An interview with Dr. Dawn was printed in the 2005 Fall-Winter issue of the Austin Graduate School's quarterly bulletin.  I thought you might be interested in the following exchange:

            Question:   What are some of your impressions?

            Dr. Dawn:   I love the way you sing. That says a lot.

            Question:   What do you think about our a cappella tradition?

Dr. Dawn:   It's just very impressive. You sing with great gusto, and you all are like I am.  You memorize a lot and know a lot of hymns and resonate with them deeply.

            Question:   What would you say if Churches of Christ abandoned that practice?

Dr. Dawn:   That is a shame. It really is a shame because I hear all the harmonies, and people nowadays don't know how to sing that way.  I love it.  I experienced that in the Mennonites, singing a cappella, and I thought it was brilliant.  I like accompaniments too, but an accompaniment should only support the singing, not cover it up, which is what a lot of contemporary stuff does.

We always sang a cappella.  My dad's choir has always been.  We didn't sing in the congregation that way, because there was always an organ, but we always sang in four part.  The advantage of the parts is that it teaches us fellowship;  it teaches us to listen to one another;  it teaches us to be in harmony in our lives even as we are in our music.  And I think a lot of people today don't think that way.

I appreciated Dr. Dawn's remarks regarding the primacy of singing because they echo comments we often receive here at College Avenue.   Most of our members come from a religious background other than the Churches of Christ, and many who were at first unfamiliar with a cappella worship come to appreciate the fact that "We can hear what the people are singing."

In our fellowship we sing without instruments for many reasons:   it was for many centuries the original practice of the church (the musical term "a cappella," which denotes unaccompanied vocal singing, derives from an Italian phrase which literally means "in the manner of the church");   congregational singing visibly expresses the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9);   it respects the boundaries of Biblical authority (Revelation 22:18;  2 John 9;  Leviticus 10:1);  and it allows us to more effectively "speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19).  Perhaps most importantly, it is only one of a multitude of worship changes that came with the New Covenant (John 4:19-24, 1 Peter 2:5).  The absence of instrumental music in the early church was neither accidental, arbitrary, or cultural.  Numerous early Christian theologians explained it in terms of the spiritual nature of the New Covenant, as opposed to the physical sacrifices and ceremonies of the Old Testament.

As Dr. Dawn observes, however, singing also "teaches us fellowship;  it teaches us to listen to one another;  it teaches us to be in harmony in our lives even as we are in our music."   In the New Testament the command to sing comes within a context of exhortations to unity within the body of Christ (Colossians 3:15-16).  Under the Old Covenant, God's people traveled to Jerusalem to worship in a physical Temple;  under the New Covenant, all that changed (John 4:19-24).  Now God's people become the dwelling place for His Holy Spirit when they unite for worship (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) and our singing reflects and reinforces that new spiritual reality.   As the apostle Paul puts it:

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 15:5-6).    

Early Christian leaders understood this concept well.  Around 110 A.D., a church leader in Antioch named Ignatius wrote:

"By your concord and harmonious love Jesus Christ is being sung. Now all of you together become a choir so that being harmoniously in concord and receiving the keynote from God in unison you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ the Father."

Isn't that a beautiful concept?  When we join our hearts and our voices together in the singing of praises to God, we are expressing, in a very real and powerful way, our unity in the body of Christ. 

Consider the practical implications of an a cappella theology of worship.  Given our practice, no individual has to wonder whether they are "talented" enough to sing in the choir, because every Christian, young and old, is encouraged to join in the singing.   [When inviting individuals to visit our worship assemblies, I sometimes humorously promise them that I will let them sing in the choir the first time they visit! When they visit they realize that we are all the "choir"!]    We do not have to worry about the music "covering up the singing,"  because our voices are the only music.   We don't run the risk of being distracted by the ego of any self-promoting performer, nor enter into the all-too-common church conflicts over organ or piano vs. guitars and drums, because each of us is making the music in our hearts (Ephesians 5:18).