Are You Wired More Like an Artist or Engineer in Corporate Worship?

Dividing people into neat categories is always a bit risky. No one is just an introvert or just an extrovert. We’re all complex, inconsistent, and growing. But sometimes binaries help us notice patterns we might otherwise miss.

Here’s one such example I’ve found helpful when it comes to worship: the church is full of artists and engineers.

• The artist leans on feeling, intuition, and creative expression.
• The engineer leans on logic, structure, and clarity.

Almost no one is one hundred percent one or the other, but most of us tend to lean one way or the other. You probably already know which way you lean. And if you don’t, just ask your spouse.

These inclinations show up everywhere in life, including Sunday morning. The engineer-type Christian often sees the sermon as the main event. They’ll tolerate the singing, but it’s the doctrine-rich, cross-referenced, bullet-pointed sermon that truly feeds them. Meanwhile, the artist might feel most alive during the music and quietly wish the sermon would get trimmed to fifteen minutes so they can get back to singing.

Here’s the thing: God made the artist and the engineer. But both need to be discipled. Our instincts—whether toward passion or precision—must be shaped by Scripture.

When I preached through Exodus 15—the Song of Moses—I saw something I couldn’t unsee: a divine pattern for worship that speaks to both the artist and the engineer. The song brings beauty and truth together in a way that challenges all of us to rethink how we approach gathered worship. More than that, I found the God of both the artist and engineer, who not only writes an amazing story, but also composes a soundtrack for it.

Before we dive into the particulars of the Song of Moses, we need to talk about something even more foundational.

Why Do God’s People Sing?

It’s a fair question. Why do we sing at all? Why not just read the Bible, pray, and preach? Why has singing always been a central feature of Christian worship?

Because it was God’s idea.

1. We Sing Because God Commands It

From cover to cover, the Bible calls God’s people to sing:

Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works! (Ps. 105:2)

 

Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs . . . (Eph. 5:18–19)

Singing isn’t optional. It’s obedience. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). That includes the command to sing.

2. We Sing Because God Sings

The Lord your God is in your midst . . .
he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zeph. 3:17)

God himself sings. That means singing isn’t just something we do for God, it’s something we do with God. He is the original Singer, and we’re made in his image. When we lift our voices in worship, we reflect something beautiful and true about our Creator.

3. We Sing Because We’re Human

We’re not machines. We’re embodied souls with hearts, minds, and imaginations. Singing is one of the rare acts that engages the whole person:

• It activates the mind by teaching truth through melody and meter.
• It stirs the heart by helping us feel what we confess.
• It shapes the memory—songs stick with us in ways that sermons don’t.
• And it sparks the imagination, giving us glimpses of glory we can taste before we see.

God designed music to help us remember truth and rehearse it together. That’s why, when his people walked through the Red Sea and stood on the other side, they didn’t just say thank you, they sang.

I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. (Exod. 15:1)

4. We Sing Because the Gospel Is Worth Singing About

At the end of the day, we sing because we’ve been saved.

God rescued us from slavery—first from Egypt, and ultimately from sin and death. The appropriate response to that kind of deliverance isn’t just agreement, but adoration. Singing is the language of the rescued and redeemed. It’s what comes out when the soul says, “God has done great things!”

No matter which way you lean—artist or engineer—I want to invite you to open your heart, your mind, and your mouth as you worship the God who saves.

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of Redemption Song: A Primer on Singing for the People of God by Sean DeMars, republished with permission from Christian Focus.