Doxology

In my last entry, I tried to deal with the profile of a Music Minister who tends to take his church’s music too far (or at least in a way that is detached from the congregation) to the classical and academic side. If you have not yet read that entry you can do so here to have context for today’s entry.

Today, I want to deal with Music Ministers who may also go too far in the other direction—that of doing only what I will refer to as “pop” music. To better clarify, what I mean by “pop” music is music that is of a more basic nature, music that does not require classical education to produce, but music that also usually requires skilled musicianship in its own right. But compared to music of classical or neo-classical influence, pop music is generally chord-driven with syncopation used as a driving force in its styling. It also usually incorporates guitars (electric and acoustic) and drums.

Before you make any snap judgments, let me say that I enjoy much of what I just defined as pop music and often lead numerous songs Sunday-to-Sunday at Grace Life Church that would so be classified.

You will NOT answer to your own personal tastes. Why do so many Music Leaders run off and leave their congregations by pushing too quickly into popular music? Why do we see many church plants started rather than simply reforming an existing church? I believe it comes down to convenience and personal preference.

To what are most Music Leaders listening? The local CHR (Christian Hit Radio) station. Who has the most influence and who are most Music Leaders wishing to be? The Chris Tomlin’s and the Matt Redman’s and the Dave Crowder’s control the airwaves and it is an easy trap for many Music Leaders to fall into to begin dreaming about being the next hot artist. I’ve been there….I’ve done that. I’m not accusing anyone else of anything that I haven’t done or continue to wrestle against.

Because of that influence, it can seem antithetical to then kick off a service with your local church’s limitations singing the same old songs you’ve been singing for years. It’s tempting to want to bring in the latest “hot” Christian worship song so as to feel a bit closer to the guys to whom you are listening. It’s alright to admit it. We all struggle with it. I’m even aware of some Senior Pastors who make the same mistake. They just won’t tolerate where their church music is “at”.

But here’s the problem—the platform at your church is not yours. It is the Lord’s and He wants it to be used to edify and encourage His Bride. One guiding passage that bears on this challenge is from Philippians:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Phil 2:3-5

Are you providing music that connects with your congregation in their best interests? Now, if you are leading music in an urban environment and your congregation is filled with college-aged and twenty-somethings, you might not be doing music that is “pop” enough! But chances are, you may be running the risk of providing musical diets that are a bit too edgy for most conservative congregations. Just because doing pop music connects with you (as the Lead Musician) doesn’t mean that it’s connecting with your congregation.

You WILL answer to God. Just as I said in the previous entry, I say it again—everything you do must be from the perspective of the glory of God. Don’t miss the point of this discussion. I’m not saying that moving your church’s music toward pop styles is wrong. What I’m asking you is what is your motive in doing so?

If you have a Senior Pastor and Elders who are guiding you to make your church’s music styles more current, then you should feel much freedom in doing so. But keep in mind that it’s a marathon—not a spring. Just as I said before: think trajectory. If you can tell that working with only a piano and organ is putting your congregation to sleep, it may be time to freshen up your musical palette. (Please also keep in mind that I’m assuming that everything that you’re singing is truth-driven and cross-centered….If not, we’ve got an entirely different problem!)

You’ve got to remember that you are there to serve your church—not the other way around. Eli’s sons thought that the church was there to serve them (1 Samuel 2). Just as the Lord didn’t take lightly Hophni and Phineas—the scriptures actually call them “worthless men”—so He will not take lightly your making an idol out of using the church platform to pursue professional and musical ambitions.

Be careful that in introducing pop music to your congregation that you’re not doing so with a “three-pronged fork” and demanding your way. Only do so with much prayer, much counsel, and much soul-searching. Notice that I’ve not given concrete guidelines for how long, how much, and how drastic to make changes in your church’s music program. Each situation is different and subjective. But application of humility, of a servant’s heart, and submission to church leadership is constant and objective.

As you can see from the past two entries, it’s easy to sin on either side of the stylistic debate. I’ve had a history of taking church music programs to some classical expressions that had to have stretched some congregants. I’ve also had a history of making changes towards pop music expressions.

I’ve been guilty of violating my own counsel. But I’ve also experienced the joy of seeing congregants enjoy singing to music that better relates to them by adding in some pop music expressions. I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and successes. And I pray that whatever you do, you do it as to make much of Christ and the gospel!

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I don’t believe I have written about this issue before. Forgive me if I have. But it deals with the concept of Music Ministers who are attempting to turn their church’s music department into a collegiate music department.

You will NOT answer to your university. I’ve have found that part of the problem with Music Ministers turning their church’s music department into an art display is that they are still hearing their college professors’ voices in their heads. This is especially the challenge in guys who are not that far-removed from college (especially if they went to a secular university where classical music reigns supreme). Church music departments are NOT collegiate music programs.

I understand this concept….I was a Music Major at one time. I can still remember how much I wanted to please my voice teacher, my theory teacher, and my choir director. It is a real temptation to want to measure up to their standards when beginning work in church music. But you also have to identify much of that as idolatry. You might need to repent of treasuring your professors’ opinions over the scriptures’ and your pastor’s.

You WILL answer to God. What is the alternative to being a mini-Dr.-So-And-So from your alma mater? Be an extension of the heart of your church leadership and of your pastor. Look and see where your church is at musically. We have freedom with music styles. You didn’t when you were a Music Major. I know in my experience, anything of a non-classical variety (other than possibly Jazz) was considered drivel.

You may have to lower some personal music standards so as to better communicate the gospel with your congregation. It’s OK to come down out of the ivory tower of musical excellence in order to provide musical vehicles that will equip your congregation to declare truth. Does that mean you stay there? Maybe not. But the process in raising the level of excellence is most likely a long-term proposition and not an immediate, sudden change.

Think trajectory rather than topography. Think “where you might have to adjust to then lead them to where you leadership wants it to go” instead of “where do they need to adjust to get where I am”.

You will answer to God in how well you fulfilled Colossians 3:16:

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The best I can tell from that verse, and in its complimentary verse (Eph. 5:19), is there is no explicit or implicit constraints on classical vs. folk, vernacular style vs. collegiate style, etc. You might do more for the kingdom by providing music that is already in the lexicon of the congregation than by striving after lofty, educated musical expressions that leave your congregation clueless at best and frustrated at worst.

Don’t get me wrong–church music should be excellent and presented to assist a congregation with as little distraction as possible. But there is a fundamental flaw in making the artistry of church music primary. It must be secondary.

The glory of God is primary. Idolatry of music styles can be a deathtrap to Music Ministers. If I heard the phrase in college “Art For Art’s Sake” once I heard it a million times. And as you have read this much of this entry you might have already made assumptions that I don’t like classical music. Au contraire. I happen to have a deep affinity for music in “classical” genres. I even sing in the Nashville Symphony Chorus.

But in response I will borrow from the title of Philip Ryken’s book and say that you should be making art for God’s sake. If your efforts to present music in classical styles is NOT resonating with your parishioners then how is that glorifying Christ? If it is not providing a congregation with the opportunity to respond to truth with great joy and worship because they are too distracted by music that they don’t understand then is that really glorifying to God? If they ain’t followin’—you ain’t leadin’….

Maybe you think that God only “gets” classical….I’m not sure how to deal with that one. All I ask you to do is to take it a whole lot slower. You may have to go with music styles that are not your favorite ones. But it’s not about you, right?

Please forgive my sarcasm in this post. I really strive to not be so sarcastic. Please hear my appeal to you to connect with your congregation where they are musically. Once you do that then you might just be positioned to begin the wonderful journey of raising the musical levels and standards of your church’s music. You then might also give them a grander more glorious view of the gospel and you will treasure the journey that you all went on together.

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I guess you have noticed at this blog that I think a lot of Bob Kauflin. To be honest, I have only been under his ministry directly at Together For The Gospel. But his vision for Sovereign Grace Music has had a profound effect on my life. So often he can say very effectively what I stammer and struggle to say….Today I share with you four items from his latest blog entry on his reflections on turning 55. Enjoy!

Music can become boring—Jesus can’t.
It’s not the latest songs, creative arrangements, or unique sounds that make corporate worship amazing and awe-inspiring. It’s a clear and compelling picture of Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world. As long as I have that understanding, leading songs will never become routine or banal, and my worship of God will never be dependent on musical innovation. So I value truth over tunes.

Worship leaders can be cool. Biblical worship can’t be.
By nature, “cool” describes something that the world esteems as hip, desirable, elitist, and perhaps elusive. Biblical worship is very un-hip, hated by the world’s value system, and a gracious gift from God to those he has redeemed. It involves magnifying the glory of Christ and minimizing our own glory. It means acknowledging our sinfulness before a holy God, expressing gratefulness for the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ for our sins, and responding in humble obedience to his commands. All very uncool activities. So, no need to worry that I’m twice as old as a lot of the people I lead corporate worship with.

Experience, planning, and skill are no substitute for the Holy Spirit.
Experiences have taught me a lot over the years. Planning ahead is a way of serving the people I lead. Skill is a vital component to leading worship effectively. But ultimately, only God’s Spirit can give people a knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). It doesn’t matter whether I’m leading 5 people or 5,000, my need for God’s empowering presence is the same. So I pray.

God isn’t seeking worship leaders; he’s seeking worshipers.
Since “worship leader” isn’t even a biblical term, I don’t want to find my identity in being one. I’m happy to use my musical gifts to draw people’s attention to the greatness of Christ, but there are plenty of other ways I can do that, too. Loving my wife, speaking kindly, being generous, sharing the gospel, caring for the poor, to name a few. In At the end of it all, the only ones worshiping God are bondservants (Rev. 22:3). So I seek to serve for the glory of God.

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Have you ever considered the source of praise? Have you ever thought about who generates those words, thoughts, songs, and acts of worship to God?

To attempt to answer these questions, let us look at one of the most amazing moments in all of scripture.

Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, ” I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” Ex 33:18-19 NASU

Can you imagine how euphoric, how terrifying, how incredible this moment must have been for Moses? We are so blessed that God chose to include it in scripture. He does so to tell us some very important truths.

God Is Sovereign
Of course you can say, “But it was Moses’ request to which God responded!” Well, yes and no. It was Moses who made the request, but it was God at work in Moses that caused Moses to make such a request. You also must notice all of the “I will” in what God says. It was God Who called Moses to the mountain in the first place. It was God Who took the initiative with Moses—not the other way around.

God Is Sovereign Over Himself
God did not say “I will pass before you”. He does not even say “My goodness will pass before you”. He says “I will make all My goodness pass before you”. Have you ever considered the infinite Self-control of God? What if you had perfect self-control? Have you ever met anyone with flawless self-control?

Tiger Woods has become a billionaire because he has unparalleled self-control over his golf game…..But he is losing out with advertisers now that it is apparent that he doesn’t have that same self-control in his private life. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Ga. 5:23). However, who can claim that they have had absolute self-control other than God?

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I often get questions emailed to me or sent to me through Facebook. Here is another one from a good brother:

Just imagine that you were beginning a church plant and had limited musical ability available. What worship line up would you have that people could grasp and learn over the weeks and months? And what would you do if you haven’t got anyone to play musical instruments?

I am so glad to have this question asked to me because so often I run into pastors, church leaders, and church musicians who are greatly encouraged by Grace Life Music but are at the same time discouraged by it. They look at the 100+ member choir and the 20-or-so-member orchestra and think “How can I compare to that?” or “Well, I would see better results in my song services if I had all those tools and personnel with which to work”.

The truth is they are correct. The success that you may see at Grace Life is the result of 30+ years of faithful preaching of God’s word, of a faith in God’s gospel to produce true conversions, and a vision for a thundering Music Department that already existed before I arrived. I can take no credit for that.

However, there are some principles that can be gleaned from the way we do music at Grace Life that can be applied to any church of any size:

Start slowly. Lock in on about a dozen thoroughly biblical songs that your congregation can sing with confidence and without distraction. One mistake that I have made in the past is to throw too much new music at a congregation in too short of a time period. Some of that comes with idolatry of other larger churches who seemingly do the same thing. What you don’t realize is that many times the music that is new to you is not to the congregation of the church to which you compare.

I would begin with hymns like “It Is Well With My Soul”, “Amazing Grace”, “In Christ Alone”, “There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood”, “Hallelujah What A Savior”, “Come Thou Fount” and “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross”

I would also direct you here to the Approved Song List that we use at our church. 99% of the congregationals that we sing come from this list.

Integrate Gradually. Once I had a firm grasp on those (and there are others that are worthy of initially singing), I would then take one or two song/hymns a month and sing them every Sunday. Whoever is leading the singing might want to sing the new one as a special for a couple of weeks. Then, if it is obvious that the congregation is singing along, turn the special into a congregation by inviting them to sing along.

One reason you don’t see more churches doing it this way is the thought that every song service as to be a euphoric, ecstatic experience and that methodically teaching new music to a congregation deviates from that idea. Get over that notion. Repent of any idols of the way congregational singing is supposed to look or feel.

Listen Carefully. Especially with a small congregation, you will get suggestions from your congregation. That is a good way (although not the primary way) to add songs to your repertoire. Talk to your congregants. To what are they listening? What songs are resonating with them? If you are not the pastor but lead the singing, get lots of advice from the pastor and/or elders. The song leader should be one of the leading theologians in the church so it may be up to you to determine the biblical fidelity of a new song.

Also, listen to our church ancestors. There are many solid, biblical hymns and songs that have stood the test of time and are in keeping with historical orthodoxy. Lastly, listen to your young people. They also may have insight into what’s new out there. Be careful in doing this—but you may stumble across a real gem to teach your congregation.

Center Vocally. Don’t make your church instrument-dependent. You do NOT have to have instruments to have worship. Don’t misunderstand….Our dear Church of Christ folks (and some other well-meaning reformed churches historically) erroneously over-reacted and banished instruments from corporate worship. However, we also err in making them mandatory.

Most all of the music that we do at Grace Life could be done without instruments. Would that be a distraction for a little while with our congregation? It might. However, it wouldn’t fall apart! We use instruments because we have them available, we are free to do so biblically, and we don’t HAVE to in order for worship to occur. Instruments serve us—we are not a slave to them.

I would much rather sing a capella without distraction than to have the distraction of someone accompanying on an instrument who could not play with excellence that is appropriate to the size of the congregation. Make congregational singing the centerpiece of the music that is produced in your church!

Hope this helps!

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