By Lesa Brown

I was 11 years old; it was 1984. With Eye of the Tiger rising up from the record player, I pulled up my leg warmers and roller skated over to my best friend’s house. Like most days, MTV was already on and waiting for me.

Fast forward two years. I predictably became the quintessential 80’s teen, with sprayed up bangs, popped collar, Walkman, and all. Perhaps not so normal was that every Sunday morning you could find me singing from a Presbyterian hymnal and every Sunday evening at church youth choir rehearsal.

When I recently reconnected with that same bff, she reminded me that back in the 5th grade I had tried to teach her to sing. I have always believed – even from childhood – that everyone should sing. But we’ve all heard the age-old story: Johnny’s music teacher in 4th grade told him he couldn’t sing, and he hasn’t sung a note since.

Is Johnny still supposed to sing in church if he isn't comfortable with it?

I eventually followed in my musical parents’ footsteps and pursued singing on a more serious level. Almost every day of my adult life I have sung, played, taught, conducted, written, led, and listened to music. Music is so central in my thoughts that, at any given moment, triggered by any random word, I promise you- I will break into song!

As I’ve stood in front of congregations singing, nearly every week I see people wholeheartedly singing praises to God standing alongside the mute and seemingly sullen. The latter are not just visitors, but people whom I personally know love God. What happened to those silent saints? Did they all have horrible 4th grade music teachers? A pre-church argument in the car with their spouse? Too much Def Leppard in the 80’s?

Does God even care if we sing in church?

For decades I’ve searched for answers to questions like these, but simultaneously I’ve been afraid that I’m the wrong person to present my findings. For a life-long singer like me to tell a non-singer that they should be singing in church just feels, well, tone-deaf! (Pun definitely intended!)

However, since this subject is so important to discuss, I hope to unpack my findings over four blog posts. Here’s what they will focus on:

Perspectives on social singing learned from my Maasai friends in Kenya
The physical and emotional components of singing and how they impact our relationship with God
What the Bible says about singing praises to God and the spiritual significance of singing together
Worship at Grace + Peace: The “why” behind our musical decisions

Part 1: Perspectives from the Maasai

During our seven years in Africa, we developed a deep relationship with a Maasai village. The music of their church is totally non-Western. A woman typically leads call and response songs, backed up by a choir adorned with jewelry on every limb that jingles as they dance. Another woman plays a single drum, keeping beat while the whole church erupts in joyful celebration.

Maasai worship music mirrors their community celebrations. At weddings, funerals, social events, and at church, no one worries about whether they “can sing” or not. They all just sing loudly in lots of stacked-up harmonies. Their singing is part of their tradition from infancy. And without TV and movies, it is also their entertainment.

In Maasai-land, I witnessed that worship was an important moment for the whole church to join together and focus on God. It wasn't entirely spontaneous, as you might suspect; the music leaders had practiced and had a clear plan. When the church responded, they sang loud, they danced, and they cried.

Why is the singing in our worship services generally so unenthused in comparison?

Obviously, there are many cultural differences to consider, but there are a few things about ourselves that we can learn by observing our Maasai brothers and sisters:

Singing with others in harmonies is beautiful and just plain fun. With the advent of projectors in church, we did away with hymnals. Congregational harmonies are no longer common practice in most Western churches. Even when we do sing harmonies, loud sound systems keep us from hearing our neighbors.

Singing is just what they do when they are together. We still sing Happy Birthday and the National Anthem, but beyond that, we don't sing together much. (Remember the “You better watch out, you better not cry” part in the movie Elf?) We have lost the norm and thus the joy of social singing in our everyday lives. This makes singing in church alongside others feel strange.

Singing expresses their culture’s value of community over the individual. Music in our culture has shifted from being a social activity to a personal experience. This highlights our expressive individualism: “Does it feel good to me?” “How can I find the most powerful experience for me?” “Where will I best fit in with my personal preferences and style?” In every area of Maasai culture, the community comes before the individual. This feels very backward to our Western way of viewing the world.

They sing loudly because they feel no shame. The Maasai (at least in their pre-electricity years when we were there) didn't have recorded music. Therefore, they couldn’t compare themselves to pop artists or worry about being judged by anyone. Our contemporary Christian music scene and digital on-demand music have affected the church’s singing in the developed world more than we've realized. Since the invention of the phonograph, we've been the collective frog slowly boiling in the pot of water, gradually losing our confidence and joy of singing aloud. We’ve increasingly become aware of our vocal inadequacies in light of the unrealistic perfection of the recording artist's voice.

So, should we sing like the Maasai? No, that would be impossible and false to who we are. However, we always learn about God and ourselves by looking at other cultures. Based on the lack of technology alone, we can surmise that the worship in biblical times was more similar to the Maasai’s music than to our own. We know from Scripture that it was loud, communal, joyful, and unabashed. We can also see in God’s Word that we are called to sing together to Him.

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” - Psalm‬ 95‬:1‬-2‬ ESV‬‬

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” - Colossians‬ 3‬:16‬ ESV‬‬

Social singing was around in recent history in Western culture (bar songs are the first thing that come to my mind!). So, why did we stop? Yes, discouraging music teachers and our upbringing made a difference, along with technology and albums playing on repeat. And of course, there’s the relentless emphasis on the individual. However, we know from a scientific standpoint that singing is an important part of transmitting cultural stories. Singing the Christian story, in addition to teaching it, expands the impact and reach of the gospel to the next generation and to our neighbors.

Are we irreparably boiled in the pot? Can we ever regain the joy of singing together? At g+p, we’re working on making church a safe place for everyone to sing out with joy. You can work on it, too: push your threshold a tiny bit and see if anything terrible happens! Next week at church, try singing if you tend to refrain from it. Or, try singing a bit louder! Better yet, try smiling as you sing… find that joy! Pay attention to the words and mean them. Listen to the voices of those around you, and let those voices lift your soul to God and surround you with the security of belonging to one another. Allow your own voice (however imperfect) to do the same for those around you!

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;”-Psalm‬ 92‬:1‬