While it may be rare to find a church that dedicates a substantial portion of the service to prayers and Scripture reading, it would be rare to find a church that fails to dedicate a substantial portion of the service to singing. Christians love to sing, and we have always regarded it as an essential component of our worship.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (3:16). Singing is to be corporate so that the whole congregation joins their voices together as one. And that singing is meant to be both horizontal—a means to encourage and strengthen one another-and vertical—a means to express our thanks and praise to God.
Matt Boswell says it well: “A church’s songs are not a mere preamble to the sermon. Singing is not filler time to warm up a congregation. Singing is a holy practice. We sing because God has commanded us, and our songs should fill our hearts with delight.” This being the case, our songs must be meaty, for they need to teach and admonish our brothers and sisters while also communicating gratitude to the Lord. We sing from the Word, for one another, and to the Lord.
