Music at Harvest Bible Church
In today’s church culture music is the epicenter of worship, but not at HBC. We try to refrain from calling the music time “worship” because worship does not begin and end with the singing of songs. Those who lead us in music at HBC are unpaid volunteers who give of their time and talents to select songs, rehearse them during the week, and lead us on Sunday mornings. It’s one of the many volunteer ministries at our church. Those who lead us in song are genuine believers in Christ and have no aspirations of drawing attention to themselves. There are no lead performers or regular soloists who seek to draw attention to themselves.
Music at HBC is not a concert or a production, and it is in no way the center of our worship. We attempt to worship God the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23), and we do this through singing orthodox music, prayer, fellowship, financial giving, and in devoting our entire lives to Christ (Romans 12:1-2). Worship should never end for true Christians, so we have no “worship pastor” who begins and ends our worship time. We do, however, have a great team of musicians who start us off each Sunday with Christians songs of praise and worship.Music is a wonderful, albeit emotional, way to express worship to our Sovereign God. But since music often stirs our emotions, and since emotions can be so deceiving, we are careful about the music we sing and play. We sing familiar songs about God and His greatness, and we sing songs to God which can sound like prayers. One way or the other, what we say to and about God in our music is biblical. We do not attribute to Him anything that is not biblical, and we do not sing to Him prayers that are needless or un-biblical. God is not our buddy, per se, and He is not one to be taken lightly. God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) who demands our full allegiance and our full surrender to His Son who lived and died to free us from sin. The songs we sing attempt to praise God for who He truly is and give Him the glory He deserves from our sinful lips.
You’ll find a blend of old hymns, yesterday’s praise songs, and even some of today’s Christian music. Sometimes we sing with no instruments, but most often we sing with guitars, a bass, a synthesizer, and a piano. There is no drum set or drummer, but we do use some light percussion that helps the musicians keep time.
We hope you’ll find our music worshipful at HBC, and we ask that you not expect a production or a concert when you visit us. If you like to raise your hands, you are welcome to do that, but please try not to be a distraction to those around you. And when the brief time of music is over we invite you to continue to worship our Lord with us as we study the Bible and seek deeper ways to know Christ and to ultimately worship Him better.