Our Church Has An Excellent Choir

As one of the music coordinators of our church, one of my greatest privileges has been to direct our excellent choir. The sincerity, the musicality, the true worship, and the sheer volume is truly amazing. Whether we’ve met in store fronts, fellowship halls, wedding venues, or traditional church spaces, I could always count on our choir stepping up and delivering. Men, women, and especially the children in our choir lifting their voices together in praise to our God encourages and strengthens my own singing, and causes me to more sincerely worship the King. With over 200 choir members, you’d think this would be hard to lead, but in reality, this choir formed naturally and is constantly growing. If you’re a member of Grace Community Church, you might be thinking, “Wait a minute. I didn’t think we had a choir. What is he talking about?” And to be fair, you’d be right.

The choir that I’m talking about doesn’t have robes. They’ve never gotten together to learn parts. Most of this choir has no idea that they are in the choir actually. Grace Community Church has a congregational choir. Specifically, our choir is the congregation. Each member is a vital part of that choir of voices that sings the glory of His name and gives Him glorious praise (Psalm 66:2). Every man, woman, and child plays a role in the musical worship that happens on Sunday mornings. And not just a role, but the most important singing role every week. The musicians make every decision so as to facilitate the genuine worship of the people of God. God is worthy of musical praise. Hear the redundancy of the Psalmist: “Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises” (Psalm 47:6)!

As a member of the Grace Community Church Congregational Choir (GCCCC?), do you see the importance of your singing? Are you singing with grace in your heart to the Lord? Are you hoping to fill our space with glorious praise? If you’ve never thought about it, let today be the day that you realize that you’re a part of an excellent choir. This goes for men and women. Christ was a singer (Matt 26:30, Heb 2:12), so learning to sing praises to God is learning how to be more like Christ.

And if you don’t attend my church, realize that the collective voices of the congregation are the most important voices you hear each Sunday. I hope that every church is facilitating their own congregational choir to give God the glory due His name. If you participate in leading the musical worship at your church, make decisions that best allow your church to sing loudly, joyfully, reverently, and, as John Wesley would say it, “lustily and with good courage!” If you have a traditional choir, or a praise team, or something else, don’t let them become a replacement for congregational singing, but rather to aid in congregational singing. God is worthy of more than just the praise of a few. He deserves praise from everything that has breath (Psalm 150:6)!

So, you’re right. We don’t have a “choir” as traditionally understood, but our church has an excellent choir. The choir of the congregation, when singing at full strength, full of faith, and full of love produces glorious praise. When we sing together we teach and admonish one another and our hearts pour out thanksgiving to God (Col 3:16). When we gather together, join the choir and look at one another and say, “Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3)!