God Sings! (And Ways We Think He Ought To)

Book Description:

God Sings! is an investigation, comparing and contrasting how God and his people sing in the Bible, and in two millennia of Church history, with how Christians are attempting to do so in recent decades--with the best of intentions--in an entertainment ethos.

It would be impossible to overstate the role of singing in the Bible. Everywhere you turn people are doing it. The book of the Bible with more pages, verses, and chapters than any other is a book of songs, the Psalms, right in the very middle of the Bible. During his earthly ministry Jesus often quoted psalms, and while dying on the cross, some of his final words were from those inspired lyrics.

Singing must be of great importance to God, whom Zephaniah tells us "exult[s] over [us] with loud singing" (3:17). God himself sings. If singing is so important to God, it must be of essential importance to every Christian. The purpose of this book is to explore how God sings, and how he must want his people to sing back to him in corporate worship. God Sings! explores the incompatibility of attempting to express the timeless enduring gospel of Jesus Christ with a transient entertainment medium, and contrast the biblical ethos of worship (and the ethos of nearly two millennia of corporate worship practiced in Church history), with the entertainment ethos shaping congregational singing in the majority of evangelical churches in recent decades.

Table of Contents:
1. How Does God Sing
2. Why We War About Worship
3. Sing a New Song
4. What a Difference Does It Make
5. C. S. Lewis's Dislike of Hymns
6. The Devil Hates Goose Quills
7. Missing Reasons
8. Playing at Our Worship
9. Liturgical Fidget
10. Filet Mignon and Cherry Coke
11. Doxology for All Time
12. What Makes a Great Hymn
13. Worship and Idolatry
14. Gone Away Hymnal
15. Hip or Hop Appendix: New Reformation Hymns

Author:

Douglas Bond is the author of a number of successful books. He directs the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class, speaks at conferences, and leads historical tours.

Endorsements:

"Douglas Bond provides a skillful and timely critique of the theological reductionism, musical inferiority, and entertainment-focus of modern worship music, and points us to something far better. I will highly recommend this accessible and instructive book to my own congregation, and to anyone interested in this vital subject."
--REV. JON D. PAYNE, Senior Minister, Christ Church Presbyterian, Charleston, SC; Executive Coordinator, Gospel Reformation Network; Trustee, Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland

"Douglas Bond comes to the worship music discussion with the refreshing perspective of a seasoned writer. Instead of platitudes about beauty, glory, and excellence in music, he aims straight at the center of our tendency to idolatry in both pop and traditional realms while succumbing to the values of a post-Christian culture. It is the only book on this topic that, instead of drawing party lines, invites readers to weigh carefully musical preferences in light of the gospel."
--DR. TERRY YOUNT, Chief Musician and Dean, Saint Andrew's Chapel and Conservatory of Music

"In a day marked by the trite and the trivial, Bond calls us back to solid ground. Here is a vision of worship with roots and wings, and the music of a soul enthralled with God, overflowing with song."
--REV. NEIL C. STEWART, M.D., Christ Covenant Church, ARP

"Douglas Bond's latest book God Sings! is a must read. The wit and warmth of his writing style will engage you, and the plethora of historical anecdotes will delight you. More importantly, the need to recover biblically rooted and theologically rich singing in our churches, families, and lives will challenge you. Buy three copies, one for yourself, and two to give away."
--REV. ANDY YOUNG, Minister of Oxford Evangelical Presbyterian Church, UK

Additional Information: