Have you ever asked yourself what the Bible tells us about the use of music and singing in the New Testament Church? Can we offer you some thoughts. A lot of the music we at M3M compose is teaching/admonishing as Colossians 3:16 / Ephesians 5:18 or Evangelistic; we grasp many difficult areas with our songs that hopefully will help to escort people through tough times, so that they can have some support and not feel alone as they experience difficulties: but we do compose songs to be sung by people gathered at meetings; we call them “Congregational” songs.

We deliberately haven’t called the Congregational album “The Worship” album.

We at M3M wholeheartedly endorse the use of music and singing as a means to offer Worship to GOD, but the phrase ‘The Worship’, or simply ‘Worship’ has almost exclusively come to mean music and singing; ask a Christian who has just come from a meeting the question “what was the Worship like?”, and they will assume you are referring to the music and singing (and most likely that is what you will be referring to). When the word ‘The’ is put in front of the word ‘Worship’, it therefore implies that nothing else is Worship. To live a lifestyle of “Worship” might mean you sing a lot, but the care of widows and orphans, private prayer, devotion to reading the Bible, unseen preparation, preaching or teaching, acts of Christian service, giving of time, energy or resources to the Church or the world are acts of Worship, and woe betide us if we elevate music and singing to a position of being The Worship. How marginalised does that leave those who cannot sing?

The Bible tells us to be “…transformed by the renewing of our minds … (from Romans 12:2). Much of that transformation could be assisted by the renewing of our vocabulary; you might think that as the more modern contingent of the Church, we are not hidebound by tradition, but we have invented traditions that are equally binding, and one such area is the realm of music and singing.

What Does The New Testament Have To Say About Music And Singing?

Not very much it would appear; but there is a great wealth of insight to be gained from the small amount that is written.

Can we look at 3 areas please?

A – Is Music and Singing Endorsed in the New Testament as part of Church Activity?
If it is …

B – How is Music and Singing to be used in the New Testament Church Activity?
What is to be the …

C – Content and Style?

A – Is Music and Singing Endorsed in the New Testament as part of Church Activity?

JESUS sang a hymn with HIS disciples (Matthew 26:30 / Mark 14:26). If JESUS sang hymns then we can follow HIS lead. Also, if what they sung was taken from the Hebrew Psalter, that opens up the book of Psalms to us as a whole resource; you might think that is speculation or conjecture, so what about Mary’s expression in Luke 1 vv 46 – 55, which we call ‘The Magnificat’? Is it a song, people often ask? Well if it isn’t consider this; Mary’s words can all be found in Psalms 34:3 / 35:9 / 136:23 / 45:17 / 126:3 / 99:5 / 103:17 / 89:13 / 150:2 / 10:2 / 136:17 / 9:12 / 107:9 / 98:3 / 78:5 / 105:6 / 105:8 and one verse in 1 Samuel 2:5 (Hannah’s song) – that is not speculation or conjecture in validating the use of the Old Testament Psalter in the New Testament dispensation.

Finally in regard to the referencing of Psalms in the New Testament …-

The New Testament contains more than 100 quotations from the Psalms.

With two small exceptions,every New Testament writer draws from the beloved hymnbook of God’s chosen people. https://accordancebible.com/psalms-new-testament/

Colossians 3:16 / Ephesians 5:19 – tell us to sing to one another; teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms, hymns and Spiritual songs with Grace (Χάρις (charis)) and melody (ψάλλω (psallō)) in our hearts, to the LORD.

Singing is definitely part of the life of the New Testament Church; many people ask ‘is the use of instruments Biblically supportable in the New Testament?’ So let’s have an initial look at what Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs are, with that in mind.

Psalms ψαλμός psalmos 1) a striking, twanging / 1a) of a striking the chords of a musical instrument 1b) of a pious song, a psalm – Thayer’s Greek Dictionary.

a set piece of music, that is, a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice,
harp or other instrument; a “psalm”); collectively the book of the Psalms:

-Strong’s Concordance

It would appear that psalms include, or are dependant upon instruments of music in their New Testament definition. See the following also.

Hymns ὕμνος humnos 1) a song in the praise of gods, heroes, conquerors
2) a sacred song, hymn – Thayer’s Greek Dictionary

Apparently from a simpler (obsolete) form of ὕδέω hudeō (to
celebrate; probably akin to G103; compare G5567); a “hymn” or
religious ode (one of the Psalms): – hymn –

– Strong’s Concordance.

So a secular or sacred song in affirmation of a person or deity; nothing much specific about instruments to be ascertained here, but to say, that there isn’t a great deal of secular music that is acapella (purely vocal) so why would one assume that instruments are not valid in the New Testament Church’s understanding of the word? But if hymns can be one of the psalms, as defined above (Strongs), many of the psalms begin with instructions about what instruments key or style is to be used to perform or accompany the psalm (e.g. psalm 4:1 … with stringed instruments / 5:1 …for the flutes / 6:1 / 12:1 Sheminith (8th ) key or pitch / 7:1 Shiggaion – 16:1 / 56:1 / 57:1 / 58:1 / 59:1 / 60:1 Miktam (style, theme or mood).
Spiritual πνευματικός pneumatikos Songs ᾠδήōdē

1) a song, lay, ode – Thayer’s Greek Dictionary 2) From G103; a chant or “ode” (the general term for any words sung; while G5215 denotes especially a religious metrical
composition, and G5568 still more specifically a Hebrew cantillation: – song Perhaps this is the only definition that includes the idea of unaccompanied singing, but which in no way legislates it.There appears to be ample endorsement of the use of musical instruments to accompany our singing in the New Testament Church.

B – How is Music and Singing to be used in the New Testament Church Activity?
Drawing from the two very similar verses, Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19 let’s begin by making a list

(i) Teaching (one another)
(ii) Admonishing (one another)
(iii) Employing Grace (to one another?)
(iv) Making Melody in our hearts (to the LORD)

But before we begin to look at this list, let’s see what we need to do before we open our mouths or play a note …Let the word of CHRIST dwell in you richly, in all wisdom … (from Colossians 3:16) … Be filled with the SPIRIT …. (from Ephesians 5:18)
What we sing or play must be under the constraints and Inspiration of GOD’s Written Word, and HIS HOLY SPIRIT – and “… in all wisdom …” To attempt to sing or play, and I would add to that ‘compose a song’, without being immersed in your Bible, open to the leading of GOD’s HOLY Spirit, and acting in the most wise way, is not good,

BUT the lamentable truth is that it is so easy to ignore these prerequisites !!!

Ego, artistic prowess, sentimentality, ambition, money and personal damage (and many more motives) can be the driving forces behind writing, singing or playing a song, which we are supposed to be performing “for JESUS” … We will look at this more when we consider “Content and Style”, but if ‘the Word of CHRIST was dwelling richly in us’ we wouldn’t sing half of the doctrinally erroneous songs that we do in Church meetings today or in previous generations; writers wouldn’t write such songs, and we’d know not to sing them. At M3M we labour to have all of the lyrics in our songs, and all of our teaching material, to be in line with Biblical Truth; we have, sometimes many years later, had to correct words and re-record songs.

Songs stick in your memory; ask any Christian what the preacher in their fellowship spoke about 6 weeks ago and see if they can tell you: but sing them the first line of a song and they’d probably be able to sing most of it, if not all of it. That’s great if the song has no error in it, but it’s a huge problem if what you are singing, and remembering, is Biblically unsound. The Apostle Paul says “ I will sing in the Spirit, and I will sing with my mind …” (from 1 Corinthians 14:15) We have to think about what we sing, so in conclusion to this topic …

Before we look at our list there is one more consideration we’d like to make; JESUS said to the woman at the well that “ … the FATHER is seeking those who Worship HIM in Spirit and in Truth”. We have considered how the Bible is to be the bedrock of Truth in our Worship (be that sung or expressed in another way) but honesty i.e. singing things you really mean, or can honestly say is of vital importance, especially if we are trying to “Worship GOD” with a song … in Spirit and in Truth. Here are some lines of songs I (Roly) can’t sing – I surrender all; it’s not because I don’t want to be able to say that, it’s just that I know (and so does GOD) that it isn’t true. Judson Van DeVenter who wrote the song struggled for many years, vacillating between the lure of musical stardom and Christian service. Similar examples would be the song Nothing between my soul and The SAVIOUR … YOU alone are everything to me …I wish HE was, but until HE is, I’ll guard my lips about what I say and sing, rather than be caught up in dishonesty fuelled by the emotional experience that a song can sometimes create.

So, now shall we look at our list …Teaching – many of the songs we compose are teaching in their content; as we have said we forget messages and preaching, we forget Bible passages, but we remember songs. A song that is sound in its doctrine can find its way into our hearts and minds; before it was ever written down in a way that was available to everyone, the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) were handed down from one generation to the next in song.

Admonition – which to a large extent means “telling off”, correcting or reprimanding. In the early part of my itinerating ministry, I found that after the first meeting where I had sung, individuals, or a group of people would come to me and begin telling me what was wrong with their Church fellowship; I asked them, “have you told the people concerned?” which really didn’t seem to help judging by the reactions I got; so I wrote a song called ‘Don’t talk to me’ the first stanza goes like this

‘Don’t talk to me, and please don’t tell me
Anything that you would not say
To the person concerned … don’t privily slander your neighbour’,

and it was set to a rather jolly little light reggae beat. Here’s an experiment for you to try; take those words and use them as the opening line of your spoken address one Sunday morning, and see what kind of mood you create: but sing it to your people in the way I did, and they will far more readily accept it: there is a softness in admonishing people in song, and I believe that is why we are to use singing to tell people off – it is a Biblical instruction, and it works

Employing Grace (to one another) This again is lateral – one to another; it must be … whenever would we be called upon to employ Grace towards GOD? Write, choose, sing songs that administer Grace to one another, and maybe to those who don’t know JESUS yet.

In all of the above is the option to sing as a gathered group, but GOD gifts some people to write songs that are not really to be sung along with; they are almost “Sermons in a Song”, perhaps more in the teaching/admonition area. There is nothing wrong in a soloist being engaged to contribute input to a congregation, that they simply listen to; singing to one another doesn’t have to mean all at once or in every song. There is an Old Testament principle that is very effective, even today, in having a musician contribute an item before a speaker makes their address, which we will look at when we consider some Old Testament guidelines that we can benefit from. A soloist can often bring a great contribution to an evangelistic meeting that might not have the strength of delivery that a congregation would afford it, especially if it was sung in a key that was pitched too high or too low for them. There is a place for the use of soloists, but it is not to turn them into celebrities. We have more to say about this in the realms of Music, musicianship and lead singers later.

Making Melody in your Heart (to GOD) This is the first topic in these verses that presents the idea of Singing “To” GOD, but do you notice it says nothing about vocalising that melody? Now the idea of keeping silent and not expressing the ‘melody’ you are making in your heart, is ludicrous, and there is certainly NT Scripture to endorse the use of vocalising our Worship to GOD (musically or spoken)… ”Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to GOD, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge HIS name ”Hebrews 13:15; but it’s got to be that way around – if there is no melody in our hearts towards GOD, we will struggle to make melody with our mouths to HIM.”

C – Content and Style
Let’s talk about Style first; it’s probably the shorter of the two, but probably the most contentious.Are there any styles of music that cannot be used in our employment of music and singing in the New Testament Church today? For me personally, I would say No, but there are some big “Buts” to be considered and the first one is … what is OK for me mightn’t be for someone else.

Paul in Romans 14:14, talking in the main about food, drink, and observing particular days as more important than others says “… I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean … “, and in v 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The phrase “ …do anything …” takes us out of the zone of purely food, drink and venerating certain days, so in my opinion styles of music need consideration, and especially in congregational situations; why?

Well if a certain style of music takes anyone into an area that creates bad memories e.g. ‘that’s the kind of music I listened to when I was a drug addict’ … does that need to be considered? Certain cultures are offended by certain styles of music; playing Reggae in a West Indian Church gathering would be extremely insensitive; to some cultures, Blues is classed as ‘the Devil’s music’; you can get yourself hidebound if you try to please everyone, but we are cautioned not to stumble others, so at the very least be aware of the fact that some Grace towards others may need to be afforded in our choice of styles

Some people might take this too far, objecting to certain scales or rhythm patterns, so let me offer some balance to that by way of information. If our Western ears were to experience the scales, rhythms and sheer volume of the music played in the Hebrew temple, we might be shocked.

Drums and loud percussion are a feature of African, Eastern and Biblical cultures; The temple had 4,000 musicians (1 Chronicles 23:5), who generally worked in shifts, but on occasions performed all together: that would make the loudest rock band in the world sound like a wasp in a jam jar.

In Western culture, the smallest musical interval (distance of pitch between notes) is a semitone i.e. half a note; Middle Eastern, Asian and Oriental scales work in quarter tones and sound discordant to Westerners. And also on the subject of European scales, our ears have become accustomed to the sound of scales with distorted tunings, just as much as any other culture; this might not interest everyone, but one of the greatest distorters of natural musical scales was Johann Sebastian Bach, and what he did to musical scales is what we still use today – permit me to explain.

Sound, like light, exists in frequencies that are natural, or as Christians would say, GOD made; the arrangement of these notes is called “the harmonic series”. So, if you have a pipe with no keys or finger holes, you can produce different notes by blowing into it at different pressures; bugles are a classic example of this; when you have discovered all of the notes that a pipe can produce you can arrange them into some kind of scale: the same is true of strings suspended between two points. Prior to Bach, all wind instruments, stringed instruments, organs and harpsichords were tuned to the ‘natural’ harmonic series. This meant that to play in different keys (pitch) one needed different wind instruments, violins and harpsichords; quite demanding at a garden party, especially if it rained. Bach retuned the harpsichord with minute but not insignificant distortions to the harmonic series and he wrote a composition called ‘Music For The Well Tempered Clavier’; it basically demonstrated how you could modulate from one key to another, all on one harpsichord. A chord, which we use in western music all of the time, called the “diminished” was now heard for the first time ever. The elders of the Church hierarchy thought this chord was so evil in its sound that Bach was removed from his position of kapellmeister (Bandmaster) of the Church in Arnstadt. This system of tuning is what we now use universally in Western, European, American, Russian and Australian cultures. So if anyone says to you that other cultures use scales that are not from GOD, remember that one of the greatest distorters of GOD’s scales was Bach, and that every piece of music you hear in a Church setting in the cultures mentioned above is based on that musical scale system.

I remember once in the company of some Irish believers, singing in what I thought was an Irish style, only to find that I was using ‘Republican’ music, in the company of ‘Loyalists’: I know of one fellowship where I have to be careful using a Bodhran (Irish war drum) because it upsets a reformed Roman Catholic who associates the instrument with his days of Republican terrorism.

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Let’s have a look at the subject of Content; what Biblical, reasonable and practical considerations lie before us under this topic? The first points we think that need to be considered, are these …What is being sung … who is it being sung to …? That might sound very pedantic, but can we ask you to consider this, because it exposes something about the intimacy of our relationship with GOD.

Bearing in mind all that we’ve said previously about the word ‘Worship’ not being monopolised as a activity, Worship and Praise are Biblically supportable descriptions of song material; it might interest you to know that almost without exception, the NT word for ‘Worship’ is the same word translated as ‘to kiss’ προσκυνέω (proskuneō). Does this tell us something about the word Worship? Worship is a personal act made directly from one person to another, so obviously as Christians, us individually to GOD – one-to-ONE … have you ever tried kissing more than one person at the same time?

At M3M we maintain that any song, that is truly a song of Worship, must allow the worshipper to offer their Worship directly to GOD. A song of Worship always addresses GOD in ‘second person pronouns’ ‘YOU’ or ‘YOUR’; can we try to clarify that please.

Here’s another one of those funny little experiments you can try to illustrate this point

Find a husband and wife and ask them to agree to do role play where you will give one of them a specific script of 3 words; they must agree to do what you ask; ask them to hold each other in a loving embrace, facing each other, with about 10 centimetres (3 to 4 inches) between their faces, so they are not looking at anyone else. If the wife is the chosen speaker ask her to repeat the script, one word at a time after you …. “I” …. “Love” … “Him”. Whereupon the husband is probably going to want to ask who this other guy is …. Unless a song allows the individual to address the GOD they are
worshipping with the pronouns ‘YOU’ or ‘YOUR’ the song is not a song of Worship, no matter what style it is sung in. It is not wrong to use songs with the pronouns ‘HIM’…’HE’ or ‘HIS’ in our congregations, but they are not songs of Worship, they are songs of Praise. If we are singing about GOD to each other, or to others, to build each other up (or tell each other off), or appealing to people about how much GOD Loves them, we are singing Praise; remember what we asked earlier… What is being sung … who is it being sung to? So what can we sing To GOD? Here are some suggestions …

(i)Worship and Adoration (ii) Expressions of Gratitude (iii) Petition

(i) Worship and Adoration we have visited to some extent; to express Love to GOD just
for who HE is. Expressing to GOD aspects of HIS Nature that you have discovered,
experienced and are in awe of.

(ii) Expressions of Gratitude. Thanking HIM for what HE does for us; our Salvation, HIS
provision for our needs, HIS Grace and Patience towards us; the Righteousness we
have been endowed with because of the Mercy HE affords us: or some particular
result where some problem or difficulty has been overcome, temporally,
emotionally or Spiritually. The Salvation of others, a Loved one maybe; the modicum
of health we enjoy or a healing; clean water, food, clothing, brothers and sisters,
friends, the very gift of the day we are living and breathing in … the list is endless.

Gratitude might not always be easy. We at M3M think there is something wrong with
people who welcome adversity so that they can “offer a sacrifice of Praise” …we aren’t
called to be stoics or Christian masochists: but if we can find it in our hearts to thank
GOD in not for those adverse circumstances, that is of great value to GOD, and will be of great benefit to us; see 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (‘in’ not ‘for’). I don’t think for one minute it was easy for Paul and Silas to sing hymns while they were incarcerated in the
Philippian jail, nursing the wounds of a public flogging, but the results were amazing;
there may not be an earthquake, the Salvation of our jailers, or release from our circumstances as Paul and Silas experienced, but we and GOD will be heart-warmed.
Perhaps there is a danger here that needs to be considered; if we sing songs of triumph
whilst in adversity, to the extent that we are almost in denial of our circumstances, or
using the euphoria of the moment to numb us to the reality of our situation, is that
good? Yes, GOD is Great and Awesome, and will continue to be so regardless of what we are going through, but if we are hundreds of miles from the palace, sitting in a ditch
without food, drink or hope, is GOD’s Majesty the true consideration of our heart?
Perhaps the next section could be of help to us.

(iii) Petition. This is a wonderful privilege, and an aspect of content that is to be
encouraged, once again because of the honesty in it. If we can humbly ask GOD in
song, for things we are in need of, there is an ensuing intimacy that occurs, and very
often a release into an altered heart attitude; this is not some kind of psychobabble,
it is Biblically attestable.

Psalms 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 85, 86, 90, 137, and others, express some degree of anxiety or pain; sometimes at a very personal level, sometimes concerning the whole Nation of the Hebrews. I call these the “moaning psalms”. It seems perfectly acceptable in the collection of songs that range from one end of the psalter to the other, to be able to express lack, fear, loss, misery and depression. The lament of the exiles as they are taunted by their oppressor’s to sing one of the “songs of Zion”, shows the depth of misery expressed in the song (psalm 137); the personal anguish of David expressed in his song when his life is in danger (Psalm 86): these are not the cries of people living in
security, they are impassioned pleas from people in devastating or life-threatening situations. Yet how often does the expression of the problem turn the heart of the petitioner to thankfulness, hope and even Worship? “For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.” (psalm 86:10) “With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.” (psalm 60:12) “But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.” (psalm 79:13)

I once wrote a song that began

“LORD there are times I feel
YOU cannot hear my voice
YOU seem to be so very far away…”

At the moment I honestly expressed my heart, came the next lines

“Then suddenly I realise
How YOU are Blessing me
And thankfully I lift my heart to say …
YOU are wonderful
Take the Worship of my heart for I adore YOU …..”

Petition can be sung repentance, and can be very effective in private and corporate settings. Psalm 51 is a great example of the prayer of a penitent man. As a corporate expression I remember in the 1980’s being a player in the bands that performed the first Graham Kendrick, “Make Way” marches in the UK. The very tangible power of conviction that came over us as we sang the song “LORD have mercy on us” still resides in my memory. Petition need not always be from a position of crisis; give us this day our daily bread.

Petition can be intercession for others; singing to GOD about the well-being of others can stir corporate passion. To conclude this section can we offer some encouragement to you who compose songs. Can we write songs about the journey into the awareness of GOD’s presence with us, so that we can escort people into that awareness (Psalm 139 e.g.). Can we write songs of honest aspiration that allow people to express their true position, not browbeating them with platitudes that neither we or they can relate to. Can we write about difficulties we have been through to give others songs to sing or listen to that can afford them Grace to help in the time of need. Can we write songs that assist people to discover Truth and forsake error. There might be much more to say about all of this, but can we for the next piece of our consideration turn our attention towards singing and musical service.

Singing and Musical Servanthood. Some places where we meet, we have no musicians or singers to coordinate what we sing in our gatherings. Or there may be a lone soul who can strum a few chords on a guitar, or play a little bit of keyboards; may GOD Bless such as do their best in whatever limited capacity they are able, and may we be grateful for them. Thankfully today we have media resources that can be drawn upon to assist us when we gather. You may have picked up already that we operate quite iconoclastically in regard to some of the current traditions that have emerged in the Christian musical environment, and in particular, some of the more modern trends. No we don’t have a downer on contemporary styles of music as we have bdiscussed; we are exhorted to “… sing a new song to the LORD …” (Psalms 33/96/98/144/149 Isaiah 42) so new and fresh expressions in song are Biblically endorsed and to be welcomed; we aren’t just to wrap old songs up in new tunes. But as we have discussed already about the renewing of our minds, may we offer you some matters for consideration in the renewal of our vocabulary and practice. Let’s start with a question to musicians and singers who are “leading” the musical program at a Church gathering What is the right key to pitch a song, in that a congregation are to sing? There are various answers that could be given such as – the key it is written in by the composer; or – a good key for the person who is the principal singer in the “leading” team to sing it in. No, we don’t think so … the right key is the one that a congregation can sing it in, and those “leading” have to find a singer who can lead it in the register of a congregation, and players who can transpose it and play it in that key. It is no good having a singer, no matter how good their voice is, who needs to pitch a song so high (or so low) that it makes it difficult for a congregation to sing it. Let’s use a famous Wesley Hymn ‘And can it be’ as a benchmark. Thomas Campbell’s tune ‘Sagina’ is the tune we usually use for it. The top melody note in that arrangement is a high E; this is probably the highest note that any congregation can ever be expected to sing, and it has to be said that the high note in ‘And can it be’, is a note most people have to courageously throw themselves at. So the right key is a key where the highest melody note never exceeds a high E. In fact a high E is only to be considered as achievable in a song of strident melody. If you are singing quieter, contemplative, songs of worship and intimacy, never get above a C (three notes lower than a high E) is our advice. Any band of musicians, or group of singers, or even any single singer / musician who is “leading” the musical program, usually stands facing the congregation on some kind of elevated platform; most of you now reading this are probably far too old to relate to what I am going to share. In the 1960’s ‘Variety Shows’ were held in theatres, and some of them were televised; ‘Sunday Night At The London Palladium’ being one of them; the orchestra were in a “pit” beneath stage level. Look at this photo … could you see the band or the choir from the public seats? I think we could learn something here …

Musicians and singers can you think about this please; if you are facing in the same direction as the congregation, you’d be hearing the same “mix” as the front of house would be hearing: no need for an elaborate monitor system, expensive lighting rig.
If you weren’t on a platform you wouldn’t be the focus of attention … the lyrics screen wouldn’t have to be projected so high to be above you.In the periods of early music which we looked at when considering Bach, it was common to have a “Minstrels Gallery”, where the musicians were never seen and were often behind the congregation. Organs are often in Galleries behind or away from the areas where congregations sit or stand.

Having been to and played in Church meetings where the musicians are at the back, or even interspersed amongst the congregation there is a wonderful feeling of togetherness that happens. Believe me you’ll feel so uncomfortable with the idea at first, but try it.

With regard to those groups who rely on video media for their music, ask your congregations a question. Do you feel more assisted in your singing if there are simply lyrics projected for you to see,or singing to videos of a band performing? The price of producing videos of Christian bands performing, to even reasonable quality, let alone high definition is probably 6 times more than alyrics projection to a backing track.In a world where people are starving and dying, is our performance-orientated, mega-bucks music production so important? If you are on your way to a Church meeting and you see a guy who’s begging money from you and you say to him ‘sorry pal I can’t afford to give you anything; I’ve been giving extra money to the Church so we could buy a new Mixing Desk: it’s costing us $20,000 … but would you like to come to our meeting … the music is great? We aren’t saying let’s give GOD the ‘fag-ends’ of our resources to making music for HIM, but can we keep a balanced view over it.

In conclusion to this topic, can we end on what might be hard things for some of you to swallow, and I’m not asking you to consider anything that I haven’t had to face myself.
After itinerating for about 15 years, with radical, non-commercial suggestions as to how Church could produce and distribute music, I took some time to reflect and pray about my “Music Ministry”, so I started asking GOD about what to do next with it. Imagine the surprise I got when the HOLY SPIRIT told me “There’s no such thing as a “Music Ministry” in the New Testament Church. There are numerous Gifts that the HOLY SPIRIT has given to the Church (about 20) and “Musician” isn’t one of them. For sure, music and singing are part of Church Life, we don’t dispute that at all, but to single it out as a “Ministry” is not Biblically supportable in our opinion. It sits comfortably in the areas of Teaching, Prophecy (and that’s a very mis-understood Ministry) … as we have said earlier “Admonition” is a relevant place to employ music and song, and that probably finds its place within the scope of Prophetic Ministry.

Once more, to make sure we have made ourselves clear, we wholeheartedly encourage the use of music and singing as a vehicle to offer Worship to GOD and in Praise of HIM; but in a similar way that we have ventured our reluctance to use the phrase ‘The Worship’ when describing congregational singing, we have grave reservations about recognising someone as a ‘Worship Leader’. In the first instance it compounds the idea of music and singing being ‘Worship’, and secondly it elevates the status of someone to an almost sacerdotal status. Under the new covenant of Grace, each individual being part of the priesthood of all believers, we don’t need intermediaries to provide the means we offer acts of Worship to GOD. For sure, those especially, musically gifted people who can escort a gathering to realise they are in the presence of GOD are worthy of some recognition, but we at M3M think that to call them “Worship Leaders” is a bridge too far: our third reason, and perhaps the most important one for our position on the matter once again asks ‘what does the Bible say’? We can’t see any such a title described in the New Testament, nor in the OLD … if you can please show us. There were “chief musicians” and “choirmasters” in the old Testament musical set up, but you know what, they drew lots for their posts; And they cast lots for their duties, small and great, teacher and pupil alike (see 1 Chronicles 25:8) – how would you feel if you were “leading” the choir one month, and the second you were playing third triangle in an ensemble where the person leading this month was a novice of far inferior capability than you? How would you feel if you were asked to do some bricklaying on your Church building site; ‘can’t do that it would ruin my hands’: who were the foreman-site workers of the Temple rebuilding project ( See 2 Chronicles 34:12 & 13)? There is much to be gleaned from a study of the musical activities of the Old Testament, which hopefully we will. Any Gift that GOD bestows upon a person is for the benefit of others and is to be executed in a spirit of servanthood. When a “Christian” band in the 1980’s said they couldn’t take an engagement for less than $25,000, I began to realise that perhaps there was something wrong with aspects of the “Christian Music Industry”. I can take as much credit for my musical abilities as I can for the colour of my eyes; to pollute it with money, especially when in this era you can make professional quality music on a laptop, and upload it for free. Do we have a downer on Christians being supported, sometimes financially for their Ministries …? Not at all; but please take a look at the subject of αὐτάρκης autarkēs or “self-sufficiency” in our Resources / Teaching section for a Biblical study on how, and by whom, a ‘Ministry’ is to be materially supported. To be Continued.