Music & The Kingdom By Dr. Percy Bady
UNITY HAS A SOUND In the last 15-20yrs we have watched the dismissal of Choirs in the church liturgy experience. I did some research and here is what I found…In 1998 choirs were present in over half of all churches across the world. In a subsequent research I found that the percentage of participating choirs in the worship liturgy experience has decreased 12% in twenty years to just over 40% of all congregations. If the trends continue their downward trajectory, this number is likely to continue to fall. Why has this happened you may ask? Well I can’t speak for everyone but I do know some of our churches have moved to what we call praise teams. Smaller number of people and some would say better voices! (this can be argued). But this was not done out of necessity as much as it was done out of the copycat syndrome! We saw staple churches move to the praise team model and determined that it would work for your church. So you disband the choir…the faithful organization that included not just the better singers, but singers who weren’t considered the best but could sing their parts well enough to deliver an authentic experience to the congregation. They were the most faithful; always on time, supported the choir and church in all of its endeavors! Job 38:6-7 Describes the original choir of angels (stars) singing as God created the universe. 2 Chronicles 20:21-23: Describes a choir dressed in holy robes who marched ahead of troops singing "Give thanks to GOD, His love never quits" 2 Chronicles 5:13: Describes a choir and trumpets singing and playing in praise to God. Nehemiah 12: Describes Nehemiah gathering the Levites, priests, and singers to lead the people in worship. The Bible clearly indicates that we will join the angels in singing God's praise throughout eternity in Revelation 15:3 See, the choir represents what heaven looks and sounds like. Many diverse voices, ages, nationalities lifting up their voices to the king of kings singing “ Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” Rev 15:3 January 2025
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