I’m not in favor of church programs. As one pastor reminded me, “What you win them with you win them to.” Another pastor recently preached a message at my church on “Keeping the main thing the main thing.” So, what is the main thing about church? You would probably answer that it is about coming to worship God, to hear preaching from God’s Word, and to encourage one another in the faith. Maybe you can think of other things too, but these probably come to mind the quickest. So, why did I say yes to directing a children’s music program at church? In short, because I believe that my four goals were keeping with the main thing.
The first of my four goals is to help children and youth discover the joy of worshipping God through music.The word worship begs an object, a subject matter. We naturally worship what we love the most. This is how we were made. Interestingly, the first of the 10 commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” We also serve what or who we worship. God is the reason for worship because that is who we love, and without God we are left to worship many other things, ourselves, our aspirations, even music itself can become the object of worship without a proper perspective of our calling to God. And so, it is my goal to help my choirs to recognize whom they are worshipping when they come Sunday mornings to sing.
It is also my goal to see that my choirs know how they are to worship. In John 4 we learn that it is about the manner not the location and that we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. In the spirit means with our breath and in truth means with understanding.
Now we get to the part about joy in worshiping God. I would love for my choirs to know the joy that the Psalmist David had when he wrote Psalm 42:1: As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.” This was not something David felt just one hour in his week. This was a lifelong thirst for God, and so it should be with us. In the book titled, “A Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World” Marva J. Dawn writes:
Worship ought not to be construed in a utilitarian way. Its purpose is not to gain numbers nor for our churches to be seen as successful. Rather, the entire reason for our worship is that God deserves it. Moreover, it isn’t even useful for earning points with God, for what we do in worship won’t change one whit how God feels about us. We will always still be helpless sinners caught in our endless inability to be what we should be or to make ourselves better—and God will always still be merciful, compassionate, and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and ready to forgive us as we come to him.
The point here is that there is joy in worshipping God, not because of who we are or because of how good we sound, but because of who God is. It is because of God’s attributes and character that we sing praises and worship God for His beauty and holiness. 2 Chronicles 20:21 says, “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.
Children certainly won’t get this perspective of music at any public school choral program! If churches make teaching children how to worship God through music a priority it will most certainly not be a waste of time in God’s eyes! Instead it will strengthen a child or teens walk with God!
