I am the Director of Worship and Arts at Redeemer and would like to
clarify a few items. It is true that we pay our musicians, even when
they are members. It is an act of love and respect to recompense those
who have extensive training and professional experience, just as many
churches pay their pastors and other staff. One post says that paying
musicians "renders that part of the service a performance." Does that
mean that all preachers who are paid are "performing" when they preach?
In fact, it is amateurs who face greater temptation to focus on their
own performance when musically involved in worship because it is out of
the realm of their usual experience. Our musicians are encouraged to
volunteer in many ways and are deeply in involved in mercy ministry
throughout the city, but when they use the gifts that they have
developed over many years in high-level training, and that constitutes
their sole way of making a living, we pay them.
Other posts express concern about the participation of non-Christians,
one saying that they were told the jazz soloist at a service they
attended was not a believer. It is our firm policy to only use
Christians as soloists and song leaders in our services and I am not
aware of any instance that we have violated that policy. On occasion,
non-Christian instrumentalists who are close friends of the Christian
musicians are invited to participate in an orchestra or band. I
recognize that some churches oppose that practice. It is too much to
explain in a nuanced way in this forum, so I will simply say that there
is no clear biblical injunction against doing so.
Several seem bothered that the music met professional standards ("I'm
sure NY has other venues to hear jazz and classical...") or that it
reminded them of being at a night club. Good! I'm glad the music didn't
sound bad. Psalm 33:3 commands us to play skillfully and I Cor. 14:15
commands engagement of the intellect in music. Christians use the same
instruments and harmonic system as heathens. The worship of Almighty God
demands our best efforts - not to earn his favor, but because we have
received it - and we should not define "skillfully" by the least common
denominator. I'll not apologize if people confuse our church music with
the best of what is being offered around New York.
There were several complaints about the participation of women in
worship. I won't dive in those waters, but I will correct one assertion
by Scott1 - "the deacon list in the bulletin contained no men names." I
am looking at that list from our bulletin right now. Here are some of
the names - Andrew, Jason, Greg, Brian, Tony, Roger, Emmanuel, Bill,
Kaleb, Sal, Lee.
Finally, I would like to say that Redeemer has a website that publically
lists the names of staff with e-mail addresses and phone numbers. I
always reply to e-mails,
[email protected]. There is no need to
publically post assumptions about our worship philosophy.
Dr. Tom Jennings
Director of Worship and Arts
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
New York, NY
