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Rev. Stef & Jubilation

God & Music

The War Department: Music In The Black Church

This Is The Right Way

Steve asked me to play at his wedding. I was really honored and blessed by that request, and put together a band of top-flight sessions musicians, including the producer of the Phil Collins/Phillip Bailey hit “Easy Lover,” a guitarist and drummer for Miles Davis, and bassist for Prince protégés Wendy & Lisa. I wrote two songs for Steve and his wife, including the Hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” in a funky James Brown ar­range­ment. Michel and rehearsed the group in a Midtown Manhattan studio. Which was when I got the call: Steve saying his dad nixed my band. I could come and play the piano, but no band. They were instead bringing in a local girl who sang “You Light Up My Life” to tracks.

There was a culture clash between my urban NY soul roots and Steve’s dad’s Long Island conservative Baptist background. It didn’t actually matter that it was Steve’s wedding, dad was calling the shots and the idea of Parliament Funkadelic landing on their occasion apparently didn’t sit right with him. I recorded the band (click here to play) and gave a tape of the live-to-track session to the couple.

The struggle over music styles is, likely, one of the most divisive of any church. So much so that a lot of churches end up having two Sunday worship experiences: one for them and one for us. In my experience, it is conservatives who lack the graciousness and patience to be inclusive. Conservatives believe in absolutes: This Is The Right Way, Everything Else And All Other Thinking Is Wrong. Most young people I know will patiently endure an hour of somber, sacred music to get to one Kurt Carr jam. Most of the elders in the church I once pastored would either walk out while the jam went on or would arrive in my office to complain.

I devote little attention to this issue because I think it’s really not about music so much as it is about selfishness. It is also about a poor biblical education. Pastors running around insisting musical styles—not content, but the style in which a musical piece is played—can be “good” or “evil” are simply ignorant. Most pastors I know, white and black, heavily lean on their music leaders to shape the music program around musical styles they themselves like. In fact, in my lifetime, I’ve met only one pastor, in 50 years, who has told me, straight out, that he is fairly unconcerned about musical styles. He is concerned about musical content. “It’s the anointing,” the Reverend Promise Lee, Senior Pastor of Relevant Word Ministries and a major PraiseNet supporter told me. “As ling as the content is scripturally accurate and the music has anointing on it, I’m content not to step in.” Knowing the pastor, were it up to him, all they’d play at his church would be old 100’s, which moves him to tears. But he is patient with a wide ranging and inclusive musical program at his church, which includes CCM, Urban, and sacred music.

Most black churches I’ve been in have an extremely narrow focus. I believe that gap may be widening now, but for years most black churches would eschew any music that “sounded white.” Increasingly, I am discovering black churches who sing no hymns at all, what a friend calls, “the hymnless Church.” Most churches I frequent tend to sing the same ten songs at “devotion,” an antiquated utter waste of time at the start of service designed, I suppose, to bore people to death while the deacons warble out their old chestnuts and pray for a half hour. I am grateful the musical palette of these places is expanding, while cautioning all churches to heed Pastor Lee’s words: it’s the anointing that makes the difference

Music Theology

The philosophy-theology of music at Tenth Presbyterian Church is based on four basic considerations. The first consideration is that every aspect of music in the church must be submitted to the Lordship of Christ. The second consideration is that music in the church serves various functions, and while they should all be biblical, these functions infer and result in different parameters and guidelines. Most notably, musical activity outside corporate worship will have some different parameters than music within worship services. Thirdly, we recognize that our lives are to be characterized by the continuous worship of God, and in this respect all musical activities for the individual Christian should be, in some sense, acts of worship. Further, the Tenth Purpose and Objective Statement, in accordance with Scripture, declares that our music is to be thoughtful and excellent—so these qualities should pervade all areas of musical activity in the church. What follows is a theological and philosophical statement on music in the church, with application to our congregation including aspects of specific function and responsibility.

Our Philosophy-Theology of Music
Approved by Session March 22, 2005
Tenth Presbyterian Church

Two Categories

People who call themselves “Christian” usually fall into one of two broad categories: people who live by faith and people who do not. I certainly believe there are prosperous, well-off people who live by faith, whose faith is materially rewarded and whose lives become a testimony for the rest of us. The biblical model, however, routinely depicts persons of faith, whose trust is in God, to be, in the aggregate, less concerned with material wealth than those who do not. Too many of our churches continue to sit on that corner mainly because the pastor demands his Mercedes and the congregation is too spiritually ignorant to recognize such demands for what they are. Too many of even our most successful churches are Babylonian whorehouses because the leadership consists of people who never pray, never read their bibles, who do not know Jesus Christ and have no relationship with Him, and, who in turn hire men who demonstrably do not know Jesus--I mean, clearly, evidently, you can see it with your own two eyes--to pastor these churches. The average church goer, whose tithes and offerings make these places possible, don’t know any better because they aren’t taught to know God for themselves. They come and sit and listen to this whore who continually leaps out of the captain’s chair to drive the spaceship and tend to the warp drive, who makes Sunday worship about him. Who, every Sunday, puts on a demonstration that proves, unconditionally, he does not know Jesus. And these ignorant folk sign checks every week, stuff this guy’s pockets with cash. Are broke pastors more spiritual than well-off pastors? Of course not. If the pastor is broke all the time, there’s something wrong. The broke pastor’s teaching is just as flawed as the whore pastor’s. What I’m saying is, the reasons we do not prosper are mostly about the quality of our connection to Christ.

Music is the 800-pound gorilla of any black church. You can keep an 800-pound gorilla as a pet but you have to know, going in, that an 800-pound gorilla requires special handling and a special diet. I have routinely seen pastors, in fact most every pastor I know, all but ignore his music ministry, treating it as just another department within his church, when the music ministry is, in fact, the beating heart of that ministry. Like the gorilla, it requires special education to even understand this organism, and special care and handling to make it thrive (and keep it from eating you). The music ministry is, typically, the largest chunk of business of any black church. It is where almost all of the mess in the church begins and where it festers. The infections to most church ministries begin and thrive there. The person who leads this ministry is, in fact, the second most powerful voice in the church. He is worth the pastor’s investment. He must have the pastor’s trust. Ignoring him, being hostile to him, nickel-and-diming him, is an unfathomably stupid thing to do. Ministers of music are among the most spiritually starved people in the church. They are working while others are worshipping, feeding while others are being fed. Who is ministering to them? Not the pastor, certainly.

This man is the key to the pastor’s entire deal. Most pastors I’ve brown (and I’ve known a lot), have an at best distant relationship with this person, and typically end up spending way too much time and way too much money trying to find the next one because this guy’s either moved on or gotten himself fired for falling into sin. Because nobody’s ministering to him. Nobody is reaching out to him. He is vulnerable, financially, emotionally, spiritually, sexually. He is the focal point of the church’s largest ministry, and he’s on his own.

A Focused Bible Study: Musicians are among the most spiritually starved members of the church.
A general bible study does not target the specific vulnerabilities of those working in music ministry: ego, pride, insecurity. These people need to meet to pray together, study together, bond, fight if necessary, resolve conflict, encourage one another.

Music Lessons

Many ministers of music I know insist those who serve in music ministry attend bible study or Sunday School or both. I think a better idea is for there to be a bible study especially for those working in music ministry. A general bible study does not target the specific vulnerabilities of those working in music ministry: ego, pride, insecurity. These people need to meet to pray together, study together, bond, fight if necessary, resolve conflict, encourage one another. This does not, cannot, happen at a general study where they are scattered about the sanctuary, mixed in with the crowd. The music ministry is the devil’s biggest target and therefore demands the leadership’s most fervent attention, protection and defense, resources rarely afforded them. This is why so much mess happens in the music ministry: pastors who do not understand how important and, therefore, how under enemy siege the music department is.

Having never attended seminary, I can’t say for certain what on earth might be taught there regarding music and the church. But 50 years in the black church have taught me this: the very simple and evident formula for church stability and growth begins with its ministry in music. It is ground zero for demonic attack. I’ve met only a handful of pastors who understand that simple truth and who invest in their music ministers. “The enemy will always attack you in the area of your gifting,” Pastor Lee says. “These leaders need special attention and support.” Many pastor, even well-intentioned ones, tend to fall, to one degree or another, into the traditional trap of believing a church’s success is all about them. That egotism is the first sin, the divide between pastor and the God he allegedly serves. It is a demonstrated lack of humility which signals the absence of God and presence of self. The success of any church is because of God, not you. Because of God being glorified, because of new disciples being made, lives transformed. There are a great many moving parts to this process. The pastor needs to remain in command of all of them and, in humility, recognize how all of those parts fit together. It’s not all about him. And this 800-pound gorilla, so important and vital to the ministry, is hungry.

Christopher J. Priest
11 December 2011
editor@praisenet.org
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Music Essentials   Levite   The War Dept   God & Music   The Ostracized Negro   Kim Burrell   Church Musicians   Music 2005   The Yabba-Doo   Vickie Winans   Tonéx