What philosophy of worship have you sought to instill in Cedarville students? What makes Godhonoring worship? Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “It is the voice of the church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings. It is the church that is singing. And you, as a member of the church, may share in its song." So we also have to take a hard look at whether the styles and forms we're using musically are helping the church sing or not helping the church sing. These choices we make either become a help to people to worship and focus centrally and completely on God or a hindrance to that. So my goal for helping the students here is to strip away the stuff that doesn't help and to press in on the stuff that does help. There's a good passage of Scripture that talks to this where Jesus is with the woman at the well. She's a Samaritan woman. She knows that Jesus is a Jew. She recognizes Him because He knows everything about her. And she believes He is God, and the first thing she says is, “Let me go to the temple so I can worship." And Jesus says something very interesting. He says “The time is coming now when you will worship in spirit and in truth." So He's saying this is not about styles and forms and buildings. This is about truth and this is about spirit. True worship involves three things that I can really see. It involves, if it's all that we are, intellect, emotion, and will, which would be what I would call obedience. So we need to, in our intellect, learn who God is, saying good theology of who God is. That should move us emotionally and drive us to obedience. When all three of those are aligned, I think you've worshiped. How did Cedarville’s traveling teams, specifically HeartSong, come to be? Historically, when I came here, we had the Kingsmen Quartet, which was a male quartet, then we had the Abundant Life Singers, then we had the Swordbearers, then we had the Sounds of Joy, a ladies trio. And you know, as it is with musicians, there's going to be competition, because we had all these different styles of teams. And so I had this dream of not just having different names, but let's just have one name. They're all the same. They're worshiping God in having a unified theme that kills that competition. What impact has HeartSong had on Cedarville and beyond? BrandonWaltz ’87 and I came up with what we call the HeartSong Way. And we say it’s the practice of centering on Jesus so we will know and live and speak the good news about Jesus. To worship exclusively, to engage others in worshiping only God, to grow together, to make Bible study and meditation and prayer priorities in our lives, to live connected, to pursue authentic community as brothers and sisters in Christ, to serve selflessly, and to enjoy anticipating and acting on the needs of others first. We want to represent well wherever we are. I think that’s part of the success of HeartSong. If we do these things well, this is going to protect the good name of Cedarville, the good name of HeartSong, and more importantly, the name of Christ. And we want to be good representatives of all three of those things. What are your hopes for HeartSong in the future? My heart would be that we stay focused on the right things. The music’s going to change. Right now, in the church, there are some of the best hymns that have ever been written, and they’ve been written in the last 20 years. Something like “In Christ Alone." “His Mercy Is More." So I trust that God always has songwriters. He’s always had people who are expressing who Jesus is and what He’s done for us through song. And I don’t think that’s going away, because music was God’s idea. We keep forgetting that. But it must grieve God’s heart when we are fighting over how we worship Him because of certain styles and forms. So my heart moving forward with HeartSong is that they never emphasize style and form over the truth of what it means to love God only and serve Him sincerely and live obediently to Him. There are so many moments where students have challenged me, loved me, wept with me, laughed with me. My passion to try to help prepare the next generation of those who will lead in music and churches has been a real joy. 23
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