There is something so uplifting to the heart when you raise your voice in song to the Lord, and it’s even more meaningful to do it with others – singing a hymn that has been passed down for centuries or praising God with the latest upbeat Christian release.
Whether we sing in our home church, at a conference with hundreds of people, or let ourselves imagine the day when we will all be singing among the multitudes in heaven, we’re directing our praise, worship and thanksgiving where it belongs: to Jesus.
One of the songwriters for CityAlight, Rich Thompson, says his favourite part about singing at his home church of Castle Hill is hearing the congregation around him.
“Sometimes I’ll stop singing and just close my eyes and listen – especially when there are acapella moments – and just picture that I’m in the new creation surrounded by my fellow brothers and sisters from around the world,” he says.
“I think there’s something so pure and beautiful about the church singing. There’s nothing else like it on the planet, and it’s the same no matter what country you go to – you hear Christians singing and the same feeling arises.
“There is spiritual work being done in the songs that the people are singing that brings people together and reminds us what God’s truths are. It’s teaching and encouraging and community building and worship all at once. It’s just beautiful.”
So, what songs do we love, and why do we love them? On one hand it’s a deeply personal thing, but there are also certain hymns or pieces of Christian music that seem to make a soul-deep connection with anyone who hears them.
We thought we’d ask readers of Southern Cross to let us know their personal favourites and we’ll let you know the results in our December-January edition. You can vote at sydneyanglicans.net/music But to help you along the way, we’ve asked some songwriters and musicians in the Diocese for their thoughts about singing, songwriting and the songs they love.
Why is singing together such a joy?
“Being moved emotionally together is really special for me,” says the Rev Mike Begbie, who is rector of Hornsby Heights, a songwriter, and a song leader at the Church Missionary Society’s annual Summer School in Katoomba.
“We had this moment in our church yesterday where we sang ‘Oh Great God’ by Bob Kauflin after the sermon and it was a really moving moment,” he continues. “I’d used the second verse as an illustration in my sermon from Mark 4.
“It’s great as a preacher where you can pick those moments where you can connect people with the words of a song. The same thing can happen at Summer School – you have those moments where singing together can be a really profound experience.”
For Colin Buchanan, there are almost too many things to list about the goodness of singing God’s praises with others.
“You get to worship the infinite God, and singing is a picture of heaven – so the notion of singing is an eternal endeavour, and the nature and character of God being what it is, that he’s worthy of that,” he says. “And you get to sing things that are true and there’s that element of confession for your own heart but also in a corporate setting to join your voices.
“Music also has a certain sort of communion to it that it, again, is individual and corporate, which is really powerful and unique and beautiful. I’ve always thought it was one of the Lord’s riskier moves to invite it into the gathering of God’s people. It’s a little like introducing chocolate onto the menu – people won’t eat anything else!
“Music engrosses people. It enlivens people... it gives expression and resonance, and it unifies people. it does all those things quite apart from any Christian understanding of music, although I think all those things were put there by the Creator.”
Alanna Glover, the creative director of Emu Music, considers the most underrated thing about Christian singing to be that it can move beyond Sunday gatherings. Yes, it can build community, help us express praise and is “a great way for us to memorise truth”, but she says we are limiting it if that’s all we think it is.
“What the Colossians do in Colossians 3:16 is a great example of what’s going on when are you singing (Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts), but in verse 17 it talks about moving it into all of our lives (And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him),” she says.
“Singing the word of God to one another is a great experience in the moment, being at church, praising God, but then through the work of his Spirit those words put to melodies continue to play on our minds but as we go about our daily lives. And the Holy Spirit uses that to transform us.
“It goes beyond just that Sunday singing. We know that through lived experience, we think about how cool it is in the moment but it’s so much more powerful than that.”
Global unity through praise
The creative arts and music minister at Figtree, Greg Bell, will shortly take up a music role at a church in southern England and loves knowing that – wherever he is in the world – he can sing with his brothers and sisters and be united in faith together.
“There is a unifying aspect as everyone is centred on Christ, and I think that’s what makes it different to a concert or a football game where people might be singing together,” he says. “It’s Christ being at the centre of the gathering, which makes it unique.
Rich Thompson adds that while there is always something special about singing in church “with your friends and closest people”, travel for work has shown him that the oneness of praising together occurs wherever he goes.
“I think that’s the beauty of the body of Christ, that it is one,” he says. “It truly is. The feeling of being in your home church is not too dissimilar from when I’m in a different church. There’s an indelible bond that happens between believers that puts us in the category of family. Even if I’ve just met them, I get the same feeling.”
Important songs for me
Certain songs and hymns can take on a deeper meaning for us because of their link to particular events in our lives. It might be a song we got to know when we first came to faith or when we were ill. It might be a hymn connected to a family tradition, or perhaps the wedding or funeral of someone we love.
These things don’t trump the scriptural truths and beauty of the song. If anything, they help us consider and appreciate them more deeply.
“It can be a meaningful song because of something that’s happened in their past or even in the 1½ hours of the church service,” Mike Begbie says. “If they’ve realised the meaning to the song there’s similar engagement, I think, which is why it’s so good in your service planning if you can connect people with songs on the way.”
A long-time favourite song of his is “King of My Heart” by John Mark McMillan and Sarah McMillan and, more recently, “Christ Our Wisdom” by Sovereign Grace – while the hymn he chooses, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” by William Cowper, is one he has never sung but has the words framed on his office wall.
“There are lots of songs I really like, but they don’t have the same meaning, and so much meaning is context,” he says. “I have a history with [the most important ones]. They’ve come to me at particular moments in my life... you come across a song, and it becomes a part of the experience – the way God helps see you through something.”
When Alanna Glover leads singing, she can see what people “thirst for” – the ideas and concepts in the lyrics that really speak to their souls and hearts.
She has also seen how God has used the many hymns she has known throughout her life to teach and care for her in different seasons. For that reason, her favourite hymn has changed many times but, right now, her choice is “All People That on Earth do Dwell”, which is based on Psalm 100.
“For the past few conferences [I have led] I’ve started with this song,” she says. “I say how there’s so much that’s competing for our attention in a service and when we gather, so can we all just take a deep breath. It’s warm and invitational. Then I read Psalm100. It ends in a doxology drawing us to praise the Father, Son and Spirit. So that’s my favourite at the moment.”
Choosing a modern song is trickier, but she eventually plumps for “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa. As far as Emu songs go, “I have a real soft spot for ‘Creation Awaits’ because I think it captures the longing and the groaning for the world to come, the new heavens and a new earth. So, there’s a lot of confidence at [our] victory in it, but it also captures that longing.”
Greg Bell’s favourite hymn is “Before the Throne of God Above” as he loves the intimacy of its language – particularly lines such as, “My name is written on his heart” that show how closely our Lord cares for and loves us.
His song choice is “Behold Him” by Paul Baloche, and he especially responds to the ascending melody that “matches the lyric and elevates it” at the point where Christ’s resurrection is described.
“‘Behold Him’ covers a lot of ground: creation, incarnation, Jesus’ work on earth, death and resurrection, and by the time you get to the bridge you’re at the ‘Holy, holy, holy’ language of Revelation 4,” he says. “I love to sing that with our contemporary congregations at Figtree.”
Hymns that last
When it comes down to it, there’s nothing like an old faithful. Rich Thompson can’t go past “When I Survey” as his hymn choice, which he acknowledges might seem a bit clichéd for some but says that “it just does it for me every time... lines like ‘All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood’. I don’t feel that they’ve ever run dry. There is so much beauty and richness in there.”
Colin Buchanan feels the same way about “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story”, observing that it contains the full arc of the gospel, and enthusiastically quoting lines about “saints in glory, gathered by the crystal sea”.
“It’s got so much in it!” he says. “Some hymns are made of stone, some are crafted concrete and some are polystyrene. [The hymns we love] have the advantage that they’ve been sifted by time. There are plenty of stinker hymns and time has chosen to shuffle them into oblivion, while the ones that stick around are bangers.”
When it comes to contemporary Christian songs, both he and Thompson have been deeply touched by the impact of “Jesus Strong and Kind”. Thompson began the song with fellow CityAlight songwriter Jonny Robinson, thinking, “What is the song we want our daughters to be singing when they go to sleep and what do we want them to be singing when they’re 90 years old... then we took it over to Colin and he enriched it with us”.
Adds Buchanan: “I’ve just loved seeing the journey of ‘Jesus Strong and Kind’. I feel that in terms of songs I’ve written it’s a bit of a sibling to ‘Be Strong and Courageous’, and both of those songs have had a genuinely humbling and sobering presence for people in many different settings. That’s God’s spirit and God’s word and the consolation of his compassion and kindness.”
These two are Buchanan’s picks for favourite Christian song, while Thompson goes way back into the 1970s for his choice: “There Is A Redeemer” by Keith and Melody Green.
“I think in terms of putting a statement and a response to it, that song is just close to perfect,” he says. “‘Thank you, oh my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done’ – oh, my goodness me! In four lines there’s so much theology there, and it just comes from the heart. It’s simple but it’s beautiful.”
So, what will your choices be?
Choose at sydneyanglicans.net/music
