Music Forms What we Love

“When we worship God, we experience the joy we were meant to experience all along because we’re doing what we were created to do” - Ken Boer. In addition to music forming what we think, music also forms what we love.

We were created to love and worship God, and if we truly do, the words in the songs we sing should naturally reflect that. Singing about God’s character and love for us and glorifying Him for what He has done for the world is the response of a heart that is truly in awe of the beauty of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. God is love, and we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:8, 19).

Loving what is true, good, and beautiful is good for our minds and hearts. Philippians 4:8 reads, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Who is more true, noble, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise than the triune God who created us, died the death we deserve, sent His Spirit to dwell with us, and is making all things new?

A good question to consider is, what do the songs we sing in church ultimately lead us to love? Everyone would like to be able to say that the songs will lead them to love Christ. But oftentimes, I’ve found that many of the contemporary songs in today’s worship services lead us to love the self. They tend to focus more on what the singer is doing to worship God, or about the benefits the singer receives from worshiping God, including a positive emotional experience.

We must be asking, are our affections set on God or on ourselves? What do we spend our time thinking about, and how does the music we sing affect that? It is human nature that we worship what we love, so we must not make self our idol.

Worship leaders and elders choosing songs that would spiritually benefit the audience is a way of loving the congregation. Worship leaders should not choose the songs they lead every Sunday based on the people’s emotional reaction or what is popular at the time. They must give thought to what they choose instead of following the crowd of the Christian music industry.

Because the music we sing is formative and teaches us things about God, it is especially important that worship leaders choose songs that will communicate Biblical Truths to inform the minds and hearts of the congregation of God’s grace and unconditional love for us. In the words of Michael Bleecker, “The church cannot afford to settle for worship leaders who are capable musicians but are incompetent theologians.”

Worship leaders must not focus on what feels empowering to the audience, or what sounds cool, or how everything looks on stage, but on what is best for the people in their church. Because ultimately, the enrichment of the minds and hearts of the congregation will matter more in the end and will last for all eternity.

This post is the second in my Christian worship series. You can find the series introduction and part one by following these links.

Photo credit: Anthony Delanoix on Unsplash