BRIEFLY ON MUSIC AND CHURCH GROWTH
BRIEFLY ON CHURCH MUSIC And CHURCH GROWTH
God has blessed us with the gift of music for its great effect on our emotions and memory. People who share a common musical taste tend to bond together and messages heard through music are not easy to forget. If an accurate message of the Gospel is put into the music of a group of people, they will congregate around it and propagate it. If the message put in the same music is confusing the people will be confused and though they FEEL like one on the surface, they will be divided in HOW THEY RESPOND OR ACT. Currently, it appears multiple and even opposing "Gospel" messages in the so-called Gospel music is significantly responsible for the apparent confused Christian front:
While some present the Gospel as meant for earthly prosperity and for destroying human enemies, others are preaching, "store your treasures in Heaven" and "Love your enemies and pray for those who harm you", sometimes in the same church or denomination!
If a church will grow therefore, it must be very particular about the CONTENT INTERGRITY of its music or songs. This is especially important since even the literate membership of the church take its songs for granted as representing the approved Biblical interpretation or doctrine that is upheld by the leaders. And for the illiterate membership, it is largely the CREED!
Our so-called investment in musicians is part of our Discipleship efforts to ensure that gifts are not deployed to the eventual detriment of the church. As we see emergent musicians (gifted public communicators), our first reaction should be gratitude, then we double up on their mentorship to ensure that they've got their MESSAGE and COMPANY right. Training in musicianship should be a matter of course for every church, according to their means, just like David did for Israel and by that helped to harmonize their message for ages. Those must serve the church on the church's terms.
There are also those who want to go into commercial music production, and therefore must not look up to the church to fund their productions. The church must however make clear its principles concerning what they consider as acceptable and even give them full exposure to materials the church considers to be its right message.
#NotAshamed
God has blessed us with the gift of music for its great effect on our emotions and memory. People who share a common musical taste tend to bond together and messages heard through music are not easy to forget. If an accurate message of the Gospel is put into the music of a group of people, they will congregate around it and propagate it. If the message put in the same music is confusing the people will be confused and though they FEEL like one on the surface, they will be divided in HOW THEY RESPOND OR ACT. Currently, it appears multiple and even opposing "Gospel" messages in the so-called Gospel music is significantly responsible for the apparent confused Christian front:
While some present the Gospel as meant for earthly prosperity and for destroying human enemies, others are preaching, "store your treasures in Heaven" and "Love your enemies and pray for those who harm you", sometimes in the same church or denomination!
If a church will grow therefore, it must be very particular about the CONTENT INTERGRITY of its music or songs. This is especially important since even the literate membership of the church take its songs for granted as representing the approved Biblical interpretation or doctrine that is upheld by the leaders. And for the illiterate membership, it is largely the CREED!
Our so-called investment in musicians is part of our Discipleship efforts to ensure that gifts are not deployed to the eventual detriment of the church. As we see emergent musicians (gifted public communicators), our first reaction should be gratitude, then we double up on their mentorship to ensure that they've got their MESSAGE and COMPANY right. Training in musicianship should be a matter of course for every church, according to their means, just like David did for Israel and by that helped to harmonize their message for ages. Those must serve the church on the church's terms.
There are also those who want to go into commercial music production, and therefore must not look up to the church to fund their productions. The church must however make clear its principles concerning what they consider as acceptable and even give them full exposure to materials the church considers to be its right message.
#NotAshamed
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