Dr Paul Allen

Martin Luther once said, “God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbour does.” The same is true of congregational singing. Although God commands Christians to sing, he doesn’t need our singing in order to be God. He has an eternal choir of living creatures that never cease to sing his praise (Rev. 4:8). And yet he’s designed us to experience joy—and encouragement—when we lift our voices in praise. Though we often conceive of corporate worship vertically, there’s a rich horizontal dimension too. Your neighbours need your church’s singing. Which neighbours? Consider four. 1. Your Doubting Neighbor Some believers barely make it to church each week. They have doubts about God’s goodness, about whether he loves them, about whether showing up to the church is still worth it. Singing may be the last thing on their minds. But in congregational singing, we teach and admonish one another (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). In his excellent book Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s Peopl...

One’s mind can’t help but travel to Philippi in Acts 16 . As Paul and Silas sit in a jail cell with bloody and torn backs, awaiting their certain death, they feel led by the spirit to sing hymns. We don’t know what their intent was. Were they attempting to evangelize their fellow prisoners? If they were, it worked. Were they attempting to encourage one another?  I’m sure that it was encouraging. Perhaps they didn’t know what to say and were probably concerned that they were about to die, and the Holy Spirit inspired them to sing. Regardless, in the moment of deep pain and distress, they resorted to hymns. There are four reasons why, when our hearts are troubled, when we don’t know how to help someone who is in distress, sometimes fewer words and perhaps singing is the right answer.  Here are four reasons why. It is a command We are commanded to sing. All over Scripture, the Bible tells us to sing. Psalm 96 says, “ Sing to the LORD a new song; Sing to the L...

The New Testament describes singing as a corporate activity. A hallmark of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit is that they address “one another” in song ( Ephesians   5:19 ). Why? Because singing is an avenue for Christian love . Consider Colossians   3:16 , Paul’s famous teaching on singing, in its broader context: Above all these put on  love , which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 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 . (Colossians  3:14 –16) There are countless threats to the unity of the body (Colossians 3:6–9). Paul knows that brothers and sisters may have “complaints” against each other (Colossians  3:13 ). What does it look like to foster a community of forgiveness an...