Can you imagine a worship service where music is not sung or played? Prayers are offered, scripture is read, God’s tithes and our offerings are received, and God’s word is preached and proclaimed. Not a sound, though, is heard from any musical instrument, and voices are silenced from singing the great hymns and other music of our faith. I could endure that type of worship gathering perhaps once, but then my heart, voice, and ears would long to welcome God’s beautiful gift of music back into the mix of worship.
Oakmont has long enjoyed a rich tapestry of worship through vocal and instrumental expressions of music. I am looking forward to elevating music to an even greater level of importance in our worship gatherings during 2010. While on sabbatical this past summer, I spent over two weeks working on sermon themes, texts, and titles for 2010. I have developed a year-long preaching plan that will allow us to celebrate the abundant diversity of hymns and other Christian music that is a part of our Christian tradition.
Specifically, rather than beginning with a scriptural theme and coordinating the biblical text with music, choral anthems, and contemporary Christian music (depending on which worship service you attend), I began my annual sermon planning process with a hymn or another selection of Christian music and then moved to a biblical text. It’s my hope not only to preach clearly from God’s word, but to use the musical texts to show how they complement and affirm our Christian beliefs, convictions, and actions.
It’s been said that the person who selects the hymns and other music for a worship service is that church’s chief theologian. I think there is a great deal of validity in that statement, primarily due to the great truths declared through the lyrics of our Christian music. I’m fairly confident that most people would never suggest that the words of hymns and other Christian music are on the same par as the words from the Bible. We can safely acknowledge, however, that so much of our theology is derived from the music that we sing, play, or hear in our Sunday worship experiences.
I am hopeful that before the conclusion of 2010, you will get to sing one or more of your favorite hymns or selections of Christian music. I am grateful in advance for the leadership that Michael McKnight, other church staff musicians, and a host of other volunteer leaders and participants offer toward making music such a meaningful part of our worship gatherings each week. May God bless us in the coming year as we offer our worship to Him with grateful and musical hearts!
Your Pastor,
Greg Rogers