Music and culture, music and worship, music and ministry—music is in everything we do. Yet, in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, music has not been formally placed in a recognized organization. Chaplains have their group, so do educators, women and literature evangelists. Some argue, however, that as there is time for everything to emerge, so there will be a time for ... the music issues to be given a more formal attire. One church leader is saying it’s time for Adventist musicians to unite.

That’s the word from Miroslav Pujic, an Adventist pastor and the communuication director for the Trans-European region of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Two years ago, Pujic helped launch the Adventist Musicians Association (AMA) in the United Kingdom.

“This is something we wanted to start because music is such an important part of worship,” he says. “We rely on musicians more than anyone else when we have a program or anything. We felt we should do something to put them together.”

A music lover himself, Pujic says that AMA provides workshops, clinics and seminars throughout the year in various countries. They organize the International Festival of Christian Music (IFCM). “People feel part of something. They come to annual meetings and it’s a chance to talk, to exchange their art, to express themselves.”

“The primary aim of the AMA in the British Isles was to raise the profile of Adventism though mediums like music, but also to raise the standard in the church from minor or primary to a more professional level,” says Paul Lee, AMA president, and music roordinator for the church in South England.

AMA brings together and celebrates the talent of musicians in the Adventist Church. “Music is the tempo of our hearts written in the key of life,” states the Web site, www.ama-ted.net.

The organization deals with creativity in music, “which means how to write music,” Pujic explains. “It deals with interpretation of music—how to understand if the music is different than what you are used to. We have highly professional musicians, but also gifted people who are running a music ministry in their church.”

Pujic, who is also the AMA chairman and music ministry director for the church in the Trans-European region, explains that the church’s world headquarters has written a statement on music and he was able to share that with AMA members. “I asked them to give a comment. Now is a chance to say something.” The guidelines, which will be reviewed this fall by delegates during Annual Council, one of two biannual meetings of the church’s executive committee, leave room for contextualization, Pujic says. “Apart from principles and guidelines, we have to give room for different cultures and expressions. We have to accept the different models.”

“There are a variety of [musical] styles [within AMA],” Lee says. “The church has always been very conservative in its taste, so the majority joining [AMA] will be from a traditional background. With young people pushing the boundaries further and further, we are getting input from contemporary musicians and artists. While we have a duty of care, we don’t want to condemn their enthusiasm either. ... We find that we have to cater a lot more for these different styles.”

Lee says AMA hosts workshops specifically on worship. “The intention is to equip musicians, vocalists, worship leaders and music coordinators in the art and skill of worship and focus their attention on not only purely the musical side, but on the spiritual side.”

Members of AMA come primarily from the Trans-European region, but there are also members from Canada, the United States and Brazil, Pujic says.