Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Sing to the Lord: Connecting Minds with Hearts in Praise



Worship Songs with Substance

Anyone who has spent time talking with me about worship music knows that I place a high value on “substance” in the songs I sing. What do I mean by substance? I suppose I use the term in contrast with “fluff”. There are plenty of “fluff” songs that make their way into worship services, most with catchy hooks, powerful melodies, and not a whole lot to say to God (or about). I like songs that have something to say! Songs that preach, songs that have weight, songs that declare the greatness of God; who Christ is, and what He has done. Now, far from another blog lamenting the state of contemporary worship music, I want to talk about why I like songs with substance, not complain about songs I don’t like. I like songs with substance because I believe only such songs have the ability to engage both heart and mind in worship.

The Challenges with Corporate Worship


I think there are two challenges we can face with our corporate worship in song.

1) First, we can sometimes find ourselves singing from our minds, just making our way from verse to verse, but never being effected in our hearts by the things we are singing. We aren’t stirred, we aren’t moved in our affections and our adoration of Christ. We are just mouthing words and “following the bouncing ball” until the guy behind the mic says we can sit down.

There are a few reasons this sometimes happens. One being that we are just not prepared to worship. We may have had a bad morning, or a hard week, and our mind us just disconnected from the moment. In this case, we need to remember what we are participating in, not just an event, but a worship gathering. We need to pray, even seek for the prayers of others, and ask that the Holy Spirit would prepare our hearts to worship. In other cases, this can take place simply because the songs lack the kind of substance, passion, and depth, that would require the full attention of our hearts.

2) Second, we can sometimes find ourselves so enraptured in the music, so caught up in the movement of the melody, that we are shouting and singing with all our hearts, but, if we were to stop and consider the lyrics we are so passionately belting out, we would have little, if any idea what they even mean! If this is the case (and believe me, it is more often than people usually want to admit), we need to stop and evaluate why we are doing what we are doing. When we do, I believe the answer we will most often find is that we just aren’t thinking. Worship has become all about emoting with hearts in high gear, but with our brains sitting in park.

Words of Encouragement


What I want to encourage you to do, is to equally engage both heart and mind in worship. Slow down long enough to stop and consider what you are doing, and why you are doing it. That when you sing together with the family of God, to think about those great gospel truths up on the screen.

Think, meditate, relish, embrace, treasure, and SING!

When you do, you will find that the heart will be stirred in equal passion as the Holy Spirit takes those precious truths, and applies them over Your life. Your will there see Christ, and all of His goodness, given to you, and your heart will say “I must rejoice! I must declare my love for my Savior who has given Himself for me.

So, worship Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, He is worthy!

~ Chris Centola
Oasis Community Church