I recently joined a Facebook group for worship leaders all across the U.S. I've found value in reading different viewpoints on matters that are important to me. However, I just read a question posed by a member of the page that floored me: "Is it necessary for everyone on your worship team to be saved?"
The majority of respondents said "yes, everyone on the worship team should be born again". But, there were more than a handful that said something along these lines: "Everyone with a microphone must be saved, but I allow unsaved band members to join us because I want them to hear the gospel".
Personally, I struggle with the ideology that singers and musicians are different in this reasoning. If both groups are united under the banner of "worship team", should requirements not be uniform between both groups?
For me, the answer comes down to this: do you or do you not consider your musical gift a "ministry"? I've heard many people call their music a "ministry", but yet they only perform. This is prevalent in the southern gospel community. (Calm down if I just hurt your feelings. I was raised in southern gospel culture, so I'm qualified to discuss it. Not all southern gospel groups are entertainers...there are some who legitimately minister. However, I've seen far too many abuse the title "ministry" when their concert is nothing more than a traveling Branson show).
Now that we got that out of the way, I'll ask again: do you or do you not consider your musical gift a "ministry"? Most would say "yes"; sadly, not everyone would.
I was shocked years ago to find out many large churches hire musicians for their Sunday services. I actually met a gentleman who is paid to play music at three churches on Sunday mornings, even though he plays in a bar band every Friday and Saturday night. He made it clear to me that his inclusion on a church worship team had no spiritual value - he was just there for the music.
There's a lot to unpack here, so I'll list a few rhetorical questions to help advance us to an appropriate answer to the posed question:
1) Should a pastor be saved? If so, why?
2) Should a worship leader be saved? If so, why?
3) Does every person on the worship team carry the same spiritual responsibility as the worship leader? If not, why?
In case you can't tell how I'm leading the witness by my line of questioning, here's my opinion on the subject. Every member of the worship team carries a spiritual responsibility to lead the congregation into a mindset and atmosphere of sincere, extravagant affection and gratitude toward a loving Father who we can in no way come close to appropriately thanking. Any other goal can be chalked up as nothing more than a show, a pointless production, a farce.
Here's another way of looking at it: You can't lead a heart where yours isn't.
"But how can we lead an unsaved musician to Christ if we deny him access to the stage?" you may ask. Simple - by teaching him that he is more than his gift. God doesn't care how many services the unsaved musician contributes to...He wants his heart; He wants his life. And trust me, the Holy Spirit still has "convince of sin and a need of righteousness" on His job description and, believe it or not, He can do His job without you compromising standards.
Chances are a musician that only comes to church because you allow him to play music (before he is spiritually ready for the responsibility) will leave the faith if there ever comes a time he can't play. I've seen too many talented musicians walk away from church because they were unable to separate their music from their relationship with God; who knows, maybe they didn't have one in the first place. Maybe they just enjoyed the music which, we should all agree, is a terrible reason to go to church.
Let's stop pretending letting unsaved people minister to us is a good idea. I'd rather have a musically mediocre worship team with the heart of David than a world-class group of musicians who are serving a different lord.
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