IS THERE A HEAVENLY MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT FOR CHURCHES? CHURCH MUSIC PART 2 OF 4

The Concert by Gerard van Honthorst

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with the clashing cymbals! Psalm 150:3-5

Did you know I absolutely love classical music? Especially when there is a full orchestra. I'll never forgot being blown away hearing a college orchestra start off with the pounding timpanis on Brahms' 1st symphony.

I also like a good rock band. A guitar or two with bass and drums? That's nice. But I would rather have a big sound including a keyboard. Better yet, there's the local band Beracah which had trumpets and flute. Other favorite bands include Styx, ELO, Yes, Petra, and Servant.

So what musical arrangement would be my first choice for a church worship? A big praise band, or a big praise orchestra?  

Actually, I'd prefer a solo piano. Or maybe one acoustic guitar, maybe with a flute or violin or French horn for the melody. 

Yes, I'm talking about my personal preference. No, I'm not saying everybody should conform to my thoughts. God is omnipotent, and He is magnified regardless of the instrumentation or the style. He is more concerned with the hearts than anything else.

But for me, being a lover of a full instrument sound, I can get distracted when there's more instruments. For me, simpler is better. If you want to be like the Church of Christ or the Psalmody movement and have singing without instruments, I wouldn't complain.

I remember being at one church where the instrumentation was the typical piano and organ. I believe the organist at our church played at ball parks, tough I could be wrong. But when we sang "Wonderful Grace of Jesus", he had an awesome riff during the chorus. And so instead of singing, I'm listening for the riff. 😱That's not what I want to do. I want to be concentrating on singing.

Let me go to another church. We also had the piano/organist combo. Likewise, we also had a good organist. But he did not want to play organ. Why? Because when he's playing the organ, he's not singing, and he wanted to sing praises to God!

Now, let me do what you expect and look at it from the other direction. Those who have talents to play instruments have it given by the Lord. Maybe for them, playing their instrument well is their way of giving glory to God. Do I want to keep an instrumentalist from glorifying God by limiting the number of instruments in the church service? God forbid!

So what's my point? Do I have one? It's this - our focus should be on praising God. We can praise Him with a simple format or with a full band or orchestra (or both) or without any instruments at all. But our focus in congregational singing should be on the singing.

One last story to close. When I lived in California in the early '80's, some of my friends were in a band that blew you away with great melodic riffs in their songs. That band broke up. Why? Because the music was overpowering the words.

Back to what my point is. Simple. Realize that worship is for God. It's not for us to draw attention to ourselves if we're on the performing side. It's not to entertain us if we're in the pews singing. Are we giving God the glory He's due?