Music...is it a gift or a god?

Over this last weekend, I had the privilege to attend the Christian Musician's Summit in Redmond.  Wow!  It was quite an encouraging time to join with hundreds of other church musicians to grow musically and spiritually.  As I sift through all my notes from the weekend, I'll probably add more posts about the conference.  But, I wanted to share some notes from our opening session.  Bob Kauflin, from Sovereign Grace Ministries, asked us the question..."Is music a gift or a god?"

Music is a huge part of our lives...especially in the lives of anyone attending a Christian Musician's Summit.  But, if we're not careful, we can let the music become our focus instead of keeping God as our focus.  Bob shared 5 ways of how we'll know if we're making music a god.

1. When we choose to attend a church based on the music more than the preaching of God's Word.
2. When we can't worship apart from a particular song, style, or leader.
3. When we think music leads us into God's presence.
4. When poor musical performance leads us to sin against our band members.
5. When a love for music has replaced a love for God.

As far as the first two, we must always remember that we gather around Jesus Christ, NOT music.  I'm not a big fan of a church offering services with different worship styles for this exact reason.  If Christians can't even sing songs together, what does that say to the world around us?? 

People say #3 all the time without really thinking about what they're saying.  Yes, music can create a great mood and atmosphere and give us an opportunity to worship.  But it can't manipulate God.  Hebrews 10:19 says that we only enter into God's presence by the blood of Jesus.  #4 is for the worship leaders...a tricky one during a stressful rehearsal, that's for sure!  Yes, we must strive for excellence...but we're all going to make mistakes and we must extend grace when that happens.  Our hearts are more important to God than a "perfect" musical performance.

Lastly, #5 is a great reminder to keep our focus on God, not the music.  If we truly did this, we would be thrilled at every worship service regardless of if it was a full choir and orchestra leading the music, a praise band, or just an acappella singing time.  It shouldn't matter if it's songs that are 500 years old, or 5 minutes old.  We need to be in love with God and take advantage of every minute He gives us to worship Him.

Bob closed saying "Let's love music, for God's sake."

I liked his message and it was a great reminder to keep our focus in the right place.  I love music and am constantly listening to it, singing it, or practicing it for something.  But, I want to do it all for His sake...not for the sake of music.  I hope you can join with me in that goal to use music to bring glory to God and God alone.