Why Worship: Together
Why Worship: Together
What was your first concert?
Mine was the Jonas Brothers when I was 10 years old. If you asked me, I could tell you the exact spot in my living room I was standing in when I first saw one of their music videos. From that moment, little Jordan was hooked. To my mom’s displeasure, I blasted their CDs all throughout the house and anytime we were in the car together I begged her to let us listen to their songs. But nothing compared to the moment that I was finally able to sing their songs with thousands of other screaming girls. Fans who attended Taylor Swift’s Eras tour have compared their experience to church and before we write these people off as crazy and overly obsessed fans, the same comparison has also been made by sports fans when they attend a game of their favorite team.
There is a certain rush we experience when we leave a concert or a sporting event. For 3+ hours, we’ve gathered with hundreds to thousands of other individuals who are there for the same purpose and same passion. If you take a moment to look around at a concert, it can actually look very similar to some of our church experiences today.
Hands are raised, songs people have memorized are sung at the top of their lungs, and we’re all gathered together for one person/group and one purpose. Now I am not equating a concert to church, but I do think our behavior and our love for concerts and sporting events points to something deeply engraved within the human heart. We were made for communal singing and more than that, we were made for communal worship.
There’s a reason why attending a live concert brings so much more joy than just singing in your car alone. It’s because you were hardwired by God to sing alongside and with others. Research has shown that singing together bonds you with those around you releasing dopamine and oxytocin in your brain. Singing also aids in memorization, that’s why the ABCs is one of the first songs children are taught to learn. If this happens to us even when we sing secular songs, how much more so when we do what we were created to do, which is to worship the one true God. The Bible is filled with commands telling us to sing together, to shout for joy, to lift our hands in worship to God. (Ps. 68:4-6, 100:1-2, Eph. 18-19) From the Old Testament to the New, a marker of God’s people is that they are a singing people who sing together.
John Piper says that, “singing is not just a response to the grace of God, but a means of the grace of God”. John Piper is articulating what science has proven to be true, that God has made us for singing and intends for us to experience His grace when we sing to Him and over one another. The Worship Department at Fellowship clings to Colossians 3:16 which says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Week after week, we gather together as the corporate body of Christ so that we might remind ourselves and sing over one another the truths of who God is and what He has done through Christ. What a privilege it is to look out from stage as we sing “You’ve Already Won” and see a husband and wife lifting their hands after they’ve just had a miscarriage. Or to see someone we know who is struggling deeply with sin, but singing passionately that Jesus has paid it all. This is the joy that you and I have as worship leaders. Week after week we get to lead our congregation in remembering and proclaiming the truths of Scripture through song and allowing our faith to be strengthened and encouraged as these truths are sung by our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So as you step on stage this weekend or you stand shoulder to shoulder with your fellow believers, take hold of this in faith trusting that God intends to reveal more of His character to you and help you see and treasure Christ more clearly as we sing together.
Jordan McKenzie (Worship Associate)
What was your first concert?
Mine was the Jonas Brothers when I was 10 years old. If you asked me, I could tell you the exact spot in my living room I was standing in when I first saw one of their music videos. From that moment, little Jordan was hooked. To my mom’s displeasure, I blasted their CDs all throughout the house and anytime we were in the car together I begged her to let us listen to their songs. But nothing compared to the moment that I was finally able to sing their songs with thousands of other screaming girls. Fans who attended Taylor Swift’s Eras tour have compared their experience to church and before we write these people off as crazy and overly obsessed fans, the same comparison has also been made by sports fans when they attend a game of their favorite team.
There is a certain rush we experience when we leave a concert or a sporting event. For 3+ hours, we’ve gathered with hundreds to thousands of other individuals who are there for the same purpose and same passion. If you take a moment to look around at a concert, it can actually look very similar to some of our church experiences today.
Hands are raised, songs people have memorized are sung at the top of their lungs, and we’re all gathered together for one person/group and one purpose. Now I am not equating a concert to church, but I do think our behavior and our love for concerts and sporting events points to something deeply engraved within the human heart. We were made for communal singing and more than that, we were made for communal worship.
There’s a reason why attending a live concert brings so much more joy than just singing in your car alone. It’s because you were hardwired by God to sing alongside and with others. Research has shown that singing together bonds you with those around you releasing dopamine and oxytocin in your brain. Singing also aids in memorization, that’s why the ABCs is one of the first songs children are taught to learn. If this happens to us even when we sing secular songs, how much more so when we do what we were created to do, which is to worship the one true God. The Bible is filled with commands telling us to sing together, to shout for joy, to lift our hands in worship to God. (Ps. 68:4-6, 100:1-2, Eph. 18-19) From the Old Testament to the New, a marker of God’s people is that they are a singing people who sing together.
John Piper says that, “singing is not just a response to the grace of God, but a means of the grace of God”. John Piper is articulating what science has proven to be true, that God has made us for singing and intends for us to experience His grace when we sing to Him and over one another. The Worship Department at Fellowship clings to Colossians 3:16 which says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Week after week, we gather together as the corporate body of Christ so that we might remind ourselves and sing over one another the truths of who God is and what He has done through Christ. What a privilege it is to look out from stage as we sing “You’ve Already Won” and see a husband and wife lifting their hands after they’ve just had a miscarriage. Or to see someone we know who is struggling deeply with sin, but singing passionately that Jesus has paid it all. This is the joy that you and I have as worship leaders. Week after week we get to lead our congregation in remembering and proclaiming the truths of Scripture through song and allowing our faith to be strengthened and encouraged as these truths are sung by our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So as you step on stage this weekend or you stand shoulder to shoulder with your fellow believers, take hold of this in faith trusting that God intends to reveal more of His character to you and help you see and treasure Christ more clearly as we sing together.
Jordan McKenzie (Worship Associate)
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