General music question

Dave,

It is interesting that you feel the way you do. I truly enjoy the praise and worship part of the service, but I approach it with the mentallity that I want God to experience me in worship. Sure, I want to expeirienc God as well, but my desire is that he is glorified. The only reason we sing in church is to give honor and glory to God. We need to remember that the word of God was created for man, but worship was created for God.

I allways had the belief that I did not need Sunday school. I am older now and I understand that one compliments the other. I was also of the belief that if there was not a move of God in the song service, that we might as well pack it up and go home. Shame on me.... We serve a much bigger God than that.

We have a tendancy to blame the presence of the Lord on the song service or the song leader or the music style or what ever else it may be when in reality, if we do not experience God, it is our fault. Before anything else, we should praise Him. Not because it is commanded of us, but because we love Him.

I know I really did not answer your questions, but I guess all I am saying is go into the worship service for the only reason of Giving glory to God and take your self out of the picture. Hope this helps a little.

Sincerely His
Tim

I have to agree with Tim. Worship is not about us, or how we feel. Rick Warren (author of "The Purpose Driven Life") made the comment, "I hear so many people say 'I didn't get anything out of worship today'... Well, then you missed the point! Worship isn't about you!"

Just remember to keep your heart in the right place!

I love it that we are all so different!!! I know lots of people who could be extremely happy with just the music ministry and many who love the combination. I don't feel the same way about the service as you do but I am sure glad you're there to be different than me. It kinda makes the whole "body of Christ" thing more complete.

Bob
Spearfish, SD

hey, also.....rick warren's book (i believe) says that we all have our own ways of worshiping...yours is i guess not in music, but in God's word......but like they said above, we just got to remember its not about us, and wht we like. We worship in order to please God and as an offering of thanksgiving and praise to Him.

John 4:24 24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

When we worship God we are to do it in spirit that is from the heart and we are to worship him in truth. What is truth?

John 17:17 17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

Here we have 2 basic requirements to worship God, from the heart and based off his word. He has given us a pattern to go by and if we want to be pleasing to God we had better follow his will and not our own.
Colossians 3:16 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:19-20 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul teaches clearly that we are to sing to one another and when we do this we are teaching and admonishing one another. We need to make sure the words that we are singing are in accoradance to Gods word or we could be guilty of teaching a false doctrine. You also notice that only singing is authorized and no where will you find an example or a command to use musical instruments to worship God with under the new covenant.

So not only is singing commanded when we sing we sing praised unto God and we are teaching and admonishing one another. As far as to how many songs are sang that is up to the spirital leaders to decide.

Cougan

As a musician, I've always enjoyed the P & W, but the most important thing to remember is that the music is nothing but a vehicle for the message. The key is to concentrate & listen to THE WORDS..ie, THE MESSAGE. Some of the best sermons you may ever here can be heard in the music. It glorifies God. It gives His message. It is Prayer. It is Praise. It is worship.
Listen & concentrate on the words.

daveleau said:

I like singing a couple of songs, but I have never been to a church that only sings one or two. I'm not picky about the genre of music, although I like P&W best. I simply want to get to the preaching! I want the preacher to cut the music short and preach longer. Am I wierd or is there something I am missing?

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If I may add my little post: my worship leader says the singing part of worship is what prepares the heart for the message. As he prays and studies, he asks God's guidance in choosing what worship songs we will do each week. (I sing, in case my name didn't give me away!) But our worship leader feels like God puts on his heart what to sing and it is amazing how it goes with the message our pastor has chosen for that service. I appreciate what you are saying, though. I felt that way before I started singing. My upbringing was Catholic. Once I visited a Primitive Baptist church and they stood and sang, no instruments, for an hour. I thought I was gonna die! Hang in there, friend!
Hugs, Singz4Him

daveleau said:

I think part of my issue stems from the fact that we do traditional KJV hymns... I get a lot more out of the P&W songs, because the words are easier to understand. I spend most of my time in hymn singing, trying to figure out how to sing the song.

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I actually find some hymns hard to use for worship. I find it hard to connect with a song if it is just telling a story, and many of the hymns (not to mention a few contempory songs) are saying 'you did this: ' However, I recognise that some people may find that good. I play bass at church, so often I just praise God with the music I play, as opposed to singing.

As for wanting to know how long our P & W time is at church, it generally has 4 -5 songs before the sermon, and 2 afterwards.

Like Lozzie, I find it hard to connect with several of the old hymns... don't get me wrong, there are several standards that need to be preserved, I'll list a few (personal taste here so don't shoot me if your fave isn't there!!):

How Great Thou Art
I'm So Glad (seriously in need of a punk version!)
I Serve A Risen Saviour / He Lives
Amazing Grace (not the biggest fan but it's cool and it's THE hymn really!)
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty
Great is Thy Faithfulness
When I Survey (although I prefer the Wonderful Cross arrangment)

But so many of the others and even the ones mentioned tend to focus on the stories (which is ok) but don't identify with praising God... and this is where i struggle to connect. I find on the other hand modern music praises the Lord quite well but the problem is they don't identify what God has done, and don't delve into doctrine well. Anyhow my 2 cents worth... but daveleau hang in there, the others have rightly said that we must go into "praise and worship" with the mentality that we are going to bless God and not be overly concerned with what we will get out of it but make our first priority to bring our all before the Lord and worship Him with our lives. Hope this helps, blessings!