This is our pastor’s article for the February 2015 edition of The Shepherd’s Voice, our congregational newsletter.
At Shepherd of the Hills, our choir has been adding to our worship services long before I came here to serve as your pastor. But, I suppose, we can ask, “Why did churches have choirs in the first place?”
From the Old Testament, we learn, “David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers and to have them raise their voices with joy” (1 Chronicles 15:16). The Temple choir had a director, “Kenaniah, the leader of the Levites in music… because he was skillful at it” (1 Chronicles 15:22). In fact, the choir was considered so important that “the singers… stayed in the Temple chambers and were exempt from other duties, for day and night they carried out their duties [of singing]. “ (1 Chronicles 9:33).
But you might be thinking, “That’s Old-Covenant stuff; what does that have to do with us, we who are living in the New Covenant?” That “Old-Covenant stuff” stills matter in this way: It reveals to us the worship principles of the God who does not change (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6). Since we worship the same unchanging God as those in the Old Covenant, the principles that God has revealed concerning worship transcend His Covenants, for they are a reflection of who He is.
We find from the Old-Covenant Temple that worship of God was:
- reverent, elaborate, detailed, and beautiful;
- beautiful treasures adorned their worship spaces;
- the best in music and instrumentation was part of worship; and
- worship involved all our senses (hearing, sight, smell, and taste).
It follows then that our worship of God would, likewise, be reverent, beautiful, and involve all our senses. A choir, then, becomes part of the fullness of that worship, helping provide the “best in music.”
But more than that, a choir also serves other functions. Here are five that come to my mind.
1. A choir, being a combination of voices, helps us understand that congregational singing is not a spectator activity. Singing is part of the congregation’s response of praise and thanks back to God. The choir, by being a combination of voices and a subset of the congregation, helps show that. The congregation’s worship of God involves singing, letting “the Word of Christ dwell richly among you, as you teach and correct one another in all wisdom by psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit (Colossians 3:16).
2. In our Christian lives, we all have times for “getting alone with God,” where you “go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father” (Matthew 6:6). But when we gather for worship, that’s a collective activity. We gather to receive Jesus as He has promised to come to us (Matthew 28:19-20, Matthew 26:26, Luke 24:47, John 20:23). But it’s more than that: we are also “encouraging one another, especially as the Day [of Christ’s return] approaches” (Hebrews 10:25).
The choir helps do this. The choir, as an assembly of voices, shows that as those brought into the Church of Christ, we are not alone–we are part of the collective Body of Christ, the Church. The choir even helps plant in our minds, by being a collective gathering, that when we gather for worship, we also join another collective gathering. In the same way that the choir and congregation join together in worship, so also does the entire congregation join the saints and angels in eternity. We join with “the heavenly Jerusalem, the myriads of angels in festive gathering and the church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven” (Hebrews 12:22-23).
3. The choir can sing hymns that are beyond the ability of the average church member. As a group that focuses on singing, the choir can take time to learn, practice, and sing the harder hymns, which the average person could not learn by singing once or twice. I remember a few years ago, the choir opened our Easter Service by singing the somber-sounding, “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Band” (LSB 458), helping move us from the sorrow of Good Friday into the joy of Easter Sunday.
4. Participating in a church choir helps teach those in the choir how to work together, sacrificially, for the common good of the group. The choir is not about the individual or one person sounding lovely at the expense of the entire group harmonizing together. This is like Christ, who gave sacrificially for the good of His Church. Participating in the choir helps model that in the life of each participant, allowing that understanding then to migrate into other areas of his or her life.
5. And then from a purely physical perspective (remember that God created us as beings with a body and soul), singing in a choir has been shown to have “a calming yet energizing effect on people… like an infusion of the perfect tranquilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves and elevates your spirits.” “The benefits of singing regularly seem to be cumulative. In one study, singers were found to have lower levels of cortisol, indicating lower stress… singing relieves anxiety and contributes to quality of life.” (Quotes in this section are from Time magazine, Aug 16, 2013)
So, after the church service, take time to thank someone in the choir for what he or she does as part of that collection of voices. And if you would like to add your voice to our choir, consider joining. I’m sure Ed Rose can fill you in on the details. For the same Time magazine article I quoted above also said, “It turns out you don’t even have to be a good singer to reap the rewards” of singing in a choir.
