Thanks for your question and for serving the folks on your team.

First, the issue is biblical truth, not reading. Reading is a way God has given us of retaining and passing on his Word. However, for centuries truth was passed on aurally. So I’d be mostly concerned that the musicians are understanding the basics of who God is and what he’s done for us in Christ. I’d especially encourage them in knowing what it means to live a life of worship, rooted in the Gospel - serving, forgiving, being generous, pursuing relationships, helping the poor, etc. - because of the grace God has shown us in the cross.

Second,if someone’s disability keeps them from being a humble learner, I wonder whether or not they should be on the team. Humility is a heart issue, not a physical one.

Third, I’d try reading simple articles or chapters together as a team and then talking about them. Jerry Bridges has written some great stuff, as has Donald Whitney. True Worship by Vaughan Roberts is written fairly simply as well.

Finally, I’d continue to keep bringing them back to the basics. We were created to bring honor to God through Jesus Christ in the power of his Spirit. His Word is central to our worship. We worship with our lives, not just our songs.

Hope that’s helpful. Thanks again for seeking to serve your church.

I have a somewhat related problem because I can’t get most of my worship team to read either!

I have been on staff at a church of about 175 for about a year. I live a region of the country where change comes very slowly (Appalachia) but our church is making great progress. I inherited a worship team consisting of 9 people, including myself, and 5 of them are in the same family. There are so many other issues that go with this, but many of them I realize I cannot change. I am learning to trust God for help with my frustrations. The one thing I think I can change is my approach to them, but I need help. At least one of them (possibly all) have been diagnosed with a learning disability and obsessive compulsive disorder. Two of them have hearing loss, one is more pronounced than the other. One has a hearing aid but refuses to wear it for some reason. So I suppose I’m asking how can I work with people who have disabilities or special needs in a worship team?

When I have presented the worship team with some magazine articles, some of your blogs, etc. they looked at me like I was crazy. Read? Why would we read? I realize now that their reading skills may be very basic. They may have never been in an environment where they have been challenged to learn and grow.

I’m having a very high level of frustration, because there is so much I cannot change due to the cultural climate here. My pastor is awesome and been very supportive through all this, he sees the situation for what it is, and I think he’s also at a loss for what to do.

Thank you for your time. I would appreciate any insight that you have on this issue.

Bethany

“One is often inclined to ask how far some of these exulting hymns may be the utterance of excitement or sentimentalism…hymns are often the channels through which much unreality is given vent to in ‘religious life.’ Song, like music, is often deceitful, malting people unwittingly believe themselves to be what they are not. The amount of superficial similarity which has, in all ages, been introduced into and fostered in the Church by music, is incalculable. High-wrought feeling produced by it in conjunction with song, has in many a case misled both the singer and the listener into a belief that their heart was beating truly and nobly towards Christ, when all the goodness was like the morning cloud and early dew.”

I think Bonar’s point is this: The melody works on our passions and music tends to make us ‘feel good’. These feelings may in turn cauterize our hearts in such a way as we miss the reality of its condition. Bonar, like many others, wrote the lyrical content to reflect that which was in the Word for he knew that it was in words that truth was communicated; truth does not exist in melody.