Do songs become our liturgy?
Posted on: March 17, 2007
As many of you will know typically I am fairly anti-liturgy (for want of a better phrase), my reasoning because it can often become parrot fashion, for example from my upbringing within an Anglican church I can recite the whole forgiveness prayer off the top of my head however having said it every week for 9 years I guess, perhaps more not once did it mean anything, it was parrot fashion to me.
The last year or so really I’ve pondered the same about songs, do we sing worship songs in church because we mean them or just because we like them? I felt challenged by God on this a while ago whilst driving and singing to Matt Redman, and I felt God challenging me to think if I meant what I was singing.
This has become a thought in my head once again recently so this blog is just a quick couple of thoughts on if we have made songs in church the new liturgy?
The reasons behind this is that often in churches we have the same songs week in, week out, perhaps a variety of songs that happen every so often but do we end up just singing without thinking? It’s easy to sing along to a song you know without thinking about the meaning of the words.
So here is my challenge, think about what you’re singing in church or what you’re saying, do you mean it? do you understand it? if not don’t sing it! If you don’t understand it perhaps ask someone what it means, old hymns for example confuse me (and bore me but that’s anoter story!)