Music Organization members-part 2

       Yesterday we started a series of discussions on what members of a church musical organization should be like. Yesterday we discussed what it means to be what I call "directable". Today we are going to discuss the philosophy of "catching the vision". All of us who have directed a ministering musical organization for a number of years have experienced band, orchestra, and choir members who "just didn't get it". I used to say jokingly that they stayed in the organization just to travel in the big scenic cruiser buss and eat the free McDonald's hamburgers.

       When I first started traveling with a ministering musical organization, it was a mystery to me how some of them would return from a tour refreshed spiritually and others seemed to be spiritually fatigued and spiritually dry.  After I directed a ministering organization for a few years, I became aware that it was each musician's philosophy that made the difference.

      To help us understand music ministry philosophy in a historic sense let us look again at I Chronicles 25: 1-31 and try to apply it to our lives as ministering musical servants:

                                                           A. They Caught the Director's Vision

1. They sang and played under the supervision or “the hands of” the chief musician.

2. They caught the vision of music ministry by musing through the king and the vision of Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.

3. Music organization members should likewise catch the pastor and directors passion for public ministry.

                                                            B. They Learned From Their Director

1. They learned that their director was constrained by God to deliver this burden through the medium of church music.

2. They learned that he was not only personally a “seer” and a “teller” but he also instructed the musicians under his direction to be “tellers” of this burden through the medium of music.

3. They learned that he was able to transfer his burden for song to those “under his hands” because he was skillful (995 – biyn – i.e. he could separate mentally; he understood the songs of the Lord).

4. I believe that there is a wonderful philosophical Bible lesson in what we have discussed.  Verse eight of this chapter explains that this mentor director relationship was the heart of the Levite's philosophical praxis--the "small" (qatan 6962--least of importance) and the "scholar" (talmiyd-a pupil or learner) learned from these dedicated Levite music leaders.  I believe that what we have learned today is truly an ancient landmark of how music organizations should prepare to music unto God.