Our culture often promotes relaxed and casual attitudes toward church, urging that a church should be a place where you feel welcomed and comfortable and where you can enjoy your favorite songs while sipping your favorite latte. As appealing as this sounds, why should we strive to keep church and worship reverent? What does music have to do with it?
Church as something set apart
All of these behaviors used specifically for church or chapel or for singing hymns and psalms serve to set these places and activities apart. Their proper behavior along with their specific chapel uniform and the liturgy indicates that the house of God is a unique place that is not like the playground or their homes or even their classrooms. All of these things show that divine matters are of the utmost importance and demand our serious contemplation, study, and adoration
As I urge appropriate behavior among my students, the word that comes up over and over again is “reverent.” My students know what it means to sing something “reverently” versus using a silly voice or singing in a casual way. They also know what it means to show reverence physically as we practice standing, sitting, kneeling, and walking reverently, in addition to striving for reverent countenances.
By Marie Greenway.
You can read the full blog post at the Concordia Publishing House blog.