In his introductory press conference as head football coach of the LSU Tigers, Coach Ed Orgeron said LSU would be “one team (with) one heartbeat.” That phrase has been his team’s mantra since being named head coach in September 2016. What Coach O knows is that when teams (or churches or families) are in sync, powerful things can happen. This is what the writer of Proverbs was hinting at when he said, “Without vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18). That literally means, “without direction, people go their own way and do their own thing.” In other words, if you want a family, church or organization to be in chaos, a sure way to do it is to fail to have unity.
Paul thought unity was so important that before addressing the issues that plagued the most jacked up church that the Bible records (the church at Corinth), he started with spending considerable time pressing the importance of it into their hearts. Unity (or lack of) can make a drastic difference in the health and effectiveness of any team, family or church. There is incredible power when people are acting as “one team, one heartbeat.” The bottom line: Unity is a MASSIVE deal.
Men, we have an unlikely opportunity to press unity into the hearts of our families and our churches every time we gather with God’s people for worship. It’s easier than you think. All you have to do is…SING! No, seriously. Here’s what I mean…
According to a 2013 article in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, Swedish scientists believe that singing together literally syncs your heartbeats. Dr Bjorn Vickhoff, from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University in Sweden, said, “When you exhale you activate the vagus nerve, we think, that goes from the brain stem to the heart.” When this happens the heart rate changes.
So, practically what does that mean? It means that every time you worship the Lord through singing, you are literally uniting your heartbeat to that of those who sing with you. When we worship the Lord together, we are functioning as agents of unity in our families and churches. Whether you know it or not, the Lord is using you to foster “one team; one heartbeat” in your family and your church.
In my 17 years’ experience pastoring men, one of the most common frustrations I hear is, “I want to lead my family spiritually. I just don’t know what to do.” Well I have great news! God has given you an incredibly simple yet extremely underutilized tool to leverage when it comes to leading those we influence. Men of God, we must sing! The problem is, we often just don’t.
Think about the average worship gathering you attend. Do men sing until their voices can’t sing any more; or do they stand silently as hands-in-pockets observers? Most often it’s the latter. There are many reasons for this. Male congregants are not always to blame. But that’s for another article on another day.
As for today, let me encourage you to sing like nobody’s listening! Let it fly guys! Start today. Heed the challenge of the Psalmist who says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord…” (Psalm 98:4). It seems like a small thing. But it’s not. It’s HUGE! It does make a difference. So, lead your families and lead your churches. Sing, men of God!
This article originally appeared here.
