Maintaining Balance By Considering

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!”

-Jesus in Luke 12:27-28 (ESV)

Here at Ad Lib Music, we have been spending a season thinking through the Five Faders and how they relate to leading worship and participating in worship as a musician or technician.

As a technician, I (Tony Guyer) embrace these concepts with fascination. In many of my training sessions with audio technicians, I speak of the importance of balance. We are, in some ways, the gatekeepers for maintaining balance so our church families can participate in worship in a way that glorifies God.

We are concerned that the audio is neither too loud nor too soft. We attempt to strategically adjust frequencies, ensuring they are not too bright or muddy. We balance the background and lead vocals, so they are appropriately placed.

I want to dive deeper into areas in our sphere where we can Consider balance.

In the visual artist Makoto Fujimura’s book Art + Faith, I came across a passage where he writes:

“Cultivation to grow crops and making and natural realities are connected at a deeper level, just as my use of minerals from the earth creates my paint and transforms the process into the layers of work. These layers are also a metaphor of my life. I “consider the lilies” by growing them, and then painting them as an artist by “considering” the materials I use. The paper I use is cultivated by the hands of Japanese papermakers who “consider” mulberry bushes in such a way as to make a particular paper that I am looking for. The brushes I use are made so that I can use gold powder mixed with nikawa glue, and the lines come out precisely in the flow that only that brush can make on that particular mulberry paper.”

What a beautiful picture of the attention to detail that Makoto lavishes on his creativity!

Whether we admit it or not, we are often caught operating in a world influenced by the Industrial Age. Our work must have a purpose and be functional. We don’t have time to waste on things that don’t matter or what we deem inconsequential.

Many church services are designed to get us in and out. We must finish by noon, or we will lose people. Our worship set fits into a 15 min slot between the announcements and dismissing the children. We stick to a structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, bridge, and chorus.

There is very little lavishing going on.

Let’s look at how Jesus addressed the people in Luke. He says, “consider” the lilies. Notice how He chose something beautiful that He had a hand in making. Let’s not forget that after each element God created, He said, “It is good.”

As God made Eden, He lavished His creativity on us. Vibrant colors, shapes, and sizes. Way past form follows function. When Jesus told the people to “consider” the lilies, part of the reason He told them was because the lilies were worth considering. Sounds obvious, right? He goes on to say that the beauty of Solomon couldn’t match them.

This past Sunday at my church, I got to play electric guitar. As I was playing a song and considering how I could serve that song, I came up with a lead melody that followed a hint of the vocal melody. The tonality that I needed to fit in appropriately required me to roll my tone knob all the way to its darkest setting and use my 2-position out-of-phase pickup on my Strat so it would fit into the mix in such a way that it wasn’t in front of the vocals. It worked out wonderfully and added a lovely element to the song.

Now no one came up to me, bowed to me, or told me what a fantastic lead guitar solo I played. I did not need that, nor would I have wanted that to be the focus. How did I know that was the correct musical, artistic choice, you may ask? Because I have spent much time considering the difference in my pickups and tone knobs and the difference in bright and dark sounds. I lavished my church and my Savior with the same type of creativity that God lavished on me by making the lilies.

So when was the last time you “considered” an element and lavished your church with it? Was it beautiful? Did it compare to the glories of Solomon? The thing I love about Makoto’s consideration is that the paper and brushes he used would seem inconsequential to the average person. And yet, to the maker, it mattered.

-Tony Guyer
(purchase our book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

Maintaining Balance By Considering (Nº 331)