“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:16-17)
As Christians mature in life, they have the wonderful opportunity to grow in wisdom, helping many others along the way.
With that aging process, though, comes the threat of embracing the lie that the specific manner of how they express faith is the official way to express faith.
Particularly in the realm of worship.
More specifically with worship music.
We’ve all heard the horror stories of churches splitting over music style in worship.
If there’s not a split, there are at least many who look for a more traditional church because they don’t like the style of music or the dress of who is playing and singing.
Though this happens thousands of times annually across the country, this is not God’s desire, I’m convinced.
This sort of situation reminds me of a family driving down the road in the days before portable music devices and headphones. Dad would want to listen to twangy Country music, Mom would want to listen to some breezy romantic stuff and the kids would want to hear to slam-beat rock and roll.
Perhaps there would be compromises, but there would never a time when everybody got what they wanted.
They simply made the decision that hearing the music they liked some of the time was OK if it meant being with the people they loved ALL of the time.
It really is a matter which do we love more.
Our mutual interests of being together?
Or my personal interest of getting exactly what I want?
In the church, preferences should never trump God’s mandate for unity, regardless of who happens to be planning the worship service.
Remember, love always protects, according to I Corinthians 13.
That means, because I love the Church, I will protect her by not projecting my worship tastes as the official definition of worship. And I will also encourage those in worship leadership to recognize and integrate various music formats within the worship plan.
After all, what is the purpose of worship? To have everybody listen to our playlist? Of course not. We are to be focused first and foremost on offering prayer lyrics to God that are set to music that enhances the impartation of our hearts’ songs.
It is WAY more important that we focus on if the worship songs acknowledge who God is and why we appreciate Him so.
Simply stated, does HE like the words He’s hearing?
Remember, worship is to be a mission, not a diversion.
If this is not our primary concern during worship, then we have work to do in better understanding Matthew 6:33.
This topic is not new on the discussion list, of course. I recall these conversations occurring 40 years ago in churches I attended.
The idea of new wineskins vs. old wineskins has been around since the days of Jesus.
Please join me in resisting the innate human tendency to become an inflexible old wineskin who doesn’t like change because it requires stretching.
Understand that the best way to become flexible and to remain flexible is to welcome “new wine” into our lives as long as the new ministry methods or new music selections or new style of presentation are each true to the timeless, unchanging Word of God. As always, I love you Martin
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