In the past when I have informed people that I am a member of the church of Christ, a commonl response has been "Oh, you are those people who don't believe in music." Of course we do very much believe that music is a necessary part of worship to God in the church. We do not, however, believe in using instruments of music in our worship service. This is not a long dissertation on why no instruments of music in our worship services, just a brief introduction.

Primarily we don't use musical instruments in our worship because we are instructed to "sing with our hearts" and in conjunction with that, there are no examples in the New Testament of the use of instruments of music in worshiping God. Normally, a response to that statement to someone who wants instruments of music is that they were used to worship God in the Old Testament. That certainly is true but with all that history, no use of them is mentioned in the New Testament. For more information about music in worship go to "library" in the main menu, select "bible answers to significant questions" from the sub-menu on the right, then select "Why worship without instruments of music?".

So I am including these songs from our worship as an example that we do believe in music and that instruments are not necessary. These songs were recorded from mikes established primarily to record the lessons delivered by our pulpit minister so they are not musical productions. These songs were recorded during worship where everybody is encouraged to admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs making melody in our hearts to the Lord. It is not a performance so we don't screen out people who can't carry a tune nor mike those who have beautiful voices and sing on key. We do not have a choir or special groups during our worship service. We understand that we could improve the music quality by using a choir but believe that is not consistent with biblical teaching and certainly puts the emphasis on pleasing man instead of participation of all in worshiping God. The instrument to use is the heart, the quality of the music is secondary to the Lord. After saying all that, I believe the quality of the singing in our worship is very good. In these songs you can hear the song leader start the songs and quickly the congregation joins in.

We do appreciate choral presentations and quartets by highly qualified and skilled singers but limit that to our enjoyment/entertainment separate and apart from our worship service. It seems to me that many of the "so called" worship services that I have seen on TV are just entertainment. I would ask any of you reading this to consider the teaching in the New Testament about singing and compare it with what you see others do today. I am including some music other than from our worship service, first of all to enjoy, but also to show that we know how to produce high quality music and do enjoy it. We also enjoy instrumental music and many of us are highly capable of playing different instruments but believe strongly that there use in a worship service to God is not consistent with New Testament teachings and examples.

So I hope you will enjoy some of these songs.