There have been some engaging sessions on the Cornhill Training Course music stream these last few weeks.
We’ve been discussing how to work with a church choir that is full of unbelievers. We’ve seen the great opportunity for the gospel, as well as the inevitable problems of working with those who, by their unbelief, have hardened their hearts to the truths they sing.
Singing the gospel
There is so much depth to the truth that many choirs sing. A cathedral choir, for instance, sings Mary and Simeon’s songs from Luke’s Gospel every day. In these songs, Jesus is proclaimed as the Saviour of those who fear him. The choir also sings half the Psalms every month, along with hymns and anthems with words taken straight out of Scripture. On top of all that, a cathedral choir will regularly put on performances of Handel’s Messiah and other beautiful choral works that present the truths of the gospel comprehensively.
I don’t think it’s going too far to suggest that the privilege of having had so much input without the necessary engagement of hearts and minds has led to that privilege obscuring the need to come to Jesus, the very Author of the truths they sing (John 5.39-40). It’s my opinion that it’s a very dangerous thing to sing in a choir in a state of unbelief, because turning one’s back on the awesome revelation of Jesus in the gospel is deeply offensive to the one who will judge us on our response to his Word: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.’ (John 5.24).
Stony ground
For this reason, there are many who aren’t convinced that the effort, cost and conflict of working with an unbelieving choir are worth investing in, because of the hardness of the path on which the seed of the gospel is sown. Others, however, have a committed enthusiasm to reach ‘choral atheists’, and have even set up choirs in order to give themselves an opportunity to explain the truths that are sung.
There are, wonderfully, some stories of those from a choral background who have come to understand and believe the truths they have sung about. From experience, this usually happens once one is away from the choir-singing environment. That was certainly true for me; someone opened up God’s Word with me at my school Christian meeting.
Here’s the testimony of another man, who still sings in choirs, and who starts his story when he was a choral scholar in Oxford: ‘Although I sang about Jesus regularly, I didn’t think much about him. I left Oxford thinking something along the lines of: “I think Jesus is the Son of God and somehow died for my sins, which means that everything’s going to be okay … but Christians are really weird!”
‘I moved to London to study singing full-time and began thinking quite hard about whether I wanted to pursue Jesus more or just ignore him. I ended up attending a church where I heard the Bible taught clearly. It wasn’t until reading Romans in my Bible study group that I felt the penny drop completely. Paul states in Romans 3.10 that ‘no-one is righteous, no, not one’. At this point, I remember feeling the unbearable weight of God’s rightful anger upon me, only to find it completely taken away when we are hit with Jesus in Romans 3.21. The fact that at the cross Jesus gave me his righteousness, so that God now sees me as completely perfect, blew my mind!’
Guiding those unable to see
What to conclude? Well, choral atheists, like anyone else, are far from unreachable, because we believe that the gospel is the power for salvation. So, open up the Word of God with them in an environment uncluttered by robes, ceremony, or even music, and pray for the miraculous work of the Spirit to open their eyes to see God’s salvation in Jesus. Be prepared for hard hearts, and maybe even hostility, but the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 was in the same position as he read the words of Isaiah 53, (quoted in ‘Messiah’). When asked by Philip if he understood what he was reading, the eunuch replied: ‘How can I unless someone guides me?’ We have a great opportunity to be guides to those unable to see the truth that is in plain sight.
