Worship - July
First of all, let me just say how excited I am to be a part of the pastoral team here at Oakhill. Even though we have only been here for two weeks, we have already been incredibly encouraged, challenged, supported, and loved. It has been a crazy couple of weeks, but God has been good, and He has displayed His goodness to me and my family through Oakhill. I firmly believe that God has created the Church to be a "family for life", and I am so thankful that my family is now a part of the Oakhill family.
As I was thinking about what to share with you all in this newsletter, I figured that a good place to start would be to talk a little bit about, you guessed it, music. The main point I want to focus on about music (or "worship" as we often refer to it) is that it is all about God. Hopefully when I say "Worship is all about God" this is not a surprise to anyone, but to assume that we know this and to not take time to emphasize its importance would be a mistake. Just because we know this to be true does not mean that it is always our motivation. We must examine our hearts. God created us for His glory, He saved us for His glory, and He has placed us within a local fellowship that exists for His glory (in reality, every verse of the Bible testifies to this truth, but here are just a few to get us started: Isaiah 43:6-7, Isaiah 6:3, Isaiah 42:8, Habakkuk 2:14, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Ephesians 1:5-14). God has also made it clear that He is not impressed with outward displays of "worship", but what pleases Him is a heart that is tender toward Him (1 Samuel 15:22, Hosea 6:6, Psalm 51:16-17). It is God who dictates how we are to come to Him. It is God who has given instructions for what we are to do as a church and how we are to do it, and that includes our music. True worship is all about God, and true worship always comes from the heart.
Now, when it comes to New Testament instructions on music within the church, we are not really given a whole lot of details. Nothing is said about instruments, styles, ensembles, worship leaders, or any of those things. It is clear from the New Testament that we are commanded to sing together (Colossians 3:16. Ephesians 5:19, Hebrews 13:15), and it is abundantly clear that we are to sing for God's glory. With all of that in mind, there are two commitments that I want to make to you. My first commitment to you is that absolutely every time we gather together for worship as the Body of Christ we will sing for God's glory. Whether we are singing a traditional song or a contemporary one, whether it is old or new, whether it is accompanied by piano, electric guitar, or not accompanied at all, we will sing it for the purpose of praising, honoring, worshiping, and loving God. Beyond that, I believe that we have a lot of freedom, and I look forward to creatively exploring those freedoms with you in the years to come.
The second commitment that I want to make to you is that everything we do as a music ministry team, and everything that I do and every decision I make as a pastor will be guided by scripture. Even though we are not given a whole lot of explicit instructions for music in the Bible, God’s word is infinitely applicable and relevant to every part of life. God has given us more than enough instruction on how we are to love and serve Him and love and serve one another. These Biblical principles will be our guide as we seek to honor Him and build up His church.
There is a whole lot more that I want to share with you, and I know that I will have the opportunity to do so soon. For now, I hope that this letter is just a small reminder that we must constantly examine our hearts and our motivations when it comes to worship, because God's glory is that important. We were created to worship and glorify The Triune God, and Him alone. As we read in Hebrews 13:15 this past Sunday morning: "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name."