Taking Issue With the Chapman Philosophy

Well, being that I've got a big debate coming up (it'll probably be about 7 blogs, each with my writing and my opponents) I wasn't going to write anything until then, but I saw advice so treacherous I had to take issue with it.

Don Chapman is a fairly prominent worship leader, his WorshipIdeas newsletter reaches over 50,000 people every week (including me). At one point I was so fed up with what Mr. Chapman said I un-subscribed, but eventually they started sending the newsletters to me again anyway. At any rate you can find out more about Chapman here: www.worshipideas.com and www.worshipideas.blogspot.

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I've never met Chapman, I don't know him personally, and I'm not here to judge his character in any way. But as he has proposed what I think is not just a bad idea, but an unbiblical one, I must confront that.

I was going through my inbox, and saw the Worshipideas e-mail, and I saw the title was about hiring non-Christians for your worship team. Based on my past experience I thought "Oh I'll have to disagree with him", and I thought that rightly so. Chapman proposes that hiring non-Christians on your worship team can be a great way to enhance your musical talent and also evangelize.

It seems like a good idea in theory, but truthfully I think it falls short. Matthew 15:8-9 states " ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’" (NIV)
Upon examining the word for worship here we see it is Sebomai in the Greek. It means “To revere, stressing the feeling of awe or devotion” (Vine’s). Or “To revere, i.e. adore:--devout, religious, worship.” (Quickverse).

Now most of the time in the New Testament the word translated worship is Proskuneo. So why use Sebomai here? Well the verse quotes Isaiah 29:13. Notice that the definition of Sebomai here stresses reverence and adoration. The Biblical standard of worship goes far beyond a Sunday morning service, it refers to a consistent lifestyle of reverence, devotion, and service to God. In light of this by hiring a non-Christian to serve on a worship team one is putting an individual on said team that is worshiping in word only while the individual's heart is far from God.

This not only threatens the unity of the worship team, but it also makes the non-Christian a hypocrite, and sets a bad example. Worship team members are co-workers in the worship leading process. People in the congregation don't look at that stage and just see instrumentalists, they see worshipers and worship leaders. When the Apostles considered administrators to distribute food they required those people be full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3). Any leader in any capacity in the Church should be someone of high integrity. There are high standards for deacons ("the practical servants of the Church" according to David Guzik), which, though it refers to a specific office in most American Churches (e.g.-the deacon board), does not have such a political definition in the Greek.

In addition to sacrificing the Biblical model of leadership, having a non-Christian on a worship team is just asking for discord. I'm not saying a non-believer can't play instruments, that would be absurd, but in terms of their approach to worship and the Church in general they will have radically different ideas. I remember at camp there were a few staff members (kitchen staff and maintenance) that were not very committed Christians. While other counselors and I tried to set godly examples and get the campers focused on God, these staff members would negate our work by keeping them aimed at the carnal. What's worse is the campers had the impression they could follow these staff member's example (and they should have been able to, but there is sometimes a discrepancy between a testimony written on paper and one lived out). As you might imagine this could have detrimental effects on one's faith.

Worship leaders and worship teams are not much different. They should be spiritual leaders as well. Mr. Chapman has complained in the past that most Church boards are made up of business men rather then Spirit-filled believers, but what he is proposing here is no different. If you don't want worldly business men orchestrating your Church's business why would you want wordly instrumentalists on your worship team? I don't think it takes a genius to figure out the error here.

No serious minister would hire a youth pastor hoping "he might get saved after a while", so why would one hire worship team members with the same hope? I think we need to take spiritual leadership in any form seriously. It is not only ordained ministers who are called to have high moral character. Let us not forget the first Christian martyr was not an apostle or bishop, but an administrator, almost a layperson by today's standards.