Bob Kauflin: It doesn’t mean there are absolutes.
DZ: For sure.
BK: No you have to do it this way, you can’t do it this way. But so often we just assume because the culture’s doing it that well, we should do it or because it seems successful, well, we should do it.
David Zimmer: Welcome to Sound Plus Doctrine, the podcast of Sovereign Grace Music where we explore what the Bible has to say about music and worship in the church and encourage those who plan, lead, and participate in their Sunday gatherings each week.
DZ: Hello and welcome to the Sound Plus Doctrine podcast. My name is David.
BK: My name’s Bob.
[chuckle]
DZ: How’s it going Bob?
BK: They must be familiar with us by now.
DZ: Yeah. Well, that’s our title though.
BK: This is.
DZ: That’s our introductory title into our podcast.
BK: Yeah. Okay.
DZ: If you haven’t heard our podcast, welcome.
BK: Thank you for joining us.
[laughter]
DZ: And if you are a regular listener. Thank you.
BK: Yes.
DZ: Bob, what are we talking about today?
BK: Today we are talking about, we’re answering a question actually, someone wrote in.
DZ: Oh, great.
BK: But we’re calling the podcast “Backing Tracks – Blessing or Curse? Or Something in Between?”
[laughter]
BK: So Kenneth wrote in, with this comment in and question, and thank you for sending in questions or comments.
DZ: Yes. That’s awesome.
BK: You wanna send those to SoundPlusDoctrine. Spell every word out @sovereigngrace.com. So Kenneth wrote in and said, I’m very passionate about members of the body of Christ using their God-given gifts to help lead other members of the local body in Christ exalting worship. Thank you for being passionate about that.
DZ: Excellent.
BK: I struggle with the trend of tracks because we are no longer relying on church members gifts in favor of louder, more streamlined and produced music. I do understand it for smaller churches with resource constraints, but the trend is more megachurch oriented. Sometimes I hear this church has better music. Well, what do you mean by better? I still wrestle with the question. Should we introduce tracks? So that’s the question.
DZ: That’s a great question.
BK: We are finally going to answer on the podcast.
DZ: Yeah that’s good.
BK: So here’s the situation. I did a little research for this. Bands didn’t start using tracks until the ’80s, like regular bands, not just the church. So I guess, I don’t know exactly when the church started using them, maybe within the last 20 years, do you think? Have a guess on that, but more and more churches are using backing tracks on Sunday mornings. I remember listening to a well known leader talk about a church plant and how he was planning on using backing tracks and just because that’s didn’t wanna disappoint people or I forget the exact reason. But it’s becoming expected in both large and small churches. So this is something we’ve wanted to talk about for quite some time. And so someone just sent this question in.
DZ: Well, and I would imagine most people that are listening know what backing tracks are, but for those who don’t, know what backing tracks are…
BK: Why don’t you explain. Good point. What is he talking about?
DZ: [laughter] Backing tracks are, they are recordings from each instrument that you can solo. You can isolate them.
BK: From a recording.
DZ: From a previous recording. Yeah. So guitars, drums, even percussion, pads. So it can, you can put a pad in and have nothing else on or you can put drum sets in, or a lot of churches will just have them all on, and then you don’t typically have the lead vocal on. So it almost becomes like karaoke in that sense, where you’re singing along with…
BK: Although people who use backing tracks would take offense at that comment.
[laughter]
DZ: I’ve used backing tracks and I’ve been in context where I’ve played with backing tracks. So, yes, but so that’s exactly what they are.
BK: Great. And I have not, so this is a good…
DZ: Good.
BK: Angel devil kind of conversation.
DZ: What are you calling me?
BK: No.
DZ: Which one am I?
BK: Positive, negative. Pros, cons. I don’t know. Anyway.
DZ: That’s good.
BK: Anyway We’re trying to approach this as we approached all things. Just what does scripture have to say about it? But first thought it’d be helpful just to look at what people would say are the benefits or the advantages of using tracks and then the disadvantages and came up with 10 for each.
DZ: Oh, I love that.
BK: So you can…
DZ: That’s great.
BK: You can give me feedback on these. First, just gonna run through these, a lot of tracks have guide cues, which is someone saying, chorus, 2, 3, 4, that can be very helpful. And you’ve found them helpful in situations sometimes. Yeah.
DZ: There have been situations where I’ve played drums in a church that uses backing tracks or with an artist that uses backing tracks. And yeah, those cues are really helpful, especially if you’re doing a list of 15 songs, [chuckle] or in a church you’re doing five songs, six songs. They’re all different tempos, different cues. And if they’re changing all those times, the songs are changing constantly. It can be helpful to have those.
BK: Bridge two, three, four.
DZ: But it also is…
BK: Well, don’t talk about the disadvantages yet.
[laughter]
DZ: It’s like having a metronome as a drummer.
BK: Yes. And these are different from a click track, which is just the beat. It keeps people in time and together for that sense.
DZ: Very different.
BK: And no one hears it except the musicians. Okay. That’s number one. Number two, it’s a better sound for the congregation. A lot of people would say, it just sounds better.
DZ: It fills out. The sound I guess yeah.
BK: Yeah. It fills out the sound. Three, it helps musicians get better, can help musicians get better because they’re playing with stronger musicians, professional musicians.
DZ: For sure.
BK: So that was something I hadn’t really thought of, but as – if you’re only playing with your band every Sunday, the people in your church, you may not be playing with people who are very good, and so you’re just kind of helping each other. But when you have a recorded track that you can play with, it’s like, oh wow. That’s what they play. So that can be a benefit. It’s less distracting if your musicians aren’t good. So if you do have musicians that are kind of struggling through things, it might be nice to have just music that’s just good.
DZ: Yeah. For example, if you had a guitar player who doesn’t like to play lead lines, doesn’t like to play the main hook or the main melody. That would be in your backing tracks and he would be doing something else.
BK: Yeah. You don’t want that happening. [laughter] Generally you don’t want that happening. Number five, they can be adapted as you mentioned. So if you have a full band, you can just add little pieces. If you’re just a single instrument, you can add a full band.
DZ: Yeah. And some people will add harmonies if they don’t have competent…
BK: Vocal harmonies.
DZ: Yeah. If they don’t have a competent background vocalists, they can have those in the tracks.
BK: I was unaware of this. I should check into this. Okay. [laughter] Six ability to, oh, this is again another benefit I hadn’t realized. Ability to add songs to your repertoire that your band can’t play. So, which is a theological reason. Which is always, it always underlies everything we do. Our theology, our understanding of God and who he is and what he wants us to do and believe that’s behind everything we do, whether we realize it or not. There may be songs that, you wouldn’t… That your band can’t play for whatever reason. They think, oh, I can have these, this band play it.
DZ: Yeah. I don’t know where we were, but we just had this conversation with someone that it was really challenging for them and their band to play in 12/8. I don’t know if it was a Worship Matters Intensive?
BK: I remember someone saying that. Yes.
DZ: Yeah. Or it was something that, it was just like, I don’t even, I don’t even touch those songs. And it’s like, those are great songs. [laughter], we have a couple songs in Sovereign Grace that are in 12/8. Yeah.
BK: Yeah. It can be hard.
DZ: It can be hard. [laughter]
BK: Number seven, great for practicing, if you wanna sound like the recording. So, you can, you can, single out parts.
DZ: Yes.
BK: And learn the electric guitar part.
DZ: Yes.
BK: Learn the keyboard part. I’m amazed at the resources available now for learning to play parts of songs that are recorded.
DZ: Seriously.
BK: YouTube videos, I was just on a site the other day where they had every single part of a song, it must have been like 15 different parts of a song.
DZ: Wow.
BK: That you could watch on YouTube, watch the whole song, watch the instrumentals play.
DZ: Wow.
BK: So that’s different. But with backing tracks you can…
DZ: You can solo.
BK: Solo them. That’s the word I was looking for. Solo them. Number eight, it’s easy to replace musicians. So if your bass player calls in, or texts you maybe at, 8:05 for an 8:00 rehearsal. I’m not gonna make it this morning. I’m so sorry. You – no problem.
DZ: Pipe him in.
[laughter]
BK: You got that bass player right there, and probably better than your bass player.
DZ: Most likely.
BK: And this is a number nine, another benefit. It can spark creativity when you’re… You don’t have to play exactly what they play, but you can hear maybe percussionist doing something go oh, that inspires this in me.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Again, it depends on how much of the track you’re using. And then number 10 gives just the front of house mixer. If you, I’m assuming you do have one, more options, more things they can focus on or solo or.
DZ: Yeah, yeah.
BK: Bring out.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: To serve the congregation.
DZ: Yeah. It’s along the same lines of like filling out the sound.
BK: Yeah. Yes.
DZ: They have more options.
BK: Yes.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: So I’m sure there are more benefits, but I was some of those are new for me as I was doing research on it. So those are 10.
DZ: I love that you thought about some of these things.
BK: Rather than just going on this podcast thoughtlessly as we normally do. [laughter] I appreciate that encouragement.
DZ: Not winging it as we typically do. It’s really good, Bob.
BK: I’m sorry. I appreciate that encouragement.
DZ: We’ve grown so far. You’ve just grown so much.
BK: That’s alright. We try to prepare. Anyway.
DZ: What are the disadvantages?
BK: Legion. No, that’s not true. [laughter] No, that’s not true. 10. 10. What I perceive as disadvantages. Let me know what you think. Biggest one that comes to mind for me is less freedom for spontaneity. Now I was listening…
DZ: Yeah. So why would that be?
BK: Well, why would that be? Because you’re kind of tied into what the track does.
DZ: Yeah. So it has a beginning and an end of the recording.
BK: Intro verse, chorus.
DZ: Yes.
BK: Verse, chorus, turns. Chorus everything’s laid out for you. Now I know they’ve grown in that. And you can be more flexible. But leading is a pastoral moment. It’s a shepherding moment. And we’re not just singing songs. We are caring for people’s souls. And there may be a time you’d wanna repeat a chorus, you’d wanna slow that chorus down. You’d wanna slow something down between a verse and a chorus, which would be a problem with a click track as well.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: And I was listening to one podcast where the leader said, yeah, I I’d just kill the track at that point.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: But as a leader, there’d be numerous places where I’d be killing the track.
DZ: Yes.
BK: And, wouldn’t, that just wouldn’t be helpful if I wanted to change a song, if I wanna do a song in different order.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: All those kinds of things, largely tempo related, but chord related as well.
DZ: Totally.
BK: Which leads, oh, go ahead.
DZ: I’m sorry. I was just gonna say, as a drummer, I could, there’s a big difference between killing the click track, the metronome.
BK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DZ: And killing the main tracks.
BK: Yes. Yes.
DZ: Because that’s a volume of sound.
BK: Yeah. You’re…
DZ: That’s dissipating, if I’m cutting a metronome in our ears, that’s just the tempo.
BK: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DZ: So that’s just to clarify what you’re saying.
BK: Yeah. So if all of a sudden your pads drop out or your electric guitar drop out.
DZ: It’s a noticeable difference.
BK: That would be different.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Which leads to a second disadvantage. And that would be that your songs are governed by recordings, which were made for other purposes. They weren’t made for your church. They weren’t made for this Sunday. They weren’t made for your people. They were made for whatever event it was. We make our live recordings and we’ll record in a way that makes it enjoyable to sing along to and listen to. But we don’t even do our songs the way we record them, a lot of them.
DZ: And I think that surprises a lot of people. They think…
BK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DZ: That this is what happens on a Sunday.
BK: Yes.
DZ: But it looks drastically different.
BK: Yep. ‘Cause we’re there to serve the singing of those people.
DZ: Our local congregation.
BK: Our local congregation. So one of the big things would be we will often shorten the intros and have no outros, we’ll just end with the people singing “Christ in power, resurrected as we will be when he comes,” end of Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery and just end right there.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Rather than.
DZ: That’s such a good point.
BK: You have this instrumental intro, outro, where people are just kinda looking at you going, are you done? Okay. Alright, great. [laughter]
DZ: I love that you have incorporated that. I love that we do that at our church.
BK: Well, not every single time, but a lot of times, you know, to end when people are singing rather than having this instrumental outro can be helpful in bringing the lyrics to the front of what we’re doing, front of people’s minds. So that would be a big one, I think it limits creativity by just restricting us to what the artist has done. Number three, it costs. And I was trying to research, what are the costs? It varies widely, tracks can go from like, oh, I don’t know, it’s $20, $30. Somewhere around there.
DZ: Yeah. If you’re wanting to purchase the track or a catalog or an album.
BK: Well yeah, it can be less if you do a subscription, but there’s that, there’s the computer to run things. There’s other adds that you can have charts and all that stuff. So it is… It can be costly. Four, there’s a learning curve. So if, if you’re bringing them on, you have to learn how to use them. And your band has to learn how to work with them. Which leads to number five, it can require more rehearsal time and work upfront. So you’re not… So when I prepare a Sunday for a Sunday, or we prepare our Sundays, plan Sundays, what’s the word, Bob? They’re, yeah, we’re just picking the songs. What do we wanna say with these songs? All the work of arranging and we just do that Sunday morning. When we gather, and if you haven’t heard podcast on are your rehearsals too long you should listen to that. But, yeah, it just requires a lot more time to get with the band.
DZ: Yeah. Well, and I don’t know if you, you mentioned this in disadvantages, so if I’m moving ahead, stop me.
BK: Okay. I’ll tell you.
DZ: But I was thinking in our planning meetings we’re… You can be tempted as a worship leader to go online and go, well are there multi-tracks for that? Or are there backing tracks for that? As opposed to this is the best song and it doesn’t have any tracks. Now I would imagine a lot of worship leaders don’t face that conundrum. But it is there. You might lean into something that has a fuller sound than something that actually could serve better in the moment.
BK: Yeah. Kind of the opposite of what we were saying was a benefit was that you might be able to do songs as you wouldn’t normally do. I have talked to leaders who said, we don’t do your songs because there aren’t tracks to them. Which is what led me a few years ago to say, okay, let’s, let’s put our songs on Multitracks or whatever, just ’cause we realized people weren’t doing the songs. So we thought, no, we want you to do our songs. So yeah. It’s not, no, I hadn’t, I didn’t put that as a disadvantage. So that’s an extra you just threw in there.
[laughter]
DZ: Sorry.
BK: Number six, we’re up to number six, they can be used badly. So if you have, a mass… Your church is 30 people and you have this massive sound coming up front, it’s just, it just doesn’t ring legitimate. [laughter] It’s just like, what’s going on here? So yeah, they can be used badly. It could be, yeah mixed badly, not, have the track up really high and people play…
DZ: And that’s hard to know that if you’re on an iPad as a leader or a musician and you’re changing levels, that can, if that’s separate from what you’re doing as a mixer.
BK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DZ: That’s different, but, yeah it can be loud.
BK: Number seven can lessen the need to listen to others heard someone mention that, that they started using tracks and the band wasn’t listening to each other as much, they were listening to, what was on the tracks. For our church, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, we seek to develop musicians who listen to each other. Yeah Because in the meeting, it requires a certain amount of listening. And what’s gonna happen? What’s going on? I want them listening to the leader. I want them listening to each other. And so if you have something that’s kind of driving everything, that’s what you’re listening to. So that can happen. Number eight, and this was a benefit, but it’s also a disadvantage. Easy to replace musicians.
BK: Makes it easier to replace musicians. [laughter] We’re called to equip, the church leaders are called to equip the church Ephesians 4 and, we if we go to tracks, we don’t have to equip them. [laughter] We got what we need. Thank you very much. So I love the process of seeing musicians come to the church, vocalist, musicians, whatever, and we’ve seen this again and again. Them grow from being an okay drummer to being a pretty good drummer. Or an okay bass player to being a pretty good bass player. Okay vocalist to being a pretty good… I’ve seen a number, we’ve seen a number of instrumentalists and vocalists just grow in their gifts, grow in their skills, but it’s because they’re learning to listen to each other. And they’re learning to compliment what others around them are doing.
DZ: Yeah. And I think it’s clear to note that they’re not just growing technically, they’re growing in the philosophy.
BK: Oh, absolutely.
DZ: Of why we do what we do.
BK: Absolutely.
DZ: So if you are trying to build a culture that leans towards listening and humility and openness of being able to hear everybody and play with each other well, then you’re changing their philosophy of how they view their instruments.
BK: Yes.
DZ: Versus just they’ve technically gotten better. So I think there’s huge advantages of listening and playing together.
BK: Yeah. And we’ll talk about goals near the end of the podcast. Why are we doing all this. Number nine, we talked about the guide cues, I can find those things very distracting.
DZ: Yes.
BK: I’ve done that a couple times in different situations and yeah, it’s just really hard to think of what I’m doing. [laughter]
DZ: Well, and I also think, it may, it’s something that we mentioned before, but it just, you’re married to the arrangement, and when that arrangement is being told to you.
BK: Yes.
DZ: It’s even another… [laughter]
BK: I feel, Okay. Alright, I submit.
DZ: I have to go to the chorus right now.
BK: Well, my problem is sometimes I won’t understand what they say, two, three four what, what? And I’ll be in a moment of panic as I…
DZ: Oh my goodness.
BK: Was that bridge was that chorus was that verse, I don’t know.
DZ: That’s amazing.
BK: I know, I don’t hear well. And then finally, number 10, technology can fail.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Yeah, we had a mixer crash one time before the meeting, fortunately, and it just, yeah, it crashed, and that can happen. So if you’re depending on a computer, or just freezes up whatever that’s a minor one but…
DZ: But if it halts everything, you’ve spent so many hours preparing…
BK: Yes, yes.
DZ: And you don’t have the ability to maybe just play those songs, on an acoustic or even acapella, it’s a philosophical problem.
BK: Yep, so we put that one in there ’cause we wanted to have 10 of each, so 10 and 10.
DZ: Good.
BK: Equally balanced. Now before we talk about, philosophically, where’s all this headed or where did this come from. Just wanna say two things. One, this is a secondary issue we’ve talked about secondary issues on Sound Plus Doctrine. Because number two, everything we do as we meet as God’s people is worth thinking about.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: It doesn’t mean there are absolutes.
DZ: For sure.
BK: No you have to do it this way, you can’t do it this way. But so often we just assume because the culture’s doing it that well, we should do it or because it seems successful, well, we should do it. That’s just not a good basis for the decisions we make. So the aim of the podcast and what we’re talking about now is just to help us think more carefully about it, more biblically about it.
DZ: Yes.
BK: So to do that…
DZ: Good.
BK: The two scriptures in the New Testament that focus on the singing or what we do musically as we gather Ephesians 5:18, 20, Colossians 3 and 16… 3:16. This is what we’re aiming for. Paul says, in Ephesians 5, “Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery.” I’ll just read it from the scripture “For that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That doesn’t appear to require bringing in recorded music to do. Doesn’t appear to require it. Colossians 3:16, very simple. “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” The aim of both of those is we’re singing, we’re addressing one another, we’re teaching and admonishing one another, we’re doing it with thankfulness in our hearts, we’re singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, so that’s what God is after.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: As a result of being filled with the Spirit, as a means of being filled with the spirit. Scholars give both views, both perspectives but the Spirit’s involved in what we’re doing. So whatever we think about backing tracks, it’s not definitive, it’s not an absolute requirement to accomplishing what God wants us to do when we gather. So, on either side, someone who says, “No, you can’t do that”,
DZ: Yes.
BK: Or someone who says, “no, you have… You need to use them, come on. What’s the problem with you?” Both of those extremes should be avoided.
DZ: For sure.
BK: So I just wanna ask three questions about the use of Backing Tracks that I think can lie behind maybe some of our choices, and there may be other questions and you can come up with those. These are just to get you going.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: One is, is our goal Sunday morning to create a certain sound? Is it to, other than people singing, is worship a sound? That’s, I think that’s worth asking.
DZ: Right.
BK: ‘Cause if it’s a sound, then tracks will help you get there.
DZ: Absolutely.
BK: Because that’s the sound.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: And I can make it sound like this. But the church isn’t a production company, worship is not a sound and are… Have we unintentionally or maybe intentionally trained people to think that, to sing our worship to the Lord, ’cause worship is obviously more than singing, but to sing our worship to the Lord, that we need to have it sound like the original recording or the original artist and if so, why are we connecting this song with this artist? People… I’ve been in situations where… Normally other countries where people play our songs exactly like we recorded them, it’s the Sovereign Grace way, let me just say here, we don’t want there to be a Sovereign Grace way of doing our songs, we want people to do our songs just the way they think they should be done.
DZ: Yes.
BK: For who you have, you just have a pianist who read notes. Great then use the piano scores we provide for free. If you just… If you have a full band, great, use them, if you have an orchestra, great, use your orchestra.
DZ: Yeah.
BK: Acoustic guitar, great use acoustic guitar. We just want the songs to be sung not necessarily the way we do them. So our goal is not to reproduce a sound that a certain artist has given us, that doesn’t make it more right, it doesn’t make it…
DZ: More worshipful. [laughter]
BK: More worshipful, thank you! So that’s one question I think we need to ask. And how are we thinking about that? In my own mind as a leader, do I think yeah I really want it to sound like this group, I really want it to sound like this recording.
DZ: Yeah. And am I training my people to hear this song, this music, this style every time we…
BK: This way.
DZ: This way, every time we gather.
BK: Yeah. And it’s not really effective, otherwise so we’ll get to that in a second. Second is our goal, is the goal to play every song perfectly, or close to perfectly or really, really, really good, I don’t think that’s our goal. John Piper has this phrase, I think we’ve used it on the podcast before. The goal is to play with undistracting excellence, you gotta find both those words. Undistracting means people don’t notice it so much, they don’t notice you. Excellence means doing whatever is necessary or helpful to encourage faith-filled, heart-engaged, Christ-exalting singing, that’s what excellence is. So excellence isn’t me using everything I learned as a piano performance major on Sunday morning.
DZ: Yeah, please don’t do that.
BK: Well, you’ve corrected me on that before.
[laughter]
BK: But is the goal to play everything as your best we can. Yeah, best we can if that means doing what’s necessary for the congregation to sing wholeheartedly, but it’s not to play it, play every riff just like it’s played on the recording.
DZ: Yeah. And be careful for leaders to not place that burden on your musicians.
BK: That can be a problem.
DZ: On your singers, you don’t wanna be distracting, but you also want to be careful that you’re not putting burdens on them, that are too heavy to lift.
BK: Yeah, I think for some leaders, they think they’re serving folks by saying, well, no, just do it just like they do it, but the people who record most of them they’re professionals.
DZ: Yes.
BK: They at least have gifts.
DZ: Yes.
BK: Which you might not have in your church, but what you do have in your church is the voice of your congregation which amazingly by God’s good design covers up generally, unless you’re a very small church, covers up the bad voices.
DZ: Yes.
BK: We sing as a group and it’s amazing, it sounds pretty good, if people are singing with faith and they’re engaged, it sounds pretty good. That’s the sound we’re going for.
DZ: Yeah. Absolutely.
BK: Not the perfection with instruments. And then third, are we relying… Is there a temptation to rely on prerecorded music to make our sung worship more acceptable or impressive or pleasing? So acceptable to God, we think, oh, he really likes this better, I don’t think people are thinking that, but worth asking the question. More impressive to people, maybe. We got a band, but hey, we’re gonna put these backing tracks in and that will really. Yeah. I don’t know. Or more pleasing to ourselves. We just like the sound rather than play with my crummy musicians and you’d never call them that to their face, but in your mind you’re thinking they’re crummy musicians.
[laughter]
BK: Rather than play with them, I’m gonna have these tracks come in and that’ll make us sound really great, and so I’m happier. Is God after a sound or is he after our hearts? He’s after our hearts. Now certainly that produces a sound and we’re not appealing for crummy musicianship. But what’s the priority? What are we after? What are we pursuing? ‘Cause what we pursue will drive everything else. So those are just questions to ask.
DZ: It’s true.
BK: Are we going after a certain sound? Are we trying to play everything perfectly? And are we relying on a sound to make things more acceptable, impressive or pleasing?
DZ: Yeah.
BK: So yeah, that’s the discussion.
DZ: That’s great.
BK: And is using backing tracks wrong? No, of course not. No, it’s not, but can we use them carelessly? Can we use them thoughtlessly? Can we use them in a way that’s undermining what God might want to do in our church, in the lives of the people that he’s given us? Are we somehow undermining the fact that God has given a voice to our congregation and we’re minimizing that, or thinking it needs to be propped up in some way? Just because technology exists doesn’t mean we have to use it. Just because it exists more importantly doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily good for the gatherings of the church. So we’d love to hear your feedback on this, and again our goal is just to help us think more carefully, biblically about what we do as we seek to serve the church on Sundays.
DZ: Yeah, amen, and thank you for thinking so critically and carefully about these things, I love having these conversations.
BK: Oh, they’re good. And we have these conversations all the time.
DZ: Yes.
BK: When we’re not having a podcast, and I wanna make it clear. There is so much to be gained by thinking humbly and carefully and patiently about these issues, and not simply jumping on a bandwagon.
DZ: Yes.
BK: Either way.
DZ: Yes, right.
BK: Because it’s just the thing to do. And we never want to confuse what we do on Sundays with an industry or artists or.
DZ: Performance.
BK: Or a company, those kinds of things. ‘Cause it’s not, it’s the church of Jesus Christ, and we have the privilege, those of us who lead of serving them week after week, and we never wanna take that for granted and we wanna do it in a way that exalts Christ brings glory to him and is for the good of his people.
DZ: Amen.
BK: Thanks for joining us and we look forward to the next time.
