Over the past six months since July, we have been making some adjustments and changes to our Sunday morning gatherings, our church services.

Why do we do what we do in a church service? How are church services meant to operate? What does the New Testament tell us about the way we should meet? From time to time its quite important to think about what the purpose of our Sunday services is and also are we achieving our purpose? 

If we know our purpose, then we know if we are achieving it or not! If we don’t know our purpose, then we can’t say whether we are achieving it. For a commercial company, a shop, a manufacturer, whatever there are two questions it should ask itself- what’s our business? And how’s business?

So I guess we could say that regarding our Sunday gatherings or services? What’s our business and how’s business?

We sing a lot in church services. Why? It’s maybe the only time in the week when we sing aloud. Maybe you sing in the shower! But maybe only when you don’t think anyone else is listening! Many people never sing, but in church each week we sing. Why?

We do it because God tells us, he wants us to. 

Colossians 3:16 tells us this, Paul writes;

^‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’ 

Notice what that verse is telling us. There are two audiences we have when we sing in church. We are singing to God with gratitude and we are singing to each other- teaching and admonishing one another through the songs we sing in church- through the psalms, the hymns and songs from the Spirit. 

So God want us to express our gratitude to him through song. Every good thing we have and will have in this life or the next, will come from God, we should be grateful and our singing should express it. 

The Bible doesn’t define exactly what is a psalm or a hymn – there are psalms in the Old Testament, but we don’t know exactly what it means by a hymn. But the third kind of song we should sing is interesting. Paul says sing ‘songs from the Spirit’ in church. That means songs which the Holy Spirit has directly inspired us to sing. Well just imagine that the Holy Spirit just puts words into the mind of one of the worship team and a tune as well and she just sings this song out over the mic. That would be what Paul describes as ‘a song from the Spirit’. I have heard that happen and it’s often simple but poignant. 

When we sing in church, we are not just singing to God, we are singing to the church. Paul says we are teaching and admonishing one another through our songs. I think people learn at least some of their theology from what they sing in church. Some of the songs we sing, are memorable and the words stick in our minds and they shape our beliefs about God and about the Christian life.

And so Paul says basically choose the songs wisely. That’s the challenge for those who choose our songs on a Sunday morning- choose them with wisdom. For what we sing shapes what we believe. Most of all we must sing songs in church that communicate the message of Christ.

Paul says – ‘let the message of Christ dwell among you richly’ as you teach one another through your church songs.

What is ‘the message of Christ’?

Well its the message of what Christ taught- the Sermon on the Mount and so much else. But also it’s the message about Christ, the message of what Christ has done and who Christ is.

And so here is part of the purpose of why we gather together in church, we gather to sing out the message of Christ, the greatness and goodness of Christ.  

And in the beginning of Colossians we have an example of a praise song proclaiming the message of Christ. Theologians think that the words of Colossians 1, verses15 to 22 are in fact the words of a hymn or song sung in the New Testament churches. The six verses are actually organised in a rhythm which is found in other early Christians hymns. 

And so if we want an example of what it means for the message of Christ to be expressed in our singing- Colossians 1 gives us this example of what that looks like. 

It says- Christ is the image of God, he created everything, absolutely everything in this universe, through him and for him, for his glory, it was all created. 

He is also the Lord of the universe and the leader of the church. 

He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

It’s a hymn praising Christ for his work in creation, for his lordship over creation and for his work in bringing creation back to God. 

It really expresses the greatness of Christ. 

And Paul tells us as we sing in church, let the message of Christ of what Christ taught and who he is dwell among your richly as you sing in church. And so that is part of what we are doing on a Sunday. We are singing about who Christ is and what he has done and will do and we are singing to God who is listening to us and we are singing to one another so that we can be taught. 

Our church services are effective, achieving their purpose, when the message of Christ dwells among us richly. And for that to happen, not only must we sing the message of Christ, our hearts must receive the message of Christ. 

Jesus told a parable of a man who went out and sowed seed and some of the seed fell on the path and it lay on that path, didn’t penetrate and the birds came down and ate it. Some fell in shallow soil, it sprang up quickly, but then quickly faded when the sun came out as it didn’t have roots. Some seed ell among weeks and the weeds choked it and some seed fell on good soil and it came up and bore a great crop. 

The word of God is like seed and we are a field, this little congregation and when we come together, the word of God gets scattered over us each Sunday morning- though the songs and hymns, through the sermon, through the prayers, even through our conversation with each other before and after the service, if we talk about Jesus in our conversation, the word the message of Christ comes into our midst, it dwells in our midst and hopefully that message is received into our hearts and we bow to its authority, accept its lessons and they affect our daily living and it bears a rich harvest. That is what it means for the word of Christ to dwell in us richly.  

Now as you are probably noticing – we are singing a bit of a mix of songs in church since our two services united back in July. We are singing now a couple of older hymns and also we have been singing three more modern songs back to back.

And these modern songs repeat themselves quite a lot.

 Sometimes we sing a line sung several times in a row. Sometimes it’s a chorus that returns again and again. And if you grew up singing hymns that told a complete story in four verses and a chorus, you might find yourself wondering, Why do we need to sing that line again? Didn’t we already say it? 

It’s a fair question. Repetition can feel unnecessary—until you understand what it’s doing. Because repetition in worship isn’t about running out of words. It’s about letting those words run deeper. 

Repetition happens in the psalms in the Old Testament also. If you think modern worship repeats too much, try reading Psalm 136. Twenty-six verses—and every single one ends the same way: 

“His steadfast love endures forever.” 

That’s not an editing mistake. It’s intentional. 

The writers of Scripture knew something we often forget: truth takes time. Repetition gives us that time. It lets the reality of who God is move from information to transformation—from our lips, to our minds, to our hearts. 

It’s been said that the longest distance in the world is the 12 inches between your head and your heart. That’s why we repeat lyrics. Not to pad out a song, but to let what’s true about God settle into our souls. 

When we sing, “You are good” again and again, it’s not because we forgot. It’s because we’re trying to believe it more deeply. When we sing, “I will trust in You,” on repeat, we’re asking the Spirit to help us mean it.

Repetition is one of the ways worship helps us bridge that twelve-inch gap. 

This idea isn’t just emotional—it’s biblical and historic. Scripture calls us to “meditate on God’s law day and night” (Psalm 1:2). 

The Hebrew word translated meditate is hagah—a word that literally means “to murmur” or “to chew.” It’s the image of a cow chewing the cud—slowly, repeatedly, drawing every bit of nourishment out of what it’s eaten. That’s what biblical meditation is: turning God’s truth over and over until it becomes part of you. 

When we sing a line again and again in worship, we’re doing the same thing. We’re chewing the cud of truth—letting it linger long enough for it to nourish our souls. Each repetition helps us taste more of its goodness, absorb more of its meaning, and be shaped more by its reality. 

Repetition is not something new. Many of the old hymns cherish do it too. 

“Holy, Holy, Holy” opens every verse the same way. 

“Blessed Assurance” repeats “This is my story, this is my song.” 

And of course, “Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee…” appears twice every time we reach the chorus. 

The repetition in those hymns doesn’t make them shallow—it makes them memorable. It helps truth linger. 

When we repeat something in worship, we’re doing what the church has always done: we’re emphasizing what’s worth remembering.

Also there is a power in singing several songs right after each other. Having a solid block of worship, rather than a song, a bible reading, a song, a prayer and so on- there is a power in having 15 minutes or longer of solid sung praise, with lots of repetition. The power is in the fact that our minds take time to really focus and our hearts take time to lift themselves up to God.

I find that for the first few minutes of a sung worship- my mind is on myself, it’s on who else is standing around me, it’s on ‘did I lock the back door when I left the house?’ And then slowly my mind, my focus gets on God, on what is being sung and I start to engage and really praise him. I go from just singing a song, to actually praising the Lord. 

I don’t know if you have noticed that when we sing a block of worship songs back to back, the first song might be nice, might have a nice tune, but it feels like you are just singing, and maybe that is true for the second song also, but maybe in the third song the atmosphere changes and the presence of God comes and you feel that God is there, enthroned in the praises of his people as psalm 22:3 says. That sense of God’s presence can come sooner, sooner than the third song. But it often takes time to come.

I believe when it comes to singing praise to the Lord, lot of depends on us the congregation.

If we come to church, really wanting to praise God, praise Jesus, then God will respond and he comes close. But if we are disengaged and distracted then God notices and he doesn’t respond in the same way. 

I remember someone once giving the illustration of worship being like an old fashioned cart and the congregation is sitting in the cart and it is being pulled up the hill by the worship team at the front into the presence of God. Now the people in the congregation can sit back and enjoying being pulled into God’s presence, or they can jump out of the cart and push and help get the cart up the hill. If we really push in praise, we get further up and further into God’s presence.

And you know as you praise Jesus, he responds and He comes and blesses you- you get peace in your heart, you get maybe an answer to a problem you had, you get a sense of reassurance, you notice that? God speaks and touches us in the praise, especially the long praise moments. 

There is an old hymn whose words come to mind- ‘Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus’ is the name. 

It goes;

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Saviour,
And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Praise, sung praise helps us get our eyes upon Jesus. We get our eyes of ourselves, off our problems and our eyes get fixed upon Jesus. Musical praise helps us do that. And then as we look at Jesus, think about Jesus, meditate on him and his wonderful face so to speak, its absolutely true, the things that are distracting you and troubling you and making you weary start to fade. Praise makes Jesus bigger and your problems bigger.

Jesus has the solution to our every problem.

A lot of our troubles come because we are not making enough of Jesus and we are allowing our money problems, health concerns and other pressures get too big. Turn your eyes up on Jesus. Look full on his wonderful face, He isn’t going to let you down, he will guide and provide. Love him more, he loves you, love him well and trust him. 

The final verse is 

His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

In church you are praising God because he is worthy, because he deserves it, because its absolutely right to do it. Isaiah 43:21 tells us that God formed his people in order to praise him. 

God’s people were created to praise him. When Israel crossed the Red Sea, their first response was not to build monuments, but to sing songs of praise to the God who delivered them. 

The old hymns have value- they have a greater breadth to them, they sing about a wider range of subjects than modern worship songs. Hymns are rich with biblical truth and theology they cover confession, lament, evangelism and service, our future hope. They reflect the full range of Christian life. But they can feel outdated. 

Modern worship songs have great cultural accessibility than older hymns or even modern hymns- the person coming to church for the first time can relate with them, they are more emotionally connecting also. But they can be a bit shallow.

So I believe that there is value in singing both the modern worship songs and older hymns.

Apologies by the way for having older hymns up on the screen in English only. We will try and get Chinese words up as well soon. 

But we do need the modern worship style. Because although it’s different to the old, it’s of God and God is using it.

In 1873 the American evangelist D.L Moody toured the British Isles and with Moody came a man called Ira Sankey. Moody was the preacher while Ira Sankey the singer!! God used this pair to bring thousands of souls into the Kingdom of God in Britain. 

The songs of Sankey were as important as the preaching of Moody to communicating the Gospel. Sankey sang the good news of salvation in Jesus, while Moody preached it. Moody said; ‘If we can only get people to have the words of the love of God coming from their mouths it's well on its way to residing in their hearts.’

But the songs that Ira Sankey sang were totally different to what church goers in Britain were used to.

People were shocked that he sang solos. 

Sankey was singing a solo in a meeting here in Edinburgh when he heard a woman’s voice coming down from the gallery, as she made her way toward the door crying : ‘Let me oot! Let me oot! What would John Knox think of the likes of you? He wrote ‘at the conclusion of the solo I went across the street to sing at an overflow meeting the famous Tolbooth Church. I had just began to sing when the same voice was again heard: ‘Let me oot! Let me oot! What would John Knox think of the likes of you?’

Often people would walk out in the midst of the music crying out ‘human hymns, human hymns’ in other words the hymns weren’t godly, they were just human. 

Some didn’t think that Sankey’s hymns were appropriate – They believed in singing the psalms without musical backing. In the old days in Scotland, that was normal, no musical instruments were allowed in church, not even the organ, it was just the human voice singing. 

And yet these hymns of Sankey were mostly embraced by the people of Scotland even though they were new and they were the means of the conversion of many to Christ. 

At a children's meeting in Edinburgh in 1874, Mr. Sankey told of how in his home town of Chigago, he was asked to visit a little girl in the poor part of town who was very ill. 

When he came to her bedside, he found that she was beyond all hopes of recovery, and that they were waiting for the little one to pass away. 'How is it with you to-day?' I asked. With a beautiful smile on her face, she said, 'It is all well with me to-day. I wish you would speak to my father and mother.' 'But,' said I, 'are you a Christian?' 'Yes.' 'When did you become one?' Do you remember last Thursday in the Church when we had that little singing meeting, and you sang, 'Jesus Loves Even Me?' 'Yes.' 'It was last Thursday I believed on the Lord Jesus, and now I am going to be with Him to-day.' 



Sankey said ‘That testimony from that little girl in that neglected quarter of Chicago has done more to stimulate me and to bring me to this country than all that the papers or any persons might say. I remember the joy I felt when I looked upon that beautiful child face. She went up to Heaven, and no doubt said that she learned upon earth that Jesus loved her, from that little hymn.’

That word of Christ dwelt richly in that little girl through Sankey’s song.

Musical fashions change and God moves in new ways in new generations. Let’s embrace that, even if it’s unfamiliar, for God will use modern music to reach souls for Christ. But let’s not throw out all the old either, for the old hymns can complement the new songs, bringing variety and width to our singing.

With wisdom, both can be used to praise God and can result in the word of Christ dwelling in our hearts richly. Which is after all, one big reason why we are all here, why we have worship services each week!