is each other in the room.
Amen! We go to church to worship not to be entertained!