Teaching and Admonishing One Another

“The very thing Paul says should unite the church — its singing — has somehow become the thing that divides it, and this week we ask why.”

Sermon Summary

Why does the very thing meant to unite the church so often end up dividing it? In week 17 of our walk through Colossians 3, Paul paints a picture of a healthy church: united in love, ruled by peace, and centered on the word of Christ. And the means he gives us for that word to dwell richly among us? Teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sounds beautiful — until you realize that's exactly where so many churches come apart. We dig into what each of those three words meant to the early church, why medieval Jewish scholars were literally marking up the Psalms to preserve how they were once chanted, and why defending one musical "lane" as the only right way misses what Paul was actually after. Along the way: a confession from Augustine about being moved to tears by singing, a brand-new hymn written by one of our own, and my admission that I never grew out of 80s country music. This isn't really a sermon about music. It's about what happens when we mistake a preference for a principle, and what it looks like when a church actually lets the word of Christ, not a style of song, be what holds it together. Join us as we work through Colossians 3:14-17.

Sermon Text: Colossians 3.16

Date: July 12, 2026

Preacher: Todd Pylant

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