by Rod Ohmes
There's a good amount of talk these days about musical style, importance, and volume. Much of this conversation is healthy and good, and my aim is to add to that here. What follows, then, is a brief explanation of the music at Ramsey Creek.
The music at Ramsey Creek is designed to lead our church family to glorify God and to edify one another through singing and musical instruments. Our desire is to do this with doctrinal integrity and spiritual passion, while maintaining high standards of musical excellence. We strive to prepare our music not to achieve perfection (can anybody achieve that?) but at a level that will remove as much distraction as possible for those participating (members of the worship team and the congregation). We are striving to constantly and continuously improve our musicianship while also deepening humility. Hopefully it is better (more glorifying to God) than it was last year, which was better than the year before that, etc.
Every song at Ramsey Creek is intended primarily to magnify the Lord. As we proclaim His praise richly we not only edify one another (reinforcing the Gospel principles found in the songs themselves), but we also challenge the unbeliever (with the same Gospel principles). Our prayer for the music of our worship gatherings is to follow Paul’s words to the church in Colossi:
Col. 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Here are some things that underlay the music in our worship services:
* We believe the music is to reinforce faith through song and to express congregational praise and worship to Christ, our Audience.
* We blend musical styles in each service with the understanding that Christ’s Church is multi-generational and identifies with varying musical styles.
* The music is selected for each worship gathering primarily on content (doctrine) and secondarily on musical style.
I pray that all who participate in worship with us at Ramsey Creek will be encouraged to see God in His Son, Jesus Christ, as the most precious and valuable things we could ever possess, and that this truth drives us to deeper love for Him and one another as a result.