The passion of the Music Ministry of First Baptist Church of Ocala...
...is to disciple believers so they can engage their culture with a Christian witness.

Music has the unique ability to affect the whole person: heart, mind, and spirit. God's greatest desire is for His people to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). The Apostle Paul said, "I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind" (I Corinthians 14:15).

Unfortunately, when most people talk about worship or worship style, they usually talk in terms of the music used in a service. The truth is, worship is much more than music, and we believe that God intended music to be used for much more than just worship.
We can identify five major functions of the church mentioned in Scripture: worship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and fellowship. Music can and should play an important role in each one of those functions.

• It is important in both corporate and individual worship because it gives us the opportunity to express ourselves in unique and meaningful ways.
  It nurtures our spiritual growth (discipleship) by reinforcing the doctrinal and spiritual truths of Scripture.
• It ministers to us in times of great joy and deep sorrow.
  It can proclaim the life-changing truth of the Gospel to a lost world in what has been called a "universal language".
• It enriches our fellowship as we encourage one another with "psalms, hymns, and
  spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16).

Worship can be defined as the activity whereby those whose lives have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, by grace, express their love, thanksgiving, and praise to God in response to His revelation of Himself to them. It is the overflow of a life of individual and corporate worship from which all of the other functions of the church pour forth. In fact, those other functions could be considered acts of worship in themselves. They are expressions of service inspired by our love for Jesus. Like the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8), we hear God calling for servants and ambassadors. As His children, gifted for service in the Kingdom by His Holy Spirit, our response of love, devotion, and a heart filled with thanksgiving ought to be: "Here am I, Lord, send me!" How will you respond to the call?