T he story in Mark 12, in which Jesus comments on the poor widow’s offering for the temple treasury, has something to say about the use of music in worship.
The gospel removes restraint in our lives: our actions and the products of our work become a response to God’s grace, rather than a prescribed and rigid course of behavior. Under the gospel, we are not responsible for working out our future or our salvation; rather, we are called to very simply follow Christ. That feels risky, and really demands creativity, no matter what activity we’re engaged in.
Related: Bible study session on the widow’s offering: a heart of abundance
Songs and instrumental music can be an offering, a response to grace. The story of the widow’s offering is inspiring, in that light. What mindsets can help us to be more like the widow in giving of the products of our creativity in music?
Our response to the gospel is worship. It is a part of a believer’s life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When we join with others in corporate worship, music can play several roles. In each role—leading worship, enhancing worship, and simply as an offering—I invite you to think about how you can lift music and creativity as a joyful, abundant offering to God.
Leading music
As musicians, we can find ways to put effort into planning and execution of music. Relying mostly on our natural, God-given ability—reading chops or our current ability to strum a few chords—without offering our best efforts (in preparation and execution) may be more like the rich givers and less like the widow, no matter how much talent we have been given. Finding ways to enhance the meanings of song texts, or finding compositions and musical textures to match the theme of the service, may help us be more like the widow in offering her best.
Enhancing music
For hundreds of years, church organists have been playing reharmonizations of hymn tunes during certain verses to enhance the text. Sometimes a verse is improvised and/or reharmonized by organ instead of being sung, while the congregation is invited to join with the musician in a meditation on that verse’s text. These approaches to accompanying can be used by music leaders in settings led by folk, jazz, or rock/pop ensembles. Arrangements can include reharmonizations, key changes, and instrumental or vocal descants, which require creativity and preparation.
Traditional liturgy is not used by every congregation, but there are many contemporary variations of it. It can make the service more a work of art than it otherwise might be, providing a tried and true form shared by worshipers. Liturgy can also help musicians to know where to concentrate their efforts, providing a unified construct within which to work and offer their best to God and invite the congregation into worship as well.
Participating through music
In a worship service, everyone—leaders, congregation, and visitors alike—joins hearts, minds and voices, offering praise to God. An instrumental interlude need not be just “filler,” but an invitation, both to the musicians and to the listeners, to engage in worship. To facilitate worship, musicians can develop and hone skills and can choose music with substance to fit the theme of the service, in moments that might otherwise be used more for casual instrumental vamps.
Related: Symbols in worship
We are all called to be creative in our lives and in our expressions of gratitude to God. The gospel frees us to do that as part of following Christ. Let us all, like the poor widow, make a sincere and meaningful offering to the Lord.
“What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” –1 Corinthians 14:15
Dan Geisler
Dan Geisler is a Denver-based composer, arranger, pianist, and keyboardist. He directs music for City Church Denver, part of the Rocky Mountain Classis of the Reformed Church in America.
