Accomodation

There was a speaker on campus yesterday who intrigued me with quite a few of the things he said. One of the things I thought about as he was speaking is the issue of musical accommodation within the church. There are the older folks who connect with the hymns and the songs about heaven and going home. There are the middle aged folks who really connect with those choruses we used to sing back in the day. And then you've got this generation who connects with the cutting edge worship music of today. What's a music minister to do to cater to the needs of all of these people? Well, there's an answer to this question that makes me mad. This answer is that these people should be able to find God in whatever music we provide. Undoubtedly, the music that "we provide" is the favorite music of the person saying that. It is probably easy for the person in charge of picking the music to connect with God during the music service because he loves the music he chose. What we don't understand often times is that the sole purpose of a music service is to assist in any way possible the people we are leading. If your congregation identifies best and worships well with hymns, then you better give them a steady diet of hymns because that is what they need. It doesn't matter if you want a church with a rockin' post-modern worship service if the people don't respond to that. This chapel speaker I spoke of talked about the vision of the church not coming down from the top of the leadership in the church anymore. The vision of the church needs to be a cumulative "puzzle" if you will, with each person holding a piece. The vision comes from the people and the leadership needs to find that vision and bring it to the surface and enable it to happen. That is the picture of church leadership and church vision that he portrayed. I agree completely. What does that say about the music minister cramming the most recent worship tunes down people's throats when they don't want it? Not much, I'm afraid. That leader is cramming his puzzle piece into a hole that is not ready for it-at least not yet. Music ministers should not be people who impose their own style on a congregation. They should be people who accomodate and cater to the styles of the congregation in order for them to worship more effectively.