Music in Ministry

Some years ago, music was treated with a certain amount of polite respect. It was used in church as a means of praising & worshipping God true, but not in the way it is used today. I was born into a Pentecostal family (praise the Lord). When I went to church as a lad, we'd have some choruses at the start, or rather, just before the start of the meeting proper, where we would clap and play tambourines. Once the meeting started it was hymns! I have no recollection whatsoever of hand raising, and dancing was 'of the devil', as was make up! But more surprisingly, I have no recollection of singing in the spirit, or singing in tongues etc. We had tongues in our church all right, often there would be a 'message' followed by an interpretation, but no singing in the spirit.

Looking back it's not really surprising. There was no such thing as anointing in association with music in those days. It just wasn't part of church thinking. The lady who played the piano would sight read (very well) the music from the hymn book and we'd sing, and at the end of the hymn we'd stop. There was no rolling on a bit as we do now a days. The only possible exception would be if some brave 'lady' would stand and sing the message in tongues instead of speaking it. But I don't think ladies were allowed to do that though, not without a hat anyway!

Things have changed somewhat since then. Now we have very dominant music, and certainly some singing in the spirit. We regard music as a valid ministry that must be anointed, well, praise the Lord I say. It's about time we got back to David's way of doing things, after all, he was chosen by God because of his heart, and David was a 'praiser'. He almost invented it! Well he didn't invent it, but he certainly gave it a higher profile, and made praise and music synonymous.

There is a scripture that says, I will rebuild the fallen tent of David, and it started sometime within the last few decades.

Can I make a point here? We have music in church, and we praise the Lord in church, but only when meetings are on. David wasn't having any of that! He set up praise teams to go at it 24 hours a day. Who cares if the people are there or not? God is worthy to be praised regardless of meeting times. Would we consider doing that today? Not a chance! Why? We don't have the mind set or heart of David (gulp!). And remember, David had a heart after God's heart. Sorry this is a bit in your face, but this is what God is telling me to write. The bible doesn't set any time limits on praising God, quite the opposite in fact, "from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised." Sneaky that, because the sun never really sets or rises. It's there all the time, somewhere.

Another point coming up! We couldn't realistically do what David did anyway, because we have to get up each morning and go to work, well some do. Here is another departure from scripture. In David's day, the musicians & singers were not given any other duties. Their job was to praise God, nothing else. Who paid their wages? The congregation did. Who bought their instruments, the congregation did. There is non of this 'only pay the pastor' rubbish in the Bible. Musicians, priests, and gate keepers were all provided for. They even had rooms in the Temple. That's how far we've come from the Bible. Getting people to give these days has become a work of art, sadly, by necessity. Tithes is one thing, but giving is something far greater.

What has this to do with music in ministry? I'm stating for the record, that the church is not providing the biblical foundation on which to base music as ministry. Whilst there has been an awakening in our thinking to music, there has not been an awakening to the person of the musician. David appointed a whole section of society to the task of ministering to the Lord with various kinds of music and singing. People were appointed to 'prophesy' ON their instruments, some of which were cymbals, (that should cheer up the drummers!). This is all biblical stuff. It's not an invention of the charismatics, or the Americans! It's not a 'cult' or of the devil. It's Bible. This is David's fallen tent. As you can see, there's a way to go before it's totally rebuilt, but a start has been made. Praise God.