Faithfulness for musicians

Earlier this year, at the first-ever Magnify conference for church musicians and sung-worship leaders, we asked this question in one of our seminar streams: How can we pursue faithfulness in music ministry, on the one hand depending on God’s power and work; on the other labouring ourselves to serve others as wise and faithful stewards?

We don’t want to think that the spiritual effectiveness of our ministry is solely in our hands – praise the Lord! But nor should we conclude that our role is completely insignificant and our only role is to “get out of the way”. It’s God’s work, and He graciously uses means, even us – what a privilege.

Here are three ways we could embody a dependent, active faithfulness…

1. Faithful to Pray. None of us can give people an awareness of God’s presence, bring people to conviction to repent and mourn their sin, provide assurance of forgiveness, stir lasting joy in people’s hearts in the face of sorrow, stir faith in people’s hearts in the face of their darkest fears, bind up the broken-hearted, or awaken dead hearts to spiritual life. Only the Spirit of God can do that as He reveals the Son of God through the Word of God. Recognising that God is at work to build up His people when we gather is the first step towards being a people of prayer. I’m convicted that, while I’d be saying “yes and amen” with everyone reading this, my practice sometimes tells a different story. Could we be those who pray before we rehearse and during the service that God would help us see Jesus? Could we gather the team afterwards (don’t forget the tech volunteers!) to give thanks and pray for more fruit?

2. Faithful to Prepare. We want to pursue excellence because our desire is for people’s eyes to be on Jesus, and God uses how we play and lead to help people see Him clearly. This is not excellence for its own sake, or to be thought well of by others. It’s doing things well for the sake of serving the church. Thoughtfully choosing and arranging songs and seeking to grow in giving a clear lead really does serve the singing of our congregations. Is there one musical or leadership skill you could commit to honing, to better enable congregational singing when you serve?

3. Faithful to Point to Jesus. As worship leaders, we never want to draw attention to ourselves. But as a kindness to others, there are moments where we will step into a place of leadership so that the focus can remain on the substance of our singing – the glory of God in Christ – and ensure that focus is not lost through confusion or distraction.

For example: our posture helps lead others. We are not only giving a cue for when to come in but also modelling to the congregation a response to the truths of the gospel. It is worth considering what we might be communicating. Each of us will have our own unique emotional spectrum and will be comfortable with different degrees of outwardly expressing the inward reality of our affections for God. We must be wary of prescribing a certain posture as evidence of “true worship”. That said, have we considered that the way we respond to the gospel for ourselves gives a lead and an example to the congregation?

In all these things, Harold Best’s definition of excellence is supremely freeing: “The process of becoming better than I once was.” May this encourage you to deeper dependence on the Lord as you serve, as well as a renewed commitment to grow in your service of His people.