Bob Kauflin responds to Greg Gilbert's post on music.
By the way, if you are involved with leading worship through music, you will definitely want to look for a copy of Bob's forthcoming book, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God--due out next month.
Here are just a few of the blurbs:
"In every conversation or correspondence I've had with Bob Kauflin, one thing always shines through--a burning desire to 'get it right' when it comes to the worship of God. Bob loves God, values theology, and cares about people. This mix is found throughout this wonderful and helpful book. Worship Matters will inspire you as a worshiper and spur you on as a leader of worship." Matt Redman, lead worshiper and song-writer, Brighton, UK
"Here is a rare book: a practical treatment of corporate worship that nevertheless reflects deep theological commitments. One may disagree here and there with some of the judgments, but it is demonstrably unfair to imagine that Bob Kauflin has not thought about these matters deeply--and he has done so in a context where he is teaching a new generation to take corporate worship seriously in a fashion that is simultaneously biblically faithful and addressing today's culture."
D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"It rings true! This is how I continually reacted to Worship Matters as I made my way through it. It rings true because Bob Kauflin rings true. I know him; I have worked and fellowshiped with him; we e-mail each other somewhat regularly. He has always been ointment to my battered and redeemed life, and his personal example continues to humble me. But this book above all rings true because Bob rings true to his God, his Word, his Son, his Spirit, and God's relentless desire for the nations through the completed work of his only Son. Thus, page after page Bob brings his work under the scrutiny of the Word; he summons the worship and music of the people of God to its commandments, instructions, and promises, and he does so with clarity and order. So what he says in his book and how he lives his personal and vocational life are entirely consonant. Worship Matters should matter deeply to those for whom it is primarily written: young, eager, Christ-centered musician-leaders--people who, at least for the present, are called worship leaders and on whose shoulders a heavy burden has been thrust. The author's wisdom shows continually. His ability to simplify the complex without cheapening it; his rich artistic eclecticism; his love for great music; his insistence on theological and doctrinal literacy; his respect for church history and its various worship and musical dialects; his passion for sensible speech, rich prayer, soul-deepening books; and his obvious freedom from the very practices to which he gives his attention--in this case, contemporary worship leading--these together make this a necessary book. Were the young to read it honestly and be deeply changed by it, were the old to see in it something beyond the 'contemporary,' were all of us to understand that new, old, and everything in between have no life in themselves and must be continually rescued both from self-conscious novelty and self-preserving stodginess, that would bring much needed reform to the unnecessarily confused worlds of worship and music making." Harold M. Best, author of Music Through the Eyes of Faith and Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Art
