Philosophical Justifications for “Doing”

Philosophical Justifications for “Doing”

A Christian musician often musics in a certain manner simply because of personal musical and spiritual instincts or because he or she follows musical traditions established by others.  However, musicing by accident can be a risky policy. A worship leader and a music educator must be able to articulate reasons for performance and teaching choices.  It is better for one not to teach others than to teach them in a willy-nilly manner because the *onus probandi falls on the one who attempts to teach.

 Although the Bible gives us principles of musicing unto God, it does not cover every aspect of music that concerns the twenty-first century Christian musician.  So, every performer, music director, and music educator must, in the fear of God, interpret and apply principles taught in Scripture.  Furthermore, performers, directors, worship leaders, and music educators must also come to philosophical conclusions about aspects of music that do not appear to be covered by Scripture.  With this in mind, I have covered several aspects of music which I believe are vital to a Christian’s musicing in the twenty-first century.  The NIV translates Isaiah 28:10 as, “For it is: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, a little here, a little there.”  The translation above makes sense to me in the context of understanding how we music.  We “do” over and over again until we are conditioned to do what we do musically.