Commencement Video
Did you miss this year’s Commencement Exercises? Wish you could have seen a friend or loved one graduate?…
read fullAn old-fashioned, preacher-training Bible college
“Now then, we are Ambassadors for Christ…” 2 Cor. 5:20
At the end of the 2010–11 school year, another important transition took place at Ambassador Baptist College. After twenty-two years of leading the music department at Ambassador, Dr. Don Scovill stepped down as the music chairman and was replaced by his son Todd. In 1995, the Lord brought Mr. Todd Scovill to ABC from a thriving local church music ministry. Upon his arrival, he led the college chorale to begin our yearly tradition of singing excerpts of Handel’s Messiah as a part of our Thanksgiving festivities. Visitors from the surrounding area are amazed that a college of our size is able to do such a quality presentation of this familiar and classic literature. Mr. Scovill’s training in the instrumental realm has been invaluable in assembling various instrumental groups and ensembles. I believe that Mr. Scovill will continue the strong foundation that has been laid by his father through the years and will build upon it.
In light of this transition, will the music change at ABC? I am sure that Mr. Scovill will do some things differently than his father. When a church gets a new pastor, the new pastor usually does not preach exactly like the former pastor because they are different personalities. They may use a different approach in their sermons. Their ministries have different strengths, yet their philosophy is the same. I am confident that this is true of the Scovills. While the faces of leadership have changed, our philosophy of church music will not.
Since day one, ABC has had what has been commonly labeled as a traditional and conservative style of music. The terms traditional and conservative are not confined to time, but rather to style. The church has been blessed with good music that was written in the 1800’s and continues to be blessed by music that is written in 2011. The issue is not the era in which a song was written, but whether or not the style and content is honoring to God. While some leaders are convinced that no biblical text guides the style of music, we firmly believe that the Bible does give us guidelines to govern the style of our music. Some of these texts are applied to the Christian’s life in general (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 7:14–25). John gives a general principle for the Christian in 1 John 2:15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The Christian is not to love the things of this world, including the music of the world. Other texts refer specifically to music (Ephesians 5:19; Revelation 5:9). Paul gave a specific application to music in Colossians 3:16 when he admonished believers: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Both general and specific verses teach us that there is a difference between carnal and spiritual music. Therefore, our music cannot be fashioned after the world.
As a result, we will continue to reject the music philosophy of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). There is a growing acceptance of using CCM in independent Baptist churches. Some churches use it with no reservations, and others borrow from various CCM groups and “clean up” the songs. While the motives of Christian leaders who are doing this may be sincere, I am afraid the result will be disastrous. Worldly music will lead to fleshly living. In Ezekiel 22:26, Ezekiel pointed out a grave error made by the priests: “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” They put no difference between the clean and unclean. We do the same when we try to put the world’s music with good words. CCM and those who use it make the same mistake as the priests in Ezekiel’s day.
Our focus will remain on training young people for the local church music ministry. Our goal is to train men to be effective congregational song leaders and choir directors with a biblical philosophy of music. By requiring two years of piano for all our ladies in a four-year program, they are encouraged to develop their musical skills so that they can be a blessing in the music ministry of their local churches. Although our students are taught to play skillfully, their music is not to be about performance, but rather ministry. Music is to exalt the Lord, not ourselves. There is a great need for men and women to serve in the local church music ministry.
We will continue to teach that the words of the music must exalt Christ and teach sound doctrine. A common trend in church music today is to bring God down to man’s level, when in actuality our music ought to exalt Him. The text of the music must be true to the Word of God. Unsound doctrine sometimes creeps into the church through music long before it makes it into the preaching.
Since our founding in 1989, it has been said that at Ambassador Baptist College, preaching is king and music is queen. I look forward to seeing how the Lord uses Mr. Todd Scovill and our talented music faculty to train the next generation of local church musicians.