How Important Is The Style Of Music - Answers for Church Members - August 24

How important is the style of music a church sings?

The style of music a church sings is relatively unimportant:

Most important are the truth of the words being sung. Since a church sings music in order to worship God, our songs should function like a musical confession of faith. Those confessions of faith should contain substantial truth about God, or else we’ll hardly be worshiping at all.

Two principle purposes of putting such words to music (questions of style aside) are (i) to assist the heart to emotionally engage with the truths being sung, so that one’s emotions properly conform to those truths; (ii) to help the congregation remember, even memorize, those truths. We sing to God to stir up our hearts to exalt and honor him.

The style of music a church uses is ultimately unimportant. Style is passing.

It’s only worth paying attention to insofar as different styles may do a better or worse job of helping people properly conform their hearts to the truths being sung.

Even then, many people can learn to adapt, especially when their pastors teach them that our musical preferences provide us an excellent opportunity to “count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). This is especially true if a church hopes to reach a variety of people from a variety of walks and stations of life.

In short, what we sing is far more important than how we sing it.

For more great resources from Mark Dever and 9Marks Ministries, visit www.9marks.org