Keeping things given to us by God simple, even though we live in a very complicated world.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Repost-Holy War part 2

Cliff Note: I reposted the first part of what was originally a three part series over at WIXY's Gone Bananas. I thought I would at least repost this one here. It was the reaction from this three part series that got me to thinking about starting this blog.

Cliff Note part 2: Recently, Kathy's Klavier had a post titled "Music and Christianity." She has posted several scriptures to go with it. I think that would be a worthwhile read if you haven't already seen it.


I once heard an evangelist say that music is the most carnal part of worship, and in some ways I agree with him. As human beings we sometimes are too selfish to see ministry opportunities in front of us because we don't think God honors "their" style of music.

The church my wife grew up in split one time mainly because of musical preferences. Those who founded the church were southern of origin(the founding pastor of the church was from Georgia), so the members for the longest enjoyed four part harmony, quartet singing with just the piano. Well time marches on, people come, others move, some go on. The biggest struggle in life, it seems, is change. Well the pastor the church elected was NOT from the south. The people he reached out to also were not from the south. The music they liked was traditional. A house divided against itself shall not stand. That church to this day has not had a powerful influence on the community.

It's been said that "Christians are the only one that shoot their wounded." I feel that this is especially true when it comes to a singer or preacher who don't specifically ministers to our tastes. Some have fallen. I've heard some defended, and others condemned by some of one preference, and the other way around with those of the opposite preference.

The sad truth is this- Jesus told the disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It's easy to talk to those you like and whose tastes match yours. It's not as easy to go to those that you may not like, especially those who think that the music you listen to is "of the devil." Most of those people are our elders. We get past personal preferences, and maybe they have something for us that might help our personal walk with the Lord.

May God richly bless those who have read this message, and may we all have patience toward those we may meet.

The first part of this series, Can't We All Just Get Along? is reposted over at WIXY's Gone Bananas.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

Hey Cliff, thanks for recommending my post! I left you a comment on your other blog.

Melanie said...

"As human beings we sometimes are too selfish to see ministry opportunities in front of us because we don't think God honors "their" style of music."

I really agree with this. I think that we also miss out on times that the Lord is trying to minister to us as well. We are to distracted judging that we miss out.