In this series, I have done my best to lay out a biblical deduction of the purpose of the church, the role or worship, and the problems I see in our worship. Now I’d like to offer a couple suggestions. Time and space could not allow me to develop each point thoroughly, but if you’d like me to develop any of these points, feel free to contact me.
I want to echo something I said in my first post. This series is not based on an assumption that all pastors, all churches, and all Christians everywhere are failing in their worship. I’m growing every day in my understanding of the Scripture and of worship, and I recognize that I still have much room to grow.
But it seems that every week I receive a call from a church or pastor needing to hire skilled musicians. It seems that every week I speak to a humble assistant pastor who is just trying to do his best in music ministry but doesn’t have the tools. It seems that every week I read some post on social media by someone arguing about music and worship with very little understanding of the issue or what the Bible actually says about it. These things concern me.
How can we ensure that our generation of churches will be more mindful of our churches’ worship? How can we ensure that we regularly offer to God a spiritual sacrifice of praise that is pleasing and honoring to Him and fulfills that thing which He seeks from us? How can we reverse the trend of Christian leaders who know plenty about preaching and “best practices” in ministry but possess little knowledge and skill in leading the worship of their congregations?
As a close to this series, I’d like to offer these two suggestions to help improve the state of worship in our churches.
First, we need pastors and leaders who will study the Word of God and learn to effectively utilize the medium of music to communicate truth and lead congregations in meaningful worship.
Bible majors, education majors, pastors, missionaries, evangelists—don’t buy into the idea that worship is that thing for the musicians. It’s for all of us. Most importantly, we need pastors who are equipped to pastor the worship of their church.
This is one reason I’m very thankful for the leadership of Pastor Paul Chappell in our ministry. He is concerned with his role as the man of God and preacher in our ministry. He is also very much involved in the worship of our church and college. In fact, he recently published a booklet on the subject. This is the kind of leadership every church needs from its pastor. A pastor who sings and participates. A pastor who encourages and invests in the musical culture of his church. A pastor who gives worship its proper place in the assembly as the church magnifies the name of the Lord.
If you’re preparing for ministry or presently in a position of spiritual leadership, will you determine to be actively involved in pastoring the worship of your congregation? We need pastors who will not neglect the worship of their church or leave it up to a few authors you read to determine your ministry philosophy. Read broadly, study deeply, but ultimately take responsibility for the worship in your church.
Secondly, we need Christians who will give themselves to that part of the service in which God is the primary audience and never consider it a “step down” in ministry.
The highest call of God on your life is whatever God calls you to do. If he calls you to music ministry, don’t second guess the importance of your role. Put your hand to plow, study music, sharpen your skills as a musician and leader, and help to raise the bar of excellence in the music of your church.
I should mention here that we need to remove from our thinking and vocabulary the horrible stereotypes that are attributed to those who are preparing for music ministry. I know some of us have our quirks, but frankly so do many preachers. There’s nothing special about unity amongst uniformity. But God is glorified when we demonstrate unity amidst diversity. We’re all different in our own ways. Let’s not allow those difference to cause us to belittle our fellow servants in ministry.
Your greatest usefulness can only be found in your specific giftedness. God has made you who you are for a reason, not so that you can conform or blend in. Rather, He made you to uniquely fit into His plans and purposes. By serving in your area of giftedness in the place of God’s choosing, you can experience true joy and fulfillment in the perfect will of God.
Conclusion
As musicians, let’s not doubt the importance of our role in the work of God. I encourage you to continue and to be faithful. Your music and artistry can potentially inspire the praise and worship of many Christians in your generation, but only if you prepare and persist.
As pastors and leaders, will you determine that you are unfurnished for the work of God until you develop a biblical theology of worship and a philosophy of music? Will you determine to give adequate attention to the area of our service in which God is the primary audience?
It is my prayer that we will see a revival of passionate, biblical worship in our churches in the days to come.
