Harvest Baptist Church adheres to the following mission statement:

The body of believers comprising Harvest Baptist Church exists to glorify God through maintaining a dependent and dedicated relationship to Jesus Christ as it

• Practices Christ-centered worship
• Trains Christians to do the work of ministry
• Serves, encourages, and builds up one another, and
• Reaches out with the Good News about Jesus Christ to our community and world.

Given this guiding purpose for our church, it is appropriate that we should consider how the four aspects of our mission statement direct the music ministry at Harvest. What is the mission of our music?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. Colossians 1:15-18

Simply put, Christ-centered worship is the practical experience of being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus Christ. God in Christ is our all-powerful Creator (Colossians 1:16-17), our pardoning Savior (Titus 3:4-6), our comforting Guide (Psalm 23), our loving Bridegroom (Ephesians 5:24), our righteous Judge (2 Timothy 4:1), our closest Friend (John 15:13-15), our greatest Treasure (Colossians 2:3), and many more things. When we are satisfied with the power, forgiveness, comfort, love, justice, friendship, and worth of Christ, our lives overflow with heartfelt praise for Him-even in basic things like eating and drinking! (1 Corinthians 10:31). King David illustrates the connection between satisfaction in God and praise to God. In Psalm 34 David said, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." What was it that so moved David to unceasing praise? It was the experience of being satisfied with God. Thus David sang, "O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" In our music at Harvest, we aim to awaken or express the same genuine, heartfelt satisfaction for Christ. To reach this goal, we offer the following six principles as guides for Christ-centered worship music. Each pair represents a godly balance that we are striving to achieve with our music.

1. Songs of praise and testimony

Praise songs are those whose theme centers on praising the attributes of God or whose words are a direct prayer or praise from us to God. In contrast, songs of testimony are those whose theme centers on what God has done for us and aim at encouraging one another. Singing Godward songs fulfills the oft repeated command of scripture to "praise the Lord" and purposefully reminds us of the end of worship: satisfaction in God. Singing songs of testimony fulfills the command of scripture to encourage one another and helps us to rejoice together over God's goodness.

2. Profound and personal lyrics

Without question, the content of our congregational singing and special music must always conform to the truth of Scripture. The Bible is the revelation of Christ to man, and we cannot worship Christ without knowing Him as revealed in Scripture. Sometimes we express these truths with profound poems that engage the mind like A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. At other times, we express these truths with simple yet personal expressions of praise like Praise the Name of Jesus. Both remind us that God is a refuge for believers, and both are useful for expressing our satisfaction in Him.

3. Head and heart

Our music must aim at engaging the mind and the emotions in worship. God is not duly honored when we only think of Him or when we only feel good about Him. He is duly honored when we think rightly of Him and feel rightly towards Him. Jesus commanded, "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength." David prayed, "Unite my heart to fear Your name." To unite the heart in worship, both the emotions and the mind, is the highest praise we can offer our God. Thus our music should serve to kindle the mind and emotions with fervor for God.

4. An attitude of God-centered excellence

We believe that God is most honored in music and his people are most satisfied through music when it is prepared and performed with God-centered excellence. God-centered excellence longs to reverence God through hard work and the use of God-given gifts. At the same time, God-centered excellence recognizes that perfection in music does not make such worship more acceptable to God. Rather, God is the One who looks on the heart and calls us to both work hard and recognize our own limitations. Both poor preparation and preoccupation with perfection reflect wrong heart attitudes that hinder true worship. We aim to guard against the attitudes at both extremes by striving to practice God-centered excellence.

5. Historic and contemporary

True love seeks for fresh ways to praise the beloved without abandoning or belittling the joys of the past. The psalmist illustrates this balance in his praise to God: "I will sing a new song to You, O God!" (Psalm 144:9) and "I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old." (Psalm 77:11). Both historic and contemporary music serve a role in awakening and expressing our love for God.

6. Celebration and meditation

In seeking to praise God with our music, we will strive to encourage both celebration and meditation. Psalm 32:11 illustrates the attitude of celebration that fosters praise: "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart." Psalm 33:8 illustrates the attitude of reflective reverence: "Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." We aim to select music that will help us to express both of these biblical attitudes of praise to God.

It is the responsibility of the music committee and the Pastor to strive to maintain balance in these areas of our services which will also encourage the congregation in their personal worship.

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Timothy 2:2

Our Lord selected 12 followers and trained them for several years. The Apostle Paul expected Timothy to train the next generation of church leaders. Following the same pattern, we believe it is the responsibility of the music committee to oversee the preparation of our fellow believers for the work of music ministry. This responsibility is three-fold in nature:

1. Mentoring future leaders and musicians for the music ministry
2. Seeking to foster attitudes of excellence, commitment and humility in music ministry
3. Promoting music as a ministry, a gift, and a responsibility in the local body

Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Ephesians 5:18-20

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:16-17

In the two preceding passages, the Apostle Paul refers to music as a "language of ministry." Christians are to speak to one another through songs in order to encourage and teach one another as well as praise the Lord with thankfulness. Some examples of music in ministry are Paul and Silas singing in the Philippian jail (Acts 16:25) and the Lord Jesus singing with his disciples after the last supper (Mark 14:26). In order for music to serve this practical function in the body, we believe it is the responsibility of the music committee to oversee the following three things:

1. Planning of music for our regular worship services and special services.
2. Making music resources readily available for ministry activities such as fellowship groups, family devotions, AWANA, VBS, etc.
3. Promoting familiarity with the songs we sing in the church body.

I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD. Psalm 40:1-3

But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:25

You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7

And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation." Revelation 5:9

Sincere, heartfelt singing has an evangelistic quality about it. Both King David and the Apostle Paul illustrate the power of praise songs to draw the attention of unbelievers to the Savior. Only those who have a mighty Savior can sing "songs of deliverance" in the midst of adversity. As a result, we believe the music committee can contribute to the goal of evangelism in the following ways:

1. Informing our congregation about the evangelistic nature of music
2. Advocating sincere, heartfelt singing from our congregation
3. Encouraging individuals and groups to sing "songs of deliverance" that testify to the current working of God in our lives
4. Promoting the need to invite unbelievers to special musical events
5. By wholeheartedly promoting missions, realizing that the goal of worldwide evangelism is to produce more worshippers