Response to "Daily Dilemma: Should We Allow A Non-Christian Play On Our Worship Team?"

Each morning, I wake up to the sound of "Mornings with Rebecca and Burns" on 90.9 KCBI. Around the time I wake up, they have a segment called "Daily Dilemma," where they ask listeners to weigh in on daily dilemmas faced by other listeners, then they chime in with their response. There was a particular topic that caught my attention - "Should We Allow A Non-Christian Play On Our Worship Team?" This topic especially caught my attention when there were several common responses coming in favor of allowing a Non-Christian to play on the worship team.

Here is my response. There are definitely some valid points to allow the friend to serve in the worship team, but this is something that would need to be extensively prayed over, and also there would need to be 100% transparency to church members, which is sounds like there has been.

With that said, there are some concerns that quickly came to my mind, as I listened to this dilemma when it came on the radio: First off, why the desperation to fill the band with another person? Christ is honored and present "where two or three are gathered together," He is in "the midst of them." If the leadership of my church was making this sort of compromise at its infancy, I would be concerned about what may be compromised in the future if this is the pastor's friend and the friend is going to have any part of planning the corporate worship process. One point that I have seen that seemed to sum this up perfectly is "if this person was not a guitar player, would you still want him to lead worship?" If the answer is no, then the thought is that filling the empty spot or the music is the priority, not the worship of Christ.

Next, I am concerned about the confusion that there appears to be between the purpose of the church gathering and the church going out into the world. From my understanding, what we do in corporate worship and in the Bible studies/life groups is equipping each other to share the Gospel in the world. While it is great to allow non-believers to join us as we are sitting under teaching, placing a non-believer in front of the congregation in a position of leadership (as Burns said about the assumption about those who are placed on stage), flies against the Biblical principle of needing to be led by Christ to lead others.

Lastly, I am concerned about the quickness to use a fallen Christian to justify allowing a non-Christian to be a part of the worship team. One, there is an assumption that the church knowingly placed a Christian that is continuing to live unrepentant of their sin in a leadership position. However, a church following the Bible would have either not placed that person in the leadership position if there was existing knowledge they were living unrepentent of sin, or they would have immediately removed the person from the leadership role if the knowledge of unrepentent sin came about after the person had already been in the leadership role. A non-believer is actively denying the One, True God as they are being placed in a position of leadership.

While our unified purpose is to reach others who are lost, we do not want to subvert the authority of God, His Word, and His Church to do so. Just like God can work a miracle in this gentleman's life if he were to serve on the worship team, God can work a miracle in this gentleman's life off the stage. If this pastor and this gentleman are friends to begins with, God has provided other settings for the pastor to reach his friend with the Gospel.

Maybe the pastor could link his friend with other Christian musicians that he knows, and they could have Friday night jam sessions?