Sola Christo

In church today, while Pastor Loggans was preaching, I happened to be thinking about what the music pastor at my home church, Pastor Hunter, said once. We had had music evangelist Larry Brubaker (not sure if I spelled that right) in to, well, be a music evangelist. And after he was gone, Pastor Hunter said something like, “Well, I really enjoyed that, but I don’t think we could handle it every week,” referring to Mr. Brubaker’s rather excited and enthusiastic style of music. So I started to jot a few thoughts down, and here they are.

Why couldn’t we handle that every week? What is music but praise to God? Music was not created for us; it was around long before we were even created. Music in the church, especially, is not about us. It is about God and what he has done or is, or sometimes personal testimony of what he has done or is. We should get excited about that! Why is it that people don’t get as excited over the “song service” as they do over the preaching? Where did the thinking come from that it’s not a “real” church service unless there’s preaching? Isn’t praise to God just as important as learning what else he has to say? So, I think that we should get excited about our singing every week. We should get excited about praising God!

So why don’t we? Why does it seem like it takes a congregation of a thousand to even begin to “make a joyful noise”? Is it because we don’t really believe that God is truly worth our praise? Somehow, I think that may be one of the problems. I know it is in my own heart. Why don’t I sing out as much as I could? It’s because I’m afraid of what people would think of me, isn’t it? Or on the flipside, sometimes I do sing out, and I do because I want people to hear me, and to hear how good I sound. Both attitudes are saying the same thing: my singing is all about me, not all about God.

What’s the solution to this issue? Obviously it’s wrong for me or anybody to make the song service all about me, so what do we do to take the focus off of ourselves and fix it onto God, where it truly belongs? I think the answer to that question lies in another question: Just who is God…to you? Is he that Person who made you a Christian and that you go to visit every Sunday and Wednesday? That One you think about twice a week? Or maybe he’s that one you spend half an hour with every morning and then forget about the rest of the day. If that’s what God is to you or me, then no wonder our singing is all about us; it’s only a reflection of an entire life that is all about us. On the other hand, is God the Person who is our very best friend? Is he that One we look forward to learning about on Sundays and Wednesdays? Is he the one we spend not just a half an hour in the morning, but all day in fellowship with? If that is who God is to me, then my singing in church can’t help but be what it is intended: praise to the One who is everything to me.

So, in contrast to not being “able to handle that” every week, I think we should strive to have that same excitement about praising God, not just through singing in church, but in living our lives every moment of every day.