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The Music Exchange

Mission and music

Mission and music

February and March seem to be a big time of year for missions. Churches, University and School Christian Unions all over the country put on talks, events, dinners, and 'grill-a-Christians' to get their guests of wide-ranging tastes in earshot of the gospel.

Accompanying those events, or even integral to them, will be the use of music. Whether in the background during the event, or up front in a classical concert or jazz night, music can play a big part in breaking down cultural barriers so that the culturally uncomfortable message of the gospel can be heard. Many great evangelists have used music to great effect. Dwight Moody and Billy Graham are the two most famous examples.

Think carefully

The use of music in evangelism requires a lot of thought, however. Very often, the music can become the focus of the event, rather than the gospel itself. A friend of mine put on a band night. Great band, massive crowd, and some of the lyrics of the songs were pretty good. If you measured the success of an evangelistic evening by atmosphere and number of non-Christians, it hit the spot. The 600 or so teenagers were loving it. When the screaming of the fans was at its height, the lead singer decided to do his gospel slot. Here's the dialogue that followed between speaker and crowd.

Speaker: 'Are you having a great time?'
Crowd: 'YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAH'.
Speaker: 'Well I wanna tell you a story'.
Crowd: 'WHOO WHOO WHOO WHOO WHOO WHOO'.
Speaker: 'It's a story about my Father ƒ'.
Crowd: 'WE LOOOOOOVE YOO OOOOOO'.
Speaker: 'ƒ My heavenly Father'.
Crowd:'YOU ROOOOOOOOOOO OOOCK'.

I suppose the positive thing about the event was that the band had to rely on God to give the kids ears to hear, because they certainly weren't going to listen to the speaker!

Another danger of music is the way it can (and has) been used to manipulate people to make commitments to Christ rather than relying on the Holy Spirit to convict hearts of sin through the Word.

So, music may attract more people to an event, and we may see more immediate fruit, but we know that genuine fruit is shown in disciples who carry their crosses till the day they die. That is fruit that lasts, and in which we should be investing. So how can we use music responsibly in evangelism?

The Word

If the event is a concert, then the Word must be clearly audible, whether spoken or sung (Handel's Messiah in itself is a fantastic gospel presentation). It's such a simple point to make, but at concerts, it's nearly always the case that far more work goes into rehearsals and musicianship rather than clear presentation of the Word of God. We must believe that it's the Word that does the work, not the music. I gave a gospel commentary at a magnificent performance of Bach's John Passion in St. John's College, Cambridge. The music was superb, the chapel full, but the acoustics weren't suited to the spoken word, and we couldn't use the PA system. From the front of the chapel I had to project my voice all the way to the back, which made me sound like a rusty foghorn. It wasn't much fun for the people in the front row either. Fortunately, organisers of the event had the foresight to print my talk out in the programme just in case anyone missed it.

So that's the first thing - make sure that the gospel content is well-prepared, clearly audible and not over-shadowed by the music. (One way of helping this to happen is to ensure that any posters or fliers are clear that there will be some kind of gospel talk.)

Second, if we are in the business of making disciples, we will always be looking beyond the event to follow up those who have shown an interest in the gospel. This is another simple evangelistic principle. It's tempting to be satisfied when someone professes Christ at an event, but how will we know if that profession is genuine, and not just a result of an emotional response to a song, friendly atmosphere, or any other factor, for that matter? Jesus said to those who had believed in him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.' Music may seem to spark a positive response to Christ, but if, like those Jews in John 8, they refuse to hear and obey the Word of God, then they are still children of the devil. We don't want people to respond to Jesus because of beautiful music without urging them to submit the whole of their lives to Jesus for eternity. Music is a great platform from which to preach the gospel. Make sure it remains a platform.

Richard Simpkin