BOOK SUMMARY: SING! HOW WORSHIP TRANFORMS YOUR LIFE, FAMILY, AND CHURCH - CHAPTER 7 - THE RADICAL WITNESS WHEN CONGREGATIONS...SING!

Psalm 66:2 Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious.

"Glorious worship is exuberant, never half-hearted. It is attractive, not off-putting. It is awesome, never sentimental. It is brilliant, not careless. It points to God, not to the speakers.  There is nothing more evangelistic, nothing that will win the world more than glorious worship." -- Tim Keller

We all sing of a hope that is for all people; a hope we must share.  

SINGING TOGETHER IS ALWAYS A WITNESS

Our churches aren't just places that we are equipped to witness. They are places that bear witness to Christ. 

"It is not only the individual Christian believer who is to let their light shine...each church is to be a lighthouse."  -- Rico Tice

To visitors, the radical sight and sound of a congregation singing praises to God together is a radical witness in a culture that rejects God and embraces individualism.  Your singing is always a witness.  Is it a good witness or a bad witness?

POWERFUL WITNESS

Many Psalms show Israel's awareness of other nations listening into their singing, and called them to praise God, too.  See Psalm 117.  

The congregational worship in their prayer, their praise and their actions was a dynamic witness in the early church. See Acts 2:46-47. 

Luther and the Reformers inspired and enabled their congregations to sing together in their own language.  It was revolutionary.  British and American revivalist movements (Wesley brothers, Moody, etc.) had the hallmark of congregational singing which was a powerful testimony to unbelievers. The same is true of the Billy Graham crusades.  

SINGING THE GOSPEL

In Christ Alone was Keith Getty's first hymn, co-written with Stuart Townend. It was sort of a protest song, written out of frustration with the lack of depth in songs that were being sung in many churches in 2001.  It is a song that tells the whole gospel story. 

A DAMAGING WITNESS

We must actually believe and live the truths we sing, otherwise what we sing can make us hypocritical. This wont' attract non-believers.  It turns them off. Some of Jesus' harshest words were for people who honored Him with their lips while their hearts were far from Him (Mark 7:6-7). Hypocritical living damages our witness and so does half-hearted singing. 

FACING A TASK UNFINISHED

Spiritual songs we sing can also move us to go a foreign country for missions and sustain us on the mission field, not just help us in our local evangelism.  

Frank Houghton wrote a missional hymn in the 1930's called Facing A Task Unfinished. It was first sung at a mission prayer meeting. It inspired over two hundred missionaries to go to China. It is estimated that these efforts grew the China population of believers from less than one million to well over one hundred million. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

(1).  If I were a visitor to your church and knew nothing of the gospel, what would your church music selections convey to me?

(2).  How does your church's music connect to the youth and children in your midst?

(3).  Are you willing to give up your personal preferences so that the singing in your church is a witness to unbelievers?

(4).  Do we fill our lives with songs that encourage world-wide mission efforts?