Over the next few weeks Richard Powell, who heads up music at Emmanuel Westbury, is going to be blogging some thoughts on the part played by music and singing in our gatherings. For starters - here are Richard's answers to three common questions, working just out of what we see in Colossians 3:16
Why do we sing?
In Colossians 3:16 we are urged to ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God’. In the original language, the two halves of this verse are more closely related, so that the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are the means of teaching and admonishing. It reads something more like, 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in your hearts to God.'
As we heard on Sunday, the ‘teaching and admonishing’ of 3:16 is the same as the 'admonishing and teaching of Colossians 1:28, where Paul says, ‘We proclaim him (Christ), admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.’ The purpose of teaching and admonishing one another is therefore that we become more like Christ. Since, in 3:16, teaching and admonishing is to be done through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, it follows that one of the great reasons we sing is to help each other become more like Christ.
How do we decide songs what to sing?
We don't choose them randomly! Nor are they simply the musicians' favourites! Colossians 3:16 says that we are to ‘let the word of Christ dwell in us richly' as we sing. In view of this, we try to choose songs that reflect the content of the sermon. So we ask ourselves questions like, “What might it be helpful to sing before the sermon? What might prepare us to hear the reading and sermon more clearly? Last Sunday, one of the verses that came early in the reading was 3:12 'Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved...' So before the reading we sang the song 'Loved before the dawn of time' to dwell on the truth that we are 'loved, chosen, hidden, cherished'.
Similarly, we try to anticipate where might our thoughts be at the end of the sermon. What might we want to say to each other or to God in response to what he has said to us? Is there a song that helps us to say those things? On Sunday, as we learnt from Colossians 3:9-17 that the purpose of church is to help us become more like Christ, after the sermon we sang the hymn 'May the mind of Christ my Saviour', a prayer that as people look at us they would ultimately see Christ. In the song 'Holy Spirit, living breath of God' that followed it, our prayer was that 'in unity, the face of Christ may be clear for all the world to see'. Mindful of the three times in Colossians 3:15-17 we are urged to be thankful, we ended the service with 'Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King'.
What part can the worship leader play in this?
The New Testament says nothing about a role of ‘worship leader’. Paul, for example, does not impress on Timothy the importance of appointing skilled musicians to every church for which he is responsible. This silence is very odd if (as is sometimes said or implied) worship leaders are vital to our engagement with God. In fact, we don't need 'worship leaders', if by that title we mean someone who leads us in making an offering to God, or who leads us into the presence of God. In the light of Christ's once for all offering of himself, the nature and purpose of our gathered worship has forever changed. Christ has forever taken us into the presence of God, and we do not come and go from his presence or he from ours depending on what songs we sing, how we sing them, or who is at the front leading us. I will say more about both of these things in later posts.
But Colossians 3:16 says that we are to ‘let the word of Christ dwell in us richly' as we sing. So the worship leader is not to conduct an offering, nor to mediate the presence of God, but to minister the word in song. Like every other leader, they are to help us to hear, understand and dwell on the word of Christ. They have the unique privilege of doing that in song, harnessing music in all its beauty and using it as a vehicle to deliver the word of Christ.
