Songs as Shepherding Tools

I cannot remember the exact context, but I used the phrase “up from the grave” the other day while spending time with my family. Without skipping a beat, my daughter burst into singing the traditional hymn bearing those exact words: “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes!” We traditionally sing this song at our church every Easter Sunday, meaning my daughter has maybe heard or sung it roughly ten times. But despite its brief usage, the song has proven to be powerfully memorable to her.

Though I eagerly desire and pray for the truths of that song to take root in her heart, for now, I am hopeful that the lyrics will remain branded into her memory until the Lord grants her the faith to believe in them. In the meantime, she will not soon forget that Jesus the Savior defeated death when He died and rose again on the third day.

It is no wonder so many teaching methods incorporate singing. Certainly, each of us can recall obscure song lyrics from our childhood – from school, church, or even commercial jingles – that come straight back to memory once we get the tune started. That’s the power of music, and for the good of His people, God has given us an eternal mandate to sing about what truly matters – Him.

What Music Accomplishes

The New Testament demonstrates that the singing church accomplishes two things: it sings to praise God and to teach one another the truth of God. When they do this, the church builds itself up. It is strengthened, refined, challenged, encouraged, and prepared to follow Christ. In other words, the songs of the church are designed to have a powerful shaping force on the lives of those who sing them.

At least that is what the Bible tells us (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19). The question for pastors is this: are we using the incredible resource of singing to teach our people the truths of God? Do we provide a diet of songs to our congregation with the same depth of purpose as the one laid out in the New Testament?

Answering These Questions

To answer these questions truthfully, we need to take account of the content of our songs. If our church is deficient in its understanding or practical application of “Topic A,” isn’t it reasonable to suggest we look at our song bank to see if we’ve got that topic covered?

If a church finds itself exuberant in corporate worship but lacking in corporate unity, it might be because our songs are imbalanced to the side of praise and less to the side of humility and responsibility for the care of our spiritual family. It benefits us to remember that “if anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20). How many of our songs on Sunday check the box of “I love God” and how many explicitly state “I love you, my brother and sister?”

How Songs Help Us Understand

On this side of eternity, songs are an expression of what we know and a means to teach us what we do not yet understand.

For example, the scriptures tell me to love my wife “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Though I know this full well, it does not come quickly to mind in the heat of a self-seeking argument. Yet how many of our Sunday songs center around this theme of Christ’s self-sacrificing love for His people? Though we, as husbands, have a clear picture of the Godly love that He calls us to demonstrate to our wives, there is a disconnect in our application of that calling.

I suggest that this is an area where songs would greatly benefit our shepherding endeavors. One song that comes to mind is The Church’s One Foundation, whose lyrics expressly display the divine love of Christ for his Church:

From heav’n He came and sought her
 to be His holy bride;
 with His own blood He bought her,
 and for her life He died.

In this short passage, Christ pursued the one He loved, humbling Himself so that He might win her. It calls us to remember the Savior who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). How many husbands might take pause if only the words “for her life He died” came more readily to mind in the moments they needed it the most.

This, fellow pastor, is the opportunity our corporate songs afford us. When God’s Truth is poetically crafted and matched with a memorable melody, it has a unique staying power.

Anecdotally, we remember the lyrics to a song much longer than we remember the bullet points of a sermon. This in no way diminishes the importance of preaching. Instead, it should cause each of us to think more about the value of singing as a shepherding tool.

Practical Assessments of a Church’s Song Choice

In closing, using songs as shepherding tools will require a few practical assessments of a church’s habits regarding song choice. I hope the following questions and observations will help guide the way to making the most of the power of singing as you shepherd the sheep that the Lord has entrusted to you:

1. How diverse are the themes in the songs you currently sing? When you condense the Bible’s theological themes down to their essential components, are those aspects of God’s revealed truth expressed in the songs you regularly sing as a church?
2. In which applications of God’s Word does your church need to be strengthened – Evangelism? Humility? Joy? Prayer? Steadfast faith amid suffering? Forgiving others when wronged? Whatever the weakness, are you singing songs that provide God’s wisdom to those spiritual issues?
3. If your song selection is wanting, how much of that lack of thematic variety is self-imposed? Christians have been writing songs for the church’s use for over two thousand years. We certainly have plenty of songs to choose from! Maybe we should broaden our song filter (i.e., style or time period) to capture more options.
4. Consider the impact of tradition in the songs your church sings together. The songs of Christmas and Easter are maybe the most memorable because they are “traditional” in the classic sense – the church has handed them down from one generation to another so that all remember and repeat them together. Some songs come and go and are helpful for passing seasons in a church’s life. But a church is a family; there should be songs we pass on to the next generation.
5. Like tradition, some songs outlast others simply because they are better songs! Don’t throw out a well-loved song to make room for something new. It’s better to sing only ten great songs than to sing a hundred mediocre ones just for the sake of novelty.

©2024 Jon Gilmore. Used with permission.