I recently received an email from a friend asking about a particular trend he's noticing in church music. He writes/asks:
It seems to me like once upon a time church music ministry was about giving lots of people a chance to use their gifts and increasingly it's becoming more about the best possible "performance" Sunday morning. I'm not saying that those two are mutually exclusive, but am I reading the shift correctly? Is church music moving away from lots of people doing lots of things and toward the best musicians doing everything?My reply to him was that, while this is one approach to church ministry, it is not a trend at my church because we work hard to make sure congregational participation is the priority, not individual performance. But that's not to say there isn't pressure to make it so. Of course we always want to offer God our best, but I think that is different than the "best performance" mindset (our definition of best is not always God's). There is always a balance between professionalism and just letting anyone do whatever they want. High standards aren't bad as long as we're careful not to make our standards more important than God's. We do need to put leaders on the stage that are effective in leading people and not distracting because of their ability. (i.e. I don't want an out of tune singer on mic, or a drummer who can't keep time, because those things actually make it harder for the people to engage in worship).
I have also felt like the professional performance mindset makes it hard to develop musicians in church. People in your church don't usually come in at that high of a skill level. If you can't ever use them in worship because they're not "good enough" then how will they ever get better (though there are people who aren't good enough to be on your main worship team - at least not immediately). I see a huge part of a worship pastor's job being to continually develop new people to help serve God's people. I have found this can be done by giving them opportunities to grow & develop (albeit not always in the main worship service). Sometimes teaming them up with some of your best musicians gets them better (i have been know to just have them come practice with the team for awhile, or have them play but keep their guitar volume off or down until they gain confidence and skill to be turned up). I think pastors should be about equipping the body to do the work (Eph. 4:11-12), not cutting them out of the loop. For me that's 2 things - trying to engage as much of the congregation as possible; and trying to involve as many people in the music ministry (or whatever ministry) as possible (which often means lots of time working with people to help them do that effectively).
