Worship through song

Last night we sang for the first time.

Well, we listened to part of a song and those who knew it sang along a little.

For me, I’ve found it refreshing not to feel the need to have to associate corporate singing with a worship gathering.  For some months we have demonstrated that you don’t need to sing to engage in corporate worship. 

(I need to confess my own possible cynicism here — it might just be me, but I am a little fatigued by the broader church’s over-reliance on music — where we have made corporate singing synonymous with the experience of worship.  Add to that the cultural disconnect this creates where most Aussies would only ever sing with others at concerts, sporting team celebrations, and maybe the national anthem once in a while). 

I languish over the easy-default where worship is reduced to a musical performance by some for others to consume.  I long for the moments where we wholeheartedly ascribe the multifaceted character of God back to God in the presence and hearing of one another.

Worship can be expressed through being together, carrying each other in our struggles, interacting around God’s story, providing space for the children to reflect on the story, and prayer. 

(Not to mention the living of our daily routines in a sacrificial manner — see Romans 12:1,2)

Even the unpredictability of how the kids engage in little church is a prompt for worship for me — providing a space where I hope they enter in to the story we’re telling, but living with the tension that that might be the furthest thing from their mind! I guess this helps me relate to God as He provides spaces for me to connect with Him — I might choose Him, and I might not — and whatever I choose, God is no less God, and I am no less ‘me’.  

It made sense to make a shift toward music last night.  As we interact around Psalm 40:1-3, we find ourselves pondering the phrase: 

“Now I have a new song to sing — a song of praise to the One who saved me.”

So we come to a point of quiet reflection, play a song that speaks of God’s deep love for us, and join together in the thoughts and deep emotion of this song.

So powerful.  Some of us listening. Some of us singing. Some of the kids closing their eyes in the moment, and some of them hocking into the snacks while the adults are distracted!

This is worship through song, and I look forward to seeing how we might fold it in to our gatherings in the future.