Music And DiscipleshipSample

"Form and Improvisation"

Music combines both form and improvisation. In every song is a form that the musicians follow even as they improv over the notes with melody or solos. Without the form, the solo is chaos, and without the solo, the form is lifeless.

Why is this important in discipleship? Well, since you asked. Two fancy words that exist in theological circles are the Regulative and Normative Principle. Think of the Regulative Principle like the Form, and the Normative like Improvisation. Regulative people will tell you that Scripture lays out “exactly” what we are to do as Christians in our worship and mission, and to do otherwise would be sin. We can also call this the “red-light,” or prescriptive way to living in Christ. If the Bible prescribes it exactly, do it, if not, STOP!

The normatives on the other hand are the “green-light” people. They view things more descriptively. They believe the Bible gives us guidelines, and we can improv in how we choose, as long as we don’t add anything into Scripture.

We cannot get into the positives and negatives of these two views fully here, for that you’ll have to go buy The Tempo of Discipleship, my book, but I feel like a musical middle ground in these two approaches will help us preserve freedom in Christ.

I prefer to view life in both form and improvisation, like a soccer game. The form of the game—the rules, the lines on the field, the refs—preserves the spontaneity. The form allows for the spontaneity to happen. Without the lines on the field, it would be chaos. The coaches without form would either have to be authoritarian—standing over every player screaming the next steps, or the players would resort to anarchy--making their own rules, and pretty soon there’d be no game to enjoy.

Music, like soccer, preserves both the rules (the prescriptions), and the freedoms (the descriptions). To live a life that is free in Christ we must learn the parameters set by God around EVERYTHING (prescription). When used for his glory and under his guidelines, everything in life can be enjoyed, experienced, and free within his proper limits (description). This is the life of wisdom we must grow into. We need to know God’s form (that is evident in Scripture), and also learn how to improvise freely within it in order to experience life as most free.