Music Ministry

The Music Ministry at River Community Church exists to support the worship of Christ by assisting and equipping the congregation in their singing and melody-making to the Lord.

Values

God-Centered & Gospel-Centered

Our church exists to glorify the Triune God. Therefore, our worship music must be intentionally directed towards him. This means that our music ministry is essentially God-Centered rather than man-centered. Likewise, since God has preeminently revealed himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ—and since he has ordained that all worship and prayer be directed through Jesus Christ as our intercessor, mediator, and king—our worship must also be Gospel-centered. We put at the forefront of our worship the realities of Christ’s person, work, death, and resurrection. This is not to say that our worship cannot reflect our personal experience or the application of the Gospel to the individual. Rather, any focus on man in our worship is as a response to who God is and what he has done.

Reformed Orthodoxy

We are an intentionally and unashamedly Reformed congregation, and we hold to the Westminster Standards as our confession of faith. All music that is sung (and for instrumentals, hymns and songs that are recognizable) ought to be compatible with this system of doctrine. We will not sing any so-called worship music that is contrary to The Essentials of Our Faith or seriously in disagreement with the main tenets and principles of Reformed Theology as expressed in the Standards.

Theological & Emotional Depth

God’s word reaches into every quarter of human experience, and the Psalms in particular are the “hymnbook of the human soul.” Therefore, our singing and music-making to the Lord must be appropriately deep. Our worship ought to engage a wide spectrum of human emotions, all of which are acceptable and desired before God in their appropriate seasons. Likewise, all Scripture is profitable, along with every doctrine of Scripture, for us to express in worship before God. We want to be a thinking and feeling congregation.

Blended Hymnody

In our worship together, we desire to embrace the diverse cultural and musical backgrounds of our congregation and community and not limit ourselves to one particular musical tradition. Though we could sing exclusively from the Trinity Hymnal or from the Contemporary Worship charts, we desire to take the best of past and present Christian hymnody and worship music, as well as from the various cultural and ethnic musical forms represented by our church and community. We want Christians from various cultural and denominational backgrounds to have somewhere to “hang their hat” in our worship service.

Inclusive Psalmody

God has given in his word an “inspired” hymnbook in the Psalms, and we ought to sing these hymns in worship. Indeed, there are many songs in Scripture that we ought to sing! We would be well-served to sing these psalms and scriptures exclusively. However, we take the command to “sing a new song to the Lord” seriously. Therefore, the Psalms (and all of Scripture) will shape the music of our worship, but we do not feel bound in our conscience to limit ourselves entirely to those musical texts contained in the Scriptures.

Contextualized Accompaniment

Biblical content ought to be expressed in the vernacular language of the congregation, not just in English, but in the “musical language” of the congregation. God has gifted our church musicians with their own unique voices, musical skills, and cultural background. We believe that our worship is most “true” when we utilize these qualities and forms of music that are unique to our own congregation and community. God is glorified when we approach him with these diverse voices and tones, blended into a unique harmony in worship. Together, we bring to the Lord something greater and more beautiful than if we were musically and culturally uniform.

Connect with the ministry

Do you play an instrument or sing? If so, we are always looking to get new musicians involved in our music ministry! Contact our Music Director, Kevin Raske, by using the form below to see what is required to join the Music Ministry.