Music is very important to our God, and He requires us to come before Him with congregational music. As we do, we want to take care not to insult Him with false assumptions about what He wants.
Beware of a false humility: you may believe you do not have a good voice, and in some cases, you may even be right. But God calls you, invites you, beseeches you, to lift up to Him whatever voice you have. And if you are completely dumb, then He calls you to move your lips robustly.
Beware of foot-dragging individualism: we too often take upon ourselves the individual approval or disapproval of this song or that one. But the question that should be in the forefront of our minds whenever we have sung is whether or not God was pleased, not whether we were. This does not mean we can never express concern about music, but when we do, the standard or criterion of our concern must always be whether or not the music glorifies God.
Beware of pride: it does not take too long to realize that the music we sing is markedly different from what is commonly sung elsewhere. The reason it is different is that we are trying to pursue maturity in music. But an implication of this is that we are maintaining that the more common types of music are immature, and in some cases infantile. And we do believe this. But holding to this position and being proud of ourselves should be reckoned as very different things. We need to know that if God were to leave us to ourselves, we here in this church would be busy composing the dumbest songs on the planet. What do we have that is not a gift?
Many other issues are involved in our congregational music as well, but one last exhortation here should be sufficient. For those unaccustomed to the kind of music we are pursuing, the word is this: do not grow weary in doing good. We are asking you to discipline yourself so that you develop a taste for a strong oatmeal stout, and when you eventually do, there is no looking back. We are not asking you to develop a taste for driveway gravel.