Do I Have to Sing When I Go to Church?

Last updated on: August 1, 2016 at 10:57 am by Jonathan Dorst

Do I Have to Sing When I Go to Church? 2016-08-01T10:57:18-05:00 Jonathan Dorst

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We thought it would work. We thought that if we got rid of the choirs and the antiquated hymns, and replaced them with great folk and rock musicians and songs that sounded like the music people sing along to on the radio, that people would come and participate and experience God in a new, powerful, personal way. But a funny thing happened on the way to worship paradise. The people quit singing.

Now, maybe they never really did sing that much. Maybe the ‘good old days’ of 4-part harmony hymns had just as many closed mouths and lip-synchers as today’s unison anthems. And I’m not going to argue for a particular style of worship, because I don’t really care what style of worship music a church employs, as long as its people are singing. There are few things that make me sadder than when I go to a church and hear great music, but little to no congregational singing.

We sing for three main reasons: to give praise, to learn truth, and to convince our hearts to keep believing.

And we see all of those reasons given by the Apostle Paul: 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 (Colossians 3:16, ESV).

When we sing, we are expressing our thankfulness to God. Singing is a way of relating to Him, and praising Him; it’s something that He actually asks us to do- so why wouldn’t we do that? In fact, we shouldn’t really need any other reason to sing in church than the fact that God has asked us to do it. It’s a command, but it’s also a privilege. We get to dwell in God’s presence and delight in Him. Is there a better place to be than that?

When we sing, it helps the word of Christ dwell in us richly. I love that word “richly”- Jesus’ wisdom and promises for us don’t just take up space in our brains, they come alive, they dwell richly, when we delight in them. And music helps us do that! There’s something about music that makes truth richer. Truth doesn’t just come to us in sermons. When we sing, we are teaching one another- and being taught- the truth that we so easily forget. Kevin Twit, in an article on why we should sing hymns, writes, “Worship is formative. That means it has power to shape us. We are what we sing. Our hearts are drawn from other ‘treasures’ as our eyes are opened to see Jesus for who He really is.”

I firmly believe that the gospel of Christianity, that Jesus has defeated death and evil through His death and resurrection, is so counter-intuitive that we need to be reminded of it constantly. We need to hear it every day as we talk to each other, every Sunday in the preaching of the word and the sharing of the sacraments, and in our prayers and our songs. Sing to learn the truths of the gospel, but sing to believe them, despite your unbelieving heart!

Objection: But I’m not a good singer. Answer: It doesn’t matter. Nowhere in the Bible is a distinction made between worship made by skilled singers and unskilled singers. There is a command to “play skillfully” (Psalm 33:3), but that has to do with playing instruments. Not everyone is called to play an instrument, certainly not in worship- church musicians should have a level of excellence that facilitates congregational singing. But, the Bible never calls us to ‘sing skillfully,’ the emphasis is always on the energy we put into singing- “Let the godly exult in glory, let them sing for joy on their beds” (Psalm 149). If we do not sing well, the answer is not to stop singing, it is to keep singing and maybe (or maybe not!) get better at it. The more frequent admonition in Scripture is to “make a joyful noise to the Lord,” not “make a highly skilled noise to the Lord.” If you are singing joyfully, that’s all that matters. Not everyone can stay on pitch, but everyone can sing joyfully; there are no exemptions to the group addressed in the last verse in the book of Psalms: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”

Objection: I don’t like this song (or this style of music). Answer: It doesn’t matter. Worship is not designed primarily to please you; it is designed to please God. You are not the audience to whom the band is performing, God is the audience to whom you are performing. It certainly helps to enjoy the songs your church sings, but in an age of increasingly customized musical tastes, there is no possible way to please everyone with song choices. Christian maturity is submitting to non-essential things for the good of others, and that looks like singing every song that the church chooses to sing, even if one or two of them normally make you want to throw up in your mouth.

Objection: But I don’t want to be a distraction to people around me (or, more honestly, I don’t want anybody judging or laughing at my singing). Answer: I want to say, ‘Get over it,’ but I actually do sympathize with this one. Singing is a very personal thing; I’m much more sensitive about my voice than I am about my piano or guitar playing. Obviously, if everyone were making a joyful noise to the Lord, we wouldn’t be worrying about what the person behind us sounded like, but human nature is that we love to judge each other. The gospel tells us that we are fully known and fully loved in Christ, but I know it’s a process learning to believe that, and relating it to what people think of us in relation to what God thinks of us. I will say that when you get to the place where you are (relatively) free from caring what other people think about your voice or how you worship, that is a great place to be. You may even find that when you start singing, you give courage to other sheepish voices around you.

Objection: But I don’t know the song. Answer: All right, that is one legitimate reason for not singing. But even there, it doesn’t hurt to try. In fact, I find that I’ve sung so many worship songs over the years, that when I go to a church and they’re singing an unfamiliar song, I can usually guess my way through a melody line and often stay a half-beat behind and follow the melody pretty easily.

Back to our original question: Do I have to sing when I go to church? Well, no, you don’t have to sing. There is no righteousness, no merit badge, to be won or lost by singing or not singing. And there may even be times when you want to be quiet to actually think about the words and maybe pray a specific phrase for a minute or two. Let’s give each other freedom to not sing at times.

But here’s the thing: I love my wife. And because I love my wife, I enjoy doing stuff with her. We recently went on a trip to Scandinavia to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We were together almost constantly for 10 days. And we never got tired of each other. We were on a journey together- to see Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, but in a bigger sense, a journey of 20 years to create a great life together.

This is why you should engage yourself in worship and singing as much as possible: Because singing is part of your participation in the work and mission that Jesus gave to His church. When you sing, you proclaim the gospel- to yourself, to the people around you, even to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:8-10). And the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus Himself is in our midst, leading us in our praise of the Father (Hebrews 2:10-12)! To refuse to sing in church is to refuse to join Jesus in His mission of making His word dwell richly in the hearts of His people.

If you love Jesus, why wouldn’t you want to sing with Him and with His people?

Previous Post

July 30, 2016

The Gospel Is the Solution to Racial Tension

Next Post

August 2, 2016 Sunday School is Dead (But Not Like You Think)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #ShoutYourAbortion 10 Commandments 2016 Election 2017 2020 Election Abortion Accelerate Books Adultery America Andy Stanley Arminianism Ashley Madison Atonement B&H Academic Baptism Barry Horner Beauty Biblical Elders Billy Graham Blog Book Review Bruce Jenner Caitlyn Jenner Calvin Calvinism Cheating Chick-fil-A Children Christ Christian History Christian Living Christian Podcasts Christianity Christmas Church History Church Leadership Civil Disobedience Constitutional Coronavirus Culture Death Demoninations Discipleship Doctrine Doctrine of God Donald Trump Ecclesiology Entertainment Eschatology Ethics Evangelical Evangelism Evil Evolution Fear Forgive Yourself Forgiveness Francis Chan Future Israel Gay Marriage Gender Genesis George Floyd Gospel Government Gun Control Halloween hamartiology Heavenly Reward Hermeneutics History Hollywood Holy Spirit Homeschool Homosexual Homosexuality Hope Hospitality Humor Husband Infant Baptism Interview Jesus John Piper Josh Duggar Joshua Harris Judgment Justice Kathy Griffin Kim Davis Leadership Logic Love Manhood Marriage Martin Luther Messianic Prophecy Miscarriage Mocking Modesty Money Movie Reviews Music Music Review Netflix New Testament Obergefell Old Testament Parenting Pastor Pastoring Persecution Planned Parenthood Podcast Politics Pop Culture Pornography Prayer Preaching Predestination Pride Prosperity Gospel Rachel Held Evans Racism Ravi Zacharias Redemption Reformation 500 Reformation Day Reformed Theology Relationship Repentance Salvation Same Sex Marriage Satan Satire Scripture Seminary Sex Sin slavery Sola Scriptura Soteriology Sovereignty Spiritual Gifts Spurgeon Star Wars Steven Furtick Suffering Sufficiency of Scripture Sunday School Supreme Court Technology Testimony The Church The Lord of the Rings The Problem of Evil The Shack Theology Theonomy Tithing Transgenderism Tullian Tchividjian Uncategorized Universalism Vanity Fair Video Games Virgin Birth Voting Wife Women Worldview Worship

Select a Month June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 June 2023 April 2023 March 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz