Gospel Musicians have a Responsibility to demonstrate Godliness in all aspects of their lives. It is not enough to make music about God and hope that people will be touched and changed. A musician must also show the power of the message he preaches in the life he lives. Music originated in heaven. The Devil doesn’t have an original product. He just takes what God made and abuses it. Music has always been the most effective medium for communicating an idea. Even without words music is a language the speaksn to the inmost parts of human beings. Capable of inciting any emotion within us. Music can create and sustain an idea within you.
Those who make music are bestowed with a powerful gift. For those who create Gospel music, the music you create is inherently good. It is a medium for “good news”, the best news in fact. The news to the world about a powerful loving God who wants to have a personal relationship with the humans He created. With the power to create a medium that carries such a message and sustain that message in people, gospel musicians are more than music makers. They are messengers. But they are also more than messengers. They are keepers of secrets: through the rhythm, the melody, and lyrics they put together are able to constantly remind the hearer of the Gospel message—God’s message.
It is for that reason that gospel musicians have two great responsibilities. First, they must ensure that the message they encapsulate in the songs they write, is an accurate reflection of the nature and will of the God they are proclaiming. In practical terms this means writing songs that are faithful, true and consistent to the Word of God. Many gospel songs today, when considered carefully, are not theologically sound. When measured against the truth found in the Word, they fail to measure up. Songwriters are tempted to write their own opinions and thoughts into the lyrics. This is all well and good. But our thoughts and ideas have to be in line with God’s will for people’s lives. And God’s will isn’t limited to only the few aspects of our lives. He doesn’t separate our professional lives while ignoring our private thoughts and emotions. He is a God of all and of the whole being. Our thoughts and deeds and relationships should reflect His will, which is by default the best and the greatest. Higher than ours. The Bible says for us to “lean not on our own understanding” (Pr 3:5), so when a songwriter starts with a thought, an understanding, his next step would be to revert to what Scripture and the Holy Spirit say about such a matter. And where his thought is inconsistent with the latter two, then the latter two must prevail over his understanding.
I have long lamented, and have publicly stated before that writers of gospel songs must write with depth and truth. We have enough songs that speak to the feet to dance and the hands to clap and the hips to sway, but we needs songs that will speak to the heart, supplying the joy, and to the mind, supplying the reason for the dancing. Songs that tell the facts. That proclaim the unchanging nature and will of God. Songs about facts that transcend our emotions and changing desires. On some days we can sing this is my desire to live for you alone, but such a declaration by us isn’t sustainable. For on most days we live for ourselves. Yet the fact that God remains that God is faithful, God is Good, Sovereign and God is everlasting. And when we proclaim the facts that remind us of that, it makes our hearts truly rejoice, and naturally invokes in us a desire to live for him alone.
So musicians, write with depth and truth. Don’t just give us the music and shallow babblings. Give us the Word.
The second responsibility of the Gospel musician, is probably tougher. It is the responsibility to live life faithful to the Christ he proclaims. It is neither satisfying to fellow Christians, nor is it appealing to seekers, to see a Gospel musician who lives like he has not been redeemed by the Gospel. Christendom suffers enough from the duplicity of its members. Musicians who sing about holiness, about purity and the redemption found in God and His word, should at the very least live like that power has worked already in them. If that power has not yet worked in them then they should not be in the business of singing about it.
Personally, I find it quite disappointing when I see gospel musicians in my country lead duplicitous lives. The world most likely looks on and wonders whether the God we proclaim really has the power to change lives. Because they see an unchanged life in the musical preachers of the Word.
The PNG gospel music scene has had far too many disappointments. Apart from a few other groups whose members have lived consistently the Christian life, most have fallen by the wayside. Many have lost the trust of the audience that once appreciated them. And when trust is lost, hearers are lost.
My prayer is that as the Gospel music industry picks up in our country, we will enjoy more songs that are true to the Word of God, and we will be able to witness musicians who are faithful ambassadors of the gospel that they sing.
