Thought for the day-What may happen-part 7

If a music minister's musicing pleases God and at the same time people are pleased, this musician is not a "man pleaser".  However, if a musician's purpose is to please the people and not God, he or she is a "man pleaser".

Part 7-What may happen...musical tastes

 

Part 7-What may happen if we try to cater to everyone’s musical tastes.  

       No musician that I know ever thinks, "I’m going to sing this song just to annoy the congregation.”  Every sensitive ministering musician desires that the congregation will enjoy and appreciate his or her music ministry.  However, the Bible is very clear about whom we should please.  Galatians’ 1:10 states, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I speak [sing] to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ.” (The word in the brackets is mine.) 

       I contend that any music praxis that is based on pleasing the “seeker” or the believer is a faulty praxis.  There is nothing inherently wrong with saint or sinner being pleased with our musical offerings, but our praxis must be built on pleasing God.  In our posts on worship we discussed the fact that the unregenerate cannot truly worship God.  We also discussed that the Holy Spirit can use worship music to convict the sinner. 

       When the Holy Ghost is doing His “office work” of locating and convicting the unregenerate man or woman, they will probably be anything but pleased by music that is convicting them of the awfulness of their sins.  Just like the pastor’s preaching of “Christ crucified” does not make the sinner joyful, the effectual fervent singing of “Christ crucified” will not make the unregenerate comfortable in the presence of a just God who will not overlook sin and rebellion against Him!

       So, a music philosophy that is developed to make the sinner feel OK is just not OK.  Man outside of the forgiveness of sins is far from OK.  Effectual anointed musicing should never be psychologically designed to connote that “I’m OK and you’re OK.  The philosophical notion that worship music should be about “us”, “me”, “my”, and “mine” is nothing less than religious humanism which is no better than secular humanism.  As we have pointed out many times, worship music is about God and our response to Him.  The notion that the church should cater to my likes and dislikes is essentially humanistic music philosophy because under this praxis, music begins and ends with me. Under this type of thinking, man receives the preeminence.
        So to sum this all up philosophically, we should worship God through our musicing in a manner that will be pleasing unto God.  Furthermore, being seeker sensitive is not about singing music that un-regenerated man will like.  It is totally different to sing music that a sinner will understand than it is to build a music worship praxis on music that he or she will like.

 

Thought for the day-What may happen-part 6

When I face Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire at the judgment, I want to be sure that the musical offerings that I presented unto God were not profane.

Part 6-What may happen...sacred & profane music

 

Part 6-What may happen if we do not distinguish between sacred and profane music. 

   There isn’t much use for a church musician to distinguish which music is sacred or profane if he or she does not make a sincere effort to exclude that which is profane from music worship.  If the criterion for a music’ inclusion is the will of the people, the church’s musicing will constantly be enduring the music minister’s leader shift.  Dr. Richard S. Taylor put the whole matter in proper perspective when he explained,  

The fact that some people may like this or that is not sufficient reason for the church to use it.  The church should lead the way in such standards, not abjectly follow every fad and custom which happens to be “in” at the moment.  The Church has no business adopting the philosophy, “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.”  We should be governed by basic and eternal principles.  There are music forms, whether secular or sacred, which create moods of pensiveness, or idealism, or awareness of beauty, of aspiration, and of holy joyousness.  There are forms of music which create moods of recklessness and sensual excitement.  Surely it doesn’t take much judgment to know which forms are most appropriate for religious function. 1    

       Only the essential nature and value of a piece of music gives it the honor of being considered as sacred music.  Therefore, each piece of music must pass the tests of Bible principles of musicing before it makes its way into Sunday morning worship.  As Christian musicians carefully consider the nature and value of all the music use in musicing unto God, a clear line of demarcation between what is truly sacred and what is definitely profane will become evident.  It is the volumes and volumes of music that is “sort of” or “kind of” that is so difficult to categorize into that which is or is not appropriate for “religious function”.  So, since there is such a multitude of religious music that is biblically accurate, appropriate and clearly to be classified as sacred, the short answer is “when in doubt leave it out”.  There is absolutely no excuse for using any music that is questionable stylistically or inaccurate theologically. 

---

1 A Return to Christian Culture, p.87  Richard S. Taylor

 

 

Thought for the day-What may happen-part 5

Perhaps the greatest gift that a minister of music can have is the gift of "helps".  This gift will keep the minister of music from thinking that the music part of worship is the high point or the climax of the worship service.

Part 5-What may happen... not singing in Worship

 

Part 5-What happens if we don’t sing at all in worship?

       Singing is without doubt an ancient landmark of worshiping God.  In my estimation no body of believers has the right to deny worshipers the privilege of responding to God through musicing unto Him.  Admittedly, over  many centuries the church at large has had a tendency to vacillate when it comes to congregational singing. Regardless of what a particular church thinks about the necessity of responding to God through singing at a particular time, singing is an ancient landmark of worship.

        The Bible repeatedly commands Christians to sing unto the Lord.  Psalm 30:4, 96:1&2, 98:1&4, 135:3, I Ch. 29:30, II Ch, 16:23 are just a few of the verses that command us to sing unto the Lord. The Hebrew is so very clear in these verses that it seems no one has been able to translate around this truism—singing is a definite part of worship God’s children from ancient times until this very day.

       Some ministers have mistakenly considered singing to be almost the whole of public worship.  Throughout the Bible, singing was a part of worship but not the end of worship. One of the Bible principles of musicing is that singing  since ancient Israel has been the handmaiden of the Torah.  The te’amim were placed in all of the O.T. Scriptures in order that the entire O.T. could be sung.  Nehemiah 8:8 has, over many centuries, become an esoteric reference to the intoning the Scrolls with the use of the te’amim. 
       The Hebrew word parash (6567) which has been rendered distinctly in the A.V. means to separate or literally to disperse.  Intoning (singing) the Holy Writ with what we now know to be a precise notation (the te’amim) helped in bringing preciseness to God’s written Word.  The same verse uses the Hebrew word biyn (995) which has been translated in the A.V. with a group of English words “and caused them to understand”.  So, when when we bring all these thoughts together we can see that singing the Word of God helped to bring greater understanding to the hearer.  Now you know the “rest of the story” about ancient intoning of Scripture.  There is a very valid reason for singing God’s Word if our musicing helps to make the Word more clear to the congregation.

       This also brings to mind that there is great responsibility placed on those who lead musical worship to make absolutely sure that all of the music sung is biblically accurate.   That was probably the reason John Calvin was so adamant about singing Psalms, and it was exactly why John Wesley once instructed the society of Christians called Methodists to, “Sing no songs of your own composing”. In review, we have considered that the commandment to sing unto the Lord is clear in Scripture.  There is no doubt that we should sing biblically accurate songs in our public worship.  If we do not we will certainly impoverish those whom we lead in worship.

Thought for the day-what may happen-part 4

Instead of being obsessed with the latest trend in Church music, the  music minister should accept the God given responsibility to be true to the task of musicing in "spirit" and "truth".

Part 4-What may happen...becoming trendy

 

Part 4-What may happen when we become trendy with our musicing.

       First, it would be a good idea if we would define the term “Trendy”.  Something is considered to be trendy when it has the predilection to follow a current dominant movement.  I suppose the near opposite of trendy would be the inordinate passion to only revere what is seriously antique.  All of us have seen both extremes in church music.  It should be pointed out that there is nothing inherently wrong with new music and likewise there is a large repertoire of time honored church music that still is valid, useful, and meaningful today.

       If new and old music are both proper for public worship, then is this post much ado about nothing? There are problems with dropping everything in music that is traditional for that which is in vogue at the moment.  Churches have made sudden musical decisions like one church that I know of in central Ohio that made some very rash decisions in an effort to become trendy.   A friend of mine visited their sanctuary and was informed by the pastor that one of the church members had cut all the wires to their $80,000 dollar pipe organ.  When asked if they had a piano, the pastor pointed to a large object covered up at the side of the church platform.  Sure enough it was their nine foot grand piano.  Both of these fine musical instruments had been replaced with a $4,000 dollar keyboard and a drum trap set in one desperate effort to become seeker sensitive. The musical instruments went first but I understand that the church’s fine sanctuary choir was the next thing to disappear from the sanctuary.

        Although it is possible to be seeker sensitive without a church choir, piano or organ, they do not keep a fellowship of believers from caring about folks who are not Christians.  So what happens to the church next after the ministering music organizations and the quality music instruments get the axe?  What happens if a church desires to have a ministering concert pianist come for an instrumental worship service?  Do you ask this artist to humble himself or herself and play your tiny electronic keyboard? I contend that once a fellowship of believers heads down the path of following music trends, there is no stopping place.  The church becomes a hostage of the latest musical notion. 

       My suggestion is to not allow the church to get squeezed into the world’s latest trendy notion of what the church can or cannot do musically in public worship. Although there is certainly nothing inherently wrong with doing something new musically in worship, doing something new will not necessarily fix all the church's worship problems.  Do not drop everything time honored in a desperate effort to make musicing unto God a trendy experience.  If you do you will probably be left out in the musical cold when the trendy winds began to blow another direction.

 

Thought for the day-destructive change part 3

Perhaps the reason that music ministers are spending much time thinking outside the box musically is because they have failed to think inside the box about music worship. 

Part 3-What may happen...destructive change

 

Part-3-What may happen if we do not resist destructive change. 

       First of all, a Christian musician should not resist change merely because it involves new music or a new way of musicing unto God.  Every new method and all new music must meet the biblical criteria of musicing unto God.  We know that God does have an opinion about the appropriateness of the offerings we bring unto Him. (See Genesis 4:4 and Leviticus chapters 4 & 5 and Romans 12:1).  It goes without saying that it is sometimes very difficult to discern whether or not something new will meet the biblical criteria of musicing unto a triune God.  However, most of the time it is not difficult.

        To a conservative minister of music, new music and new techniques are always “suspect” until they pass all the Bible principles of musicing unto God.  For that matter, all old music must meet the same standards if it is to be used.  Yesterday’s post mentioned the Karaites passion to “build up a wall around the Torah.”  Today we are discussing a conservative music minister’s passion for “building up a wall around musicing unto God”.  If true ministers of musicing unto God do not protect our Bible based traditions of musical worship, it will not be very long (it just takes one generation) until we will not recognize public music worship.

        It is believed by some music scholars that the Levite musicians of ancient Israel kept the musical notation (the te’amim) in the abbreviated manuscripts called the Serugin so that the music melodies of the O.T. would not be vilified.  Modern day ministers of music have the right and responsibility to protect church music in the fear of the almighty God who thought music into existence.  If we do not conserve the ancient landmarks of music worship, who will?

        I sometimes think about the milk cows my father kept in the west pasture of the farm that I grew up on years ago.  My father always kept the hedge brush cut down and planted fescue, red clover, brome, and other grasses so that our milk cows would have quality grass to eat.  However, I remember coming home from school in the evening and seeing some of our cows with their heads pushed through the tightly stretched barbed wire fence.  I still remember seeing their necks bleeding as they incessantly pushed through the barbed wire trying to get to a wild onion just outside the fence.  There was absolutely no need for them to reach for the onions because THERE WAS HIGH QUALITY NOURISHMENT INSIDE THE FENCE.  This is the mental picture I get of many post-modern church musicians today.  There are wonderful old and new hymns and worship choruses available to them, but they are incessantly reaching outside of the quality musical provisions available to them for a musical “wild onion”.

        Some present day church musicians seem to have no interest in being careful which styles of music they use in musicing unto God.  It isn’t that they have set different limits of which styles music they consider appropriate for worshiping God, they are no longer setting any limits. They have no interest in “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”  When a post-modern church musician makes no difference between what is proper and not proper for the awesomeness and solemnity of worshiping the Trinity music ministry becomes independent of the Lordship of Christ.