This ties everything together. By choosing music that builds up and unifies the church, by playing music with excellence, by giving careful thought to the order of the service, you are building your church's music on a foundation of solid biblical principles.
And so we have come to the end of this series on church music. I hope that this series has been beneficial for you and helped you see the way that the music we sing is a vital aspect of the weekly church service. With that, let's tackle the last question on the checklist... 10. Is your church's philosophy of music based on biblical principles?
This ties everything together. By choosing music that builds up and unifies the church, by playing music with excellence, by giving careful thought to the order of the service, you are building your church's music on a foundation of solid biblical principles.
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Recently a church in Eugene, Oregon has completely revamped their weekend services, with a huge campaign around their town to go with it. This church has decided that, in order to invite more people into their church, they are shortening their services and utilizing secular music from the likes of Katy Perry and Maroon 5 as part of their "worship" service. The pastor doesn't even seem to focus on preaching, but instead having a "conversation" with the congregation.
9. Does your church music promote passionate worship?
During my time in Minnesota, I have had the opportunity to help lead the music for two Sunday morning services and a Sunday evening service. (Tonight I will lead another evening service.) This morning I can honestly say that I experienced a passionate worship service. The worship team was comfortable together, the songs proclaimed truth, the congregation was fired up, the sermon was on point and we even got to hear the testimony of one of the members of the church. I could really feel the joy of the Lord permeating the room. Yesterday I finished reading through the book of Deuteronomy. It really gives a great detailed look through the rest of the Torah/Pentateuch as Moses teaches the next generation of Israel. In chapter 31, Moses and Joshua are in the Tent of Meeting with the Lord as Joshua is being commissioned to take the place of Moses as the leader of the Israelites. In this conversation, God reveals to these two men that despite this reiteration of the Law to the next generation, the people of Israel will fall into sin and worship other gods. It is a truly sobering moment in Scripture, knowing that not long after this takes place, the nation of Israel begins to seek to be just like the nations around it. They want a king because everyone else has one. They desert the true God for worthless idols. Even some of the priests will pervert the Law of God in their duties. Just read what God says to Moses:
8. Does your church music adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Recently we've been going back and forth discussing the music and the lyrics of church music; today I'll seek to combine the two. My time in Minnesota so far has been incredible. For one thing, the weather has just been amazing. Things are starting to head into fall, so the weather is cooling off (especially in the evenings). Yesterday Pastor Steve gave me a driving tour of St. Paul. The church that I'm working with, Beacon of Hope, holds their services in the auditorium of a local college, but we passed a number of churches driving through the city (predominantly Lutheran and Catholic).
I usually try to post something on Sunday and something else in the middle of the week, but this week I've been so busy and distracted to think of anything else to write about except to ask you for prayer.
I hope these blog posts about church music have been encouraging and informative. We're moving into the second half of the list, and after today we'll look at three more questions. Today, we're going to focus on two separate questions.
Recently I've had a number of conversations with fellow college-age friends about the relationship between prayer and action. Some of my friends have struggled with the question: If you pray for God to do something, do you really have to act on it or will the Lord answer your prayer anyway?
5. Does your church music promote unity in the church?
Last week we talked about the kinds of songs churches employ, and I contrasted hymn-like songs with theologically lighter songs. For many many years, these were the two extremes of the constant "worship wars" within most churches. These battles have calmed in recent years, but other wars are being raged, as RELEVANT magazine recently discussed. Today the issues impact individual lives instead of entire congregations. Personal preference has become king. |
AuthorA simple servant of the Master. Archives
February 2016
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