I’ve noted before that there is a difference between songs which just connect with the congregations and others which kind of do not (or to be fair, may only do so internally).  I’m not particularly musical or claim to understand how songs engage with our affections but I can take photos.  Here are some photos from the spch 5pm service on Sunday 11th March.

The first photo (below) is was taken from the sound/data desk during the opening set of songs (ie the songs that we sing right at the start of the service).

After the sermon, we sung “Jesus Paid it all.”  (Yes my American friends, it’s still kind of new in our church !)

Whilst hand-raising is not the only indicator of a song’s connection – for we could all be dancing on the inside – it is a physical attribute that shows that at some level a song connected.

At St Paul’s I’m on the team that works very hard to check that our lyrics are biblical, have sound reformed evangelical theology, and thirdly, just make sense in plain reading (and singing).  I would have it as a guess that the truly engaging songs must have good lyrics, but they also must be accompanied by good music.  To that end, I am very thankful I’m not on that team!

Keep praying for our musicians and song writers, that they can write Jesus honoring and soul-stirring songs for God’s glory.

Music