'Secular' Music in the 'sanctuary'

[Guest]

During the Christmas season, our church held a 'Community Christmas Concert' as an outreach event. The goal was to create an enjoyable evening for our community in order to make contacts and break down some barriers to evangelism. Half of the 20 songs were 'Christian' and half were 'Secular' Christmas songs.

In 2 nights, 100 people set foot in our sanctuary for the first time. Many members of our congregation said they found it to be a great opportunity to invite unsaved loved one's to church (and actually have them say yes), but a few people were very upset by the concert. Their main complaint was that 'secular' music should not be used in the 'sanctuary.'

These 'few' people are consistently a burden to our pastor/churches vision. They occassionally give the pastor long lists of what he should be doing differently (in my opinion, trying to make him identical to our former pastor). These 'few' people come across, to me, as very legalistic...and the more I think about their lives, the more I begin to see them as pharisees. They 'seem' to be the perfect Christian family, but time has shown they've left a lot of hurting people behind them through their words and actions.

My question, as a young pastor, is twofold:
1. Is it wrong to have 'secular' music in the 'sanctuary?' I personally believe a building is just a building and that we are the sanctuary of God and, to be honest, I think the 'secular' label is kinda silly to begin with (but that's another subject).
2. How long should church leadership tolerate a 'few' people that continually challenge the vision of the church leadership/board/congregation? How long should legalism be ignored or viewed as a minor offense? Should membership be revoked and rebukes be made? If not, isn't membership meaningless and the authority of leadership non-existent?

[Guest]

The Bible says Christians are the place God dwells....not in a building. I dont think its wrong to play secular music in a building .But I am not of the belief that we should use worldy methods to evangelize the lost. Plus I see no real spiritual value to worldy music. If its Christmas carols thats a different story.There are actually companies that come to your Church and charge you money and develope marketing plans to build your congregation, to me thats really wierd.I am also not a fan of formal membership per se because I dont see that in the Bible.We do need to belong to a group of believers we fellowship with on a reular basis,a Church is a good place..
What unbelievers need to hear is the Gospel.They need to hear it from Chrisitans who have been praying for the lost and are being led by the Lord. There are many ways to minster, Christian concerts, free car washes,street wittnessing,door to door,inviting people to Church to hear it,living our lives so people can see the Lord living in us and Im sure you know the many others. I would pray and use a Godly method to share the good news. God will add to the Church in His time.
I dont think you should come down to heavy on those people unless they are doing something blatently which the Bible says is wrong. Churches split over the strangest things. If you lead people into Gods Word and a deeper relationship with Him you would be surprised how things work out. Paul said now abideth faith ,hope and love and the greatest of these is love. One Pastor I knew said my wife used to be an angel until the back biters bit her wings off...it made me laugh but its so true. Im sure in the life of any Church there are people who attend who have many many different oppinions..God didnt tell us to not have our own oppinions but Jesus did command us to love one another.
Im not a Pastor nor was I ever called to be one...Im just shareing some things that I thought may help you.Im sure there are Pastors who read these things who could give you some great advice. I think a healthy Church comes from healthy teaching and a lot of love and grace. The more Gods love and truth grows in a Christian group the more of the bad things that get purged out.

Lord Bless you

Steve

[Guest]

When the body of Christ assembles, the important thing to consider, it seems to me, is what God thinks of what we do. What anyone else thinks of what we do is only of secondary importance. The assembly of the body should not be primarily for evangelism. It has been wisely remarked "What we win them with we win them to". That said, let the spirit be our guide.
Two years ago our congregation did as yours, several secular songs mixed in with christian music. I did not like it at the time, I felt that Christ has been kicked out of school, why should we bring the world into the assembly?
Just my thoughts on this.
May God lead and bless you,
Homer

[Guest]

Thanks a lot of the thoughts guys

Steve.
I agree that we should not use worldly methods to evangelize the lost. We didn't view this event as evangelism. Our goal was to make new contacts. It was not a worship service. It was not an evangelistic crusade. It was mere fun, a chance to meet new people. I don't view what we did much different than the 'car wash' you mentioned. We provided a service (high quality entertainment) for free. People in our congregation that have been building relationships with lost people loved the opportunity to show those friends that church people can be fun. Many people in our culture view the church very negatively. Before evangelism can take place, barriers must be broken. Our goal was to break down some of those barriers.

As for membership, I think it can be very valuable. It's bad when it's legalism, it's good when it's accountability.

Homer.
We believe God was pleased by the heart behind the event. If not, we wouldn't have done it. Again, we weren't trying to 'win people' at this event. We were trying to break down barriers so we could be used by God later in reaching them. Personally, I didn't particularly 'like' the idea either. But in the end it's not about personal preference. Our senior pastor had a vision, we respect and trust his leadership and believe he was called by God to lead this church. We evaluate the effectiveness of his vision and see fruit.

[Guest]

The Bible says Christians are the place God dwells....not in a building. I dont think its wrong to play secular music in a building .But I am not of the belief that we should use worldy methods to evangelize the lost. Plus I see no real spiritual value to worldy music. If its Christmas carols thats a different story.There are actually companies that come to your Church and charge you money and develope marketing plans to build your congregation, to me thats really wierd.I am also not a fan of formal membership per se because I dont see that in the Bible.We do need to belong to a group of believers we fellowship with on a reular basis,a Church is a good place..
What unbelievers need to hear is the Gospel.They need to hear it from Chrisitans who have been praying for the lost and are being led by the Lord. There are many ways to minster, Christian concerts, free car washes,street wittnessing,door to door,inviting people to Church to hear it,living our lives so people can see the Lord living in us and Im sure you know the many others. I would pray and use a Godly method to share the good news. God will add to the Church in His time.
I dont think you should come down to heavy on those people unless they are doing something blatently which the Bible says is wrong. Churches split over the strangest things. If you lead people into Gods Word and a deeper relationship with Him you would be surprised how things work out. Paul said now abideth faith ,hope and love and the greatest of these is love. One Pastor I knew said my wife used to be an angel until the back biters bit her wings off...it made me laugh but its so true. Im sure in the life of any Church there are people who attend who have many many different oppinions..God didnt tell us to not have our own oppinions but Jesus did command us to love one another.
Im not a Pastor nor was I ever called to be one...Im just shareing some things that I thought may help you.Im sure there are Pastors who read these things who could give you some great advice. I think a healthy Church comes from healthy teaching and a lot of love and grace. The more Gods love and truth grows in a Christian group the more of the bad things that get purged out.

Lord Bless you

Steve

[Guest]

Music in Church is not only giving praise to Jesus but it helps prepare our hearts for worshipping.

-Tony