Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending the first Sing! conference in Nashville, hosted by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It was an intense time of singing and instruction, one that is taking me a lot of time to process. As a high functioning introvert, my processing is very internal, but there is much I would like to remember and share about the time at Sing ’17.

There were five goals outlined for this conference by Getty Music and the participants: 

1. Helping pastors, musicians, and congregations have a clear vision and understanding of why we sing.
2. Helping each of us realize the importance of what we sing and how it affects our personal lives.
3. Helping us raise our families with an appetite for congregational singing and a training in it.
4. Helping our churches become more energized and more focused in their congregational singing.
5. Helping fire us to mission as we witness to others through the songs we sing.

They pursued these goals through corporate gatherings of singing, an expansive list of practical breakout sessions, as well as these plenary sessions:

• A Vision of Why We Sing: Created, Compelled, Commanded — Alistair Begg
• The Radical Witness of Congregational Singing — David Platt
• Singing and the Community of the Church — Paul Tripp
• Sing to the Lord! Singing and the Christian Mind — D. A. Carson
• Singing and the Journeys of Life — Joni Eareckson Tada
• A Vision for a Singing Church — Keith Getty

The conference partnered with LifeWay Worship and has made the content available through a purchased digital pass. More info about that here.

More of what I learned and how I was challenged in future posts.

​This is a follow up to my previous post on Bob Kauflin's book True Worshipers.

Chapter Seven, True Worshipers Keep Singing: Worship and Perseverance is packed with many helpful questions that have us all at some point. The following list is certainly not exhaustive, but includes the questions that resonated most strongly with me.

WHAT IF I DON'T FEEL LIKE SINGING?
"Sometimes we come in on a Sunday morning and the last thing we want to do is sing. God gave us singing as a means not only of expressing our emotions but also speaking to them. We won't always be moved in the same way or to the same degree when we sing. There may be times when we feel numb. But the answer isn't to stop singing. Crying for grace to feel strong affections toward [God] is itself a sign of true worship. And certainly more fruitful than gritting our teeth and accepting the condition as normal."

WHY DO WE SING SO MANY OLD SONGS (OR NEW SONGS)?
"Objecting to songs simply because they're old is rooted in the same problem as objecting to new ones. We want to sing the songs we like. But the issue isn't how familiar we are with the songs. The issue is whether we're going to take every opportunity as true worshipers to exalt God."

This is a great exhortation to me as one who can be distracted by my own critical spirit when in an unfamiliar worship scenario. Kauflin's answer can be applied to any aspect of a worship service. Perhaps we're in a service more "rigid" than we're used to or perhaps the liturgy is very different. The choice is ours: do we enter in and seek the glory of the Lord or do we itemize those things which do not live up to our standards?

WHAT DO I DO WHEN I'M DISTRACTED?
"It's enough to be distracted internally by our own thoughts, relational challenges, struggles, pains, and anxieties. But distractions can also be external. It might be a leader or someone in the band who's particularly expressive or grumpy looking. It might be the temperature in the room. If you're a musician, you might be bothered by a bad mix. It's the rare meeting that doesn't have something we can complain about. But for true worshipers, the question is always, How can I respond in a way that exalts God's glory in Christ in my mind, affections, and will?"

I am so thankful for Bob Kauflin's work in music and worship at Sovereign Grace. It has helped me grow in so many ways and I hope it helps us all to keep singing!

In the last few posts I unpacked the three broad characteristics of Christian worship as defined by the BiFrost Arts curriculum. Read more about the curriculum here. The curriculum asserts that Christian worship will be Biblical, Trinitarian, and Redemptive.  

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The fourth broad characteristic of Christian worship is that it is Participatory. 
Participatory worship helps to challenge two idolatries:

1. seeing the preacher as the one who does all the heavy lifting in the worship service. 
2. believing that a worship leader or musician will deliver an expressive experience of worship to us. 

If the preacher/pastor is doing all of the heavy lifting, then we are tempted to check out of the rest of the service. "It's all lead up to the sermon anyway." We might even be tempted to substitute podcast sermons for actual worship attendance, when we are physically able to attend church. Biblical sermons are excellent, but it is easy to treat them as another self help talk if we think Sunday worship is just about me learning more. 

So when we read scripture together in worship, read it intentionally. When we confess our sins, may it be heartfelt and genuine. When we hear the promise of the gospel that our sins are forgiven in Jesus, take it in deeply. When we listen to musicians or soloists we do not have to be passive. Listen actively, searching for God's glory in what is being sung or played. The work of our worship is actively receiving the finished work of Jesus.

I recently finished Bob Kauflin's book True Worshipers. In his normal winsome and clear way, Kauflin draws our attention to the core truths about worship. ​While many of his insights are not new, he provides them in a context which helps the believer process worship individually and in community.  

His chapters on music are particularly helpful. In chapter six, TRUE WORSHIPERS SING: Worship and Music, he covers the what and why of corporate singing, acknowledging that if we sing without understanding God's purpose for it, we won't be motivated to sing. 

"No one is excused. Not even those with zero musical ability. The critical question is not Do I have a voice? but Do I have a song? And if you're a true worshiper, forgiven and reconciled to God through the atoning work of Christ, the answer is a resounding yes. It's not a song we originated or created. We can't add to it, change it, or improve upon it. It's the song of the redeemed for their great Redeemer. It's a song God's people have been singing together for thousands of years."

Most of us are struggling at some time in worship. We might be fighting fatigue, children, depression, or any number of emotional and relational battles as we try to stand and engage in the work of worship. If singing is just about our expression and what we can contribute, we can feel resentful or hypocritical when our hearts are not in it.  His next question, WHAT does singing do? provides grounding for our hearts.

Singing encourages and expresses the Spirit's work in our hearts and it helps us to remember God's Word. It helps us to teach and be taught and to express and engage our emotions. It also encourages physical expressiveness and help us to express our unity with the church. Remember these corporate aspects of song the next time you are tempted to check out during the service and remember that the body of Christ is a collection of believers, skeptics, and strugglers who are uniting around the perfect work of Jesus and singing HIS song.

"If you no longer have to fear eternal separation from God, if death is merely the doorway to unspeakable joy, if sin has been conquered, hell is overcome, and Jesus has saved you to enjoy unending pleasures at God's right hand, then you have a song to sing. And it's a song that no trial, no disease, no struggle, no persecution, no power on earth or in hell can stop."

Continuing from my last post, I want to discuss how Trinity's worship reflects God's Big Story.

Our services are structured around five main pillars: God gathers, cleanses, speaks, strengthens, and sends.

God Gathers Us
God initiates (CREATION) and calls us to Himself through his Word. We read scripture, ask for God's help in worship, and sing songs in praise of his attributes.

God Cleanses Us
The Confession and Assurance sequence (FALL - REDEMPTION) presents one of the many paradoxes in worship. Despite the joyful nature of the material that precedes it - singing, calls to worship, and prayers of adoration - the proper result of praise is a form of sorrow. Sorrow that our lives don't reflect the glorious attributes of our Creator. Sorrow that our hearts have worshipped things other than God. The Confession/Assurance sequence, though reflective in tone, leads us out of sorrow into pardon, relief, and joy through the hope of the gospel, the atoning work of Jesus on the cross.

Repentance and forgiveness is central to the life of the believer. Martin Luther spoke of this in the first of his Ninety-Five Theses: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." Confessing corporately reminds us that we must be doing this individually. It unites believers under the promises of the gospel and shows those among us who do not yet believe that our hope is not in ourselves, our self-determination, or our abilities, but in Jesus Christ alone.

God Speaks to Us
Through the preaching of God's Word (CREATION-FALL-REDEMPTION-CONSUMMATION), we hear more of God's loving instruction and exhortation and are further equipped to live as those who has been called out of darkness into his light. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

God Strengthens Us
The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a simultaneous look back at the cross and our need for the atoning blood of Jesus (FALL-REDEMPTION) and a look forward in anticipation of the marriage supper of the Lamb (CONSUMMATION) .

In his book Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace,  James Torrance speaks of  the Lord's Supper as the supreme expression of all worship. "It is the act in which the risen and ascended Lord meets us at his table, in the power of the Spirit, to bring his passion to our remembrance and to draw us to himself that we may share his communion with the Father and his intercessions for the world."

God Sends Us
Although we have been reminded of our forgiveness in Christ and have been strengthened through the promises of the gospel preached and enacted in Communion, we are still sojourners in a fallen world. We  are reminded that just as we have been the church gathered, we are being sent out to be the church scattered. Our worship and our mission are joined.