Words bear meaning, the use of words also convey meaning. We know what it “effective” means when someone uses that word; for example, this bus service often runs on schedule and is an effective service to get to destination in good time. However, words such as “effective” are not usually used for a worship service, which is a sacrifice to our God.
submission
Worship is the entirety of our life. When we “come near” to God to worship him, we don’t mean other times we are far away from, or even forget about, God.
Music discipleship is similar to discipleship. Music discipleship is the outworking of our faith in music worship. The best word to describe this, and to coin as broad and full meaning as possible, is “submission” to God.
In submission to God, all that we do, have and are, is no longer about us; we owe everything to God.
All that we have and do in music worship is a response to God giving himself for us to save us, and as recognition of his giving us gifts, talents and commitment in music worship.
Tension in submission: that is a reality. We cannot help question how much and to what extent am I submitting to God? It sounds like I lose myself?
discovery
What we get with submitting ourselves to God is a journey of discovery about God, but also about ourselves. We discover about ourselves in what God desires us to be. It is more than “letting go” (and “let God”); submission is a deliberate, total handing over of ourselves on the condition that we will discover the fullness of who we are. This is personal “we”, but also the “we” of creation – the world / universe, the physical properties and the “systems”, and the kinds of “selection” of the tiniest element in the universe which are not random nor accidental, but follows the plan and design of God.
fulfilment
The tension in letting go does not come easy; with the discovery of submission come the fulfilment of knowing God. That knowing does not (all) come from talking about it, reading from books, watching videos on the topic etc. It might feel like the end of a long journey of struggle – not sure what the struggle had been about, in comparison to the fulfilment that God gives us when we fully rest in him.
Submission is not passive. Discovery is not passive. Fulfilment is not passive. In each, we make the decision to accept and move on to eagerly expect God to reveal himself.
Music discipleship takes us through such a journey of discovery about God, ourselves, and his calling on us in music worship. It is not a passive activity, or something part-time, it requires “all of it” of ourselves. It has a structure – a syllabus, either musical technique, or faith, that envelopes why we play music and sing hymns, songs and poems.
Discipleship is done in the companionship with others, including our leaders, or mentors, and we are all led by Jesus. Music might still be something that is labour-intensive because there are times we need to practise. Sometimes this is due to our wanting to be perfect, other times we feel we could do better. Music discipleship is a community of musical practice: we make music together, we submit our gifts to God, in a collected way, because we love him.
glory
Glory is that which is beyond word. As musicians, we know what good music sounds like, and we know how it feels when together we make good music. We know in music worship, how “good” the music worship is, is not about how “polished” we are in making music – or how “effective”. The seed of “good” is our submission. This takes us to discovery, when we begin to see things God’s way; and to fulfilment, because we are in the presence of God, we could almost touch the greatness of God, and we feel what “glory” means.
It’s a very delicate process, fragile, un-manageable in the sense of the word “manage” since we are not the one managing it: we submit.
In a recent worship service, there was a great sense of submission to God – that individually and collectively we expect to meet God. The rehearsals were more about we coming together in our “bodies” and spirit – fellowship, rather than having to “rehearse”. The glory was in the submission of the congregation too in their worship, which is led by the worship team. We journeyed together and discovered more about God in that moment, to grow more like him.
What might a lack of submission look like? The limit of our earthly bodies and mental faculties prevent us from a Godly analysis of such a situation. However, at one level, where a member of the team had not maintained communication nor attended rehearsals, and yet came at the last moment to play their instruments or sing, will lack the “all of it” of their gift. They would be concentrating on doing the music correctly to flow with what others in the team were doing. Doing this, they were not worship God, and affected others in the team.
It is perhaps judgemental to categorise such a person as non-cooperative. In my journey of submission to God in this point in time, I could cope with leaving things as they were rather than wanting to know reasons; in any case none was given.
The team journeyed in our discovery of God for this occasion of music worship. The member who came at the last minute did not share in such a discovery nor fulfilment.
This harks back to the central point of music discipleship. We want to grow in Jesus, to know him more. In our music worship, we will reflect our relationship with Jesus. There will be all sorts of ups and downs in this journey: we are not alone, in submitting ourselves to God, he is the guide, he holds us in his hands.
