Singers and Musicians of Church

Godliness before Giftedness

By Kathy Brunker, Guest Writer

You might be a great singer or musician, but as a singer or musician at church, the thing that distinguishes you from other talented people is that you belong to Jesus. Otherwise you may as well enter ‘The Voice’ rather than be involved in music ministry at church.

Singers and musicians at church need to understand that they are Christians before they are song leaders and instrumentalists.  And they need to be mature Christians, not just great singers and musicians because as people ‘up front’ they are leaders of the church, whether they like it or not.  Their ministry doesn’t stop when the service is over.  Because people have seen them ‘up front’ they’ll notice them at morning tea or supper; they’ll notice them at the kid’s church lunch or down at the shops.

Why Godliness before Giftedness?

Growing in Godliness is important as they lead people to Jesus.  This is part of being genuine and being a leader.  They need to be humble and have a servant attitude.  They certainly do not want to give the congregation the impression that they think themselves better than them in any way.  They want the congregation to know that they consider it a privilege to serve them in love with the gifts God has graciously given them.

Their knowledge of God must be both the foundation and guiding principle of the way they relate to the congregation, the other singers and musicians and the minister, during the service and at all other times.

How Should Music Ministry Be Conducted? 

Because music is a way of embedding God’s Word in our lives, music ministry must be done in submission to God’s Word and in fellowship with and submission to the leaders God has given those involved.

Now you might ask, where does this leave people who are gifted but are new Christians, or newcomers to church, or children?  I would say that there’s room for training them in our bands, with the person being taken on under the guidance of a mature Christian.  We would also want to make sure that there’s some training in Godliness happening, for example, that the person attends church regularly, attends Bible study or goes to Kids church or Youth group.

We can see from all of this that while giftedness is important for music ministry – as you must be able to play or sing to a certain proficiency - Godliness is even more important.