Your Belief System and Your Church (3): Bondage or Freedom

[Dave Knauss]

Belief systems can unknowingly create bondage or purposefully create freedom. When I began my music teaching career, I created bondage. I had been educated to believe there are those who have music talent and those who do not. The “have” and the “have nots.” Music classes in schools were (and many still are) structured to address the “haves” and ignore the “have nots.”

SELECTION OF THE SPECIES. Entry into chorus was by demonstrating a certain level of talent in an audition. This was also true of orchestra, jazz, and other ensembles. [I have heard stories of people who said when they were in school, the chorus director told them, “Since you really want to be in chorus and obviously you can’t sing, just stand in the back row and mouth the words.”] The students not in chorus, band, or orchestra, took general music classes. Since they could not do music even in a music class, they were coldly tolerated knowing that they would soon be gone, never to darken the music door again and never the music teacher’s problem ever again. The sum of my thinking was, “Those stupid students, why don’t they get it? Oh well, such is life—win some, lose some!” That was my philosophy and the general philosophy of music education as well. I simply ignored all “have nots” and passed them by.

IN HIS IMAGE. One day, God blew my belief right out of the water. He rebuked me very plainly that He put music talent within every one of His humans, as every one is MADE IN HIS IMAGE. He told me some automatically connect with their talent, while others need help. He further told me it was MY JOB as the TEACHER to learn how to FIND that music talent within each person, and learn how to HELP THEM CONNECT and develop it into a usable skill for His Glory. Whoa, what a revelation!

LIFE-LONG BONDAGE. I now shudder to recall all the students I left in the bondage of my early thinking, and I am forever grateful God rebuked me out of it. I later taught beside a 50-year-old fifth grade teacher whose music teacher left him in a lifetime of bondage. He said he was always told he could not sing in tune, and to stand in the back of the choir and only mouth the words. I challenged him to come to my music room, and within three minutes I had him matching pitches and singing the scale in tune (Do-Re-Mi-Fa…). I told him his music teacher was plainly mistaken. However, I could not undo the damage, because as he left my room, he still said, “I can’t sing in tune.”

Pastor, apply what God told me about music teaching to you and your church. Have you made any judgments of “have” or “have not” over individuals in your congregation? Are you frustrated with those who do not get it? Have you found out it is YOUR JOB as the PASTOR to learn how to FIND spiritual talent, and learn how to HELP THEM CONNECT and develop it into usable skills for God’s Glory? Does your belief system unknowingly create BONDAGE or with purpose create FREEDOM?

Your Belief System and Your Church: (1) Introduction

Your Belief System and Your Church: (2) Your Paradigms

Your Belief System and Your Church: (3) Bondage or Freedom

Your Belief System and Your Church: (4) Gateway Skills

Your Belief System and Your Church: (5) Teacher Accountability

Your Belief System and Your Church: (6) Talking About vs. Doing

Your Belief System and Your Church: (7) Student Accountability

Your Belief System and Your Church: (8) Assessment

Your Belief System and Your Church: (9) Bury Dead Tradition

Your Belief System and Your Church: (10) Teaching vs. Learning

Your Belief System and Your Church: (11) Teachers' Three Phases

Your Belief System and Your Church: (12) Excellence is NOT a Goal

Your Belief System and Your Church: (13) My Teaching Limits Were Their Learning Limits

Your Belief System and Your Church: (14) Unlearning Creates Success

Your Belief System and Your Church: (15) Pioneers vs. Settlers

Your Belief System and Your Church: (16) Real and Lasting Learning

Your Belief System and Your Church: (17) Problems With Memory

Your Belief System and Your Church: (18) Ownership Creates Success

Your Belief System and Your Church: (19) Not Perfect, But Honest

Your Belief System and Your Church: (20) Take Risks and Give Away Control

Your Belief System and Your Church: (21) Out of a Job

Your Belief System and Your Church: (22) KCAASE and Proverbs 24

Your Belief System and Your Church: (23) Responding vs. Reacting

Your Belief System and Your Church: (24) Only When Performed

Your Belief System and Your Church: (25) A Supervisor's Vision

Your Belief System and Your Church: (26) Glimpses Into the Spiritual

Your Belief System and Your Church: (27) One Reason Alone

[Juanita]

Dave - a very thought provoking discussion!

I'm going to tweet it1
http://tiny.cc/oG9HA

[Lisa]

Dave, your comments regarding music remind me of my experience with Art. In school I mostly was not recognized for my artistic abilities. However, I both draw and paint. With the exception of requiered public school are classes I am completely untrained. I do it well enough that I have considered selling some items. Biggest problem is that I'm not prolific. You see the problem wasn't so much that I couldn't draw. Instead, I was for whatever reason passed over.
Spiritual leaders are you passing over the late bloomers in your congregations? Are you missing them because they seem to be uninterested and unwilling to change. NEVER discout the quiet ones. They may be afraid, or slow to trust, or just need someone to show them the ONE KEY that will unlock everything for them.
I would like to think that you put just as much effort into my friend who seems to never change as you do into the one who is eager and growing. You see I desperately want them to change and they need your help. Your position as a leader gives you an authority and place in their lives that I may never have. It is true that they may need what I offer as a lay person. However, they also need you to not pass over them.

[Dave Knauss]

Hi Lisa,
You hit upon a statement I made in post number 4 of this thread. It is the teacher's (minister's) RESPONSIBILITY to know where each individual student (church member) is in his/her skill (spiritual) development and to know exactly to what next level that individual needs to be led. At the same time, it is the leader's RESPONSIBILITY to know where the class (church) is as an ensemble (corporate body) and to know exactly what next level is needed for the group as a whole. The is called ACCOUNTABILITY.
It is always easy for a leader to notice either the few gifted or challenged members that are in every group, but it takes special concentration and determination to notice every one as a special, unique person in the larger group in between.
Blessings, Dave

[Susan Wilson]

Very true!

I once thought that it was my responsibility to "give them the word" and if they did'nt get my glorious input by the second time, maybe third baptist would be a better fit, after all I couldn't waste all the time I spent praying that God would annoint my preaching on people who obviously were'nt getting it! I wonder why the church was not growing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Juanita]

So true, Susan!

Susan Wilson said:

Very true!

I once thought that it was my responsibility to "give them the word" and if they did'nt get my glorious input by the second time, maybe third baptist would be a better fit, after all I couldn't waste all the time I spent praying that God would annoint my preaching on people who obviously were'nt getting it! I wonder why the church was not growing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave Knauss]

Hey Juanita or anyone else out there,

How do we communicate this message of bondage or freedom to pastors and churches who operate in traditional "churchy" ways?  Or they operate in ways that do not proactively "involve" the body?  Or pastors that do not recognize their members' giftings to their fullest?  I have met a lot of people who are simply bored with the "usual-usual" of many past decades, and they're looking for a Kingdom revelation epiphany--a challenge out of the humdrum, or at least a fresh breath of air change.

Blessings, Dave

[Dave Knauss]

Hey Susan,

I too was exactly where you were in your description a former viewpoint.  I'd bet there are still lots of people out there thinking what we two used to think.  If there's anyone else out there thinking what you and I thought, since I'm a teacher, may I ask a "teacher" question?  Are you certain they are "not getting" what you were saying?  How so are you certain?  There are all kinds of ways for assessing and measuring learning.  They range from pure subjective observation and opinion to strictly objective empirical data.  I ask this because purely subjective opinion is a usual type of over-hasty snap judgment.  Here's a verse that cured me from snap judgments, "He will perfect that which concerns me."  (Psalm 138:8).  SOOOOOOOOOOO, we all just need some time.

Blessings, Dave