“I just want to know who’s in charge. ” That prayer brought to light my situation: I had just finished preaching my sermon of application and was about to take a quick snack before the Q&A session with the congregation, but instead of eating, the moderator of the Elders Council and the Interim Executive Pastor 1 took me to a back room for a last-minute meeting with the cult pastor. He didn’t turn the pot around, he went straight to the point:
If I were called to be the senior pastor, who would decide what would happen on Sunday morning, before the sermon?Who would choose the song?Who, in short, would be responsible?
- That was a reasonable question.
- He was responsible for these decisions in church up to this point.
- And apparently I had left enough clues in my candidate exam for him to wonder if things would not change.
- And I plan.
- As the new Principal Pastor.
- To take ultimate responsibility for the entire service I even planned to choose the song.
- So that’s what I told you.
Although there are biblical principles that guided my response, in the end it was a matter of prudence and pragmatism. Biblically, I believe that an old man should oversee the choice of music and all other details of the service. Prudently, I think it is appropriate for the lead pastor, the preacher, to be this individual.
Here are three arguments for these beliefs
We generally regard our singing as an expression of our worship of God, and it is true. But that’s not all. Our songs teach and reinforce what we believe about God and, because they are put in musical form, our songs often have a deeper influence on our members than we can perceive. As RWDale, a 19th-century English congregational pastor, observed in a series of lectures on preaching at Yale University: “Let me write hymns and music in a church, and I care very little who writes theology” (Nine Lectures on Preaching [1878], p. 271). Maybe he exaggerates the argument a little bit, but not much.
Did Paul ask the Colossans to rebuke and teach each other by singing spiritual psalms, hymns, and chants?(Colossses 3:16). Since teaching occurs when we sing collectively, the elders are responsible for supervision and, in particular, the pastor/elder who received the primary responsibility of the church teaching ministry (Titus 1. 9). If we do not heed the words that are sung in our church week after week, then we do not obey our call as elders; it must be acknowledged, this does not presuppose that the main pastor personally chooses all the songs, but assumes that he knows and approves them. church, I work closely with our cult leader, who is much more familiar with contemporary music than I am, although I know hymns better. We’re a good team, but at the end of the day, as an alumni, I’m responsible.
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See the other two points and the conclusion of the text by reading the full article:
By: Michael Lawrence. © 2014 9Marks. Original: Who Should Choose Music?.
This article is part of the May / June 2014 issue of 9Marks Journal
Translation: TRADUCTEUR. Review: Vin-cius Silva Pimentel. © 2014 Faithful Ministério. All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: Who should choose the songs of the cult ?.