The Music Exchange

The relationship between the pastor and music co-ordinator is often a rocky one. Both can feel threatened by the other for different reasons.

The pastor is the boss, and in theory has the power to change the musical make-up of a church at a stroke — the musician will feel that his position is most shaky the first few months after the arrival of a new incumbent.

The musician, however, is someone who has a skill that the non-musical pastor knows little about, so can hold the pastor to ransom over issues of style and aesthetics. At the same time, the pastor acknowledges that music has the power to split congregations if it is not kept in check.

I tried to do some hunting for some examples of comedy church music bust-ups on the internet, but, having put the key words ‘church music bust-up’ into Google, most of the hits were about Charlotte Church’s latest tiff with boyfriend Gavin Henson.

The truth is that these fights are never funny. I’ve been spared from being involved with any serious conflict in this area, but we’ll all be able to relate cases of organists walking out in the middle of meetings, whole choirs being sacked, or congregations who have fallen out over the use of drums. We know that the root of the problem isn’t music itself but sin, which pushes its own agenda and spoils relationships by undermining the unity we enjoy in the gospel. Here then are some ideas for troubleshooting in this area.

Pulpit winners

The first point is for pastors to win the battle early on in the pulpit. The Word of God teaches the gospel of grace to our congregations, and therefore to our musicians.

So how do we sort out problems with musicians? Teach the Bible. If things get out of hand musically, then the musicians need to be taught Christ. In that sense, pastors are responsible for their church’s music, not the musicians themselves. I always try to tell musicians this so that they don’t think everything revolves around them, and so they can encourage their pastors to do their job of teaching the Word. Having the Word as the priority will discourage pastors from clearing out choirs just for the sake of it. The content of what is sung is worth fighting for, the style in which it is sung isn’t.

On a practical level too, it’s important that pastors are pro-active in putting together church meetings. Often it can be left to the musicians to discern the order and content of songs and other items in a meeting. If the pastor has a hand in this process, it will at least give him control over the content, if not the style.

Pastor’s responsibility

If it is the case, however, that the musicians have free rein in this area, then it’s imperative that the preacher is sufficiently ahead in his preparation, or at least knows what the passage is about so that the musicians have enough time to think seriously about the content of the songs. If the preacher doesn’t take his responsibilities in preparation seriously enough, then, of course, what goes on in the rest of the meeting will be jumbled too, or, even worse, will begin to take over as more authoritative than the Word of God. In fact, the whole meeting is a wonderful opportunity for the ministry of the Word and prayer, so musicians, readers, pray-ers need to be encouraged to practise hard and take their responsibilities more seriously too. This is impossible if the preacher or leader of the meeting strings things together on the back of a postcard the night before.

Listening and responding

If the preacher is doing his job of teaching the Word faithfully, it is the musicians’ responsibility to listen and respond. Then they will learn, in the pattern of Romans, that, in view of God’s mercy, their role is to serve Jesus first, but also the congregation and the pastor in authority over them.

Here’s the final point: pray for each other! Musicians, pray for your pastors to work hard at their preaching, prepare well, and be taught themselves by the truth they teach. Pastors, pray for your musicians to have holiness and obedience to the Word as their first concern, and trust together that the gospel of grace will hold sinful people under Christ until we meet him in heaven.

Minister/music leader tensions

Pulpit winners

Pastor’s responsibility

Listening and responding

Richard Simpkin

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