I will leave the reader to draw your own conclusions about this person’s attitude and spirituality.  I will just make the simple observation that most of the time pastors think that they are the ones who get all the criticism, and I am sure that they hear all this and more from some of the members who will go behind a music minister’s back to do their gossiping.  It certainly doesn’t help matters when the pastor joins in or adopts the attitude that all musicians are flakes and oddballs (I once actually heard a pastor ask his music team to openly admit that very thing).

            Music is certainly an important aspect of any church’s worship life; therefore throughout the history of the church much controversy has surrounded it.  For example, in the seventeenth century the interval called a “tri-tone” was nicknamed by the churches as the diabolos en musica (the devil in music), and its use was strictly forbidden in sacred music.  Eventually when it finally was allowed, the church demanded that it be resolved in a particular manner, and no other way was acceptable.   Every time a new style or genre of music enters the culture, the church generally condemns it, only to accept it as normal only one or two generations later.

            The church has also demonstrated great confusion about the purpose of music.  Some argue that its only true purpose is worship; this usually results in the rules and regulations from the church into just exactly how the music is to be played, thus showing the preferences of that group as to its style and idioms, even down to the lyrical nuances and tempos.  Others believe that music exists for evangelism—that it “draws the crowds and prepares their hearts for the Word.”  Still others, usually musicians themselves, will contend that music in the church has the same purpose as it does outside the church, which is free expression and artistry.  It is rare to find a mind large enough to concede that all these are equally valid, as well as other purposes not mentioned here.

            Churches also vary as to the level of importance to a service that they feel the music ministry has.  Some churches place so great a significance on their music that they spend large amounts of money on sound equipment, acoustics, instruments and salaries for the musicians (one church in Texas that I know of pays every musician union scale for every service!) so that extreme pressure is put on the performers to give a professional sounding show every time, which no doubt could have been the case in the letter above.  Other churches simply refer to the music as “the preliminaries” and hardly place any emphasis on worship at all.  A healthy, balanced attitude is again rare.