Thanks to David Straley for sharing this article with us. Republished with permission from David Straley.
Calling All Souls
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Evangelism With Rhythm & Rhyme
Traditionally, of course, many would consider this Scripture passage as being a call to preach the Word of God so the hearers can be “reconciled to God.” Musicians can get in on this action, too, even if they’re not preaching from a pulpit nor going to the nations as a classic missionary.
Many styles of Christian music – both old and new – amount to the equivalent of “preaching the Gospel,” where the lyrics are the “sermon.” However, no matter how good the “sermon” is, the Gospel message can and will fall on many “deaf ears,” according to Jesus’ parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:3-23.
A Soft Shoe Approach
Interestingly, the Praise and Worship style of music brings a whole new strategy to the task of reconciling the world to God, and it’s not by preaching the Word of God directly to the “audience,” as if one were a preacher, speaking from a pulpit. The strategy is less direct but very effective. Consider:
Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
One-Way Streets and Two-Way Streets
The strategy proposed here for reconciling the world to Christ through Praise and Worship music is this: because Praise and Worship music focuses on praising and worshiping God — as opposed to just declaring His Word to people — it basically acts as a “script” for mankind to speak back to God that which God would like to hear from man.
That’s way different from “playing a concert” where the message goes one-way, from the band to the audience. It’s totally different than listening to a preacher’s sermon, another one-way forum. And, it’s different from the classical method that missionaries might use when discipling their given people-group.
A Missionary by Another Name
There’s a “missionary” aspect to Praise and Worship music. Consider this: all of the “audience” still has some degree of non-Christlikeness inside of them – whether or not they’re saved. Therefore, the enemy still has access into their lives. Indeed, those areas of non-Christlikeness are the equivalent of “enemy camps,” residing in their souls. In other words, they’re “strongholds” of the enemy, and there are some of these hiding within almost every soul. Now, when Praise and Worship music is presented to a person, it naturally invites him to sing along, bringing forth verbal worship to God, declaring God’s goodness and greatness, and it’s being sung back to Him, as in Philippians 2:9-11 (above).
A Trojan Horse for Christ
The effect of Praise in Worship is one of placing a “Trojan horse” into that person’s soul. This “Trojan horse,” however, is a good one, a “godly” one, and it’s job is to infiltrate those enemy strongholds that still lurk in the darkness of the person’s soul. This happens because the person — even the unbeliever — starts speaking forth the truth with his/her own mouth – singing the truth back to God, Himself. When he/she does that, the Trojan Horse starts releasing its “undercover agents” whose job it is to dismember the enemy’s strongholds within. This allows the “new man” to reclaim some ground from within that person’s own soul – ground which was previously under the control of the enemy. Perhaps it could be likened to white blood cells surrounding and destroying viruses in the body.
The fact that this “Praise and Worship Trojan Horse” has been placed into your own soul can be proven by the fact that you hear praise and worship songs going on inside your head throughout the week. That’s proof that something actually got “deposited” in you, and it’s a very good “something.” In fact, it’s a “hook” which can aid in “reconciling you to God” more and more.
Transformation through Worship
This fantastic, undercover transformation of one’s soul results in sinners and saints alike becoming convicted of their own hypocrisies. It results in their falling deeper and deeper in love with Jesus Christ. It results in their becoming increasingly interested in the things of God … and even “getting on fire” for the things of God. Thus, a good Praise and Worship Song – whether an “original” or not – can be an extremely effective tool in both evangelism and discipleship.
A High Call with High Accountability
This leads us to conclude that it’s imperative that Praise and Worship Song Writers pick their words carefully and wisely. They are essentially writing “scripts” for the body of Christ to sing back to God. That’s a very high call, and carries with it serious accountability before God.
The Praise and Worship Song Writer should never attempt to just create another hit song, but rather to accomplish the task of pleasing the heavenly Father by acting as one who brings His people to Him on His own terms. It really is an incredible opportunity for those involved with Praise and Worship music – one in which the Writer/Singer/Instrumentalist can truly influence others for Christ.
Taken a step further, for those who write Praise and Worship Songs – or record them – and then find a means of distributing them across the world, there lies an opportunity for literally changing the world for Christ, without ever leaving home.
This is part of the vision of Worship of Heaven: that this ministry could serve as a repository and a conduit for good Praise and Worship Songs to find their way to the Praise and Worship bands, singers and instrumentalists scattered throughout the world. The Songs, which may be used freely and legally, could be instrumental in helping their “audience members” connect with God. And that’s the basic goal of missions.
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