We Love to Worship God!

Some people may wonder why we put so much time and energy into the worship portion of our services. What do Music and Fine Arts have to do with God or the church? First, worship is not Music and Fine Arts, worship is loving God, connecting with God, and giving God thanks for who He is and what He has done for us. Music and Fine Arts are a vehicle to worship God and bring honor to Him.

Music and Fine Arts are also used in today’s society to reach the world with a message. The message varies from wealth, to success, to love, to acceptance, and unfortunately, to hate. Our church realizes the strong influence that music, movies, multimedia, and fine arts can have on our culture, so we too utilize them.

But music does not originate from today’s culture, or even from our history, but from God Himself. God created music for us so that we would praise Him:

“For it is good to sing praises to our God.” Psalm 147

“Come before His presence with singing.” Psalm 100

“Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp,  With the harp and the sound of the psalm, With trumpets and the sound of a horn.” Psalm 98

Some might ask why we have choirs and musical groups, or why we use musicians in our church? If the world is listening to music, then why is the church promoting it? The Bible shows King David using singers and musicians to give thanks to God:

“Then David spoke to the Leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy.” 1 Chronicle

Maybe there are those that do understand that music is for the church, but feel that the church should only sing the sacred hymns. Indeed, there are some hymns that are timeless and tell of the glorious history of the church, just as a monument stands to tell future generations what God did in times past. But God mandates to today’s generation:

“Sing to the Lord a new song!” Psalm 98

All of us have different styles and preferences in music and fine arts that touch us personally. It is wise to consider the make up of the people both in the church and those living in the surrounding community who we are trying to reach. But, the key to worship is to always keep the focus on God. There is not one sacred song, or certain style that brings us closer to God. It is the desire within ourselves to seek Him with all of our heart and to love Him with an everlasting love.