Worship Leading and the Drummer, part 3

What should be primary in the drummer's mind as he leads the
Church in singing praise songs?

The drum part.

Sounds obvious, but how many of y'all first thought of something "spiritual?" God, Jesus, praise, worshipy thoughts...No. The drummer serving in the Church needs to focus on being a drummer.

Let's back up.

Pietism is at base gnostic or neoplatonic in its world-denying spiritualism. The mundane and the material is not as "holy" as the immaterial, emotional religious thoughts in a man's head. One should be "baptising" the mundane things by thinking spiritual things as one goes about doing them. This has lead to confusion and, for our purposes here, a lot of really crappy drumming. If a drummer has a servant's heart, or really loves Jesus, or is very enthusiastic in his worship then it's okay that he doesn't practice and can't play very well. After all, God is happy because of his good intentions.

Well, I don't think He is, but we'll get to that. Firstly, though, let's understand the Biblical and Reformed idea of vocation. God created the world good. God gave Father Adam a task to subdue it. He gave His only Son to redeem it after Adam fell. The material world is not evil, men are. Adam's work was originally holy. The work of those redeemed in the Second Adam is also holy, insofar as they are obedient in that good calling. So, as we often say, all of life is worship. Our day to day, matter-of-fact living is done as good works unto the Lord.

This is not changed by the fact that some of those good works include special, set-aside weekly corporate worship. All of life is worship, and some of life is special worship. That doesn't make it more spiritual; it makes it part of the flow of our lives. Therefore, one is not more of a Christian when he is singing a hymn than he is when he was eating breakfast that morning.

This means that God is not dishonored or ignored when, in service to Him and His Church, I am thinking of where the bass drum goes instead of thinking "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus..." I have a responsibility to Him to focus my attention on playing well for Jesus' sake. If I fail in the task He has set before me to do for Him, even if I'm distracted by my thoughts of Him, then I'm not really offering my worship as He has given it to me to offer, am I?

So, the drummer is to enter the Holy of Holies with a pure heart (BTW, "heart" is not "emotions" in Scripture, but I digresss), there to duly serve the Lord by competently and deliberately executing those tasks which have been assigned to him, namely, pointing out to everyone where the words go by putting notes in the right places. To the extent he does that well, I believe God is pleased with his worship. Thinking, "I love You" while making a train wreck of the hymns of the Church ain't gonna make it suck less...to Him.