Dear Friend,
I just returned from the SING! Conference, hosted by my friends Keith and Kristyn Getty. Part of my responsibility was to encourage pastors like myself to take seriously our role as it relates to the singing of the congregation. We considered how the twelfth verse of Hebrews 2 should guide our thinking: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

Before He returned to the Father, Christ commissioned His church to “go … and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:18). That day, the church received its commission, but it was on a later day—after Christ had ascended, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came on the gathering of disciples—that the church began its mission. Only then, under the Spirit’s power, did they at last begin to preach the Gospel to “devout men from every nation under heaven” who were gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 2:4–5).

By nature, men and women act self-reliant, often burdened by the futility of trying to make sense of their existence or attempting to please God through self-effort. Jesus invites all sinners to come and find rest in Him. While His call is universal, it’s also very personal. Those who accept His invitation are expected to learn from Him.