Evangelicals Now
<< April 2008 >>

The Music Exchange

On the road again

‘To God’s elect, strangers in the world... who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood’ (1 Peter 1.1-2, NIV).

I’m back on the godliness trail.

1 Peter is the book I encourage all the professional musicians I work with to read when on tour or away from Christian fellowship for extended periods of time. It’s a letter which is full of assurance as to our identity in Christ and our hope in heaven, while at the same time providing a rich dose of realism as to the world we live in. Peter says that we are loved by God, our home is in heaven, but presently we are strangers in a perishing world.

Obedience

What is also clear from the letter, and particularly from the opening greeting printed above, is our calling to obedience here on earth before the return of Jesus. Peter says that we have been chosen to be saved for obedience to Jesus Christ. It’s the same calling that Paul writes about in Romans 1.5: ‘...we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith’ (NIV). We are saved for heaven in order to be obedient to Christ now. This also resonates with James’s message — that the out-working of a genuine faith is a life characterised by good works and godliness.

Don’t want to hear

Very few musicians want to hear this message. We want to know how we can produce more beautiful music. We want to be able to ‘touch’ as many people as we can with our music — to be a blessing to as many as possible. Some of us want to get our theology of music correct. Some of us want to plumb the depths of ‘prophetic worship’. Some of us even want to use our music in evangelism. Not many of us want to be obedient to Jesus.

One of my closest personal encouragers is Ben, who plays the drums regularly at his church. We’ve just finished studying Romans together. He spoke of his frustration at the many who come up to him saying, ‘What does God want me to do with my life?’ as if waiting for a voice from out of the blue. He said to me, ‘What I do is get my Bible out to show them what God wants them to do with their lives: he wants them to follow Jesus and be obedient to him’. Sometimes, even among Christians, the Word of God can seem like a stranger’s voice in an alien world!

Two kinds of beauty

Us musos can sound so godly (when we practise) and we can look very godly too (when we wash) but our lack of commitment to the hard graft of discipleship is what can often split churches in two, because our desire is more for beautiful music instead of an inner beauty of purity and humility. We are passionate about the peripherals and aesthetics, but lazy about the fundamentals of listening to Jesus’s voice and responding in trusting obedience.

I was helping on a musicians’ training day on Saturday. I’m thankful to God for Vaughan Roberts, who took us so clearly to the Word of God at the start of the day. From 1 Corinthians 12 he reminded us that as a body we have many diverse gifts. Vaughan included different musical gifts as part of the non-exhaustive list given in the text of the passage. The focus of the talk, however, was not on the gifts themselves but on the one generous Giver, so that in turn our focus of application was on having an attitude of grateful service driven by reverent humility.

Bust-ups

Why do we have band bust-ups? Why is there so much animosity in the choir pews? Why has there always been such grumbling? Not because of music, but because of the ungodliness of musicians. I’m very grateful to God to have experienced so few musical battles, and I know that this is because I’m privileged to work with musicians who value obedience to Jesus rather than their gift.

We are aliens and strangers in this world, says Peter. The musicians of the world are characterised by ungodliness and disobedience.

Christian musicians, however, have a home in heaven, where there is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Jesus will welcome us into heaven on his return, not as musicians, but as good and faithful servants, our first calling, and the only calling that will count in eternity.

Richard Simpkin