Walter Brueggemann is one of the most trusted voices in Christian Theology. His Old Testament expertise has blessed me and many others hundreds of times over. He has written a helpful and thought provoking piece at Church Anew that anyone who loves the songs and hymns (and all the styles betwixt and in-between) would benefit from reading it.

He offers: the hymns of the church “have to be sung in community. They cannot be read or thought or remembered or reduced to abstraction.” I couldn’t agree more.

The church and the spiritual lives of each and every church-goer would certainly be blessed by a deeper level of scrutiny with regard to the words we sing. Far too many songs are sung mindlessly and planned without receiving consideration for the overall spiritually formative message that they contain. it’s not about whether you sing “7 words 11 times,” but rather, do these songs form, inform, and transform those who sing them more and more into the image of Christ. This purpose is the ultimate calling for all within the field of Church Music…and it is a high and daunting calling to say the very least.