MUSICIANS AND WORSHIP LEADERS
during my pastoral life have each brought their unique contributions to the ministry table.

Jodi was my first worship leader, fresh out of University. I have often said she could have been my worship leader forever, but life happened, and our paths separated, although our friendship remains. She still calls me dad and flew to Seattle to sing and play for my wife Dixie’s memorial service.

Gary’s masterful violin playing always thrilled me. He assembled a pastor’s quartet irreverently dubbed the “Uncalled Four.” It was great fun and good music.

Jim and I struggled to make it work, perhaps as much my problem as his.

John was the best at blending average voices with a few extraordinary ones and making them sound like a heavenly choir. He was and is both a performer and a teacher. He’s still doing it at a university in SoCal, with worship leader wannabes who probably prefer playing the guitar in a band to leading a choir in the great hymns of the church.

I LOVED THEM ALL
though sometimes I could be disappointed when something I hoped for didn’t happen. Then suddenly, something I didn’t expect would happen, and it was wonderful again, lifting the whole congregation into the presence of a holy God and flowing with perfect harmony into the Word message God had given for that occasion.

ONCE, I WAS INVITED
to a group of pastors wanting to spend a day with me talking about working with older adults. They came from Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. I asked how many had been church musicians and worship leaders in their previous lives. It was almost 100%. They were giving up on a calling they had loved and worked with for years. They admittedly had not prepared for a new wave of Christian music, largely disconnected from the generations of hymnody in which they had been trained.

Some churches endeavor to overcome this disconnect by having two different kinds of worship in multiple services. Perhaps this is the best we can do. Aside from preaching, I believe the most challenging ministry expression in the church belongs to the musician and worship leader.

IN 1985
while East Germany was still under Communist rule, Dixie and I visited St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian Bach had served as the music director for 27 years until his death. He is buried just outside the door. I said to my wife, it seems fitting since that’s where many who followed him in music ministry have been ‘buried.’ Just outside the church door. An evening later, we attended an organ concert, during which Bach’s music was masterfully played on two organs in the loft. During the hour of music, the only response from a church filled mostly with young people was reverent silence. Communism was in, and religion was out in those days, but a church musician helped everyone know that God was still alive and well.

AND SO I STAND IN PRAISE
of musicians and worship leaders with whom I have worked and to those I have only heard but never had the privilege of knowing. May the joy and majesty of worship, in whatever language and style it is expressed, gather all together into the presence of the only true God.

The next time you have a chance, express gratitude to your music minister and say how their work has touched your life and that of your family and friends.

And may Jesus keep us close.

 

 

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When we are normal we talk. When we are dying, we whisper. But when there is more in us than we can contain, we sing.
— Eugene Peterson
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God and Satan, good and evil, the battle for souls in the world of spirits rages on. The ancient story of Job, believed divinely inspired by billions of Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike, contains a question that forever changes this man’s life: “Have you considered my servant Job?

In the 21st-century spirit world, that question has been posed again. “Have you considered my servant John Cain? And a modern-day Jobian-like contest has found its target in Baytown, California. Once again, a man and his family are about to be forever changed.

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