Conducting Christians

February 7, 2019

One of the problems with practicing my string bass is the difficulty I have seeing the connection between what I’m doing and what the rest of the band will be doing when it’s all put together. The bass rarely solos, and if I don’t know the melody of the song (which is often the case), the bass line doesn’t make sense to me. Unfortunately, I’m not a good enough musician to figure much of it out on my own, and absent instruction from a teacher, I haven’t been able to come up with a practice plan. I try playing along with songs on the radio with varying degrees of success, but the overall result is a fair amount of frustration even though I love the instrument itself. Rehearsal with the band helps immensely, as I can see and hear how what I do fits into the whole.

It occurs to me that when someone comes to faith in Jesus Christ, the disciplines and habits I take for granted may be as confusing to them as practicing the bass is to me. If you don’t know how you fit into the whole and how it all works together, you wander aimlessly, doing your best, but not seeing the sense of it all. It’s no wonder new Christians get frustrated with being told they should read their Bibles and pray, worship and witness, but not getting any help in the nitty-gritty of putting it all together. Those of us in positions of leadership have not done them nor ourselves any favors in our failure to offer direct hands-on guidance. 

That being said, I am thankful tonight for the frustration I have in practicing my bass. It gives me a lesson in Christian leadership that I needed to hear years ago. It’s not enough for me to tell people to engage in Christian disciplines if I don’t also show them how it’s done and give them opportunity for it to fit into the larger picture of our life together in Christ. The conductor does that for the band; the pastor does that for the Church. Strangely enough, they don’t always teach these basic matters in seminary, and learning it by trial and error is about as effective as it would be for a someone to just get up and start waving his or her arms, imagining themselves to be a conductor. 

I’m pushing 70, and still learning. I guess that’s good. I just wish I had gotten smarter sooner.