Doxology

Grace Life Church’s great friend, Jonathan Sims, aka “Jono”, wrote a wonderful hymn that we unveiled at the True Church Conference last week.  It is called “The Atonement” and is set to the tune of “Nearer My God To Thee”.  Due to the many requests for the lyrics, I’ve decided to post them here:

God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for me.

Traded righteousness for filth, there on Calvary.

Counted Him as He were me.

Counted me and I were He.

God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for me

Bore the curse of holy wrath that was meant for me.

Cursed is the One who hangs there upon a tree.

Beaten, bruised, and so despised.

Holy wrath now satisfied!

Ruined sinners Justified! There on Calvary

Far as east is from the west, sin’s removed from me.

Scape-goat led so far away, there on Calvary.

Separated from my sin.

Reconciled and born-again.

Far as east is from the west, sin’s removed from me

“It is finished,” Jesus cried, dying for His own.

Reconciling them to God, His blood did atone!

Long before the world began

God designed salvation’s plan

Christ, the Lord, the Spotless Lamb, dying for His own

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Not only is the True Church Conference FREE this year but for the first time, you can watch the entire conference live-streamed.

The schedule is as follows (all times CST):

Tonight (Thu):  7 PM

Friday: 9 AM, 1:30 PM, 7 PM

Saturday: 9 AM, 7 PM

Sunday: 10:30 AM

If you or your group wants to sing along with the song services, you can download the lyrics here

The speakers are David Miller, Barry King, Brett Beasley, Roy Hargrave, and Jeff Noblit

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Hope You're Coming This Year!

That’s right!  You can click here to see the entire Order Of Service for this year’s True Church Conference at Grace Life Church of the Shoals.

There will be much more information coming soon regarding the conference so feel free to check back here or at www.anchoredintruth.org

Jeff Noblit TCC Promo from Tim Martin on Vimeo.

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Even though the title doesn’t reflect it, this is the last section of the series from which I have been sharing based on a breakout session that I taught at this year’s True Church Conference.  In speaking on the role of music in the church, I found it imperative that I also touch on this crucial relationship in church life.

All too often, I receive news of a church facing factions, splits, and dissention with the Music Minister found at the center of the fray.  Nothing grieves me more.  In fact, I have experienced some trepidation in my direction simply because I serve as a Music Minister—to find out that there are those just waiting for me to cause problems based on the simple fact that I serve in this capacity.

What a telling, unfortunate atmosphere in the church—and it is warranted.

In response, I have some thoughts for fellow Music Ministers that will also apply to Elders/Senior Pastors that can help to avoid such sinful situations.

The Music Department is not the Music Minister’s property. Is it the Music Minister’s responsibility?  Absolutely!  Does that mean that he needs to guard his turf militantly?  Absolutely not!

Here is the way I have defined my position at any church in which I have served:  I am to be an extension of the heart of my Senior Pastor/Elders to the church just as they are an extension of the heart of Christ to the church.  Church leadership is worthy of double-honor (1 Tim. 5:17) as well as obedience (Heb. 13:17).  It is not a subordinate’s position to fix leadership (1 Sam. 24:6) and it is the leadership’s responsibility to not take selfish advantage of such authority (1 Pet. 5:1-4).

With that in mind, it suddenly becomes much easier to run a Music Department.  The answers to the following questions are solved when a Music Minister serves as a steward of the Music Department rather than an owner:

What songs should we sing?

How long should the song service last?

How loud should the sound system be?

What visual aids do we use?

What lighting should we involve?

Do we have a choir?

Do we sing specials?

What are my office hours?

How am I to dress for the service?

When should rehearsals be held?

And on and on and on….The answers to every one of these questions and all the rest of them are found in the following statement—Do it the way your Pastor/Elders want it done. If they don’t give much direction, then develop different options and ask for approval of one of the options.

Most importantly, the Music Minister should give the Senior Pastor/Elders and open door to give input in regards to any area of his service.  He should be open to correction and flexible in his spirit.  He must have a high view of pastoral authority.

I have written about this in the past, but it is worth re-visiting.  Joseph, specifically in Potiphar’s house, is a fantastic example of how a Music Minister should serve his leadership:

Gen 39:4-6

4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. 5 It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the LORD  blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the LORD’S blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. 6 So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.

Is your pastor losing sleep at night over the way you are leading the Music Department?  Is he troubled over your agendas and defensive spirit?

Does your pastor have to walk on egg-shells around you?

Is your pastor freed up to focus on prayer and scripture study?

If you’re not sure, go to him and ask for his input!  Ask his forgiveness for any turf-guarding that you have done.  I promise you—the Lord will be pleased and will honor your sincere, good-faith efforts to serve your church leadership.

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Today, I will finish up this section of our series on the role of music in the church.

Previously, from the Col. 3:16-17 text I gave the following points:

Church music is to be Gospel-centered

Church music is to be experienced richly

Church music is to teach and admonish

Church music is to be done with wisdom

Now to my last two points:

Church music is for one another. The text says “teaching and admonishing one another…”.  Church services that promote only a vertically-directed experience miss a crucial element to Paul’s instruction.  This is not to say that song services are not vertically-directed (I’ll get to that in my next point).  But song services are also to be horizontally-directed.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the language of the song texts use “one-another” lexicon.  What it does mean is that as we model responding to truth with our affections we admonish one another in so doing.  It also means that the texts of the songs must teach the Gospel.

There seems to be two extremes when it comes to this area.  Either we have the “Me And Jesus Are Gonna Have Our Own Private Moment During The Service” guy or we have the “I Don’t Want To Be A Distraction” guy.  Both are incorrect.  If I totally shut out the rest of the congregation, I am being disobedient to this text.  If I am so afraid of giving any outward evidence of showing affections for Christ and the cross as to be a “distraction” I am also falling short of Paul’s command.

From this text, we can see that as I focus on the gospel I am free to respond to its message by visibly showing it with passionate singing, affectionate facial expression, and selfless body language.  In this economy, you will be edified by being somewhat aware of my experience—and I will be edified by yours!  (I know I am getting ahead of my next point here!)

Folks who are so intent on singing “to God” at the expense of ignoring the “one another” are out of balance.  Conversely, folks who are too focused on the “one another” at the cost of singing “to God” are also out of whack.

Church music is to God. I probably could have made these two points into one collective point—but Paul does separate the two in his command to the Colossians.  There are plenty of folks who would prefer that Paul had left out those two words “to God”.  They are much more comfortable with a horizontal focus on a church service.

However, Paul does include both.  The scriptures stretch both the vertically-challenged (how’s that for a new use of the term from a vertically-challenged guy—in terms of height?) and the horizontally-challenged.  We can’t escape either dimension!  For those who are content with coming to church to merely observe the congregation singing, Paul would say “Why are you not also focusing on God?”

We must include, promote, and model both.  Song texts must include songs with second-Person language (You, Thou) as well as third-person (God, He, Christ, Jesus).  Music Ministers must show themselves enthralled with the gospel by looking upward AND outward.  To have only one or the other gets us out of balance.

“To which do I begin?” you may ask.  Are we to start by looking to one another or by looking to God?  I would answer by saying it all begins with God.  Just look to God with the secondary intent of ministering to one another corporately.  Singing “to God” in order to ignore things in the “one another” is a cop out (forgive the term).  Avoiding a God-ward focus may be because only looking to one another eases our consciences.

One final note—keeping balance between these two perspectives eliminates both the ecstatic “worshiper” (or a hyper-false-“Godwardness”) and the stoic worshiper (or a hyper-false-”one-another-wardness”).  God wonderfully drives us back to balance.  God’s word is perfect!

I will move into the final section of my breakout session in my next posts dealing with the Pastor/Music Minister relationship.

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We press on in the series based on the breakout session that I taught at the 2011 True Church Conference on “The Role Of Music In The Church”.

These points are gathered from the following text:

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. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.  Col 3:16-17

Church music is to teach and admonish. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—show me what a church is singing and I’ll show you what it believes.  I’m amazed at the dichotomy that all-too-often exists between the pulpit and the song service in a particular church.  In cases where the pulpit is correctly preaching the whole counsel of God the music of that church should echo that preaching.  (The opposite may also be true—a shallow pulpit and a MusMin wanting to sing biblical music.  That is an entirely different blog entry!)

A song service is a fantastic teaching tool for a congregation.  It is one of the most immediate times for a congregation to affirm the gospel—to give the message of the cross a hearty “amen”.  Here at GLC, if a song cannot be preached from the pulpit, then we will not sing it.  We strive to hold song lyrics to the same exegetical standards as any sermon that is preached.

Any song that a church sings should be held to the following tests:

*Does this song center on the Gospel (“Christ and Him crucified”)?

*What does this song teach on the Doctrine of Man?

*Are there lyrics in this song that give an unbiblical understanding of the Gospel?

*If a song doesn’t specifically deal with particular grace, what attribute of God is correctly taught?

*Will this song be a good song for any father to incorporate into their family worship time (whether structured or unstructured)?

*Does this song generate rich, affectionate understanding of the Gospel?

*Does the overall repertoire that our congregation sings speak adequately to man’s depraved nature, to God impending wrath upon sinners, to the redemptive work of Christ on the behalf of those who are saved, and to the righteous standing those who are saved now enjoy?

As I have said before, most hymns written from the Reformation to the 19^th Century were written by theologians and pastors in order to teach doctrine in a more easily remembered form. Unfortunately, today songs are written in order to sell product and generate income.  It takes a discerning heart to know what new songs are good ones to integrate into a church’s repertoire and which sentimental ones need to be dropped.

Church music is to be done with wisdom. Notice that Paul doesn’t just say “teaching and admonishing one another”.  He says “with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another”.  Many a worship war has been started by a well-meaning pastor and/or music minister who wanted to lead or integrate changes and reforms without wisdom.

As a church leader leads he must have much self-inspection and inter-accountability (hence one strong argument for the plurality of Elders).  A church leader must also understand that leading a church is a marathon and not a sprint.  As my pastor says “You have to have a twenty-year vision to lead a church”.  But even with those disciplines in place the word “wisdom” can become nebulous.

To give clarity, let’s look at the follow verses as a cross-reference:

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  James 3:17-18

As a church leader it is your responsibility to teach and admonish in the spirit of these verses in James.  Leading a church and not making changes is almost a contradiction in terms.  By leading a Music Department you WILL make changes.  Many times it’s the way that you lead in those changes that teaches and admonishes more than the actual music that is supposed to be teaching.

Is your teaching and admonishing through music pure?  Is it peaceable?  Is it gentle?  Can you be reasoned with?  Are you full of mercy and good fruits?  Are you unwavering in regards to the gospel?  (This element guards us from thinking that compromise to truth is actually mercy!)  Are you consistent in these areas?

One other point—Brother Pastor, don’t think for a minute that the Music Minister position at your church isn’t a teaching position.  I’ve heard Paul Washer say “the Music Minister should be one of the leading theologians in that church”.  He speaks well.  Brother Music Minister, don’t make the same mistake.  You are a teacher.  You may not be preaching sermons, but by the music you select and by the way you lead, you teach your church volumes!

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We are now ready to move on in our series.  I am going to skip ahead to the third main section of the outline because I’ve already written about the second section previously at the blog here.

I now would like to look closely at a verse that is most often used to discuss corporate singing:

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. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.  Col 3:16-17

I have at least six points that I would like to draw from this text, two of which I will look at today.

Church music is to be Gospel-centered. Notice the first command of this text—“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you”.  Everything about church life springs from this command.  However, there is something worth noting about Paul’s phrase, “the word of Christ”.  To what does he refer?  Does he simply mean to sing about Jesus as a good man or teacher?  Does he infer an abstract treatment of Jesus in our music?  God forbid!

To amplify this phrase, let us look to a passage that is the cornerstone verse for the centrality of preaching in church life and evangelism:

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Rom 10:14-17

There can only be one context of which Paul is speaking in the Colossians passage—he wants the expression of our singing to be centered on the Gospel, i.e., the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to redeem sinful man from the wrath of God and impute to those His righteousness.

Music that centers on all the things mentioned in the first main section of this series does NOT do that.  The predominance of the music that we sing in our church services must foster this command to have the gospel richly dwelling within us.

Church music is to be experienced richly. Notice that Paul does not say “Let the word of Christ dwell within you”.  The greek word used here, plousios, is used in terms of speaking about wealth, money, and valuables.  It also has tied to it an aspect of abundance or lavishness.

We must sing deep, rich song texts that foster a profound treasuring of the gospel message.  Singing songs about common grace (creation, physical health, family, etc.) is insufficient here.  We must also support these texts with music styles that properly match the text.  There may be exceptions, but the overall direction of a church’s music should treat weighty texts with appropriate weighty music .

When we sing deep texts with flippant music (keeping in mind that “flippant” is very subjective depending on cultures—what we at GLC might hear as flippant may not be perceived thusly by another church) we tend to think flippantly about that text.  When we sing folksy, simple texts with heavy, weighty music (again—caution here!) we are prone to think too seriously about that text.

This is one reason why it is absolutely crucial that a Senior Pastor and Elders along with the Music Minister MUST know their congregation!  At my home church growing up, Finney-styled, back-beat music was heard as very legitimate, serious music.  At GLC it is heard as comical.  I have to adjust the use of music styles to gel with the culture of the congregation to properly achieve a rich experience with gospel-rich texts.

But if I am not even singing texts that deeply express the Gospel, I haven’t even begun to equip a congregation to obey the command to the Colossians and to us.

I will close this section by contrasting two songs.  I have led both before but one has a message that is simpler and more shallow while the other is as rich of a text as you can find.

All my tomorrow, all my past

Jesus is Lord of all

I’ve quit my struggles, contentment at last

Jesus is Lord of all

King of Kings Lord of lords

Jesus is Lord of all

All my possessions and all my life

Jesus is Lord of all

Written by William and Gloria Gaither

There’s nothing unbiblical in this song at all.  There’s nothing wrong with having it in your church’s song list.  However, if that’s the only kind of song you’re singing, you may be falling well short of letting the word of Christ dwell within your congregation richly during your song services.

“Man of sorrows”—what a Name

For the Son of God Who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude

In my place condemned He stood

Sealed my pardon with His blood

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we

Spotless Lamb of God was He

Full atonement!  Can it be?

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Written by Philip Bliss

If this hymn is not in your song list then add it today!  There is not a text anywhere that more richly expresses the gospel that this one.

We will continue on in my next entry.

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We continue on (the previous two posts in this series are here and here) with two more things that the role of music in the church is NOT:

It is NOT style-driven. Without trying to throw any particular church under the bus, I would suggest that billing a particular service as “contemporary” or “traditional” or “blended” or having multiple services with those stylistic distinctions is a dead-end street.  Isn’t the “church” divided enough already?  We’ve got Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Methodists, etc.  Within the category of Baptists, there are Reformed, Missionary, Free-Will, General, American, etc.  Paul warns against such division as unbiblical (1 Cor. 1:10-17).

I understand that denominationalism is an entirely separate discussion—one beyond the scope of this series and blog.  However, it strikes at the heart of why churches now also choose to divide their congregation along music stylistic lines.  Most of the time, such churches defend their position by saying it’s to keep the peace and promote church growth.

I would counter that depending upon music styles for keeping peace and as a primary means of church growth are ideals not built on the proper principles.  I would rather see a church take the long-term perspective of dealing with peacemaking rather than “peace-faking” (to borrow Ken Sande’s term) on the first issue and by dealing with church growth through the centrality of gospel preaching on the second issue.

In other words, a church that is using its music style to build its membership is on a faulty foundation (Matt. 7:24-27).  If you serve in a church that uses music style distinctions as a core to your church’s identity, I would beg of you to consider the message you’re sending and begin to deal with the root of the problem which, according to Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, is most likely is selfish deception (1 Cor. 3:1-3;1 Cor. 3:18) and a lack of dependency upon the gospel (1 Cor. 1:17-19).

Keep in mind that later I will differentiate between being style-dependent and using style to properly serve your congregation.

It is NOT a meritorious “work” to usher us into God’s presence. This has become nomenclature all-too common.  Congregants now are using language that implies that they are thinking that worship leaders are an agent used to bring worshipers into a mystical standing before God that they did not have before the song service began.

Are there times when God manifests His presence in a more identifiable way to a congregation?  Possibly.  However, I only see in scripture One Who has ushered His Bride into the Throne Room of God Almighty.  That would be the God-Man—Jesus Christ!  The work of the cross was primarily to bridge the gap between God and man created at the Fall so that we can enter the Holy of Holies (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 9:11-15; Heb. 4:16).  Giving any other person that same meritorious credit is at best, innocently mistaken, and at worst, heretical.

Rather, we need to begin using language such as “the song service awakened my affections to Christ” or “the Music Minister assisted me to turn my focus off of myself and onto Jesus”.  That mindset would begin to teach a more biblically correct understanding.  It won’t completely solve error, but it is a step nonetheless.

Christ does attend to a corporate body in a way that is unique from a single worshiper (Matt. 18:20).  But keep in mind that the context of the Matthew 18 verse is speaking of church discipline.  Also keep in mind that it isn’t the worshiper who “generates” God’s presence.  It is God Himself Who chooses to do so of His own volition.  To think that worshipers “create” God’s presence is spiritism, false worship, and sorcery (I Kings 18:25-29).

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You can now download the newest Grace Life Music project–”Music From The True Church Conference Vol. 2″–on itunes here.  May it be a blessing to you!

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We continue on today with “What We’ve Learned So Far At Grace Life Church About The Role Of Music In The Church” and two more items on what that role is NOT.

In my last entry in this series, I said that it is not (1) a talent showcase and (2) not synonymous with the term “Worship”.

It is NOT about singing “about” praise and worship. Far too often I have songs pitched to me as a possible new congregational that say much more about what the worshiper is doing rather that about the God of the worship.  This is not to say that any song that has phrases such as “I’m gonna lift You up” and “I bow at Your Feet” are wrong.

What’s wrong is only saying that in a song.  I would much rather sing about what God has already done through the gospel (more on that later) than sing about what I am currently doing to worship God.

When the Psalmist speaks of describing praise, it is always in response to his declaring something about the nature and attributes of God and/or what God has done or is doing to make His Name great (Psalm 106:1; Psalm 148:5, 6; Psalm 103:1-12 to name a few).

To pick out one example for which I speak let’s look to the song written by Geron Davis (I do not mean to single Davis out—we sing some of his songs at GLC—he is a good brother.):

We sing ‘worthy’, we sing ‘worthy’

We sing ‘worthy’ to the Lord

Praise and glory, praise and glory

Praise and glory to the Lord

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah to the Lord

(We Sing Worthy by Geron Davis © 1999 Integrity’s Hosanna!)

In contrast, staying in a similar style, let’s look at the classic Hillsongs’ “Worthy Is The Lamb”:

Thank You for the cross, Lord

Thank You for the price You paid

Bearing all my sin and shame

In love You came and gave amazing grace

Thank You for this love, Lord

Thank You for the nail-pierced Hands

Washed me in Your cleansing flow

Now all I know, Your forgiveness and embrace

Worthy is the Lamb, seated on the throne

We crown You now with many crowns

You reign victorious….etc.

The reason we don’t sing the former and DO sing the latter is for this very reason.  The second song speaks much of the glorious work of Christ in redeeming the lost.  The first song tells me nothing of the Lord to Whom we are singing.

It is NOT primary. Contrary to popular current church growth experts, building a blowin’ and goin’ music department is not the biblical means to God-honoring kingdom expansion.  God’s primary means to growing His Church is the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 10:14-17).  Therefore, the pulpit must be primary in your church (and mine).

When the church makes secondary things as primary, she gets out-of-balance and top heavy.  Without the foundational pillar of truth (1 Tim. 3:15) the church practically tells everyone that She does not believe God and trust in His plan to save the Nations.

Also, when church music is made as the primary draw for congregants, the church then must use false means by which to keep those congregants—which will always be carnal.  If God wanted music to be the primary means for evangelism, He would have told us He was doing just that.

But no where in scripture do we see someone being converted through the means of music.  In fact, one of the most memorable examples of the use of music with the lost (King Saul in 1 Sam.), it only delayed the inevitable and was, at best, a “drug” to temporarily silence the troubling spirit upon Saul.  Even though David was faithful to the Lord in ministering to Saul in this way, it still did not solve Saul’s foundational problem—that of being unregenerate.

Pastors who set out a vision to build a church primarily upon slick music are showing their shame and lack of faith in the power of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16).

Two more down today….two more coming next time!  

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