A Guest Post by Joe Pace
Colossians 3:16 teaches us that there is an undeniable relationship between the preaching/teaching ministry and music ministry in our worship. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Now to be clear, you can sing without the Word; you can play an instrument well without the Word; you can talk without the Word; BUT you simply cannot worship without the Word! It is only with the truth of God’s word that real, transformative, life-changing worship can take place. There will always be an inherent disconnect when the worship (music) itself is not based in biblical truth.
“…music is not the central act of Christian worship, and neither
is evangelism nor even the ordinances. The heart of Christian
worship is the authentic preaching of the word of God.”
–Dr. Albert Mohler
What drives your Worship? Is it Personality driven worship? Radio hit driven Worship? Public Opinion driven Worship? Tradition/Religion driven Worship? All of these motivating factors are temporal. They cannot be sustained over the long term and will never lead to real transformative worship. True Worship must be driven by the Word Of God.
This matter of alignment of Word & Worship, is one of the reasons we are excited to again have a special Worship Track at this year’s 2017 Cutting It Straight Expository Preaching Conference. We want to offer biblical guidance and practical help in dealing with the relationship between music and preaching in corporate worship, as well as tools to increase the effectiveness of your worship both personally and in the corporate assembly.
This Worship Track will focus on teaching, training and instruction in the area of worship/music ministry with sessions covering a wide-range of critical areas, being taught by the likes of: Steven Ford [The Ministry Of Musicianship], James Abbington [Popular, But Not Relevant: The State Of Worship In Today’s Church], Tiff Joy [Worship Team Development 101], Roy Cotton [Music Ministry Administration and Service Planning] and Patrick Dopson [So You Think You’re A Worship Leader?].
I will also be teaching a session on Music Ministry/Pastoral relationships, and how to have “Peace On The Platform”, and this year we will be blessed to have H.B. Charles Jr. teaching a Worship General Session on “Worship & The Holy Spirit”… WOW! These are just some of the sessions being offered this year!
This track is designed to run alongside the Preaching Conference but also to intersect during joint general sessions, and powerful evening worship. This will really be an incredible time for all who are involved in any way in worship ministry… Worship leaders, Worship Pastors, Praise team Members, Choir members, musicians, all are welcome… as we all learn how to Cut It Straight, to the Glory of God. Register Today HERE