I define ‘manipulation’ in congregational worship as: causing people to have an emotional response apart from the root of the truth and the fruit of long-term change.
God has designed music to move us emotionally. What a gift! The error of manipulation comes when the emotional power of music replaces the truth, so that what stirs us is not the glory of God in Christ, but the vibe. Only God — by His Spirit through the word of the gospel — can bring about lasting change, conforming us into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). That, however, doesn’t make music an enemy. As a friend of mine says: “we need to be moved by truth, and we need to be moved by truth.” God has given us music for this very purpose. The fact that music is inherently emotional need not prevent us from pursuing quality for fear that doing things well is, by default, manipulative. Rather, it causes us to ask deeper questions of our musical choices in service of a higher goal: to let the word of Christ dwell richly in us (Col. 3:16).
What are we to do, then? We use all of our musical creativity and skill to the end of throwing the focus on, spotlighting, drawing attention to, helping people behold the glory of God in Christ. In understanding what this means practically, I often return to John Piper’s phrase “undistracting excellence.” He says: “we will try to sing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people's attention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddy ministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance, or refinement. Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty of God shine through.” This requires skill, preparation and a love for and knowledge of those we serve. And the fruit is wonderful: seeing people built up into Christ as the word is driven more deeply into their hearts and minds through music. Music always carries with it an emotional tone — that’s unavoidable, even if it’s not intentional. The question is, are we setting the right one?
This article was originally published in Evangelicals Now in December 2024.