Noises From The Music Office

Items found in the news:
1. A group of local clergy gathered to complain to a local pastor that one of the songs he had written the words for was not appropriate and would cause unknown damage if he persisted with it’s use.
2. A Christian music publisher was threatened with boycott if a new song was included in their catalog.
3. A group of angry parents called a radio station and demanded that the station quit playing a new artist who they felt was destroying the minds of their children.
4. A church musician was roundly criticized for composing new music for every service, every week and not even printing the words for the congregation.

Do you recognize any of these cases? Do you recognize yourself in any of the reactions of the people involved? I recognize myself, I’m a parent and I have often worried about the influence of music upon my children. Do you have any clue to the identity of the offenders? The first was Martin Luther who wrote words to a beer drinking song and then had the nerve to call it, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. The second was Charles Converse and the hymn? “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”. The artist that parents were so angry with? Benny Goodman. And lastly the church musician who could not stop introducing new music, and his own at that? JS Bach.

As artists, and Christian artists at that, those of us who serve the church are pulled in several directions. We really want to please the congregation; we love to hear positive comments after a service. And on days we receive one negative word we forget all the positive words that we have heard before. But we also try to hear from God. We want to please Him. We want to supply the music and the words that may bless someone in a time of need. We want to help lead someone to the life in Christ that we enjoy. But we are also humans and sometimes our own selfish desires try to take over and God has to deal with us like spoiled children, and that’s not fun, I know from experience.

Thanks for understanding us, and helping us to be the artists that God wants us to be.