Should Christian music "charge you up"?

To answer the question of the thread, I would hope so! I don't think God wants us to be miserable praising Him! I don't want to be! Also, David seemed to get charged up and liked to hop around when He was praising God! I wonder sometimes if us Baptist have forgotten what praising the Lord is all about!

Neal

 

What charges me up spiritually (A reflection on the youth camp that I led this week)

1. When I see God restoring broken relationships
2. When I experience true worship
3. When I pray for an unbeliever
4. When the 7th grader I had been praying for for quite awhile comes to the understanding that she is not a believer in Jesus Christ
5. When that same 7th grader is broken before God
6. When that same 7th grader joins the family of God
7. When a life-long attender of church comes to the understanding that they have never experienced God and places his trust in Jesus Christ
8. When that same 8th grader on the next day comes to me after worship and tells me, "So THAT'S what worship is all about!"
9. When I see that same student raise his hands in worship, and I see in his eyes that he now understands what worship is all about.
10. When students grow into young men and women of the Word
11. When I can sing and worship God, thanking Him for his faithfulness
12. When God visibly works
13. When I see other middle students openly share their faith
15. When God leads me to openly pray, worship, and lead
16. When I come to an understanding of what God has called me to do as a minister


Many things charge me up and refresh me in ministry. Worship is one of those things, but there are oh, so many other things that do that as well!!!

(BTW, we brought about 50 total students from the middle school and high school from our church and conducted a camp with another church of the same size. Ross King led our music and Paul Helbig spoke. We had seven students come to know Christ - four middle schoolers and three middle schoolers. Praise be to God for his unfailing love!)

 

Is that because you are listening to sensual music or because you are not hearing good preaching?

 

No offence Scott but I detest that kind of wishy washy statement. What did you "see in his eyes"?

 

In answer to the question I would say that the Word should be sufficient to 'charge you up', if it takes music then something is wrong somewhere.

 

It is something that you understand when you see it. Call it the spiritual gift of discernment, I suppose. You would just be able to tell by watching the difference before salvation and after salvation. As he attested, he did, too. And isn't that what salvation enables us to do? Worship?

 

It sounds like those who wrote that music charges them up are talking about music that includes the Word, such as hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs. I don't read that the Word DOESN'T charge them up. Why be so anti-music? The psalms seemed to charge David up.

 

Music by it's very nature elicits an emotional response from the listener. If it didn't, then what would be the point of singing?

I don't think I like the term "charged up" because it can easily lead to misunderstanding. When I think of "charged up", the first image my mind conjures is charismatic emotional mania, where the participants are using the music to force a heightened spiritual experience out of the performance.

I remember going to see some Christian speaker at a large venue as a kid. I don't even remember who he was or what he spoke about, but I do remember him leading us in an a capella hymn (the name of which also escapes me). To this day I can still remember the sense of the Holy Spirit being right there in the room with us all while singing that hymn. That was without a doubt a "charged up" (not in the charismatic sense) night.

 

Travelsong, that raises an interesting question.

Why do we sing at Church?

Do you REALLY feel that we sing in order to elicit an EMOTIONAL response from listeners?

I think we sing because it is something that the whole congregation can participate in. A body of believers joining together in an act of worship.


God Bless

Enda

 

I think singing should put you to sleep. It should make you stand to your feet and say enough! Bring on the preaching. Let's get into the meat and leave the trimmings where they lay.

 

If that's the only reason to sing, then why not just do congregational readings of the Bible? Why not do the old Gregorian(sp?) chants?

 

God honoring worship is quite the opposite. A man whose heart is right with God can't help but sing His praises. Our minds are engaged by the meaning of our union with God and one another, but our singing expresses that meaning on an emotional level which can only come from the heart. To make a joyful noise unto the Lord is to express the emotion of joy.

The congegation I belong to used to hold hands in a circle after taking communion and sing: "Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship
of kindred minds Is like that to that above".

If the practice of our faith was purely intellectual, we would be miserable creatures. We sing because it is an expression of Christian love, joy, and awe that we cannot express intellectually. Our limited capacity to search the truths revealed by God's word pale in comparison to the very real feeling we have when standing in His presence.

The question remains, if our singing is meant to be devoid of an emotional response, then why not simply read the words of the page?

 

Don't forget, it should also make you angry at those who actually enjoy singing.