The modern worship music movement has been driving the church down a dangerous and sinister path. I think it’s because of the move away from theology and the fact the music itself isn’t congregational.”

If those sentences were expressed by a Reformed Presbyterian author, we might scarcely take notice. But this is a quote from one of the best-known names in Christian worship music. Keith Getty spoke those words in a 2011 interview with the Christian Post, and in 2018 he and his wife, Kristyn, sponsored the second annual Sing! conference with the focus of congregational psalm singing. The conference, held in Nashville, Tenn., sold out at 7,500 and was streamed live around the globe.

In a Christianity Today interview following the Sing! conference in September, Ed Stetzer said to Keith Getty, “You are like this wandering prophet calling for a different way and all of the sudden tens of thousands of people are headed that way. How exactly did all this happen?”

Mr. Getty responded, “It is beyond my understanding why the confessional church across the board…[doesn’t] consider worship to be worth critically thinking and speaking about….Yet when you look at the reformers, from Luther on, we see something different. Luther actually believed that the Reformation would happen by putting the Bible in the center of the church. But, as he saw it, the teachers would teach it and the Bible would be carried out of the church through the songs that were sung.”

This conviction to bring congregational psalm singing back to the forefront of Christian worship compelled Crown & Covenant Publications (publishing arm of the RPCNA) to have a significant presence at the Sing! conference. We knew the large majority of attendees would not be coming with a conviction about a cappella psalm singing, but we also knew they would be there with hearts and minds open to the place of congregational psalm singing in the church. Part of our joy in being at the conference was to see the joy when some attendees discovered that people had already put all 150 of God’s psalms into a book for singing!

Prior to the Sing! conference I posted some prayer requests to CovieNet, the RPCNA’s email list. Looking back, I see that God answered those prayers bountifully. We sought prayer “that God would continue to turn people toward the singing of His Word, that it would bear fruit in their hearts, and that they would return to their home churches and continue this practice; and that God would provide us with many opportunities to encourage believers to sing God’s songbook.”

We also asked prayer for Geneva College’s group New Song, who made significant sacrifices to make the long journey. As they sang at our booth to the delight of many passersby, they showed what cannot be communicated by a psalter sitting alone on a table—they communicated the truth and beauty and majesty of God’s songbook being sung. They also enthusiastically helped people learn to sing along. We rejoiced to see that day!