Don't get too excited?

Richard Simpkin  |  Features  |  Music
Date posted:  1 May 2007
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How much are we supposed to enjoy ourselves when we sing in a Christian meeting? As evangelicals, our fear of going over the top with our emotions often leaves us bereft of any emotion at all.

We sing because they that’s what they did in the New Testament Christian gathering, so it must be important. Don’t know why it’s important, but better do it anyway.

This is a tough one to get to grips with. Some congregations have strong outpourings of emotion, but are singing about nothing at all. Others will sing deep truths about the glory of the grace of God with as much animation as a llama in a snowstorm. In this latter case, we’d want to encourage a more passionate response, though it would be wrong to force people to express themselves in a way that they don’t feel is appropriate. On the surface, the former case seems an easier problem to tackle — just give them better songs to sing. If only it was that simple in practice.

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