Music Ministry Core Value 3

MISSIONS MINDED over CONSUMERISTIC THINKING Our singing each Lord’s Day, rightly understood and rightly applied, fuels us for great commission ministry. The ministry of music includes an aspect of serving one another by reminding ourselves and others of big, eternal truths. The congregation instructs one another concerning the eternal truths of the gospel of Jesus and God’s Word when we sing. Colossians 1:28 instructs, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ”. Matthew 5:48 requires, “You therefore must be perfect (MATURE), as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [1]  Part of the way we grow and mature in Christ is by rejecting consumerism and embracing the biblical discipline of corporate worship. Members and members in process need an avenue to serve the body of Christ. This is part of what we promise to do when we covenant together in membership. Covenant membership means we serve one another rather than wait to be served. The local church is the visible representation of the universal (catholic) church. We are an outpost of God’s Kingdom, an embassy of heaven.

Practical Application Consumerism come naturally to us. In fact, it is the waters we swim in as an entire culture. Buy now, pay later! You deserve a dream vacation at a five-star resort. Credit card debt is called debtor’s prison. If we are to resist a consumeristic mindset and practice when we gather, it will be hard fought and hard won. We will not accidentally resist consumerism and unintentionally adopt a mission-minded approach. Our default by nature is to take rather than give. When we are tempted to complain about what we don’t like or not getting what we really prefer, that is a practical sign that we are thinking as a consumer. The practical question we should be asking is whether we are glorifying God through our worship.

[1] Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
1 Corinthians 2:6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
Philippians 3:15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Colossians 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
James 1:4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.