The Power of Music

One of the best chapters in Pilgrim Heart is chapter 12: "Singing: The Way To Heaven's Door." This brief chapter is full of noteworthy quotations about the purpose and power of music in the Christian life.

Here is a sample of a few:

If singing is not the purpose of religion, it is most certainly one of its principal supports (147).

People are influenced by music because it has the power to transport them into God's presence (147).

Music, more than any other aspect of worship, has the capacity to awaken us to this sense of God's otherness (147).

The force of hymns is often extraordinary because, when we sing, body, emotion, and intellect are mysteriously connected. Great Christian hymns are effective because they implant the truths of the faith in our hearts, not just in our heads. They rehearse the stories of Scripture. In word and sound we experience Gethsemane, the cross, and the resurrection (150).

It is worth noting that the first piece of written English (of which we have a record) is a hymn (150).

...what we sing and feel in our hearts remains with us far longer than what we receive through passive listening (151).

Concerning the various styles of music used for worship, Tippens advises humility and flexibility. stating that "all sorts of music can minister to us in all sorts of ways," he notes that what music means resides in the individual, not in the sound. He also reminds us that over 2000 years thousands of hymns and songs have been written and the repertoire of what we know is small. He writes,
If we turn to the Bible for guidance, we find that it never prescribes musical styles or particular hymns. Styles change, and no single era has an exclusive claim on musical excellence. Every age has its forgettable tunes and inadequate lyrics as well as its masterpieces, but even the mediocre ones may be vehicles of faith for some (152-153).
He packs some other important ideas in the chapter as well, and concludes that discipleship would greatly diminish without music.