First, some confessions. Among immediate family, in-laws, uncles and cousins, I have a disproportionate number of music teachers and professional musicians. I participated in music groups from grade school through college. I’ve grown up taking music seriously.

And I think we in the church rarely take our singing seriously enough. Need to say something to someone? Not during the sermon. Not during a prayer. Do it during a song. Want to get people to come in and sit down? Let’s sing ’em in. I’ve never been in a church that “prayed ’em in.”

Many songs are prayers. I guess I didn’t really think about that until studying the story of Paul and Silas in Acts. Most English versions stick in a conjunction that isn’t in the original. While they say something like “Paul and Silas were praying and singing,” the original text says “Paul and Silas praying sang…” They weren’t two separate activities. Their songs were prayers to God, as are many of ours. When we sing “Lord, we come before Thee now,” what is that but a prayer? When we sing to God, we are praying. And if you look at the songs we sing, many are directed to God.

Another way in which we don’t take our singing seriously is in not thinking about the words we sing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:15 “I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” Too many times we sing songs because they are fun to sing and not because they have anything meaningful to say. Most people who sing “Just a Little Talk With Jesus” don’t believe that you can be made whole just by having a little talk with Jesus. We sing “Down in the Evergreen Valley” without ever questioning where in the Bible it talks about an evergreen valley. I personally don’t like to sing “I’ve Got A Mansion” because I’m not in it for a mansion, a robe and a crown; I want to live eternally in the presence of God, be it in a mansion or a hut with rags on. And I have yet to find anyone who can explain the phrase “May Your kingdom be established in our praises,” which is a line from a popular praise song. God’s kingdom is established in our praises?

You’re being too picky! Am I? It’s quite possible, based on the confession I made at the beginning. But I think if we viewed singing as a solemn act, we’d do some things differently. We might even get guys to take their caps off while singing, rather than just for spoken prayers.

Though I doubt we’ll ever get to the point of saying, “Brother Jones will lead our opening prayer song.”