Non Christians playing in worship bands?

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Permalink Reply by Gav on November 10, 2007 at 6:14pm

hi there,

as a general rule i would really discourage have non christians playing in worship bands.
having said that i wouldnt discourage them from taking part in practices or church social events.
ie we have a non christian drummer in my band outside of church which is made up of 3 christians and
him. i encourage him to play with us during events where we are performing songs not leading worship
and generally play secular music like the beatles and queen etc. the purpose of the events is for fun and
fellowship and to integrate non christians into church setting without them having to come to a service.
that said, i would never ask a non christian to play when i lead worship, it goes against the purpose of the worship band. but i know a friend who did it with a non christian bass player and they were saved just like the story you shared, so maybe im wrong!

God bless,
gavin.

Permalink Reply by Julian davies on November 10, 2007 at 9:20pm

I tend towards not having non-christians in the bands I work with on a regular basis. On a musical level there is no difference between christian and non-christians, but I struggle with their ability to hear directly from the Holy Spirit and "go with the flow" as that comes from a place of relationship. Having said that, I've worked with a couple of non-christians who were skilled enough to sense the atmosphere and where the music was going and it worked out fine.

Its a toughy and an interesting form of evangelism!!

Permalink Reply by Vic Salt on November 11, 2007 at 9:49am

We have been having young people stay with us from Japan and Germany so that they can learn English with in a family and they go to the local school. The first girl who stayed was Mana from Japan. She went along to church with us, to the cell group with Laura our eldest. She asked if she could play piano in our worship band. We let her play. We took some flack for this but and due to the mix of influence she let Christ in. She is now at a Christian University in Japan.

Permalink Reply by Vic Salt on November 11, 2007 at 9:54am

Just to add to the debate: I find some of the people singing on the BBC's Songs of Praise have often not declared themselves as Christian. Chris de Bugh was on and he wrote a "Spaceman Came Traveling" which does not match the Bible in it's account of Christ's birth.

Permalink Reply by Jasmine Morier on November 11, 2007 at 12:38pm

I totally agree with you guys, all the worship band should be worship "models" in the way they relate to God.

For me the problem would be when we're praying before the meeting. I feel I can't pray the same when a non-Christian is among us, because I have to be really carefull to the words I use ( I can't ask God to reveal himself to people who are "lost" or "blind", see what I mean?) and that doesn't allow me to pray freely. And as a consequence, it also restains the place for the Holy Spirit...

Permalink Reply by Rob B on November 11, 2007 at 8:38pm

Thanks for your comments, interesting to hear your thoughts.

Just a couple of further questions on this prompted by your comments so far.

Is what we think of as musicians being responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit often just a sign of them being good at listening to the cues provided by the worship leader and the rest of the band? Isn't the ability to "go with the flow" mostly to do with being able to listen and improvise?

Also isn't our role in worship teams is to serve the church and facilitate their worship firstly? If we get to worship God oursleves whilst we do that then that's a bonus. I've certainly had the experience of playing in worship bands with musicians (and sound engineers for that matter) who get so lost in wonder love and praise that they cease to fuction as part of the team and end up being more of a distraction to the congregation than anything else. So I could see how non Christian musicians who would be very focused on "doing the job" (in my example above I believe he was being paid to do just that) could actually work quite well.

It's is good to hear testimony of people getting saved through this sort of thing. As Julian says, it is an interesting form of evangelism.

On the subject of Songs of Praise, I suspect that the show producers (who aren't necessarily Christians themselves) are as driven by ratings as any other TV show so any well know person with even a vaguely spiritual/Christian stance expressing an interest in being involved is likely to be snapped up.

Cheers for now.

Permalink Reply by James Baker on November 11, 2007 at 11:43pm

I think that "it's better to have a band that struggles musicially, but who are full of the Holy Spirit, than to have a band that contains the best musicians in the world, but do not know God at all."

It is a humbling challenge to accept, but key to the long survival of the church. Hired musicians are quick fixes in times when the current congregation are not good enough, and I really don't like that.

I helped a church over in the Colorado, USA for 2-months this year, and they had 2 non-Christians in their weekly worship team (drums and piano). They were great musicians, but they were never open to the gospel at all, and because they didn't sing the words, the songs were only musical notation and improvisation to them.

I helped to start up a brand new youth worship band in that church too while I was there. In my searching I found over 12 excellent, YOUNG musicians who were not as good as the hired non-Christians, but man, their heart after God when they played lead me more in worship than the others ever could.

Permalink Reply by Rosie Martin on November 12, 2007 at 2:43am

I have to agree with what most of you have said. I personally feel that the worship team should be made up of christians. They are there to lead the congregation in worship and i think that in order to do that the band have to be participating in that worship. I think it would be offputting (for me personally if not anyone else!), to see people in the band who didnt look like they were entering into the worship because the congretation should look at the worship team and feel like they want to join in and share the experience. If the band was made-up of, or contained some, session musicians or singers i think it would feel more like a concert setting with an audience than a church service with God's people singing his praises....

Just my opinion! :-)

Permalink Reply by Rob B on November 12, 2007 at 6:14pm

Hi James,

What is the source of your quote in the first paragraph?

Thanks

Rob

Permalink Reply by James Baker on November 12, 2007 at 6:42pm

me....
I quoted myself... lol!
It's something I've learned to say to new musicians who join our worship teams, and at times when tensions are high and mistakes are being made; sometimes it really helps us to focus on the real reason why we're in the band - not to make the best music, but to offer our best worship.

Permalink Reply by Vic Salt on November 12, 2007 at 8:16am

There is also the the problem of the "Almost Christian". One of John Wesleys main sermon themes is that in our Churches (more the traditional ones, currently) there are people who worship the religion and don't really know Jesus. It is often harder to work with an Almost Christian in a church than an open minded non-Christian.

I'm I being unfair in my thinking??

Permalink Reply by James Baker on November 12, 2007 at 4:17pm

AMEN to you Rob Mason!!!