Why Do We Sing?

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Scriptures: Ephesians 5:18–20; Colossians 3:15-16; James 5:13

• Sermon Summary

  Summary: In the first sermon of our series, Sacred Practice, Jeremy explores why singing both deeply human and profoundly spiritual. Drawing from scripture and psychology, Jeremy shows how singing connects us to God, bonds us to each other, teaches us truth, and creates space for healing. Using examples from Paul, James, and the psalmists we are invited to sing not just in joy but in all of life’s complexity, offering our full selves through melody. Even when the words don’t feel like ours, the practice of singing together still shapes us.

  Song Psychology: Jeremy starts by outlining the psychological importance of singing. He shares how long before we understood neural pathways or brain chemistry, scripture pointed to singing as a way to encounter God’s grace, taking some examples from the epistles and Psalms. Singing bypasses our intellect and gets into the heart, reminding us of things we can’t always articulate. It connects us to our emotions, to each other, and to something bigger.

  Social Bonding: Jeremy highlights Paul who says that singing together can be as spiritually potent as anything we do. While alcohol can mimic connection through lowered inhibitions, Paul reminds us that shared worship can create more authentic bonds. Jeremy reminds us that church might be the only place some of us sing with others.

  Neural Pathways: Jeremy shares how some truths settle into us better through melody. Paul says songs can be how the message of Christ “dwells in us richly,” and we see this in the earliest Christian hymns. Jeremy uses the alphabet song as an example of how deeply we learn through music. The same can be true for theology. Jeremy challenges us to consider that sometimes it isn't just taught, it's sung into us.

  Uncovered Healing: Jeremy looks at how the author of the book of James links prayer and singing as parallel ways of engaging God in both joy and trouble. Scientifically we know that singing heals us. Jeremy ends by reminding us that sometimes we borrow the words and melodies of others because our own voices feel too heavy. In doing so, we find ourselves carried by the community’s song until we can sing again for ourselves.

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.

  Summer Discussion Guide 2025

  If your group is meeting this summer and wants to talk about the sermons, here are a few questions that you could use to engage with our teaching.

  • What specific part of the message resonated with you the most? Why do you think that particular part, or idea, or story caught your attention?

  • Did the sermon speak into a particular struggle or question in your life or your faith journey right now?

  • What did the message challenge or encourage you personally? And what do you think the application could be for our church community? Was there anything that could strengthen or stretch us as a church?

  How did the exposition of the scriptures used in the sermon provide you with a new perspective of deeper understanding?

  It is good to remember that the conversation experience in the group is shaped by the personal stories of those who participate in it and how willing the people are to be open and vulnerable in the group.
  
  So if you’re leading the discussion, feel free to model and encourage person-centred and story-centred sharing by reflecting on how some parts of the sermon resonate with you personally.

  Additionally, what contributes to a more authentic group discussion is when people can share not about the abstract and theoretical applications, but one or two practical things they are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion.

  So, you can end your time together with this question:

  • What is one thing you are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion we’ve just had?

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 48

  MUSIC Curated by Kevin Borst
  Phil Wickham - This Is Our God
  John Mark McMillan - Heart's Delight
  Bethel Music - God I Look To You
  Cody Carnes - Simple Kingdom
  
  EUCHARIST INVITATION
  Written by Bobbi Salkeld

  The Eucharist is where we remember the ritual of Jesus’ last meal with friends. 

  This ritual meal is a practice of embodiment. Through small embodied gestures of receiving bread and grapes, eating to remember, and praying simple prayers of gratitude, we are open to this profound profession – 

  We live and move and find our being 
  with the God of the universe
  who nourishes all of life. 

  This is true when days are bright and beautiful, and it is true when darkness and death are close at hand. 

  On the night Jesus was betrayed, 
  He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and said, This is my body – a body given for your healing and wholeness. Eat to remember.

  In the same way, 

  Jesus took the cup, blessed it, poured it out, and said,

  This cup is filled with my life – and it is poured out for many. 

  Drink to reconcile. 

  Come, when your body is anxious, to be made new in love

  Come, when your body is afraid, to be made strong in faith.

  Come, when your body is regretful, to be made whole. 

  As Jesus said a prayer before sharing, let us pray too.  

  Creator God, present at this meal, 

  the bread that we break and the cup that we share 

  are places where our Saviour meets us. 

  Broken, we are being made whole.

  Poured out, we are filled with joy once again. 

  Holy Spirit, bless these elements of community. 

  Amen.

  And so … 

  Come forward together and know –

  God nourishes your body and soul 

  now and always. Amen.
  
  SERIES BUMPER
  Sacred Practice