Overseeing Church Music without Musical Expertise
The music at our recent conference at First Baptist Church of Troy, Michigan (also see here), was one of the outstanding features of the meeting. It reflected the good gifts God gave to Pastor Harding and his wife which bless their church every week. Many others on their team who contribute to this part of the ministry as well, but I would say the Harding’s leadership here matters. I’ve known both of the Hardings for a long time. It was a real pleasure to see them again, to be blessed by Mike’s preaching and by Jenny’s singing and their musical leadership through the meeting.
At the meeting, we had a panel discussion. Pastor Harding asked me to take part. I thought the discussion went well, but I had one regret as I look back at the effort. The question was about church music. We talked about the often-discussed problems with contemporary associations and the choices churches and Christians should make about music in light of these. I would say that the panel overall agreed that associations pose a problem, but I suspect our applications of the answers may vary to some degree.
Following that discussion, Pastor Harding asked a question something like this, “aside from associations, on what basis do you decide the music in your church?” The question seemed to be a bit of a poser to us —as I recall, we we were less forthcoming on this one than we were on the previous one. My contribution was a “non-answer” — a couple of jokes about my lack of expertise — then silence. Essentially, I was saying, I don’t feel qualified to make musical choices on a musical basis. And it is my subsequent silence that keeps nagging at me.
Regardless of musical ability, the Lord appoints pastors as overseers of his churches (see 1 Tim 3.1). Whatever else that word means, it does imply leadership and decision making. A wise pastor will not dictate in his leadership, but he will lead. Leadership really extends to all areas of church life and it isn’t something you can simply slough off with the excuse, “I’m not qualified.”
There are at least two ways in which a non-musical leader can lead the music of the local church. One way is to hire or appoint those who have ability and put them in charge of the musical program (under the pastor’s oversight, to be sure). In our church, a team of volunteers blesses us with their musical gifts every week. They collectively and individually make decisions about the music that we sing and the music we hear. Occasionally they consult me about musical choices if they think there might be a question. For us, this works well. We are blessed, in our small church, with a group of capable musicians who add to our church life.
The trust factor we have in our local musicians, our dependence on their expertise, is a microcosm of a larger answer to the question. We could put it this way: “In making musical decisions, we have to trust experts to make choices for us.” Beyond the walls of our local church, we put a measure of trust in the folks who put together our hymnal. Over the years, our observation of their ministry assures us that our hymnologist’s musical philosophy closely matches our own. We trust the decisions they made in the hymnal we use. The hymnal itself becomes a standard in our services. Most of our special music comes straight out of it, but the standard of music it sets dictates that music outside our hymnal be in keeping with it in style and content.
Thus, in overseeing a music program, a non-musical pastor can provide leadership by hiring [or appointing] expertise.
The second way in which a non-musical pastor makes decisions about church music has to do with a word I used above: “philosophy.” I maintain that despite lack of musical expertise, Christians ought to develop godliness, to develop spiritual discernment (1 Tim 4.7-8, Heb 5.14). As one exercises spiritual disciplines, the Lord grants spiritual insight into many other matters, including music.
The pastor ought to be spiritually mature. He ought to have his “senses exercised” so that he can discern godliness and spiritual content in the musical program of the church. As a spiritual man, he develops (or ought to develop) a spiritual philosophy of music. This sets a standard for his church to follow. The experts he hires or appoints have some direction in their choices about music by their submission to the pastor’s philosophy.
I believe it is the duty of pastors to have a philosophy of music. They ought not to promote their philosophy as a matter of expertise (it isn’t), nor as an overbearing dictator imposing his arbitrary will on all his underlings. Rather, it is a matter of leadership, guiding and overseeing all aspects of church ministry. That is his calling.
Unfortunately, on a panel discussion, a lengthy answer isn’t always possible, and, it seems, one thinks of better answers after the fact than when in the spotlight. I hope these thoughts might be profitable to our readers, and serve you a bit better than I did in that portion of the panel discussion!
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
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Great comments, Don!
Good for you Pastor Don!