Forgive me faithful readers, but I definitely was consumed the months of November and December with the standard work of the Music Minister…Christmas, and one big ministry trip we do every year.  I hope your productions, concerts, meetings, or whatever you planned were successful not just from the aspect of music, but that you saw fruit in souls saved, as that remember is always our goal.

I am picking up our series of qualities with where we left off, which is Diversity of Music in our ministries.  This is such an issue in the church world today I feel.  Ezekiel 1 talks about having multiple faces as we discussed in our last post.  Paul said, in 1 Cor 9:23, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”  NIV

Now, I realize that there is a place for making a stand and saying, “This is what we are!” as a church regarding music.  That, however, is easier for the church that is starting out in this current time…i.e. we are going to be a church that is current with our music.  That could be a ‘rock’ type worship, or a ‘Comporary’ type worship, or a ‘Southern Gospel’ type worship, or whatever is the popular stream where your church and culture is.  It certainly is easier to specialize that to try to do everything well.  Problems arise however with established ministries trying to make a turn to stay relevant without alienating older members.  This is so difficult, and has caused problems in even great and established ministries.  Unfortunately, it is easy to become culturally irrelevant very quickly.

In our ministry over 25 years we have had to morph as you must.  Although this is very hard, it is necessary as even God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, also is ‘new every morning’.  He is constant, yet ever changing.  The implementation of this, however, is extremely difficult, as we all get comfortable with what we are.

Early in our ministry, we were pretty much a big choir ministry like our parent church The Brooklyn Tabernacle.  My wife and I were in the choir there, traveled with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Singers, and drank in all that experience and ministry.  This style worked for us for many years.  We always tried to be as diverse as possible, as our urban culture demanded it, but we were primarily a choir ministry.

After a difficult journey at times, particularly in the last five years, we have had to branch out  even farther from my own personal comfort zone to stay relevant and to be as diverse as possible.  I have been influenced heavily by my Pastor, by our Youth Ministry, by younger people, by music changing around us, by our musicians (particularly the younger ones), and even by the talent we had or didn’t have (you must always play to your strengths and stay away from weaknesses).  In this process through no credit of my own, I believe we have come very close to being a reflection musically of our congregation, not just ethnically, but musically diverse.

All this to say, I believe diversity of repetoire is important.  You must find your own way with the heaviest dose of style being whatever is popular in your area.   We’re in New York City, so what works for you in Kentucky or Tennessee (where I’m from) will not work for me here. 

The same way you might get bored with your meal if it always was pasta, I wonder if we hinder excitement a little by not being at least a little adventurous with our styles.  God is a God of diversity, and if we go back to our analogy in Part I, you can catch more fish with some variety of bait.  Granted, you must use the bait that catches the fish where’s your fishing, but there is nothing wrong with trying a different kind every once in a while!  You might start catching a different kind of fish!  Perhaps that would need to be in a separate meeting, just for youth, or twenty-somethings, but it’s something I hope you might pray over and bring to your Pastor or Music Minister.  It could also give a whole new group of talented people an opportunity to minister.

In our church we have the Christ Tabernacle Choir, a Spanish Choir, a Youth Choir, and a Contemporary Worship Team, all to target a certain audience.  Paul did it to win as many as he could.  Jesus ministered to Nicodemus very differently than he did the woman at the well.  I’m sure as you pray God will show you new ways to reach those in the vineyard he has placed you. 

Next time, we’ll move on to the second big quality found in Ezekiel 1, Unity.  Keep those comments coming, and if this is a blessing to you, share this blog with your music minister friends, and encourage them to subscribe to our RSS feed.  Just click on the orange icon on the main page.  I will be far more regular now that the holiday’s are over.

Also, check out our new recording ‘Change The Atmosphere’ available on this site.