Our understanding of worship

The answer to a visitor’s question, “Where’s the music?” lies in our view of worship. We view our corporate worship together as a time of spiritual connection with our awesome God. It is a time for serious reflection and renewed commitment to the Lordship and Kingship of Jesus Christ in our hearts and lives. Acting as one body, we pray, sing and meditate upon his word in reverence and praise. It is not a time to be entertained or to admire the musical talents of another member. Spiritual contemplation takes effort and discipline and we want everyone to be involved. New Testament (hereafter NT) writers continually emphasized that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23ff; Phil 3:3). Worship is a time to engage the mind and the heart with the goal of a genuine encounter with God. Worship provides the opportunity for reflection upon and appreciation for all that God has done in and through our lives.

In an effort to make this a special time of spiritual reflection and to promote the active involvement of everyone present, we conduct our worship differently than you might find in other faith groups. We deliberately do not have a choir. We don’t build elaborate sanctuaries or hang ornate paintings on the walls.[1] Singing is an activity everyone is asked to participate in. It is too easy to sit back and admire the paintings or be entertained by a great chorus or band. Listening to Christian music for entertainment purposes, with or without instruments, is an activity that we strongly encourage for times other than our corporate worship together. Whereas many faith groups use musical instruments in an attempt to enhance worship and entertain the congregation we want to avoid mixing entertainment and worship. There is often a danger that musical instruments can become a substitute or replacement for human singing. To avoid this problem we simply do not use musical instruments during the worship service. Again, this is to encourage participation by everyone present and to emphasize the importance of the spiritual message spoken in the songs. The goal of our worship service is not to make great music for our own ears to hear. God wants the fruit of our lips and the melody of our hearts (John 4:24; Eph 5:19; 1 Cor 14:15; Heb 13:15).

Musical instruments or recorded music do not have a spirit and cannot worship God or provide edification by themselves. They can only be used to praise God as an extension of the worshiper who plays the instrument or who sings to the accompaniment. We believe that several spiritual dangers exist when instruments are used in the assembly. First, there is the risk that we perceive that the instrument is doing the praising for us and not engage our own spirit. Second, it is tempting for a musician to get into the music and forget the purpose for which it is being played. To be fair, singers can also focus on the harmony instead of praise and adoration for our Father. Both worship styles often have the same spiritual danger – focusing too much on the music, whether instrumental or vocal, and not enough on God. This concern for the worshiper is one of the primary reasons we believe that instruments should be omitted from the worship assembly. The danger is that we may sin by worshipping the music that God created instead of God himself (Rom 1:25).

The NT teaches that we are a priesthood of believers (Heb 10:19; 1 Pet 2:9-10). The churches of Christ do not have a clergy. God made us one in Christ Jesus: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28 NIV). God wants all of us to sing and be happy in our singing (James 5:13). Yet within the body there are special gifts and special callings. Musicians are not mentioned in the list of spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12:8-11 or in the list of functions in 1 Cor 12:28. Granted, these lists are not comprehensive and do not exhaust the spiritual giftedness of the church. However, music, it seems, is to be everyone’s gift from God regardless of talent. Therefore, all of our voices should be heard. It is the fruit of our lips that God wants. There is also the danger that the instrument will cover the voices and the words. We believe that our songs are acts of prayer, something the entire congregation must do.[2]

[1] The early church took the same position in Canon 34. The addition of stained glass to the sanctuary was a controversial issue.

[2] Donald K. McKim, Major Themes in the Reformed Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 308-09. Calvin’s views on the place of music in worship are stated in the prefaces to the 1542 and 1545 Psalters.