June 22, 2006

Welcome back to our church growth, mission, and evangelism blog. I'm ecstatic that our podcast successfully uploaded yesterday even though my computer decided to hybernate. God works in mysterious ways..... Today we continue with thoughts about building a church through music:

The worship of God can be done through any kind of music. After you have chosen a worship leader who understands this point, and you’re ready to lead your congregation in worship, then consider musical styles. Find the musical style that will reach the greatest number of people in your culture. If you are focused solely on using a style of music that reaches your congregation, you may be severely limiting opportunities for evangelism because your congregation may not be a good reflection of your surrounding culture.

 

If no one in your congregation is inspired to worship because the music you are using doesn’t relate to them, you’re probably not leading them in worship. If you have a sixty something congregation in the middle of a thirty something neighborhood, you could sing a few new songs to reach the younger people, as well as the old hymns that reach the average member of the congregation.

 

You can use a blended style of music in your worship services. You can use several old, familiar hymns and several new, contemporary choruses. You can take time to explain the meaning of an old hymn that may contain words that we don’t use today. Every church would do well to consider some level of combination in their style of service-singing some old songs and some new songs on a regular basis. There are good reasons for us all to learn new songs as well as to teach the old hymns.

 

We should sing contemporary songs because God is honored by variety and freshness. God commanded us to sing a new song. Many people, especially young people and new Christians, relate better to the new songs. Older members may not like the music, but appreciate that it is bringing in new young people to hear about Christ. Eventually the old songs just don’t inspire us to worship anymore. They become too familiar.

 

We should teach our young people the best of the old hymns, because many of the ancient hymns are full of doctrine. The hymns keep us tied to other Christians past and present. Young Christians need to learn some of the older songs so they can understand and identify with the older generation of Christians around them.

 

The older hymns will be familiar to our church guests. They may not have heard any of the new choruses that are sung, but the chances are good that they will have heard the hymns. Visitors who have been away from church for a while will be pleasantly surprised by hearing some more contemporary music, but will probably sing along with some of the older songs that they recognize.

Thanks again for joining us. Thanks to www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org our sponsor. Be sure to tune in for our blog tomorrow and the podcast tomorrow night. So far the number of visitors for this blog and the podcast have been small, but as long as there is someone out there visiting, I intend to keep teaching what I can.

I would welcome anyone who would be interested in writing an entry or two for the blog or even joining on the podcast.

Please send your suggestions to me at: [e-mail] . Until next time, thanks, and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery