Have you ever thought any of the following about music in church? 

  • “We sing, then we move to the real thing: the preaching.”

  • “I don’t think about it. Only the band, and maybe the church leaders, need to worry about it?”

  • “We sing to express ourselves, so church singing expresses our emotions to God.”

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. But after an Emu Music evening at Oak Hill College, where we study, we found ourselves reconsidering what church singing is for, and how much it matters. 

Philip Percival and Alanna Glover invited us to consider how we encourage churches to sing, how culture shapes our experience of music, and how Scripture should guide our worship. They opened a wider conversation about congregational singing as Word ministry, misconceptions we’ve absorbed from our expressive individualistic culture, and what a Colossians 3:16 approach could look like.

We’re all in the Band

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m not in the band, music doesn’t really matter to me,” the big surprise is… we’re all in the band! Congregational singing isn’t optional, it’s a vital part of Word ministry, where we sing the gospel to one another for mutual encouragement and God’s glory. While the music group supports this, the heartbeat of church music isn’t performance, it’s the congregation. As the Word of Christ is sung by the body, to the body, it dwells in us richly, admonishing, encouraging, and building us up together in truth and praise. 

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

We can develop strategies for improving music ministry, but unless we understand how culture has shaped us, we’ll always be on the back foot. One cultural influence highlighted was expressive individualism, the idea that truth comes from within, and we need to express our “authentic self” to be validated. This perspective can reshape our approach to singing in church.

We might see this with lyrics that focus more on personal feelings than on the character and work of God, songs picked based on what resonates emotionally. Or we expect to feel something, and if we don’t, we assume worship “didn’t work.” If we’ve had a stressful week and the opening hymn is ‘Praise the Lord’! do we instinctively join in, or does joyful praise feel… forced? That discomfort may reveal just how much our expectations have been shaped more by culture than by Scripture.

Transformational Gospel-shaped Singing

The gospel gives us a better vision for music. What if church music isn’t primarily about emotional expression, but about spiritual formation? Colossians 3:16 urges us to sing the Word of Christ, whatever we’re feeling. Singing isn’t just about expressing how we feel, but about letting congregational singing shape who we are. As a form of Word ministry, we need to be intentional about what we sing and why we sing. Our church music should proclaim the Word, teach the church, be biblically rich, theologically varied, and reflect Scripture’s breadth. It should help lift our eyes from ourselves, draw us into praise, and carry us through the joys and laments of the Christian life. Songs should feed and nurture us in church and throughout the week. We expect sermons to shape us, why not our song words too? What if our singing could draw us out of ourselves, minister to one another, and anchor the whole service in the gospel story?

Singing into the Week

As students we have a daily chapel service and one of the ways the evening helped us to reflect was through the lens of Sabbath. At Oak Hill, our chapel services have increasingly emphasised Sabbath rest, not just as a personal discipline, but as a shared rhythm of pausing each day to re-centre ourselves in the truth. Singing gospel truths reminds us who God is and why we can rest in Him. It counters our productivity-driven culture.

Our time at College, in the classroom, at chapel and in conversation within community, has given us space to reflect and practise as we prepare for future ministry:

  • What does good song leading look like in chapel? 

  • How do we honour musical gifts while prioritising clarity and accessibility? 

  • How can song choice support the Word preached, the prayers prayed, and the shape of the week? 

The Emu evening didn’t just offer musical advice, it gave us a vision. A vision of singing that is biblically rooted, pastorally aware, culturally discerning, and joyfully congregational. Music is not just a feature of church life. It is a formative force in our discipleship, and in the communities we will one day serve.

If we become what we sing, then our music matters, and it’s worth continuing to reflect on how our music-making is shaping us. 

Dorna Nash and Naomi Carle are both students at Oak Hill College.