Thoughts On Cutting A Song

This past Sunday, if you were there and you were paying attention, you may have noticed we had to cut a song from the order of service. What happened was, baptisms went slightly long, and we were left with about 11 or 12 fewer minutes in our order of service. So we cut a song on the fly, which is never a bad thing to have to do, even though we put all that work into it during rehearsal. Whether you're part of our music team or not, I wanted to encourage you by giving a few reasons why we would cut a song from what was planned, and why it's not a drag to have to do this every so often.

1. Ultimately, we cut the song in favor of (potentially) better things. 
We don't do baptisms every week, so when we do it's a special occasion and a way God communicates His grace in the Gospel in another way to our church. Baptism is commanded in Scripture, so we definitely don't want to cut corners on this. Also, baptisms are an opportunity for the baptis-ee (baptism-ee? baptee??) to share their testimony of the Gospel before the whole church, and any invited, unbelieving family or friends visiting that day. Shame on us if we cut corners on the body of Christ doing what it's supposed to do, in favor of sticking to the rehearsed order of service. The Church cannot always be a rehearsed, programmed gathering. We're a family, ultimately.

2. We cut the song to give time back to the preaching.
The Word of God needs to be taught in the assembly of God's gathered people. A big part of why we meet is to hear the teaching and preaching of Scripture. So if it looks like our songs are going to take a significant chunk of time away from Jordan's preaching, we need to think about changing something on the fly. Singing together is hugely important too, and is also commanded in Scripture - it's NOT, I repeat NOT merely to prepare the people for the sermon, though that is one function of it. But if we can balance preaching and singing together in a compromise, fantastic.

3. We cut the song because we're (hopefully) always open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our gatherings. 
We ultimately need to be open to things not going according to plan, because sometimes the Holy Spirit knows better than we do what needs to happen on a particular morning. And when we're giving extra time to something that God commands, and desires His church to do (baptism, giving enough time for preaching), we need to be both humble, and flexible. I don't mean being open to the Holy Spirit's leading in an "everything goes," chaotic sense. I mean sometimes God actively takes time away, or ordains something to happen that we didn't plan for, and we roll with it knowing we can't control every little detail. God controls the details. May we be filled with a balance of preparedness, and Spirit-led flexibility, not relying on ourselves or our own wisdom to make church "happen."

So there you go. Some of this is just for me to formulate in my own thinking, as to why this last Sunday was great. I hope it's helpful to you too, as you prepare to gather with us next Sunday.

And rest assured, we'll sing "Christ Is Risen" sometime soon, since that's the one we had to cut.