Rule #1: Figure out what the deal is.

As far as I can tell, nobody quite knows what the deal is with music in church. At least, nobody I know knows what the deal is. Perhaps once upon a time somebody knew, or at least someone knew someone who knew, but now nobody knows.

We do know that church music isn't really something you can not do. We've always done it! Which, of course, is all the reason we need to keep doing it ad infinitum (ahem.).

Not to mention the fact that it seems to be in the Bible. Where I come from, we believe in reading the Bible and doing what it says. All jokes aside - this is the right way to be. Humans have no idea who God is or how to get right with him - sin has ruined us way too much for there to be any chance of that. But God, in his mercy, reveals himself to us - he tells us about himself, about us, and about how to get right with him (through the cross of his Son, Jesus). When God speaks he knows what he's talking about, and we have to listen.

But I digress.

Anyways, singing is in the Bible. Moses and Miriam do it (Exodus 15). David does it (Psalms). Paul commands it (Ephesians 5:19-20). Lots of it seems to happen in heaven (Revelation 5).

So we figure we should probably do it.

So we do it.

But we don't know why.

Which means we don't know how.

When we do music it feels weird and out of place. It's good for breaking up the service - making sure we get a chance to stand up and sit down between the sermon and the prayers. But I wonder if that's not exactly what the deal is supposed to be with church music, and that's why it doesn't really seem to be working.

So here is your rule: before you do it (or perhaps I should say, before you do too much more of it), figure out what the deal is with it.

Do you know what you're doing when you're doing music in church?

Do you know what it is and what it's for?