Worship involves reverently entering into the presence and fellowship of God in order to exalt His worthiness. It is a sacred experience of His all-sufficiency for our insufficiency.
Therefore our Worship Service is not an audience observing, but a congregation actually participating.
Psalm 96:8-9 “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
The reverent worship of God through singing weans us away from the world and encourages us to obey the Word of God!
Fellowship Baptist Church follows the Biblical guidelines concerning the music used in our Worship of our Precious Lord.
We practice:
1. The Principle of Replacement.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
We are to flee the world, it’s wisdom, and it’s works! 1 Timothy 6:11, James 3:15-17, Gal 5:19-23
2. The Principle of Rejoicing:
Isaiah 65:14 “Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart …”
The most vital aspect of music is it’s message . Properly rejoicing depends on the content of what we rejoice in which must be Scriptural. We rejoice in the Lord and His qualities of holiness, power, and mercy, the honor of His name and His faithfulness.
Music must be presented to the Lord in a manner that exalts the message rather than the music.
Psalm 96:1 “O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. 2 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day.”
3. The Principle of Righteousness:
Our goals in our Church’s music are:
a. worship and fellowship. (Eph. 5:19-20)
b. teaching and training (Col. 3 16)
c. evangelism (Acts 16:25).
Church music is not about entertainment and stirring emotions. It is about God’s glory and God’s message!
We stand against using contemporary music in worship because it ignores carnality and often embraces the world indiscriminately. The artists often make God the hero who meets felt needs and ignore the doctrines of repentance, and place more emphasis on what is happening outside instead of what God is doing on the inside.
There is much confusion today concerning the ministry of music because of trends in our society. New Evangelicalism is sadly making inroads into Churches through music. You will rarely find a quality Church in our culture without quality music.
* excerpts from H. Joseph Miller, Building the Church p. 261-269
* all Scripture references are from the King James Version