A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
~ C.S. Lewis
Our favorite pastor says that “it doesn’t have to be perfect, it only has to be faithful.” Which is good news, right? Because our music is never going to be perfect!
On the other hand, our college choral professor and mentor taught that mistakes and sloppiness in the music are distractions—distractions from the music and the message. So how do these two philosophies come together?
Good rehearsal is fun, and good rehearsal is work. It’s both/and. We love to laugh in rehearsal. We need to take time to pray and to talk to each other. However… we also must give the music our best attention and care.
When we do that, when we sing—or play—the music to the best of our ability, we honor God, and the music, and each other! We communicate the message of the music to the congregation, therefore helping them to a place of worship—because why else are we there? We work on the music in rehearsal so that the congregation receives the message, without distraction.
We, the musicians, are one part of the whole body of Christ. Worship is the most important work we do. It’s a privilege. We are so blessed to do what we do.