I feel that last Sunday’s church service at my church was most enlightening. It reflects the way the pastor feels about our church and the way the church members feel about the church and by extension themselves. It shows the condition of our church specifically in reference to music and our approach to music. Understand, now, that my church is very strict about music, as far as what kind of music is allowed and so forth.
The former ruler of my church, my former pastor, was very specific about what kind of music was allowed in church. This meant that we really only sang songs from the hymnal. So, the new pastor has been very careful about making sure he doesn’t offend anyone when discussing music, which I suppose is a good thing . . . maybe.
However, I think the way he walks on egg shells around the people of the church is wrong. That may sound harsh, but let me explain: last Sunday’s service consisted, as usual, of about ten or fifteen minutes of singing. Then the pastor came up and told everyone that their singing was amazing. He even said that he was preaching to the choir. And he went on for about ten minutes discussing how amazing our church singing is and how great our church musicians are.
At this point, I’m really feeling sorry for him. The pastor really shouldn’t have to worship the congregation to get them in the right mood for a sermon. So, eventually he did get around to talking about music and how a church should use it to glorify God. I tend to think many people didn’t get it because this is what I heard:
Pastor: “Oh holy church, your singing is amazing. I don’t know why I’m here preaching to people who are already perfect, but I’m going to try. I know that I can’t offend anyone, or at least, not very many people, because I really need this job. So, I’m willing to make a fool of myself by worshiping you so that I can keep my job. However, I really should say something meaningful, so I’m going mention that we’re supposed to use music to glorify God not ourselves and our talents, and I really hope no one is offended by that.”
Ok, so maybe those aren’t the exact words, but you get the point. The pastor feels limited in what he can do. He has pressures on him from the former pastor, who still attends our church, the elders, and the church musicians and of course various church members. That our former pastor is there at all is kind of strange and probably not healthy.
I consider his presence like that of a father in his son’s home. He wants to stay in the background (actually, I don’t know that; I kind of just assume) and let his son forge his own identity but he just can’t quite let himself do that. So now, our church really has two pastors.
In my opinion, they have radically different views of music: the new pastor views music as a means of glorifying God, and I don’t think he’s very legalistic about what type of church music we sing; our former pastor views music as a means of glorifying God, but he seems to feel the need to dictate exactly what we sing. He saw a keyboard in the closet at church and was afraid that the new pastor was trying to sneak in some more contemporary christian music. I feel like the new pastor has no say in the matter of music. I think he should because he seems to understand the purpose of music better than many others, including, but certainly not limited to, our former pastor.
I think the solution to this problem is getting rid of the former pastor. That may sound cruel and unnecessary but it really isn’t. His presence is hampering our current pastor’s ability to minister to the congregation because our current pastor has to constantly make sure he’s not offending the former pastor. How everyone seems so happy with this arrangement I don’t know. It’s not healthy for anyone.
The only solution I see is removing our former pastor from the church. That will probably never happen, but I see it as the only way for the new pastor to effectively minister to the congregation. What he’s doing now is just trying to keep everybody happy.
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