"How many of you believe that singing in church is for pansies?" That's the question I asked at the last men's breakfast at my church. To their credit, about half of them were honest enough to raise their hands. But it highlights a problem among Christian men in the West. By and large, we believe singing is for women.
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| Photo courtesy of Christian Ostrosky at Flickr.com |
Pastors and worship leaders, like myself, try to explain to men why they are supposed to sing. We quote verses that say things like, "Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing!" (Psalm 100:2) Sometimes we even try to connect them with a song by telling a touching story that's designed to tug on their heart strings. But They're not biting. And at the end of the day, most worship leaders have the same problem - it's difficult to get most men to sing during worship services.
When asked why they don't sing in church, lots of guys will say things like I'm just not the type of guy to sing, or I connect with God in other ways. The only problem is, most of those guys are full of it. But most of us are too polite to call them out on the carpet.
Well, this week, I'm in Las Vegas with my Father-in-Law, Jim, who isn't afraid to call anyone out on the carpet for any reason. He's a great man, who embodies the virtue of taking risks. We came here this week for UFC's Fight Week, which is pretty much as far removed from church worship as you can get, right? Wrong.
On our first day here, we attended the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) Championships. It's amazing, fighters from all over the world come to compete here. And as I sat watching (and fortunately also recording) a fight between a French guy and a Swedish guy, something caught my attention that brought my mind racing back to church worship. Below is the video of what I saw.
If you're having trouble viewing the video, click here
All of the guys singing in this video are fighters, and they were singing to encourage their friend, who was in the cage. A chill shot up my spine as I recorded this, and it displays the number one reason that men should sing (coincidentally, it's the same reason we should be using to encourage them to sing). Men should sing in church because that's what men do.
For as long as there have been great men on earth, there have been great men singing about their passions. For thousands of years, armies from every continent have used music to prepare for battle, and celebrate their victories. Even our own military sings. In fact, they have a different song for every branch (which I assume is because the Marines and the Army are incapable of sharing with each other).
Question: Do you sing in church? Why or why not?
Please leave your answer in the comment section below.
Yes. I sing. Sometimes so loudly that I get comments from the people in front of me. If we can't sing out of a heart full of worship, we can sing joining the residents of heaven, who are singing 24-7, according to Scripture. If that isn't reason to sing, I don't know what is. We are joining the heavenly host to bring praise to the Most High God. What could be a greater calling?
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