Music Matters
Music is a gift from God that helps the head and the heart connect. In worship, we have the opportunity to use music to draw near to God with both. Whether you're a trained musician or a monotone "drone pipe," we invite you to worship God through song with us.
Every Sunday we'll sing 3-4 hymns, Psalms, and spiritual songs from the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. On the same Sunday we could sing a hymn written in the last ten years and a Psalm written 3,000 years ago. We also sing a rotation of familiar doxologies every Sunday because it ends our service in Trinitarian praise and it allows our non-reading children to sing at least one song with us every Sunday.
Core Commitments
How do we choose? With so many instruments, styles of music, and songs available, how do we decide what's appropriate for corporate worship? While we enjoy many types of music pre-service, at church events, and for non-worship services, we are guided by the following principles for music that the congregation will sing together:
1) It must be true. This applies in all cases. Everything we sing, play, or hear at church events should have lyrics that are true. Music should reinforce truth and reject lies.
2) It should be beautiful. God is beautiful. He made us to desire and love beauty.
3) The words and sounds should fit together. Inhale some helium and then sing "Holy, Holy, Holy." See the discontinuity? An extreme example for sure, but some words and styles just don't match up. We look for music where the the music supports the words we're singing. Sometimes this isn't a question of right and wrong but of good and better. Take our example from before, "Holy, Holy, Holy." It's good when sung with a guitar. It's great when sung with the majesty of an organ. "Before the Throne of God Above" is just the opposite. Organ good; guitar better.
4) The lyrics should progress. Words communicate truth and meaning matters. When we're singing a 3-5 minute song in church, we've got a lot of time to dig into significant meaning. Some songs tend to make the same point over and over without much progression. We want to sing songs that connect the mind and heart as both are drawn near to God.