Books

Songs of the Saints: Enriching Our Singing By Learning From the Songs of Scripture

When Rob Smith and Mike Raiter travel to various churches and conferences they often observe two rather disconcerting trends: Christians either remaining stony-faced and disengaged during the songs, or passionately singing songs of minimal biblical or theological substance.

Songs of the Saints is their call to revitalize congregational singing in our evangelical churches. It is a spirited plea to marry sound biblical theology and spiritually zealous hearts, and harness the God-given power of congregational singing to bring vitality and maturity to God's people.

By exploring some of the songs in both the Old and New Testaments, Mike and Rob powerfully remind us why songs are such an important vehicle for glorifying God and sharing life-changing truths with each other.

Table of Contents:

Overture
1. The power of the song

The First Movement
2. The song of the warrior God (Exodus 15)
3. A song of triumph and trust (Judges 5)
4. When singers ruled teh earth (1 and 2 Chronicles)
5. The song of the forsaken (Psalms 42 and 43)

The Second Movement
6. The songs of Hannah and Mary (1 Samuel 2 and Luke 1)
7. Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5)
8. The songs of Heaven (Revelation 4-5)

The Third Movement
9. Why God's people sing
10. Where do emotions fit in?

Finale
11. Church music ministry: Where to from here?

Authors:

Mike Raiter is the Director of the Centre for Biblical Preaching in Melbourne, which trains people across Australia and the world in expository preaching. He has taught in several theological colleges in both Australia and Pakistan, and is the author of the 2004 Australian Christian Book of the Year, Stirrings of the Soul: Evangelicals and the New Spirituality.

Rob Smith lectures in theology, ethics and music ministry at Sydney Missionary and Bible College, works for the Department of Ministry, Training and Development (in the evangelical Anglican Diocese of Sydney), and serves as an associate minister at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. He is also a director, writer and producer for Emu Music and has written a large number of congregational songs.