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The Music Exchange

Non-Christians in the music group?

After this year's Evangelical Ministry Assembly, one of the questions that threw up a bit of discussion was whether we should ask non-Christian musicians to play or sing in our meetings.

I'll be up-front and admit that I am not keen, but the Bible doesn't stipulate either way, so I'm happy to have my opinion changed (actually that's not true - I'm a sensitive artistic type, so I'm prone to take any challenge personally and go all quiet and moody).

Let me put some arguments for and against.

For:

1) We don't discourage non-Christians from singings hymns with us in the congregation. What's the difference in having them sing them standing up front?
Similarly, if we needed a plumber to serve the congregation by fixing the church heating system, we wouldn't think twice about whether the plumber was a Christian.

2) It's a great way of helping non-Christians feel included and valued in the church. (Belonging can lead to believing.)

3) We need good music to accompany our meetings, so music provided by non-Christians is better than poor music provided by Christians (however servant-hearted), and it's certainly better than no music at all.

I'll try to answer each of these points in turn.

Against:

1) The job of a musician in a congregational setting is to help people praise God together. This is a huge responsibility, so it's odd that non-believers should lead us to praise a God they have no relationship with themselves. We wouldn't ask a non-believer to lead us in saying the Creed or to pray intercessory prayers. Having said that, it's important to remember that there will be non-believers in the congregation (hopefully). We don't want to alienate them by discouraging them from singing with us, but we do want them to hear Christians sing about Jesus passionately so that the unbeliever 'is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you' (1 Corinthians 14.24b-25, ESV).

We would also need to pay them if we are to have a clear conscience, just as we would pay the plumber (and musicians are much more expensive!). However, I wonder if it would be money better spent if we trained our Christian musicians to be more competent musicians. (See the answer to no. 3.)

2) There's a much bigger debate here about belonging and believing. Suffice it to say that, of course, God will bring his children to himself in his way and in his time. So there will be testimonies of those who have come to know Jesus as a result of belonging to a Christian music group, just as there are many testimonies of Christians who have married non-Christians who have subsequently believed. For those we must say 'Hooray'. But good results aren't a justification for bad practice.

My priority for a non-Christian musician would be to belong to a Christianity Explored group rather than having them play in a music group.

3) Musical excellence is important; hence the need for us to train Christian musicians who are able to serve in this way. The fact is that musicians are very powerful people. I was once told that there are two people more powerful than anyone else in a congregation. One is the director of music because they have the immense power of music at their fingertips, which can, in the wrong hands, destroy a church. (The other person is, of course, the church treasurer!). We must pray that this would not be the case, but, nevertheless, it remains of paramount importance that our music (and our money!) is in the hands of godly and trustworthy servants of Jesus.

Another argument is to do with modelling. Those who are on public view in our church meetings should also expect to have their whole lives on view. We would want to ask of the person leading us in praise of Jesus, 'Does your life match up to your public profession of faith?' If they are unbelievers, then that question is shot. Especially young Christians looking for role models could be led astray.

Richard Simpkin