“Music,” writes Darryl Tippens (in his new book Pilgrim Heart), “may well be the most overlooked of all the spiritual disciplines” (154). What say you?

I’ve been reading this book, and following a related conversation on jesuscreed.org. The conversation turned lively on Friday, when Scot posted on Chapter 12: Singing: The Way to Heaven’s Door.

I cautiously followed the comments, waiting for someone to toss the first mud ball.  “It’s only a matter of time,” I thought, until someone voices dislike for someone else’s idea of church music.” And, of course, someone did. But it was the good kind of mud ball, followed by another good kind. The comments posted were insightful and moved the conversation forward.

The high point arrived when someone suggested music might be even more than spiritual discipline—possibly even a means of grace. Tippens suggests music moves us in many ways. “The force of hymns is often extraordinary, because when we sing, body, emotion and intellect are mysteriously connected” (150).

We are, no doubt, a singing people. Tippens talks about the danger of performance or entertainment eclipsing our ID as singing Christians. I understand his concern, yet I’m also encouraged that emerging Christians are singers too. Think about CHIC. Though the outer forms (concert setting, big media, dark and loud!) are inarguably borrowed from the entertainment industry, the congregation SINGS.

I’m reminded of the Quaker hymn: How Can I Keep from Singing. My daughters learned it in 6th grade choir (public school), and it’s become the anthem of our home. Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash and Matt Redman have rendered a modern anthem by the same name, and we’re singing it at our church.

What do you think of Tippen’s assumption—that singing is a spiritual discipline? Or the suggestion that music is, even, a means of grace?

Grace,

Katie

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