On Sunday night I spoke again at a friend’s church and shared some of the Brighton story – what we’re about, what we ‘do’, yada yada yada…
While speaking I spotted a couple in the crowd who I thought I knew – so after the service I went up and said g’day. It turned out we didn’t know each other and had never met before. They had enjoyed the night and engaged with what I was saying about connecting with neighbours because they were actually physical next door neighbours – not a ‘couple’ as I had thought. 
‘Oh so you’re both Christians and neighbours’ I said, making an assumption…
‘I’m a Christian’ she said, ‘but he’s not’
He nodded – this was a true statement – like saying he was wearing jeans – but here he was at church… listening to a bloke speak about connecting missionally with neighbours. Just a tad ironic I felt – especially given that I had just been telling them that most Aussies don’t come to church any more (which is of course still true).
I had to ask him how he felt sitting there listening to a talk about evangelism – given his current faith status. For some reason he loved it, wanted to come back next week and hear more… Weird!
There is no question God is at work in this guy’s life – and he brought him to a local church.
‘How did you find being in church?’ I asked. I am always interested in an ‘outsider’s’ perspective.
‘It was great – I couldn’t sing though – so I just sat thru that bit – but the rest was good’.
Which brings me to the point finally!…
If its not part of his life to sing ‘pre-faith’ should we expect him to do it ‘post-faith’. Is singing an essential biblical requirement for worship or is it a cultural expression that can be taken or left depending on context?…
There is a LOT of singing in the Bible – music has been called the ‘language of culture’ – but must rundown the dvd churches sing?
Some have said ‘once you know Jesus you can’t help but sing’. Maybe that’s true. Maybe we should expect new believers to pull in and become like us in this way?…
Do you think?…
Or have we become so attached to our singing that we just can’t conceive of worship taking any other form?
It is a genuine question because I think there is something powerful and engaging about a group of people singing, but should we see it as normative?