It’s very easy to go through the motions of a church service and not think about what you’re doing or why you’re doing it. For the next couple of Ministry Mondays, I will be highlighting a few common practices for ministry typically done by women in Independent Baptist churches, explaining the purpose and how to perform each practice biblically.

Many churches have a song performed during their offering. Some churches have singers give a song during this time, but most churches will play an instrumental. Many church members assume this song is performed simply to pass the time as the offering plates are passed, but the offertory serves a very special place in the worship service.

God speaks of music over 1100 times in the Bible: He commanded that instruments be used in the temple as a form of worship, the kings of Israel often used music to soothe or in battle to “fire up” the armies in celebration of victory. The church was even commanded to use music as a form of edification in Colossians 3:16. It says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Music always serves a purpose, although not always a biblical one. For a musician, it’s a physical outpouring of a feeling and the conveying of a specific message. While other members of the church are offering their finances, the musician is offering their talent and their heart to God in the form of worship. Their song is their offering in those few minutes. A musician is able to speak worship to God in a way that words cannot. A musician is able to edify their fellow church members through song, giving a message that would never be accepted in any other form. Music literally speaks feelings and thoughts into the hearers.

A successful offertory requires more than a musician and a song. You must have:

1. A Godly Musician — The most beautiful song in the world played by the most talented musician alive would be a stench to God if the person playing that song is not living out a Christian life when they’re away from their instrument. God requires holiness for an offering to be acceptable. To have a successful offertory, the musician must pray about their offering of a song. They must live out the honor they’re giving God in that song in their personal lives, too. You can see so many times in the Psalms when David would use his song as a testimony of what God was doing in his life. He never approached God with music pridefully: he was always humble in his psalms, despite being a skilled musician. If the psalmist boasted, it was always of God’s victories and God’s abilities. God will only accept the offertory given through the humble heart of the musician.
2. A Purpose-filled Song — It can be simple, it can be intricate, it can be played by a novice or an expert, but the song must be written and performed for the purpose of serving Christ. Songs that don’t have a good message will never work in a worshipful moment. It only brings those listening to the song down. I once heard a young woman who may have meant well play a version of The Entertainer during the offertory. It served no honoring purpose and did not promote worship in that service. A musician must be willing to practice the song chosen: it requires time and commitment to produce a successful offertory. Devotion to God’s service always requires time and commitment.
3. A Willing Listener — If you’re not the musician, you still have a part in making an offertory successful. If the song played is the worship offering a musician gives to the Lord, do you really think you should be chit-chatting about what’s for lunch after the service during this time? If you were in the presence of a king who was receiving an official, ceremonial gift from a foreign dignitary, would you interrupt the giver to ask where your friend who’s normally there is today? Absolutely not! A church member should be using the offertory time to pray & ask God to prepare their hearts for the message, they should be thinking about the message of the song being played, and they should allow the song to move their hearts towards God. A person simply cannot listen and talk at the same time. If songs, psalms, and hymns are commanded to the church in Colossians, don’t you think it matters to God that we listen to the songs in His church?

Isaiah 38: 20 tells us, “The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.” We play music because the Lord has saved us and provided us with the talent to do so. May every musician who has been gifted with the ability to play an instrument “sing” their songs to God all the days of their life.

Love, Meghan