Tag: music ministry

Limits and liabilities…(cont.)

To clarify: music in a local church is a relevant issue when it comes to outreach and/or personal ministry. The concern here is that we affirm & adhere to the biblical perspective of music in the church. The following observations are more of a prologue rather than a comprehensive outline for discussion on music in the local church:

1) The local church is a gathering of God’s people (i.e. those who have been saved through Christ Jesus).

2) A church’s worship–of which music is a form–is fundamentally a response/reaction to who God is and/or what He has done for His people.

3) Assuming #1-2 are true, music in the church isn’t about outreach. Outreach is horizontal (man to man) but worship is vertical (man to God).

4) So long as a church’s music ministry is about worship, it’s difficult to see how anyone but a Christian would be able to have a share in that kind of music.

As always, but especially on this topic, your comments are welcome.

Limits and liabilities of church music

Last week our church called an associate pastor for music to serve on the pastoral staff. If social security is the third rail of American politics, music must be that third rail for the conservative American church.

It’s been interesting to hear the different perspectives on music and music ministry in the local church as our leaders and members have traversed a varied landscape in a relatively short amount of time: from being without a full-time music pastor, to questioning whether we needed a full-time music pastor, to utilizing an interim music director, to forming a search team who called a music pastor, to the church membership voting to affirm the new music pastor.

I wasn’t privy to every conversation but two related opinions that I heard generated some informal reflection:

1) A church’s music will affect church outreach.

2) A church’s music ministry should welcome all participants as we minister to people where they are.

Barring any further clarification–terms like “outreach” & “all” are extremely ambiguous–I’m not so sure these sentiments are entirely true or desirable.

%d bloggers like this: