Evangelicals Now
<< September 2005 >>

The Music Exchange

Pick your musical battles

‘Pick your battles’ is a phrase that has helped me stay relatively sane over the last ten years.

Most musicians have plenty of battles to fight, as have pastors (as they battle with their musicians). Some are important to fight, but most are matters of taste, so, although I get easily wound up by petty issues, it’s worth remembering that that’s all they are.

Here are some battles that simply aren’t worth getting into with music (though I admit that by drawing attention to them, I’m in danger of heightening their importance).

1. To clap or not to clap

Our congregation doesn’t clap when we’re singing. However, there are those among us who would like to clap, and feel that they aren’t free to express themselves in that way. It’s one of those issues that must, by its nature, be settled one way or the other, so there’ll always be losers. My opinion is that it’s better not to clap in the church meeting, because it makes it more difficult for the newcomer to feel at home, but that’s only my opinion. I am really glad, however, that some feel free to be able to raise their hands as they sing to Jesus, and if someone started to clap, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. In fact, we had a wonderful moment a few weeks ago when I got a new singer up to the microphone. In rehearsal, we were larking about, and the singers and guitarists started to clap their hands above heads in the third verse of ‘Be thou my vision’. However inappropriate that was (and it was very inappropriate for that particular verse), the new singer took it to be a serious part of the rehearsal and he absolutely went for it in front of 600 people with his arms and hands raised to the roof, flapping around like Dodgy Don Beech at a Metallica gig. At the end of the song, in the silence at the end of the meeting, one of my friends turned to another and said, ‘Tell me, did what I just saw really happen?’

I would hate to think that some have decided not to make our church their home over the issue of clapping (though I’m sure that one or two have). All we can do is keep teaching the gospel so that there is an attitude of mutual service and humility in the congregation. All that would be achieved is disunity and bitterness if someone said to me, ‘Your church isn’t suitable for me because you don’t clap’, or if I were to say, ‘clapping’s for wusses’. Both would be driven by selfish attitudes designed to destroy, not build up.

2. Disputes that detract from the spiritual battle

I did an evangelistic jazz event once, and a Christian lady had brought her unbelieving friend. I went to meet them both after the event, but instead of wanting me to talk to her friend about Jesus, the Christian had a go at me for singing ‘Angel Eyes’ (because the song mentions ‘that old devil’). She wanted to make her point, and I, of course, wanted to tell her to wind her neck in. Both of us had forgotten that it was her friend that needed to be challenged to reject the real devil and to follow Jesus. I should have said immediately, ‘I’m sorry. Thank you for your advice. Please introduce me to your friend.’ If there is a non-believer present who has just heard the gospel, there are bigger things at stake than winning an argument with a Christian brother or sister.

3. Issues arising in extraordinary circumstances

This is going to be hard to believe, but we have sung ‘Jerusalem’ at St. Helen’s. Sometimes, if there is a wedding or a funeral where the main organisers are not part of the church family, we can advise against the poor choice of songs, but ultimately, if we want to keep the doors open to a friendship in a sensitive situation, it speaks volumes to be able to be flexible in these things. Incidentally, when we last did ‘Jerusalem’ at a wedding, the Rector announced the hymn explaining that the answer to all the questions in verse 1 was, ‘No!’

Romans 14 gives us a great pattern for dealing with these battles: a love of the gospel leads to devotion to Jesus and a non-judgemental, sacrificial service of each other over non-gospel issues.

Richard Simpkin