Between Times

RANT

I think I hate church musicians.

OK, not really. Tons of my friends are worship leaders and I love them. But I was reading this stupid thread on The Gear Page, just like I shouldn’t be… But it just jumped out at me. This poor guy was asking for help because his church was “making him go direct” with his electric rig. I started to read the comments… Pages of them. And you know what people kept telling this guy?

Leave your church.

WHAT?!?!?!

Person after person, self proclaimed worship leader after worship leader, continued to tell this guy, “If you can’t bring your amp to your church, it’s time to find a new church.”

Later the thread turned into bashing sound guys. I hate that. I even blogged about it once.

As I continued to read, I got the sickest feeling in my stomach. One person in 22 pages (over 300 posts)… ONE said, “Hey, this is a wrong attitude to have.” He was a head pastor. He was also immediately verbally pummeled by all the “worship architects” (puke) on the thread. Such hate, and pride, and selfishness… It was like listening to a room full of 8th graders talking about how they would throw a tantrum if their mom took their Game Boy away from them.

Almost nowhere did people talk about how tubes were not our god. Nowhere did I see anyone talk about serving our people in humility. One time I saw someone quote a Psalm that said we need to offer excellence to the Lord, so there’s no way I would use anything less than a boutique amp cranked to 10 in my church, because if I didn’t, God wouldn’t be pleased.

Dude. Go to Bible Study.

I was going to say go to Bible school, but that would have been a little harsh. In reality, I just want you to understand the context of what you’re reading and be able to apply it in a right manner.

Because, let’s follow this logic, if I were to say that tube amps were ‘more excellent’ than, say, a POD, it would also stand to reason that the “best” tube amps would be ‘more excellent.’ Also the best guitars, and the best effects. So, after I buy several million dollars of gear so that I have the “best,” I’m then able to offer God a ‘more excellent’ offering, and He is more pleased with me.

Errrr. Wrong.

Now, don’t hear me saying that good gear is bad. Or that spending money on things is bad. Otherwise I would be a pretty bad person. But what I AM saying is that there can be nothing more excellent than the widow who offers her two mites.

What does that mean?

It means that, contrary to what everyone in this thread was saying, excellence DOES NOTflow from possessions; in this case, gear. It’s actually the converse: excellence will only come from the heart. Scripture says the heart teaches the mouth. What these kinds of comments tell me about the heart of the “worship architects,” at least on this forum, was disgusting. I’ll be watching my heart more closely in future days to make sure that the worship of God is placed before anything else. Even tone.

Rant over,
-Dave