What It Sounds Like

On a recent Wretched Radio podcast, host Todd Friel played a clip of corporate singing from the Together 4 the Gospel Conference (T4GC).  In the past, Mr. Friel has noted that in a typical church service, the female voices are the loudest heard when singing.  But on the rare occasion when male voices are the loudest, it's magnificent.  I have to agree.  Such was the case during worship at the Together 4 the Gospel Conference.

Thus began a discussion on the difference between being encouraged to worship fervently and being told something that motivates us to worship fervently.  Many churches have prominently visualized worship leaders whose voices are heard well above the congregation and who do their best to encourage the congregation to worship fervently by their fervent performance.

Other churches have worship leaders who simply lead the congregation in singing songs that tell us something wonderful about our Savior and our great salvation.  Good, old fashioned, Gospel centered hymns like, "Amazing Grace", "My Jesus I love Thee" or, as you'll hear below, "It is Well with My Soul" will accomplish this.  I'm thankful we attend a church where the latter is true.  How about you?

Mr. Friel said:

"Instead of just telling me to worship fervently, how about telling me something about Jesus that motivates me to worship fervently?  Isn’t there a big difference?  One is an admonition without any sort of indicative, without any sort of Gospel base that causes you to want to shout for joy.  One is, 'do it!', the other is 'Let me tell you something about Jesus' and then you want to.  How about setting us up for worship?...Instead of putting on something we are supposed to impersonate, lead me to want to worship fervently by reading Scripture, by telling me something about the Savior or about our great salvation or about how amazing Jesus is by dying for sinners.  That would then lead me into worship rather than trying to coax, goad or prompt me into worship. Same thing is true with preaching.  Don’t just give the imperatives. Go read the book of...Colossians , maybe Ephesians.   Ephesians, really two chapters of 'here’s the Gospel, here’s the Gospel, here’s the Gospel, then [Paul] starts getting into, 'now here’s the stuff you should do.'  Pastor, Worship Leader, why don’t you tell us more about Jesus that would lead us to sound like this.”  [See the video below to hear what “this” sounds like.  Right around 2:30, you may get goosebumps!]