Pass Me A Tambourine

By Jerry Wood

Several years ago while leading a music group from Eugene Bible College, we did a concert for a small church, and the pastor lead worship before the students were to sing. The worship team consisted of a piano (extremely out of tune,) an accordion (not in tune with the piano,) and a guitar (not in tune with the piano or the accordion.) Plus, twelve tambourine players were scattered throughout the congregation. The pastor lead with great enthusiasm, he belted out his praise never wavering from one single pitch. He was an absolute monotone. It didn’t matter where the melody went, he never allowed that to detour him from the single focus of his selected painful pitch. I caught myself in the middle of an uncontrollable giggle. Three instruments playing in different keys, a dozen tambourines, and pastor one note leading the brigade, the musical situation was surreal. My brain was spinning with unbelief and criticism. Lord, how could people possibly worship in this atmosphere? My musical snobbery rose to the forefront; I have music degrees from major universities hanging on my wall. I teach classes on how to lead worship, etc. Right in the middle of my mental tirade, God spoke to me and said, “Who do you think you are? How dare you criticize my people when they are giving me their hearts? Look at the people. They are praising Me.” I looked across the room and there they were in their entire unmusical splendor, with exuberant, authentic, honest, heartfelt praise, worshiping God. Conviction painfully permeated my entire being; my attitude and self-righteous arrogant spirit was more offensive than what was being played. Not once had I lifted my voice in praise. I snickered at the musically unskilled manner of others praising. I had my nose stuck in the air, not my hands. I learned a great lesson that day. Worship is not about skill or style, instrumentation or presentation, slick technology and the latest songs, and it is certainly not about me and my preferences. It is about honoring God with all of my heart. Often we judge the way others worship, or the quality of musical performance. Worship is the responsibility of the worshiper. So are you a surrendered participant of worship with your hands in the air, or a musical judge with your nose in the air? I hope you are the latter. So, pass me a tambourine.

Music A Powerful Tool:

By Jerry Wood

Music is Powerful:

One of the most powerful tools given to the church today is music.  It accompanies all that we do and is part of who we are.  Our culture is told what to embrace by the serenade of a rock band, while the church is trying to snatch its audience from the flames of hell.  Music permeates every part of our society and you can hardly go anywhere with out some kind of musical accompaniment.  Advertisers and movie makers understand the power of music to move and manipulate the emotions of people.  Even evil dictators like Hitler understood that the capturing of the music of a culture was a great assistance in capturing that culture.  Our enemy understands the power of music and uses it to his advantage to promote every evil and ungodly thought, practice and attitude, anywhere from drugs to sexual immorality and violence.  Music grabs the heart of people and effects the emotions helping to them to embrace ideas and dogma.  God gave us this powerful tool to advance the gospel.  Colossians 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Music is a tool to teach and admonish (or correct) one another with the word of God.  If we are singing God’s word it gets into our hearts.  On the other side if you are singing the words to a perverse or ungodly song that ungodliness is getting into your heart.  Music is not neutral it has power.

Music is Personal:

Music is not only powerful it is very personal.  Each one of us gravitates to toward different styles of usually based on our family background or cultural environment and usually it is the styles we embraced in our teen years when music seems to have the most power over our lives.  This is why the music industry focuses its main market toward the youth culture.  We identify with certain styles and claim them as our own.  How many times have you seen a movie and a song begins and the couple in love gets all teary eyed and nostalgic about the night they met, and one says to the other “Honey their playing our song”.  This may sound a little corny but it is true there are particular songs that have had great impact on us and we have a high degree of personal connection with that song.  Maybe it was the song that was played the day we accepted the Lord, now every time we hear that song we relive the wonderful experience of our conversion.  God designed music to be personal because it is the way we can worship him with the greatest personal expression.  We worship best with songs we have personal identity.

Music is Emotional:

When we become emotionally sensitive we become spiritually aware.  Spiritual awareness causes our minds to understand the tings of God and respond to his leading.  Music stirs the emotions first then moves to the intellect.  The spoken word begins with the intellect then stirs the emotions.  When we have had our emotions stirred in the service through praise are spiritual awareness is heightened.  Our minds are receptive and open to the teaching of the Word. 

Because of the power of music and its personal nature we need to watch ourselves in what we let into our minds musically.  We need to understand that music is one of the most powerful tools we have in promoting the gospel.  And it is the most intimate expressive means we have to touch our Lord in worship and praise.  It is a powerful assistance in our heart preparation to receive the word of God.  So let’s sing with all of our hearts.