Principle Four of Music And The Worshiping Church by Harold Best

This week on worship.vintage21.com, we’re looking at five principles of music making in a worshiping church, from Harold Best’s Music Through The Eyes Of Faith.

Principle Four: The integration of mind and spirit make for the best music.

“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.”
- 1 Corinthians 14:14-15

“From this, we can gather that music making that comes about in the midst of frenzy or ecstasy or any situation in which ‘spirit’ is preeminent is not fully valuable until the mind is equally involved.”
- Harold Best, page 186

Amen to that statement. And before we swing that pendulum away from music making in the midst of any situation in which ‘spirit’ is preeminent, the same could be said of making music in which the mind is preeminent and the spirit is not engaged; it’s not fully valuable either. This principle reminds me of the human tendency to put a stake in the ground. As beings whose greatest sin is pride, which boils down to ourselves, we constantly take a stand, puff out our chests, and declare this to be “the right way, the only way.” Even those whose stand is pluralism, equality, or progressive thought have taken their stand there, thus negating the principles upon which they’re standing. This is found in the church, and perhaps nowhere more passionately than in dealing with methodology of worship. Many people have stories of growing up in a church where “Spirit-led” was the guiding principle behind everything, and they have now moved towards a highly intellectual, traditional service where the Spirit is not consulted, but instead relegated to the one oddball man in the back who closes his eyes and smiles when he sings. The opposite is also found – someone grew up in a traditional church they would describe as “dead”, and now following Jesus they are drawn to a church where they have freedom to worship, but there is not a high view of Scripture, and they do not “sing with my mind also” (1 Cor. 14:15).

Without humility, which is the exalting of God, love for others and diminishing of ourselves, we will gain no ground. Our flags are planted, our arms are crossed, and we’ve dug in for the long haul. This is a mistake, since the issue often boils down to preference or reactionary pride. Chances are our preferences will change, and our reactions will diminish in passion. Instead, we must base our methods upon scripture, which does not change, and all who humbly seek the Lord and study scripture realize our understanding and knowledge grows as God refines and renews us. We are at the mercy of God’s grace, and knowing this allows us to walk in humility with one another, instead of pointing fingers and rolling our eyes.
Where methodological freedom is found, let us look to our church fathers, realizing they too were seeking to achieve this balance and that the pendulum swung in their congregations as well. Walk humbly, consider those who have walked in wisdom before us, and do negate the call of Jesus to love God and love our neighbor in the process.