Blogging for me sometimes has an interesting dynamic. The reason I blog is to force myself to think through some of my own theology and philosophy of ministry and its consequences in my own life. It also gives you the readers a chance to agree, disagree, or say “this doesn’t interest me which is another check and balance. This is the benefit that I appreciate most about the blogging dynamic. However, sometimes being forced to carry out your thoughts is not pleasant. I can find I am wrong and have been for years. I can find I am right and no one cares. I can also discover that in a particular area I am right, yet it has such far reaching implications I might have been happier in ignorance. For sometimes truly ignorance is bliss.
That is the way I feel about today’s subject. After studying the bible, church history, and great pastors of the past I have finally decided that a person who takes on the responsibility for the corporate worship in our churches needs to be theologically trained and ordained. Hear me clearly. I am not saying that the person standing on the stage playing or leading the music must be this way. I am saying that the person responsible for what takes place in corporate worship, the person who carries the burden, from what is sung to how the offering is taken should be theologically trained and ordained.
For the last 50 or 60 years our corporate worship services have been turned over to musicians; men and women who have training in instrumentation and vocals, but not in theology. This has resulted in shallow theology being sung by our churches, which has resulted in shallow theology being advocated in our everyday lives. I believe we are seeing the fruit of this problem today in our church culture and the Christian music industry and its lunge feet first into secularism. Music at some point became about something other than the church. It developed into entertainment, which I don’t believe the music of the church was ever intended to be. This has carried over into the spectator model of corporate worship that so many churches embrace these days.
Another result is the fact that the word “worship” and “music” became synonymous in churches. Worship is relegated to 35 minutes once a week. The corporate worship service is no longer the singing of hymns, reading of scripture, testimony to God, exposition of the word. The worship service is the music and then we also have preaching. How can a musician pick songs with theologically sound lyrics if they really know theology?
Also, I believe they should be ordained. I have been thinking about this a lot lately since hearing Bob Kauflins seminar on Corporate Worship as Pastoral Care. I believe it takes someone with the heart and calling of a Pastor to take on the responsibility of corporate worship. Music only affects people emotionally. It does not affect them morally. The Word of God does that. The person taking on the responsibility for corporate worship must keep in mind that there is are bigger things taking place in that Sunday service than making people feel the right thing. It takes the heart of a shepherd to keep that focus from week to week and disciple people in spite of their opinions and preferences. Musicians focus on one thing, the music. Which is not a bad thing, but it is an extreme limitation on what is needed in corporate worship.
I know the crisis that some of you are in. This puts me at odds with some close friends of mine who are in this exact category. There are Pastors and musicians reading this who have the exact scenario I described as wrong in your church right now. You can either agree or disagree, but either way there are ramifications. I have friends who will read this and get mad at me and email me. I say go ahead and get mad, just don’t stop there. Consider what I say and if you believe I am right then make changes. (By the way I am right).
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36 year old husband, father, pastor, singer, musician, reader, eater, rider, watcher,
And I can attest that Pastor Scott practices what he preaches.
Scott,
Thanks for this post. I think you’re right on the mark here. I’ve been working on a similar post from a slightly different angle since WorshipGod06 and haven’t posted it yet. But the conclusion is the same: if the music doesn’t “preach” it doesn’t belong in the service.
Gotta agree with you here…I consider the worship leader to be a pastoral position. Though sometimes I feel in the minority on this point as well.
As a side note…whenever I hear of a music group that is disparaged for being too theological, I buy their cd…even if I don’t really like their music. I love to promote artists that make a dilligent effort to match their theology with their art (or vise-versa).
Scott,
Thanks for this series. You are spot on target. I will pass this along then duck.
“I always loved music; whoso has skill in this art, is of a good temperament, fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools; a schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him; neither should we ordain young men as preachers unless they have been well exercised in music.”
- Martin Luther, Tabletalk, comment #838
Scott,
I adamantly agree with you here. I am a worship pastor at a Baptist church in AL, and am trying to model the very things you are suggesting here.
The church music coming from Nashville is quite frankly published either by Charismatics or by alleged Christian companies that are owned by, say, Time Warner. Suffice it to say, there is alot of junk that comes across my desk on a regular basis (as aptly chronicled in you “Jesus or my girlfriend?” series) that reduces Christ to a warm fuzzy, songs that don’t mention sin or the cross or the attributes of God, songs that major on the here-and-now experience of worship, which makes for a very narcissistic corporate gathering.
I have a Bachelor’s in musical composition, but I am beginning work on an MDiv at Beeson in January. I, too, think that most of the fallacies of corporate “worship” are borne out of ignorance. Most of the people/musicians that are planning the order of service at any given church are well-meaning individuals who have simply been shaped and influenced by the theologically inept and shallow culture of evangelicalism instead of the Word of God.
Scott, You are spot on with this post. This is what frustrates me with most people involved in music today. Theology is relegated to a place of unimportance.
I agree with you for the most part. Although, it is possible for one who has been ordained to be lax in his theology. So I think that if one is a “worship” leader who is not ordained, but has sound theology that influences his song choices, that would acceptable. Also, if one requires the worship leader to be ordained, then the position is closed to women (at least in the SBC) but that is an entirely different topic!
If a man can demonstrate that he can preach and teach, I do not have a problem with him being ordained as a music minister or any other type of elder.
Scott,
I agree 100%. However, the real question is: Is it ok for the music pastor to also be the MEAN pastor?
That’s what I want to know.
Might I suggest, Scott, an expository excursus here on the blog on the role of Musicians and Music/Song in Scripture. I’m thinking particularly of the class of musicians instituted by David for service in the Temple in 1 Chronicles. They were drawn from each house of the Levites, so they foreshadow the church (e.g. the priesthood of all believers). I’d note that their work (and thus that of our own singing in the NT era under the New Covenant) was viewed as a form of prophecy. Worship that is not God-centered and God-honoring is, just like a sermon that is riddled with horrible theology particularly on the most obvious items, on the same level with the Lord as false prophecy. For a worship leader, that is an immense responsibility, because that person is leading the congregation into joining him in his error if he isn’t up to snuff. What does God say about false prophets? It’s not flattering is it?
Songs are also regarded in Scripture as the prayers of the people and their leaders. So, to lead them in songs that are man-centered, for example, strikes me as a form of idolatrous prayer. It amounts to praying like the Pharisee and not the publican or praying rote prayers like the pagans. Which one went home justified? What did Jesus say about the pagan prayers? How much more is this true in corporate worship? By the way, I’d add that this is also true of public prayer in the church, in that the person praying is gathering the prayers of the people. That’s why, when I pray in church, I think about what I’m going to say, and I try to construct my prayers around a Scripture that I read to the congregation before prayer. I say, “Hear now the Word of our God,” then I read a few verses and I construct my prayer around them.
The church has been Canaanized as surely as the people of Israel were Canaanized in the days of the Judges. The serpent in the Garden is one of the greatest recurring themes in Scripture. Adam failed to cast it out. Look what happened. All false teachers are likened to serpents. The Pharisees of Jesus day are likened to vipers. The point here is that this problem with worship is a serpent in the garden. We must be on guard against it and cast it out where we find it.
I agree with you, except on the ordination issue. I don’t see much purpose or biblical support for that. I believe what’s important is the depth of theology, not the piece of paper you’re holding.
Lance, my point had zero to do with a piece of paper and everything to do with a Pastor. I believe corporate worship should be under pastoral care. Not given over to someone who doesn’t and can’t carry the burden for such as a pastor can.
I thought of some more stuff in answer to Lance.
Why in the world would you give the reponsibility of something as important as corporate worship over completley to someone who is not a Pastor? Half of what happens in any service is other than the sermon. Half! Half of what any congregation is taught on any given Sunday is other than preaching. Do you see the extreme importance of this time in our service be given to someone who has the burden of the congregation as a whole and understands what it needs as a local body? How could you not want this person to be a pastor?
I understand what you’re saying about a pastor being the one to lead the body in corporate worship, but I don’t agree entirely. Maybe I am being totally off the wall here, so correct me if I’m missing something, but I don’t think that Sunday morning “worship” ought to be left up to any one person completely. The senior pastor, at the very least, ought to have a say in what is being done during worship. I am of the inclination that it is not necessary for one to be an ordained pastor to lead worship. What about Sunday School/ Discipleship/ Bible study leaders? Should they be required to be ordained? They have as much impact, of not more than the worship leader? All teachers/leader should be held accountable in what they teach (or sing, etc.). If doctrinal integrity is mandated w/in the church body, then having a worship leader who does not happen to be a “pastor” should present no problems.
Sorry for such a long post. I see what you are saying, but I don’t think the problem is with whether or not the worship leader is an ordained pastor.
Catelyn, I don’t think you fully understand what I meant. I am not saying that the person leading the singing has to be a Pastor. I am saying that the person who is carrying the burden for this service, the one taking responsibility for the corporate worship service, the one that is has the veto power in what is sung, read, prayed, etc. should be a Pastor.
I have none ordained people lead music and even pick the songs at our church, but I still have ultimate say on what happens from week to week year to year in our service. Along with 5 other ordained men. But ultimately the responsibility falls on me.
Okay, I did misunderstand you then. (Sorry about that.) So, I do agree with you then: Ultimate say over what is done should could from a pastor. We’re good now.