Pastor, we depend on you as one of the primary worship leaders for our congregation. We do agree that your leadership centers more on worship through the Word and Table than through the music. And we also understand and affirm that worship can’t be contained in one expression such as singing. But it is evident from Scripture that singing is a significant response to God’s revelation (Ps 63:5; Eph 5:19: Col 3:15-17). When writing about the future of Jerusalem, the minor prophet Zephaniah wrote, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph 3:17).

Pastor, when you choose not to sing during the worship service, we wonder if you really view the musical worship elements as just an appetizer before the main course or the warm-up band before the headliner. When you study sermon notes instead of singing, it gives the impression you are unprepared, reminiscent of a freshman cramming for a final exam.

We desire worship that is a continuous conversation with a variety of worship expressions instead of just stand-alone elements of music and preaching. We long for you to teach and model active and fully engaged participatory worship instead of passively giving permission for others not to sing too.

You may have read or heard stories of expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest. Hundreds of climbers attempt to reach the summit of Everest every year with the help of ethnic Sherpa guides from the mountains of Nepal. Sherpas prepare the route, fix the safety ropes, carry the supplies, set up the camps, and then help the climbers attempt to reach their goal of conquering Everest. Without the assistance of these Sherpas, most climbers would fail to reach the summit.

The Sherpas are so successful helping others reach the summit because they understand the mountain themselves before attempting to assist others. They are locals who know the mountain, know the culture, know the people, and consequently, know the potentials and limitations.

As a pastor, you have the sacrificial responsibility to help others with less skill, less training, and often less knowledge. Some of those climbers will be experienced, and some won’t. And some will have been hurt in previous climbs and, consequently, trying to find the courage to climb again. Your worship-leading success will not be evaluated just on how well you’ve reached the summit yourself, but on how you assisted others to reach the summit too.

So, we ask that with the humility of a Sherpa, you would help lead us to the summit each Sunday during the song-set. Join us in full-throated singing so that all of our voices, including yours, might unite in communal utterances of praise, thanksgiving, confession, dedication, commitment, lament, and response. When you join in leading us, our songs will then communicate vertically and horizontally in a unified voice so compelling that it can’t possibly be silenced (Ps 30:12).