Music is a hotly debated subject in the church today, and I am not here to discuss it, but rather to write about the role music should have. I think a lot of times we see music as indispensable. We almost think of it as a biblical command, “Thou shalt have music at every service”. But the fact of the matter is, modern thinking says to always have music, the Bible does not.
There is nothing wrong with having music at every service. I like music. I think it benefits the service and gives people an opportunity to worship God through corporate singing. However, I believe there are at least 2 times when it is better to have no music at all.
1) When the singers aren’t worshiping. I do not believe that worship was meant to be boring and mundane. Worship is recognizing God for Who He is, and trust me there is nothing boring about that. If week after week, the singing is just apathetic and joyless, GET RID OF IT! Just stop leading corporate music, and preach more of the Word.
2) When the music would be lame. I’ll be honest, if you can’t sing, and nobody is willing to lead music, just don’t have it. You’re much better off not having music, than having lame music. Here’s the thing though. I firmly believe that when the people start to truly worship God in all of life, they will have a joy overflowing, and when they have a joy overflowing, they will sing with more enthusiasm than we can imagine. Someone will step up to lead.
What I’m trying to say is this. Don’t have music because every other church/ministry does. Have music because it is one way that your people express their worship of their Savior. Music should not simply be how you worship, but should be a result of your worship.
David,
Really enjoyed this post man. Currently we do not have music as part of our student ministry because of number 2. At first, this was really hard for me because I’m use to having music at every service. But it’s been a blessing because we are using other avenues to worship. Singing is just one way to worship. We are finding there is many more ways. I hope to have music soon, but until then, we don’t need it. Thanks for this post!
Austin