Our Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to serve in your work. And for those that you call to serve with us. Help us. All of us, Lord, to seek to please thee. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. The Lord has given me a lot of wonderful people to stand with me in this ministry. And I deeply appreciate all of them. And I want to say a special word of gratitude to Mike Fox and for what he does in helping me in so many ways. If you view him just as a music director, you're looking at the wrong way. He has taken the music responsibility of our church because I've asked him to do it, and he's done a magnificent job with it. I know he has some things to share with you. It's going to be a tremendous help and blessing to you. It's something he desires to do, and something he wants to be used of God to be a blessing to your lives in. And so you greet him, God bless him, listen to him, and let the Lord use him in this session as he talks to us. God bless you, Mike, as you come. Thank you, Pastor. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you, man. And I do want to help you. I do want to be a blessing to you. I'm a little bit frightened about the time I've been assigned to speak. Not how much time, but when. My wife was saying to me last night as we were getting ready to go to bed, honey, Pastor must have great confidence in your speaking ability because he's placed you just before lunch. And for a bunch of Baptist preachers to listen to anybody just before lunch, So I don't know if that's what it is, but I'm looking forward to sharing these things with you, and I want to be a blessing to you. You know, in churches that I have any experience in and men that I've met, the way they treat music seems to come down on two sides, two extremes. In some churches, music is a necessary evil. It's just something to get out of the way and to be done with as quickly as possible, and then let's get to the preaching. In other churches, music is the main object. I just heard of a church in our city, just a few days ago, that has very frequently a 45-minute music program and 15 minutes of preaching. Now, to me, that's the ultimate cart before the horse. And that's evidence of some things that need to be straightened out. But there is a place for Christian music, and there's a very important place for Christian music. The pastor has spent, as he has with many of the men, all the men, folks that work here, a great deal of time imparting his heart and giving his life to us and being very patient with us and giving us an opportunity. I consider it a privilege, and I know Brother Matt does and Brother Rosser and any of the men that have been helping and the ladies as well, to serve wherever we can in this ministry. And it is a great privilege. Let me say a couple of things to begin with, then we'll get right into the notes. Every biblical incidence of music that I've been able to find is always preparatory. It's always preparatory. It's never the main thing. It's always preparatory. It's preparatory to instruction from God. It's preparatory to the preaching of God's Word, the sharing of God's Word, the teaching of the principles of God's Word. It's preparatory. That means it sets the table. It readies the heart. It sets the atmosphere, if I could use that word. And so, as such, it is very, very important. And my way of thinking that if you're going to train a man for the music ministry, there's no one better to train somebody than a man who is in local church ministry. Musicians cannot train ministers. Ministers must train ministers. And you may find yourself in any one of three categories or three places today. For one thing, you may be yourself trying to train a man who's a layperson. And the things that I want to share with you today would be good for you to help him to see that he learns these things. You may be sending a man away to train somewhere in a good school. And if you are, you ought to see that he is learning these things. And you may find yourself in a position of hiring a man or bringing a man into work in your ministry, and you ought to see that he has learned these things. And as I said, I'll make mention of several of these things. Most of these things are things that pastors help me with, has trained me. I remember a phone conversation almost 11 years ago. In fact, it may have been over 11 years ago after pastor had accepted the call to come here and be our pastor. The gentleman who had been doing our music was a layperson for many years and was being transferred to another city. And the pastor called and I got on the phone with him and he said, I want you for the time being to take the music and help me with the music ministry. And I said, Pastor, I'll do anything you want, but you need to know that I don't know one thing about this. And he said, well, the Lord will help you. I've heard those words a lot since then. But he said, the Lord will help you, and he has. And pastor's been a great help. He's been used to the Lord to impart some things to my life, and I want to share those things with you. You see, I have written there that to be the greatest help to his pastor that he can, the local church music director should be trained to, and I've listed a number of things. I want to say this almost as a disclaimer. I've not accomplished all these things, but I'm working on them. I haven't attained, but I'm in that direction. And I'm sure you can say that about a lot of things in your own life. The first thing is that he ought to be trained to honor Christ, encourage the pastor, and be a blessing to the people. Now, how should he be trained to do that? First of all, he ought to be trained to give his first loyalty to his pastor. Not to where he was trained. And that includes Crown College. When a student leaves here and goes and serves in a church, his first loyalty ought to be that pastor. Now, we want him to come back here. We want him to think the right things. We want him to be able to recommend students here and hope that he will, and I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be able to. But his first loyalty, if we're going to be a local church, if we're going to be local church people, then our first loyalty has to be to the pastor of our local church. And he'll honor Christ, he'll encourage the pastor, he'll be a blessing to the people to the degree that his loyalty is with his pastor. Then secondly, he ought to be trained to be a servant, not a professional, and a staff member, not a musician. Oftentimes, in schools and places where people are trained, they're sent out to be a specialist. And in very few ministries do you have room to be a specialist. We'll talk about it in a few moments. But he needs to be trained to be a servant. He needs to be trained to be a staff member. And then he needs to be accessible and open to the people. As much as possible, if folks come to us and say, you know, I'd like to hear that song again, we do that song because we want to be a blessing to the people. And if the pastor wants to hear something, we'll sing it again. We want to be accessible. We don't have an agenda. You know, we're not trying to change the musical taste of our people. All of that is the responsibility of the pastor. Then secondly, he ought to be trained to know that he is there to extend the ministry of the pastor. And of course, an important way of doing that is to allow the pastor to be the pastor of the choir. When the pastor comes into a choir practice, he ought to feel like he is on his turf. Nowhere in the church should the pastor have to walk in and wonder if he's welcomed in that room. And in too many places, it's not that way. And it ought to be that way. And you only help yourself, gentlemen, when you train someone. And don't think that's supposing anything or presuming anything. That's the pastor's responsibility, and that's the pastor's privilege. And so he ought to be trained that way. And then I've got written there as well, he ought to realize that the pastor should know what music honors God and fuels preaching. Now there's two prongs here. First of all, It's a pastor's duty to know what music honors Christ. And oftentimes, pastors say, listen, that's just something I don't know anything about. I'll let him handle it. That's the wrong attitude to take. You're going to reap a harvest where you place an emphasis. If you ignore a ministry, you're going to harvest ignorance in that ministry. You're going to harvest an I don't care attitude. Or worse than that, somebody else is going to fill that vacuum, and you're going to lose the opportunity to lead in that ministry. And so that's one prong. The other thing is that a pastor should not feel that just because he doesn't know the technical aspects of music that he doesn't know music. You ought to know what music, you know what music helps you preach. There are certain songs that you hear that even before you're done hearing that song, you're ready to race to the pulpit and deliver what God's given you. There's other songs and types of music that when you hear them, it's almost like you have to resurrect the service. And so that's your duty to know that. It's your duty. And by the way, most music directors want to know that. They want their pastor to share that. So don't shy away from that. Tell him that. He wants to know that. He wants to be helped. And then thirdly, under number two, he has to be willing to be a team player. He has to be willing to be a team player. And that means if you've got something in the youth ministry that needs to be done, he ought to be willing to do it. If everyone's getting together and they're renovating the auditorium, he's a part of it. You know, there's no magic wall because he's a musician and he can't pick up a hammer or a saw or a shovel. You see? He has to be a team player. And a lot of these things, in some places, you don't catch in the classroom. And so he has to be trained. And oftentimes, pastors will take a youth director, or they'll take a children's director, and they won't feel any shyness at all about training them and how they want them to execute their ministry. But for some reason with a music director, sometimes people just want to step back and say, well, you know, he knows more about this than you do. No, he doesn't. You're the pastor of the church. God's called you there. He's given you the burden. and take that leadership. He wants to be led in most cases, and if he doesn't, you'll find that out, and then it's something else you have to deal with. But he's there to extend the ministry of the pastor. Now, get what that means. That means that he's there to do nothing more than to walk where you can't walk and reach where you can't reach. He's not to have his own ministry. I don't have a music ministry. Brother Scott doesn't have a youth ministry. Brother Matt doesn't have an evangelism ministry. These are ministries that God has given our pastor, and we're privileged to extend those ministries, to do what he cannot do. And then I've got written down there to serve an internship of at least a semester in a local church ministry. And of course, that pertains to someone who's in college more than anything else. I think that someone that's in college learns a great deal in the classroom, but you don't learn to serve in a local church ministry unless you're serving in a local church ministry. The men that teach here in the college do a wonderful job of imparting experience, but a great deal of experience you have to get on your own. And so you need to be in the battle. You need to be tested in the fire. And so it's a very important thing. Then thirdly, he has to learn to work with the pastor. That's a very simple statement. It doesn't mean that he has to learn to be able to stand the pastor. It means he has to learn how to work with the pastor. He has to learn to work with the pastor by studying his manner. And you ought to speak to the man, whether he's a lay person or whether someone who's academically trained or whatever the status of the man is. You ought to tell him, and not be shy about it, that he ought to watch you and learn how you want to conduct the services. And the only way that that can happen, truly, is by you leaning on him. I can remember many times, and still happens sometimes, a pastor would ask me to do something on the platform that I wasn't expecting and would be caught short just for a moment or two at it. What that did is that allowed me to know, hey, he may call on me. And so what I wanted to do was to be more alert. And a music director's focus during the service until the preaching begins ought to be on his pastor and whatever he wants, whatever he feels comfortable with. And things like that have been shared with me. And you shouldn't feel bad. God's put something on your heart. You want to deliver it. You're ready to preach. Most of you, as soon as you sing the first hymn, you'd be ready to mount the platform with a pulpit and preach. You're ready to go. But it'd be so helpful for someone, as much as possible, to take the distractions from you so that you can focus your heart on preaching what God wants you to give. And so, needs to learn to work with a pastor. Then, to protect the platform. Protect the platform. Teach your music director that the platform is a sacred place. One thing that, I hate to refer to myself, but one thing that pastor has taught me to do, we try to make sure that the pulpit is not Grand Central Station before the service. And not everybody goes up there. I try to let the choir practice go in plenty of time so that people are off the platform so that before the service starts we don't see people all over the platform. And there becomes an air of expectancy. Something's going to happen up there that's out of the ordinary. It's not a mystic thing. It's just setting a place apart. And so protect the platform. Oftentimes, folks want to speak to the pastor, and it's not that they don't care about what the pastor's thinking about. It's simply that they have something on their mind, and they want to deliver it, and they want to talk to the pastor, and there he is. Oftentimes, you can step to the bottom of the steps, if you're able to, and speak to them and relieve their mind of whatever it is. I'll give him that note. I'll tell him about it just after the service. And make sure you do those types of things. But learn to work with the pastor, and you ought to teach a man to work with you, to learn you. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing presumptive about that. Don't be afraid to say, well, he's the pastor. He thinks, no. No. God's given you a job to do. God's given you something to deliver. And so take advantage of the men that work for you and train them to be a help to you. All right? And then by allowing him the right to approve people and programs in confidence in advance. Don't allow him to stand on the platform and, well, you mean they can't sing? You know? That should never happen. It should never happen. The fact of the matter is that I've had to learn that oftentimes the pastor will know things about folks that you don't know. And you don't need to know, being a music director. You don't need to know. It's a burden you don't need to carry. But it's best, always best, to speak to him in private and have your music director ask you, is it alright if these folks sing? Is it alright if we do this song? And you'll build confidence in a music director by working it that way. And then by learning to stand in for the pastor without taking his place. When pastor's gone, our services are different. There's a certain something that's not there. And it's not there because he's not there. And whether Brother Rosser is on the platform to help me, or Brother Matt is on the platform to help me, or any of the other men, it's our responsibility to carry on the service and do the best we can, but I am not Clarence Sexton. And I'm not to be him. And I can stand in for him, but I'm not to take his place. For example, on Sunday night, a pastor has the children come and greet him. And I don't know who enjoys it more, they or he. But when he's not here, we don't do that type of thing. Because that's the pastor's privilege. You see? And so, teach a man to stand in for you without taking your place in people's hearts. And the fact of the matter is, they'll love him for taking his rightful place. See? So he has to learn to work with a pastor. Then fourthly, we need to hurry, he needs to know what the Bible teaches concerning Christ honoring music. He needs to learn the marks of Christ honoring music. It ought to be marked by praise. It ought to be marked by joy. It ought to be marked by the fact that it's centered on Jesus. It ought to be marked by the fact that it's truthful to the Scriptures and that it's spiritual. It ought to be marked by all those things. What's the purpose of Christ honoring music? Simply this, to glorify God. What is it to bring glory to God? It is to give a right opinion of who God is and what God is and what He's done for me. That's what it means to bring glory to God. To give a right opinion. Can we ever give a right opinion of God? Not fully. That's the beauty of the definition. I can't fully ever give a right opinion of God. Anything I can say, I can say more. Anything I can sing, I can sing more. Any praise I can give, I can always go far beyond that. You see? That's the purpose of Christ's Holy Music. Then the place of Christ's Holy Music is to be preparatory. It's to be preparatory. Alright, let's move on. You ought to know what the Bible teaches concerning Christ's running music and you ought to know that performance, the word performance, ought to have no place either in his philosophy or his vocabulary. Don't use the word philosophy. Excuse me, performance. Performance and ministry are two things in direct opposition to each other. They cannot coexist. It's a spirit, and it cannot coexist. And you have to train your people that way. You have to train the people that sing, the people that play. It's not performance, it's ministry. And when people get upset and show themselves, it's simply an indication that for them it's performance, it's not ministry. So he has to know that. And then he needs to learn the dangers and the snares of contemporary religious music. I don't call it contemporary Christian music because it's not. It's contemporary religious music. And some people may think that's just a matter of semantics, but it's really not. I think it's a surrender when you call it contemporary Christian music. It's not. It's religious music, but it's not Christian music. And by the way, that's not even half the battle. The danger is not contemporary Christian music. The danger is that we don't know what the true purpose of Christ's honoring music is, and what the marks of it are, and what the place of it is in our church. If we knew the truth, then we wouldn't be deceived by error. And a lot of that stuff wouldn't sneak into our churches. A lot of it sneaks into our churches because we don't know the truth. So he ought to know what the Bible teaches. And then fifthly there, he ought to know we ought to be trained to direct congregational singing. to direct congregational singing. I remember the first time I ever directed it. No one ever told me there was a 4-4 pattern, a 3-4 pattern, anything else like that. I just got up and I had rhythm and so, you know, every time we came to the first beat of a measure, I found my hand kept going down. And I said, this works. You know? And I learned to direct congregational music. And I can polish what skill I do have. But he ought to learn to direct it. Now look how. He ought to learn to direct it by first knowing and enjoying singing hymns and choruses himself. A fellow who feels that God wants to use him in the music ministry has got a problem if he doesn't sing. I don't mean sing well. I mean, if you just have a song in his heart. I like to sing. And it's an important thing. If a music director doesn't enjoy singing, your church isn't going to enjoy singing. It's just something to get through. See? He ought to learn to enjoy it. And then he ought to learn to direct it by using his voice, by using his countenance, by using his hand gestures. I remember when I first began leading the singing here, I'd do it with one hand. This hand was irretrievably attached to the pulpit. And this anchored me. And I mean, it was this. And I didn't move. I mean, no other muscle group in my body moved except from the shoulder down. I mean, that's what it was. And the pastor said, I'm not going to be satisfied until you're using both hands. Well, I remember the first service I started using both hands, and it was almost like you wore a plaid suit to church. You know, you just knew everybody was going to notice it. So I started using both hands, and I saw people start smiling. Well, when the chorus came, I went back to one hand. Then I went back to two hands. I thought, well, I'm going to dive in this water a little deeper, you know? And so I started using two hands. And he said, you just have to forget yourself. And I felt like saying, Preacher, you don't know how far I've forgotten myself already, you know? Some fellas in a congregational song-leading class, you have some fellas that really take to it. I mean, like ducks to water. And within two weeks, you know, they're doing the crusade thing, you know? And they're doing this stuff. And you know, you've got to say, now, wait a minute. Slow down. Stay with the rest of the class, you know? If that's Him, that's fine. If that's Him, that's fine. But He needs to learn with His voice, with His gestures, His hand gestures, and with His countenance. You need to enjoy it. There are some people in our church, just like there are in your church, that don't sing. They stand, but they don't sing. Very few. But I know who they are, and I don't look at them. I look at people that enjoy singing. We've got a gentleman in our church that's 91 years old, and just, as soon as we start singing, buddy, I mean, he tears loose all the way to the end. And whenever, you know, whenever I get distracted by something, I look at him. He helps me focus. You know? So, you ought to enjoy it. And then by choosing songs that are suitable and singable for the particular service. Now, let me say something that might help you here. Pastor taught me a long time ago to take a hymn book and to, in that hymn book, mark songs that are singable. And those are songs you open a service with. He said, sing songs that people can sing while they're looking for them. When we all get to heaven, people can sing the first verse while they're looking for it. you don't start a service with uh... you know the seven fold amen some people wanna you know they may know you know seven times amen but it's a little bit more difficult than that and then for example teaching uh... teacher song director that there are certain songs you always say for a second song last night we sang heaven came down and glory filled my soul well if you sing that first where do you go from there i mean you get everybody just at the end of that song we're gonna go Save it for last, see? And put thought into it. And pastors helped me so much with that, taught me so much about that. Then he ought to have a growing knowledge of church hymns. Of church hymnody or church hymns. And he ought to get some of these books on hymn stories. And what I found has helped me and been a blessing in my heart is I have a hymn book at home and oftentimes when I have my devotions, I'll just read four or five hymns after I read the Scripture. And one thing it does, that anchors me in these hymns. I don't need these praise choruses and all this fluff. There's enough good truth in these hymns to hold me over. And they haven't been worn out. So we ought to know that and you ought to teach those things to him. And then look on the second page there. He needs to learn, of course, to conduct groups and choirs. And by that, he ought to learn a simple... Now, some of these things pertain more to folks. Maybe that's a layperson in your church that you're training. Some of them would more pertain towards somebody that's a little further in a formal education. But he needs to refine a clear, a simple and clear pattern of rhythm. Be plain about the thing. I don't do a whole lot of fancy things. If the song's in 3-4, I'll beat it in 3-4. If it's in 4-4, I'll beat it in 4-4. And it really helps the choir. Oftentimes somebody can get so elaborate in their gestures in front of the choir that you just confuse the choir. And I'm a simple person, I like to keep it simple. And it seems to be a help. So, a simple, clear pattern. And then, in private practice. Encourage your music director to practice privately. Have him take his choir music, if it's in 4-4, have him beat the whole song. Just tell him to sit down and practice. And by the way, give him time to do those things. And expect that he's going to need that time. So that'll help. And then by working with smaller groups, oftentimes you can train somebody in congregational singing in a Sunday school class. And first of all, let them get up and be used to people hearing their voice. And then get them to begin using hand gestures and other things, and ease them into it, and use that as an area to train them. And then he can learn to read choral music. I'm going to tell you something that a lot of people in different schools would just stand up and go nuts over, but you know, that is not a necessity. That is not a necessity. That's a good thing, and over the past 10 years I've learned to read music to a large degree, but it is not a necessity. Oftentimes in places that prepare people for ministry and teach music, they teach it as an art, not as a ministry. And so they teach technique, they teach performance, then they try to teach ministry at the end. It ought to be the other way around. A man ought to have a heart for the ministry. Once he has a heart for the ministry and a real desire to help a pastor, then secondly on that you can build skill. But it's like adding to your virtue knowledge. You see, it's first things first. And sometimes it's turned around backwards. And that's why I think that colleges that are attached to local church ministries have such an advantage in training people for the ministry. Because not only do I have to learn it, but every Sunday, every Wednesday, I have to go back in and practice what I'm teaching. And it keeps you accountable. So that's a great help. So reading choral music, Those are some things there that'd be helpful to you. Then, learning to work with an accompanist. Oftentimes, you have to remember that people that are accompanists, they're doing it out of love for the Lord, and love for the ministry, and a love for music. And one of the things you can do to learn, to really build an appreciation with your accompanist, is give them ample time to learn music. Just don't give music and say, okay, now tonight we're going to go over that. You'll have it, won't you? Give them time to learn that. And then, set aside a scheduled time to work with them. uh... people who now often times accompanist are are trained to lead an accompanist ought to follow the song director now you can't and a music director cannot hold an accompanist to that if they're not willing to spend time with them working on music here wait a minute let me do that without you let me show you what i want now follow me here and when you do that you're training them to follow you throughout the service so learn to work with them and then Learn to conduct effective rehearsals. Gotta learn to conduct an effective rehearsal. And this is something that's, I don't know that it's difficult, but it seems to be a besetting thing with a lot of music directors. You need people that do have formal training. How do I run a rehearsal? How do I teach music to a choir? You teach it using, going from the known to the unknown. For example, take a piece of music. If you sing a song, whatever the song is, you have to know the rhythm of the song. Whatever voice part you sing, you have to learn the rhythm. So teach the rhythm first. Get the whole choir to learn how the song goes. Then break the song up into four or five different parts and master each part. Then put the parts together and you've got the song. And anytime you have a big job or something looks daunting, break the thing down into manageable parts. That's one way you can do that. Schedule weekly time to study the music. And you know, we're busy here, and it's a challenge to me to set aside time every week to sit down with a choir music for Sunday. And I can tell on weeks I haven't set that time aside. And by the way, after a while the choir can tell. Set time aside, if it's that important. Oftentimes we talk about how important the music ministry is, but then we allow everything else in the church to cut it up and take it different places as far as time, people, resources. If it's as important to you and your preaching as you say it is and as you know it is in your heart, then what we need to do is give it the time, give it the resources, give it the people that it deserves. See? And he needs to learn to conduct effective rehearsals. Set goals. For example, if your man gets a piece of music, then we're going to learn this sometime. Well, you'll never learn it. We're going to sing this on August the 8th. Set yourself a date. Work towards that date. You may sing it August the 15th, but that's a whole lot of weeks sooner than you would if you hadn't set yourself a date. So, work that way. Then, learn how to teach new music, which I've told you there. We talked about just a moment. And then something I think is very important, learn how to pace the rehearsal. Learn how to pace the rehearsal. In other words, start with a song you know the choir really likes. Get their interest up in it. Then right after that, maybe substitute something in it that maybe is not their favorite thing to sing. And then maybe do something that's a little faster, that's got a little bit more life to it. But vary it. putting all the putting all that we will be these four songs you're gonna love these four songs well then you wear them out at the end of the rehearsal you gotta do your music for wednesday night that you've done before you music for sunday that you've done before and it grows difficult because then they're tired and you gotta realize that and pastor you have to realize this too that uh... uh... a choir has practiced from four thirty to five thirty and practicing just sitting there it's a physical exercise and you're tired your voice is tired and so uh... need to plan the thing to give a period of rest before the service starts if you want to be ready to go to be a help in the service and then ten very quickly help in the search for new music that speaks to the heart and fuels preaching first of all by learning to appreciate what god blesses in the past there is an entire generation of music that i grew up hearing choir sing when i was a child that's been put away and not used for twenty five years and it can be used and it can be used well. I'm trying to find a song, trying to find an arrangement of a song that I remember when I was about an eight-year-old boy called Remind Me, Dear Lord. And some of you remember that song. When's the last time you heard it sung? It's a wonderful song. And somebody needs to rearrange the thing and put it back into use. But music like that. Then, he needs to know what criteria that the music needs to meet. You know, one of the criterias of music today that you need to discuss with somebody is the association. A good song can be spoiled by its association. There are several wonderful songs I used to like to sing, but they were made popular by a man who's chosen to ally himself with people who are destroying local church ministries. And so, you have to put those songs away. Good song, yes, but every time you sing it, somebody associates it with that. And oftentimes people can say, man, that's a good song. I love that song. Well, you may love that song, but it may do more damage than it does good. And so you need to be discerning about that. And then ask the pastor. Pastors, you get into other churches. Brother Cruz and I were speaking this morning at breakfast, and he said oftentimes he'll get into churches and hear a song, and he'll write it down, and he'll call back to his secretary and say, I need to find this song. And so you can be a help to your music director. When you go out and preach somewhere, listen to the music. If it's something that's a blessing, take it back. And then use choral music preview services. And again, Brother Cruz and I talked about this. There are several of them. They cost somewhere between $35 and $50 a year to be involved in. If you find two or three good songs, they're worth the money you've spent. A lot of times, you just have to take the whole box and throw it in the trash. Because what they do is they market. They want to catch everything that calls itself Christian. So they have to water it down doctrinally and rhythmically and everything so that they can try to please everybody. Well, if they do that, they're not going to please us. Every now and then, every blind hog finds an acorn. So you need to look at those things, and they're worthwhile. And then learn which composers and publishers are trustworthy. There are some you can't trust. You might as well just not even look at their music. There are some that you can. And they are trustworthy. Write good music. And then asking other people that you know. Maybe you have a music director that was raised in another church. Have him go back to that church, find music they use. Say, I can do that. That'd be a help to you. And then number 11, quickly see that the Christian school music program is aimed at church ministry, not academic competition. Now look, the way you do that is you train your teachers. Too many of them have been trained in a place. All they want to do is produce little puppets to go back there. That's not what you want. The end of the Christian school music program ought to be that any music performed in that school can be performed to your services and be a blessing. And if it doesn't fuel your preaching, if you can't get up and preach after that, it ought not be taught in the school. Now, the state associations may not like that. Well, they need to have their minds changed about it because they're wrong. See? They get in a cart before the horse. And the church gave birth to the Christian school movement, not the other way around. And everything that's done in the Christian school that trains young people ought to be able to be used in the local church. Train the teachers. Approve only music that fits in the services of your church. If you have to, you approve the music. Take the time to look at it. Have someone play it for you. Use the groups in the chapel services. Y'all don't have a music group in your Christian school just to perform at a competition. They ought to minister in your chapel services. And that'll help your kids. by planning for the groups to sing and play in the church services, by using children whose families attend your local church. And that's an important thing. Get them involved. Listen, we want to do everything in Temple Baptist Academy we can for every student that attends that school. But I'm going to tell you something. I am more interested in the children whose families attend Temple Baptist Church than the others. Now I don't apologize for that. Now I love them all. Brother Hickman loves them all. And the pastor does too. But I'm more interested in those because those are the people who are going to help us. They're going to stick by the stuff. They're going to build this ministry. They're here on Thursday night going soul winning. See? And you say, well, so-and-so might have more talent. That's not what it's about. It's about heart. It's not about talent. It's about ministry. It's about service. It's about yielding. See? And so train people that way. And then, look, strive for excellence for Christ's sake, not for first place. Oftentimes, listen, we're going to have the right philosophy about it, and we're not going there to compete, so it doesn't matter how well we do. Well, that's exactly the opposite of the way it ought to be. You ought to do better than the folks that are striving for performance, because you're doing it for Christ. Not for first place. And don't settle for that. Always sharpen the blade. And then number 12, he needs to be trained to develop the musical gifts of his own family. Gotta have a singing home. Now, if your home's not a singing home, it's not a singing home because people don't have a voice, it's because it's a spiritual matter. If your home is singing, if there's Christian music singing, if your wife sings, if your children sing, it's because something's right in that home. It's full of Christ. And a music director whose home's not singing, it's going to show up in your ministry. And then by involving his family members. If a music director has a wife and she's able, she ought to be in the choir. As soon as his children are able, they ought to be involved in the music ministry. You wouldn't stand to have a youth director whose children wouldn't come to church or whose children wouldn't be involved in the youth ministry. And why allow it in any other way? See? He ought to be involved. His home ought to be involved. Then we ought to learn to organize, schedule, and administrate the church-wide music ministry. You can get more done by organizing. I used to have a problem being a bureaucrat. I mean, I'd organize just for the sake of organizing. I almost had a nesting instinct, you know? I wanted everything to be in its place and don't move it. Well, I got cured by that by being stretched and given so much work that I had to let go of organizing and do some more work, see? But organizing is, it's a help to work, it's not a hindrance. And so there are some things given there that would be helpful to you. Move on to number 14. You ought to train them to provide quality Christ-honoring music for the church to fill their homes with. They will fill their homes with something if you don't give them something. Now this is something where I feel a great personal failure in providing these things for our church and want to work harder at. And the college choir and other groups have been a great help to us, but as a church we have a responsibility to do that. People will fill their homes with something if you don't lead. And so that's important. It's important. And some ways given there how he can do that. And then number 15, to develop individuals and groups for vocal and instrumental special music. And pastors help me a great deal with this, and I need much more work with this. By getting the pastor's approval, you see there, prior to asking anyone. Teach people, anyone that works on staff, you ought to teach them to do that. Because sometimes you'll ask somebody, they'll ask somebody to do something, thinking they're helping them, they're hurting them. and they're they're people in your church that don't need to be given uh... prominence at this point in their life And you don't share everything with your staff, and shouldn't share everything with your staff, and don't want them to carry some burdens. So train them to come to you and ask you those things. And you'll be happier, they'll be happier, and the lines of communication will be clear, and you won't have to worry in the service about, what's this person going to sing, or any of those type of things. So just be clear about that. Then secondly, work from within the choir. Somebody's got a great voice, but they don't have time to be in your choir, then they don't have time to sing special music in this church. They just don't have time. A person who won't be in the choir and serve wants to perform. And you don't have a place for that. And what do you do? Just cut them off at the neck? No. Try to get them in your choir. Listen, we need you in the choir. You'll be a help to us. And work from within your choir. Then, choose music for people. Don't say to someone, hey, go find some music. Well, they'll find some music all right. It won't be something you want, and then you'll have trouble. Well, I don't want you using that. Well, you told me to go find some music. This is a blessing to me. No, give them some music. The pastors taught me that to lead by providing things for people, to fill the vacuum. And then by asking people or groups to sing or play for a special day. You know, you don't need to say, listen, you four guys, we want to form a quartet. And in two or three weeks, we're going to put you on the road, buy you a big bus. We're going to do all that kind of stuff for you. No, ask somebody to sing for a youth rally. Ask them to sing in a Sunday school class. And if their voices don't blend, then you're not into something where you sign a contract. See what I'm saying? And that's been a help to me, learning that principle. and then you selected Sunday school class, and we talked about that just a few moments ago. There are some people that you need to be careful in Sunday school classes not to allow people to build a church within their Sunday school class. If you have someone, and usually they're good people, they just don't understand. I wouldn't use a Sunday school class like that to put a singing group in or a person and let them sing because what will happen is, well, we've got a teacher, We've got a singer. Well, let's take an offeratory, have our own missions program. Then you got a real problem. See what I'm saying? So use people who Sunday school class, who understand what you're trying to do and will help you. And then teach them to start and work with graded choir programs. You build a choir by having people go through your children's choir into a teen choir and then join your adult choir. And of all those things, a teen choir is the hardest one to start. and need to work at that, need to help him to do it. How can he do that? By recruiting and training people from within your choir. See, they're already serving. They're already growing musically as well as spiritually. Get them involved. Have them work with a choir. Teach them how to do that. And there's some other things. Let me give you this one at the bottom here. By scheduling regular times for groups to give music in the services. Don't make a big deal out of children's choirs and then never give them an opportunity to sing. If there's a problem, if they don't sing well, then work on the problem. But if you're going to have a children's choir, they must sing. And the parents want them to sing. You want them to sing. They'll be an encouragement to you. And then number 17 here, to continue to develop the gifts that God has given him. It's very easy to get busy and stagnate personally in the gifts that God has given you. It's a challenge for me. I have to not only look for music for a choir, I have to look for music for myself. and people that play instruments. A man that's a music director that plays a trumpet. Don't let him get out of practice. Let him play that trumpet. I remember in college, there was a fellow that worked in one of the churches as what we would call an intern. And he played the trumpet very well. And he'd lead the singing. And while the people were singing, he'd take a verse of that song and he'd play his trumpet. And it was just exciting. It was a blessing to him. And that was his personal music ministry. And so encourage him. If he sings, encourage him to develop that. If he plays the piano or an instrument, encourage him. Give him time. Encourage him to develop it. And remember, some people go from the philosophy that people are always going to do the wrong thing, so I've got to be ready to pounce on them. That doesn't encourage people. You know, give people an opportunity, realize they're going to make mistakes, but if a person's heart's in the right place, and that's almost humanistic to say it that way, if they love the Lord and they love the pastor and they want to serve the Lord, give them an opportunity and then sharpen them. See, sharpen them. And that's a great help. It encourages people and it conserves them within the church. And then another thing he can do is, by building a music library, he ought to learn to read about music. Give him the opportunity. Buy him a book. There's several books that have been an encouragement to me. A pastor put me onto a book about three weeks ago by a fellow by the name of Mike Zachary. It's called, A Song in My Heart, The Role of Music in a Christian's Life. It is the most balanced book on Christian music I've ever read. I've never met Brother Zachary, but I know he serves in a fine church with a fine pastor. But the book, it's balanced, it's practical. You won't sit it down and think, man, I can't handle the technical jargon here. It'll be a blessing to you and anybody that serves with you. I think every pastor ought to read that book. It's called A Song in Your Heart, and it's by Mike Zachary. And we can get copies for you if you want one, but it's a blessing. It's a wonderful book, and it'll be a help to you. And then collect articles on the subject of Christian music. And then he can gain further education. and learn to appreciate other legitimate music styles. And let me explain what I'm talking about. People talk about Christian music and Christian rock or rock music, and they say that rock music is a different style of music. That's incorrect. Rock music is not a different style of music. Rock music is a different kind of music. And there's a chapter in this book that I just read that explains that so well. It'll be a help to you. but needs to learn to appreciate those things. And then another thing, lastly, he needs to develop his ear for part singing. And one way he can do that is by working with a pianist. She's going over, he's going over the parts, and he's listening to them. You learn it by rote. And it'd just be a help to you. It'd be a help to him, being able to learn the parts with a choir. And then by intent listening during rehearsals. One habit that's hard for me to break, I learned to lead singing by using my voice primarily, leading with my voice instead of with my gestures. And it's hard for me to break that habit. When I direct a choir, I want to sing with them. And if I'm not careful, by the end of choir practice, my voice is worn out. Brother Holloway continually stays on me and mentors me and helps me. Don't sing during choir practice, and he'll look at me and he'll shake his finger. Don't do that. And I need to listen. And when I'm singing, I can't be listening, see? So he needs to teach you things like that. Now, let me say this to you, and I'll be done. Don't go the way of the worship leader and the praise and worship chorus crowd. The worship leader in a church is not the music director, it's the pastor. The worship starts from the first note to the last amen. It's not during the music. It's the entire thing. We're lifting up the name of the Lord. That's worship. The entire thing. And we need to get our heads straight about the thing and think right about it. We need to get our head and our mind pointed the same way. The folks that are in this worship leader thing and this praise and worship course thing, they're trying to work up what can only be sent down from above. And you need to remember that. It's very, very important. It's very important. And once you get into that thing of working it up, it'll be very hard to ever change it back. Not very many churches ever, ever come back. Well, let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you, Lord, for music. We thank you, Lord, that it can be used and ought to be used in every way, Lord, to praise and honor you, to lift up your name, to make folks' hearts ready for the preaching and conducive to the preaching. And Father, I pray that you just put deep within us, Lord, a desire that the music in our churches, Lord, would have the right place and have the right purpose. And Father, it can become too important, it can become not important enough. Father, help us to find what Your Word says about it, and may we employ that truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Let me tell you what would be a good thing to do. I appreciate so much everything that Brother Fox has said. But you could get the half a dozen people who work with you in your choir and music program, whoever works with the children, the pianist, the organist, the key people in the choir, not everybody, but get them in a room, play this tape, go over this outline, and this will help them. This will help them. If you need to stop it and discuss something, stop it and discuss something. It's just like the staff here. You know, when you love them and you're committed to them and you believe they're committed to Christ, you want to work with them and train them and bring them along. And that's what you've got to do with the people who work with you. Love them and train them and bring them along. And believe me, the dividend that you reap from the investment is wonderful. It's wonderful. People want to help us and want to be a blessing, and they just need to have some instruction, and may God help us to do that. Thank you so much. I appreciate this so much.