Leading the Music Ministry #15 – Music Ministry Always Goes Wrong

It’s true. Music ministry always goes wrong. Even on the best Sunday, there’s always stuff that could’ve gone better. And reality is: you’re leading the team that never gets it right. Week after week, you work hard, but things don’t go according to plan. It’s hard when you finally sit on the couch late on a Sunday night – you’re absolutely exhausted from a long day of serving at church – and after all that, it didn’t even go well. So many things that were out of your control became spanners in the wheel. It can be very discouraging, and when unchecked leads to all sorts of sinful responses.

But is getting music ministry to ‘go well’ on Sunday really the goal? Stop and think about it – what are you really working towards? What’s the ‘end goal’?

“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.”   (Colossians 3:16)

“Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.”  (Psalm 96:2-3)

Having a ‘perfect music’ Sunday is not the goal. The goal is getting the church family to sing the word of God together - THAT’S the goal. The goal is helping Christians to grow in their relationship with Jesus and with each other as they declare the praises of God together – all for the nations to overhear. THAT’s the goal.

And that’s important to remember – because everything doesn’t have to go perfectly for the church family to sing about Jesus together. If a Sunday service is full of technical difficulties and musical stuff-ups, but the church family were still helped to sing the truth of God’s word together – then you’ve still achieved your goal. It doesn’t have to go perfectly for that to happen. On the flip-side, if everything does go perfectly – great sound, great musical performance – but the congregation don’t join in on the singing – then you haven’t achieved your goal. It’s not about whether the band and the singers play well together – it’s all about whether you’ve helped the church family sing about Jesus together, in a way that will help them to grow in their relationship with him, and in a way that non-believers will ‘overhear’. That’s what music ministry is about!

That’s why it doesn’t really matter if you have a full band or not – and, in fact, why it’s sometimes better not to have a full band. Singing in church is not about enjoying a good band and good singers – it’s about getting everyone to sing together. Whatever music line-up will most help the church family to sing together – that’s the one you should go with, regardless of what trend you’d prefer to lean towards. Music ministry is about helping the church family sing about Jesus – and that must be the main and only focus, or we may as well chuck in the towel and give up.

Don’t hear me wrong – if there are ways that you can work to improve things – whether it’s the way you lead, or a way you can help the team – then you should most definitely work hard to make that happen. But you need to understand that, even then, it’s not always going to turn out the way you pictured in your mind.

One important application of thinking this way is the importance of not idolising having a ‘perfect music ministry’. Tim Keller has a nifty saying about idolising ministry – “If I’m justified by faith, I’m alive in Christ no matter what happens; but if I’m justified by preaching, I die every Sunday.” The same is true of music ministry: if you make having a ‘good music ministry’ your idol, then you’re tying a noose around your own neck – there’s no possible way you can control all of the variables to ensure everything will go well during church! It’s impossible! Every time something goes wrong you’ll feel more and more discouraged and disheartened, until you’re crushed and don’t want to be a part of it anymore. You probably won’t even live up to your own expectations, let alone others living up to them. But the good news is that that’s not what music ministry is all about.

When music ministry does go well, and the church family sings together heartily, it’s something to be celebrated – and at those times you should always go out of your way to encourage people for their helpful service. In fact, even when things don’t go well, you should still be doing what you can to encourage those who were doing the right thing, and be gracious to those who may have let the team down a bit.

But you can’t afford to be surprised or upset by things not going well. Work hard to do a good job, but don’t be discouraged when things are less than ideal. Because the goal is not having perfect music – the goal is getting the church family to sing together.

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the LORD is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.”           (Psalm 95:1-3)

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