Help us find the best discipleship songs and hymns for our launch event in April.
Music forms us. It’s long been said that ‘the one who sings, prays twice’. The tradition goes all the way back: Jesus and the disciples sang ‘the hymn’ at the Passover, and the Bible itself captures the lyrics of music offered to God, in the Gospels, the Psalms, and many other places.
The formational aspect of Christian music shows up brightly in our research. In the survey, of around 1200 churchgoers, 83% said they had been helped in their journey of faith by music in church worship – with 40% strongly agreeing. 60% also said they’d been helped by recorded/broadcast Christian music. It looks like most Christians find music helpful, and many find it very helpful.
It’s such a significant result that we’ll be exploring the formational role of music in an afternoon workshop at the What Helps Disciples Grow? event in April. And earlier that day, we too will be singing together some of the songs of worship that best represent the task of discipleship.
That’s where you come in – by helping us identify the hymns or songs which best reflect the call of Christian learning, growth, formation and discipleship. We want to choose three to set the day up and frame the afternoon workshop. So, we’d like to know from you what hymn or song speaks to you most about discipleship.
It could be an old favourite or a little-known number to share with a wider community. It might speak of discipleship in any of its aspects – of Christian growth, of calling and response, of journey. But I hope it will have something of a personal response, and if you want to say why or how a particular song is significant to your discipleship, we’d love to hear it. (Please tell us if you don’t want us to share it further).
You can nominate your discipleship hymn or song through the contact form or comments on ‘Watching the Flocks’, our project blog, but the best place might be on our Facebook page, or Twitter where your idea might trigger others… and who knows: it might be your choice that 100+ church leaders sing together on 19th April!
https://watchingtheflocks.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/singing-discipleship/