What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music?

When visiting Crossway’s headquarters over the summer, the publishing team and I were chatting about how wonderful God’s timing is. Without necessarily planning to do so, Crossway ended up releasing several resources for musical worship within the same few months including The Sing! Hymnal, Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together, and What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music?

I knew right away I’d want to add What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? to my worship library. At only 40 pages long, it’s a helpful little book, perfect for reading in one sitting and then sitting with for a longer period of reflection.

In Spirit-Filled Singing, I describe myself as “a recovering worship grouch,” meaning that, although I have strong feelings about musical worship, I have been working to discern the difference between my preferences and biblical requirements, and to participate more charitably in worship that is beyond my comfort zone. What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? was an encouraging read, reminding me that singing enthusiastically—whether or not I like the song or style—is a duty that yields far more delight than stubborn silence.

About

What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? is part of the 9Marks “Church Questions” series, which is excellent. Other questions addressed by this series include:

Why Should I Join a Church?
Why Should I Get Baptized?
How Can I Begin to Teach the Bible?
How Do I Disciple Others?
How Can I Make the Most of Sunday Services? – You can rad my review of this one here.

I encourage you to explore the entire “Church Questions” catalog. These booklets are great for individual reading, but would also be excellent to have on hand as church resources. Each booklet is written by an expert in that particular area, making them particularly insightful.

What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? is written by Matthew Boswell, a pastor and worship leader. You might recognize him as one of the writers of “Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery,” which is one of my favorite songs. If you haven’t heard it, definitely give it a listen!

Drawing on Psalm 96, Boswell explains how singing is a duty and a delight—a way of encouraging one another in the faith and witnessing to the world. As you might expect if you’ve read my book or blog, my copy of What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? is thus filled with notes such as “Yes, yes, yes!” and “Amen, totally agree!”

Recommendation

What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music? is written for Christians who struggle with their church’s worship style, though it would be an edifying read for any who care about musical worship—and that should be all of us! I encourage everyone to give this accessible and concise—though deeply thoughtful—book a read.

You can purchase What If I Don’t Like My Church’s Music from Amazon using this link. If you are interested in purchasing multiple copies (perhaps for a church library or resource center), I suggest doing so directly from Crossway, which offers great discounts for churches and bulk orders.

And, if you love musical worship and want to dive deeper, consider rounding out your order by also getting a copy of The Sing! Hymnal and my book, Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together. Both of these would also make great Christmas gifts for your worship leader or team members!

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