Reading Response

The understanding of music in the church is important to any believer. For worship, through music, to be what God intended it to be, one must understand the important role of music and how to biblically apply it to a service. The Bible, however, does not give strict guidelines on this matter. Therefore, the church must interrupt what the Bible does say about worship into their routine. The issues discussed in the chapters to follow are the author’s position of issues within the church. This conviction will then be examined by the Bible and discussed.

Part three of the book discusses the modern day issues churches face with worship. Chapter sixteen brings to light the issue of compensation for the musicians. The author gives illustrations of both a paid and unpaid music leader. Most churches do not have a luxury of a full time musician. The book brings up an excellent in the way that God structured Israel in the Old Testament. The Levites did not have to paid for anything because there role was to lead the nation spiritually. The other eleven tribes were to provide for the Levites. This would allow the Levites to solely focus on leading the nation. The problem within churches today is that the congregation does not always have faithful tithes and offerings. This puts churches in tight positions forcing them not to be able to pay for full time staff. The Bible and the author both give a good defense in support of more “professional” musicians.

Chapter 20 discussed the issue of the organ. Paul Jones discussed the declining use of the real pipe organ and other true instruments. They are being replaced by electronic keyboards that are far less expensive for churches but one can sense Jones is not in favor. He giv...

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...act, these topics were just as much for small churches to structure the music program after. The issue I see in this, though, is each church is different and there are different needs to each one. He said that one should hire a part time director but even that may not be affordable to a lot of churches. Some churches may be able to but other do not and its important to figure out what one’s church needs.

` These topics are good things to review within a church. I believe it is important to continue reviewing them to make sure the church is staying on course with its mission. Each time the church reviews these issues though they should look to make proper adjustment where it is needed. Jones wrote a interesting book on music within the church and its role. From a general stand point this practices are biblical and have good structure for the music department.