This is an excerpt from a PDF download. To download the full text of this document click: A Musical Vision and Goal.
It is easy for church music ministries to be self-perpetuating, to go from week to week, season to season, year to year, recruiting, rehearsing, and singing. Many churches do this with excellence and success. Emory UMC in Washington, D.C. has taken a different path.
Minister of Music, Gheran Goddard, affirms on the church’s website one of the church’s goals for worship and music: "We love to come together to praise God, to learn from the Word, and to be moved by the Holy Ghost. We invite you to feel the love of God through one of our worship experiences." Thus, worship and music 1) are corporate, 2) are in praise of God, 3) promote learning, and 4) are an encounter with the love of God through the moving of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of music has set a clear path to these ends.
Last year Pastor Joe Daniels cast a new and challenging vision for the music ministry to achieve these goals, and it has been taken up enthusiastically by the church’s musicians. Pastor Daniels called for "the overall goal of the music ministry to lead people into worship with uplifting musical praise. We accomplish this through both instrumental and vocal music."
Mr. Goddard implements this vision by leading the church’s vocal and instrumental groups, not only in musical performance, but through his "calling to direct people closer to Jesus through song, praise and worship." He says, "I will reach out to those who have been called to be a part of the music ministry by training through singing and musical instruments. I understand that singers are trained to be Levitical Priests to lead the congregation in transformative worship."
Thus, the vision for music ministry at Emory UMC is much more than mere excellence in performance. It is also fostering and answering a call to serving in music ministry which includes training and study, living spiritually disciplined lives and leading inspired, transformative worship.
Some Questions for Discussion
Dean McIntyre is the Director of Music Resources at the Discipleship Ministries. He can be reached at [email protected] .
In 2007 church leaders throughout The United Methodist Church in the U.S. were invited to identify churches that demonstrated the vision of discipleship described in the twelfth chapter of Romans. Over 200 churches were surveyed or visited. Issue #31. © 2009 Discipleship Ministries. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to copy this page for use in United Methodist congregations.
View staff by program area to ask for additional assistance.