We have spent the past three days discussing what and what not to do if one wishes to be an effective worship leader. Some church music philosophers purport that Christian humility demands that the minister of music be a very mild, plain "vanilla" sort of leader that recedes figuratively into the background. These well meaning church music philosophers believe that any display of emotion or visual excitement on the part of the conductor hinders the work of the Holy Spirit in worship.
These philosophers are what I consider to be a type of religious music worship formalist because they believe that worship understanding is a cognitive exercise alone that must be encapsulated within ones psyche. They believe that music's meaning is cerebral and that if it fails to remain strictly a cognitive exercise it becomes a worldly display of emotion.
These musicians clap their hands at a classical music concert until they turn red, but they abhor any display of emotion when it comes to worshiping our heavenly Father who is truly worthy of our emotional responses. These musicians scream their heads off, so to speak, at their son's or daughter's ball game, but they believe that they must remain almost mute, or at least stoic, when it comes to emotion and outward expression to a worshiping body of believers musicing unto God. I contend that the most worthwhile display of emotion that a music director, or any worshiper for that matter, could ever make would be lavishing praise upon our Savior so dramatically that it is displayed on his or her outward appearance.
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