(Should The Music Ministry Be Exclusively Christians?)
First, let's explain what the word "ministry" really means. The dictionary defines it as:
Ministry |ˈminəstrē|
1 [usu. in sing. ] the work or vocation of a minister of religion: he is training for the ministry.
• the period of tenure of a minister of religion.
• the spiritual work or service of any Christian or a group of Christians, esp. evangelism:: a ministry of Christian healing.
2 (in certain countries) a government department headed by a minister of state:: the Ministry of Agriculture.
3 (in certain countries) a period of government under one prime minister:: Gladstone's first ministry was outstanding.
4 rare the action of ministering to someone: : the soldiers were no less in need of his ministry.
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I know, I know. This is getting too technical but indulge me. Let's focus on the last definition, "the action of ministering to someone." (Underline mine)
There you go! That's what a ministry is supposed to do. People everywhere need ministry from professing Christians. And this includes non-Christian musicians, too.
Although you may not want to start out this way, listen to this amazing story:
A certain church in the US was doing well with an "exclusive" music ministry, meaning no non-Christians on the team.
Well, one Sunday morning, their drummer calls and says he's bedridden and couldn't play that day. They tried calling all the other drummers, but no one was available. The sick drummer suggested a non-Christian drummer who he has jammed with before and had no problem playing for a church. Reluctantly, they had no choice.
Musically, there wasn't any glitch or stumble. In fact, they thought he did great, so they asked if he was willing to play with them again. Easy decision, of course he did.
To make the long story short, a few months later he became a Christian.
Say that again???? HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN!
Of course, he didn't become part of the staff, but he became a regular in their rotation.
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The cliché here is God works in mysterious ways.
Here's looking at it another way: Ask everyone in the music ministry to think of one musician they know personally, someone with no relationship with God. Then ask them to pray for that person.
Now, your musicians should know the musical standard of your team, which is excellence. I'm saying this because if, and when, the opportunity comes for that non-Christian musician friend of theirs to play for a church event, you can rest assured that the music quality will not suffer when they do play.
And if the friend asks questions about your beliefs AFTER they play, then you know he has connected, and you know that God ordained that.
We've always said that a Christian should not surround themselves with non-Christians because he will turn. Well, this is reverse psychology.
Warning: You cannot just request anybody to play. Like I said, the personality and the quality of the music ministry has to be preserved. Eventually, you want the whole music ministry to be believers, but God sometimes bring people in our lives because they need the ministry.
By doing this, letting non-believers be a part of the music ministry, this will give your Christian team members a platform that they can minister. Jesus died for everyone, even for non-Christian musicians.
"Music Ministry" – definitely!
