Music and Religion

Hello everyone! This week we are going to talk about my experience with music and religion. Growing up in a Southern Black Baptist Church the belief of God and Jesus has been instilled in me ever since I was a child. If you come to our church, you will see that music is an essential part of our worship. We believe that God gives everyone talents or gifts that are meant for us to use to worship and praise Him. Music is one aspect that brings many gifts together to create a joint worship with musicians and people with talents that are not musical.

https://www.quotemaster.org/religion+of+music#&gid=1&pid=7

During our church service, you will hear at least five or six different songs. Some songs we sing together as a congregation, some songs would be sung by the choir and other songs are instrumentals.  Even though there are different types, all songs are meant to bring us closer to God spiritually through the lyrics. Songwriters compose their songs based off of scriptures from our Holy book called the Bible. We believe that Bible gives us God’s spoken word and lessons. One song called “They That Wait” by Fred Hammond is a song based off the scripture Isaiah 40:31 KJV. It is an upbeat song that encourages people to keep pushing through their problems. It references this scripture the whole song as it tells its listeners to wait for the Lord because he will give you the strength to endure when you feel like you cannot push through.

The next video is a clip from the Mount Zion Baptist Church Choir. In this video you will see the whole church singing a hymn called “How to Reach the Masses”. In the last song, the congregation would be sitting down listening to the choir sing but in this video, everyone is standing up singing. You will see a man standing in front of the choir in the front facing the audience conducting his hands to the music. He is called the choir director and he directors both choirs and the whole church when they sing hymns. You will also hear instruments that are different from the first video. In Baptist churches, the most common instruments you will see are pianos, organs and drums, but it is not rare to see other instruments. We believe that any instrument can be used if it will please God.

There are also slow songs too. One of my favorite song is called “Imagine Me” by Kirk Franklin. In this video, you will see the choir director playing the piano and most of the congregation is sitting down. Sometimes, people will stand up clapping and the choir director will try to engage the audience to sing with the choir.

I hope that you all enjoyed this week’s blog. I am very interested to see what you think about this musical culture. I am also interested to see how music is influential in your religion and if you do not have one how it is influential in your life. I will see you guys next week!