Ministers of what?

Ok, ok. I was on a roll and then I suddenly stopped blogging. Well, that’s what happens when you’re plagued with a cold and then a mountain of work with just a few added responsibilities of being the best man in a wedding. So, I’ve had to forego some of the blogging, but I do need to do a little bit of catch up. I have several things I’ve wanted to write about, but I’m going to address an issue I’ve mulled over for months now. What exactly is the substance of the music ministry? I think our answers will make a huge impact.

Since the mode of proclamation for music ministers requires so much time and effort (i.e., music), it’s easy for us to get caught up in the means. But the truth is that we are ministers of the word, not of music. If the focus of your ministry is on the details of notation, it is time to reorganize your priorities. I’m not trying to diminish excellence; not by any means. I believe that you convey much about the importance of your message in the care you use to communicate it.

However, proclamation of the word is the center piece of Christian worship. This does not mean that everything is less important than preaching. It means that everything should be preaching. This concept of proclamation should permeate all of our activities in worship.  In essence, we should be seeking to saturate the music and liturgy from top to bottom with the word.  If this is true (and it is), then this has some serious ramifications for us.  It means that we need to be well-versed in scripture.  It means that we need to take great care to choose content that says what we want it say and not just sound the way that we want it to sound.  It also means that our musical standards should be sky-high because we are proclaiming the gospel.  We are proclaiming the word.  Imagine if the King of Glory were to walk in to your church service and the fanfare sounded like a middle school band camp?  I realize that there can be limitations to our talent level, but I think more often those are imposed by an insufficient view of the importance of what we have been called to.

This sounds like I’m arguing both sides, and I am.  The problem for many of us is that the pendulum swings too far in a particular direction.  Honestly, we need balance.  We can’t just say that the pastor is responsible for the word and we are to focus on the music.  That would be say that your music ministry is not a ministry at all.  We as ministers should be going to great lengths to provide a balanced diet of scripture in what we sing, say, and pray.  However, if we believe that the content of the songs and liturgy is our only focus, then we aren’t conveying the grandeur of God’s glory that we are privileged to communicate.

Most of this has been written out of a desire to see music ministry live up to it’s full potential.  And to clarify, we’re not supposed to be competing with the preaching ministry, but they should be working in perfect compliment.  While the preaching ministry has the ability to expand on concepts and make them applicable, God has gifted us with music that can accomplish so much.  We can sing his praises, but we can also teach and admonish one another.  We sing the beautiful words of psalms and hymns and they get tucked away in our brains to be recalled later; a luxury that preachers don’t so often have. Music ministry is a weighty task that takes our full effort to do rightly.  Our expectations of our ministries should be high and well rounded.  Anything less is a disservice to God and the people of our congregations.

Tags: preparation, service, thoughts, worship