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Sunday Edition


13
Mar
2004
Ministry Vs Entertainment - Mar 2004


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Scott Bandy

If you are in or around Southern Gospel Music for any period of time you will no doubt run into the debate over Entertainment versus Ministry. This long drawn out debate has set me pondering this age old question. Which is it? Is there a place for good wholesome Christian entertainment or should we be totally ministry driven? Perhaps the answer is not really up to us? Or should I say, it's not really up to the artist. Perhaps both are happening at the same time and it is impossible to separate the two.

God has given us all talents and gifts. He wants us to use these gifts that he's given us. Not all are called to preach or be pastors. All of us however are called into the ministry! Whether we are grocery store clerks or full time pastors, we all have been given the same Great Committion!

However, is it really up to the artist to decide whether his song is entertaining or ministering? It seems to me that the artist's job is to sing his songs to the best of the ability God has given him. God then will choose who is ministered to. It is the individual hearing the song that ultimately decides whether it is ministry or entertainment.

I look back at the single greatest songwriter to ever live, King David! He wrote songs that have blessed us unendingly! However, did David know that while he was writing his great songs that someone would write them down and put them in the Bible to be read and sang thousands of years later? How could he? It seems to me that David wrote and sang songs from his heart. Many of his songs were sung out of great despair and agony. I'm sure that in his mind these songs were not coming from him with the intention to minister to someone else. He sang these songs for himself, as prayers to God in his deepest sorrow. Now thousands of years later, we have these great songs that give us hope and inspiration and minister to our souls on a daily basis. Did David know that in his deepest agonies he was declaring prophecy for the soon to come Messiah, or was he just despairing and God used his talent as a songwriter to bring forth a great song of ministry? David is just one great talent that probably never considered himself a minister or to have a ministry. He simply sang and wrote about what he held deep in his heart!

There have been many songs that have deeply touched and ministered to my soul. However, not every song ever written about Jesus or God or The Holy Spirit has ministered to me. Some bring joy, hope and inspiration but not so much a ministry to my soul! So many groups today declare they are in it for the ministry. But, it seems that they are really just doing what God has given them to do. Singers sing, preachers preach, salesmen sell! The heart receiving the message in the song is what decides whether or not it is ministry! Who can view what the heart needs besides God? He knows who needs to be ministered to by a song. To those who don't need it, it is simply great music or in other words, great Christian entertainment!

So if we the artists take ourselves out of the equation and simply sing using our God given gifts, the need for an argument over ministry and entertainment will no longer be needed. Whether we like it or not both are happening at the same time and it is not up to the artist to decide which one is going to happen next. God can use anything to minister to someone! Let's not forget he used a donkey to knock Paul off his high horse. Ministry can happen in a secular song as well as a gospel song!

Let's put the focus on using our gifts to the best of our ability and remove the pride in us that says we have to be a ministry to sing Gospel music. Once again, ministry is not up to us when it comes to music. Ministry is in the heart of those receiving that music!

Reader Comments

Deon, I would have to agree with Scott that a song intended for secular airplay CAN minister to someone. The Holy Spirit can use any means it wants to to speak to our hearts. One of my best friends in college was at a Dave Matthews Band concert and was so touched by the lyrics that he gave his life to Jesus right there on the spot! Granted it was the faithfulness of many people that had planted seeds in his life that was brought to fruition in that moment, but nevertheless I truly feel that he was ministered to that night. Sometimes those of us who are in ministry feel that WE are the ones doing the ministry when in fact we are simply the tools that God is doing the ministry through. And God can even use a secular song if that is the vehicle that might open someone's eyes. Just a thought. I love the website! Keep up the great work!


Commented by On 03/26/2004
Amy Marie, I apologize that you did not understand the meaning of my post. Scott was contrasting Ministry and Entertainment. I certainly agree with the Ministry part. I also agree that music can do things other than preach. I believe that music can minister and it can be beautiful, and that it's beauty alone can be beneficial to the soul. I just think that when it gets reduced to "entertainment," the mindless gratification of the flesh, it loses its' goodness.

When I went on vacation and saw the mountains, I was not entertained, I was inspired. I felt joy in my heart at God's creation. When I saw the robins play, I was inspired, not entertained. I did not go to the zoo to be entertained by the animals, I joyed at the creation of God. Would we love the mountains as much if they were filled with entertaining neon signs. Would we care as much about the robins if we tied attractive bells to all their legs?

Entertainment is mindless and superficial. The beauty of God's creation fills the soul and is eternal. Our hearts should be set on the eternal not on the temporal. Let us reach for the heavens and not the gutter.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit

- Galatians 5:25. 

My Blog



Commented by Keith Prater On 03/27/2004
Entertainment is NOT mindless and superficial to me. I find great joy in entertainment. It is uplifting to my soul much the same way as laughter doeth good like a medicine. HMMMM, seems I've heard that somewhere before.

Perhaps, Mr. Prater, it is your mind in the gutter and not ours?

So, come on music, mountains, robin's playing, animals romping, entertain away!!!!


Commented by On 03/27/2004
Mr. Prater, in order to better understand what you are trying to say, I have a few questions.

Let's say that I go to a concert and I am either down about something or don't feel good or for whatever reason I am at my limit of things I think I can deal with and something is said or done that makes me laugh or smile or in some way feel better or more able to cope with whatever problem I am dealing with at the time but it is not a "serious" or "high minded" thing that causes it. (And I am assuming here that for you EVERYTHING that is ministry has to be serious or high minded.) Are you saying that is not of God? Is that what you are defining as "entertainment", mindless and superficial?

If I am driving down the road in my car and I have Gold City's "That Little Baby" or The Kingdom Heir's "Mighty Deep Well" or some other such fast song, blasting loud and I am singing at the top of my lungs, is that "entertainment" or "ministry"?

I want to be very sure that all of us are understanding your view point on this subject. Because you are very close to saying that "entertainment" is sin and not of God.



Commented by On 03/27/2004
This is a great article, and something that I have struggled with for a while now. I agree with Scott, and I think that Christian entertainment has a place in all fields, not just music. There is no greater example right now than the movie The Passion of the Christ. I think that going to a theater is entertainment, and while not all movies are entertaining that is why most people go. I own a Southern Gospel Quartet, adn our goal is to bring people closer to Christ, and help the lost to find Him. On the other hand, I hope, no I pray, that the people at the service are uplifted and that they have a brighter day after spending time laughing, crying, singing, and praising God with The Songsmen Quartet.


Commented by Max E Burchett, Jr On 03/30/2004
What the artist does BETWEEN the songs quickly identifies if they are just entertaining or ministering, I believe. I too feel that a person can still be touched by a group whose purpose was to just entertain. On the other side of the issue, there are groups who seek only to minister and forget that there IS an entertainment value that should not be ignored. There has to be a good balance or professionalism/entertainment and ministry focus. My two cents.


Commented by On 04/02/2004
Good Uplifting Entertainment = Greater Opportunities For Ministry

One enhances the other and BOTH are important to any artist that's truly concerned with reaching more and more people with the Good News.

I agree with Keith's analogy that God's creation is inspiration, not entertainment, but that's because I define entertainment as something created by a HUMAN with the intent of getting an emotional response from other humans. Entertainment is not limited to trivial reactions, though some entertainment is definitely trivial . . . the movie _Brother Bear_, for example.

Good uplifting entertainment . . . that is, stuff like good uplifting Southern Gospel . . . is a fantastic tool that works hand in hand with efforts for ministry. There is no "Vs." between the words if the entertainment quality is good.


Commented by On 04/07/2004
What may be entertainment for one, may be ministry for another. That was the point of my article. It is not our place to say something is a ministry or not. It is the person reason recieving the ministry or entertainment that ultimatley makes that decision. Therefore nothing is "trivial".

Remember, the "soul" is not what is being ministered to or entertained at anytime. The soul has only two conditions, saved or unsaved. There is no ministry to a "soul" that has already been saved. Where ministry happens is in the "spirit" of a person. The "spirit" of a person is made of that person's emotions. Whether you have a "spirit of joy, or sorrow, or depression, or repression, or gladness. God gave us these emotions in our "spirit" for a reason. If we didn't have them or use them, we would be rocks! So whether ministry or entertainment, it is the goal to reach those emotions which are in are "spirit". So, if "Brother Bear" makes someone happy or cause laughter for even just a moment, how can that be "trivial"? The Bible says "Laughter does the heart good, like a medicine". It does not say it has to be "christian" things that make us laugh.

As I said very clearly in my article, Both Ministry and Entertainment ARE happening at the same time. I am in no postion to say when and where and by what "ministry" is being done. I remember what God said he uses to confound the wise. The heart recieving it guys makes that choice...not us!

Thank you everyone for your responses.


Commented by On 04/08/2004
Hey, I LIKED _Brother Bear_.


Commented by On 04/08/2004
Keith, is it wrong for Gospel music to entertain me? If it entertains me, do I need to re-evaluate myself? Gospel music has entertained me from the time I was a baby, when I didn't know what the songs were about. When I realized I was lost and needed to accept Christ, I took the time to think about what those songs were about. But had I not been entertained by Gospel music, would the real message ever have gotten through to me? Is my salvation all in vain because such an “earthly” thing that is "mindless and superficial" as entertainment for me eventually spoke to my heart? Surely we are not giving God enough credit for what he can do with something so “of this world” as entertainment. Christian entertainment is an ATTENTION GRABBER that can lead to even greater things. It works and it puts a smile on people’s face! If a singer can present it right and the listener can interpret it right and get something positive out of it, what is wrong with that?

Why don’t some people wake up and realize that this IS planet earth and we may have to use some things “of this world” to get to people and pray that God will help us do it right?


Commented by On 04/09/2004
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