Dear BPCWA worshipper, We continue from last week’s pastoral, where we saw how, centuries ago, entertainment began to creep into churches. Even during his time, Spurgeon warned, exposed, and taught against the trend that he saw around him. Today, Charismatic churches have drama ministries that produce musicals and plays, complete with props and scene settings. These trends do not start from a vacuum. Watching one such play available on YouTube without turning the volume up, it resembles a television serial drama. Does one subconsciously prefer such methods because of the entertainment or the teaching? Does the “Christian play” provide more edification than the biblical method of teaching and preaching? Musicals for gospel outreach under the banner of “preaching through music” require a good stretch of imagination to justify it. You attract people with music; they come and stay for it, not so much for the Word. And soon, we will build a congregation that wants and will spend more time on musical programs and entertainment than on the Word.  Let us all remember this well – God intended preaching, not music and drama, to save and teach, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1Co 1:21). The Apostle Paul, who wrote this under divine guidance, was living in the Greco-Roman world. It was a time and environment where music, drama, and theatrical performances were a great part of culture and even the religious life of idol worshippers. One would imagine that the church would make maximum use of plays and music for outreach. Yet, he warned the church that God ordained preaching as His means to save and teach.

The church is not to entertain. Archibald Brown counters why he resists this trend: 1) Christ never taught His disciples to do so. “’Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,’ is clear enough. So would it have been if He had added, ‘and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel.’” 2) It is not part of Christ’s gifts to His church in Eph 4:11-12. “Where do the ‘public entertainers’ come in? The Holy Ghost is silent concerning them, and His silence is eloquence.” 3) Entertainment is absent from Christ’s ministry. Instead, “had He been less uncompromising, and introduced more of the ‘bright and pleasant’ element into His mission, He would have been more popular”. When people started to desert Him for His hard teaching, Christ did not say, “run after those friends, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow – something very short and attractive, with little, if any, preaching. Today was a service for God, but tomorrow we will have a pleasant evening for the people.” Instead, “Gazing in sorrow on those who would not hear the Word, He simply turns to the twelve, and asks, ‘Will ye also go away?’ (John 6:67).” As He neared death, His satisfaction was, “’I have given them Thy Word’ (John 17:14).” 4) The Apostles did not follow “a gospel of amusement” and entertainment via songs and plays, “As with the Master, so with His apostles—their teaching is the echo of His. In vain will the epistles be searched to discover any trace of a gospel of amusement. The same call for separation from the world rings in every one. ‘Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed,’ is the word of command in the Romans (12:2).” Brown astutely highlights that separation from the ways of the world rings loudly in the Acts of the Apostles who, like Christ, are full of the preaching of the Word. “Here you have (1) their method—they preached; (2) their matter—the Lord Jesus; (3) their power—the hand of the Lord was with them; and (4) their success—many believed. What more does the Church of God require today?” 5) Entertainment does not achieve spiritual results. When young converts backslide, “worldly Christianity is responsible for the first downward step. The mission of amusement is the devil’s half-way house to the world. . . Under the pretence of going out to reach the world, it is carrying our sons and daughters into the world. With the plea of ‘Do not alienate the masses by your strictness,’ it is seducing the young disciples from ‘the simplicity (and the purity) that is in (toward) Christ’ (2 Corinthians 11:3).”

The danger continues today. We may not have the likes of J.S. Bach in our midst, but I have seen advertisements for professional musicians for church services in Perth. The arts scene in Perth is vibrant and colourful, and schools here cultivate and promote a strong interest in music and other art forms. Even if not employed by the church, those with a strong interest in a particular area may have the desire and tendency to want to incorporate more of that into the church, if given the chance. Parents who have put their children through lessons in music or other arts may be excited to have these introduced into churches so that they can see their children “perform” in church settings. This may seem like the perfect religious setting, akin to the piano recitals and concerts that secular music teachers organise for their students’ exposure, but with a religious justification. But what is right for the world does not make it right for the church. Simply because it has been done in times past in church history doesn’t give it justification for introduction into BPCWA. There may be things that I do for recreation that are not sinful, but that does not mean that it is suitable for the worship of God. As I have said multiple times over the pulpit, there is much value to singing and memorising hymns. Particularly because there is so much interest in music all around us, we should take heed to what Calvin said in his Preface to the Genevan Psalter concerning God’s gift of music in the church, “we ought to be the more careful not to abuse it, for fear of soiling and contaminating it, converting [it to] our condemnation, where it was dedicated to our profit and use. If there were no other consideration than this alone, it ought indeed to move us to moderate the use of music, to make it serve all honest things.” The only time we can throw caution to the wind is when we are perfected in heaven in our glorified bodies, without lusts, without sin, and with wholehearted adoration for God alone, without any selfish preferences. Music is but one aspect of the multifaceted realm of entertainment. It can be sports. It can be drama.  Even if we have had some of these in the past, let us now move forward based on the principles God has left us in the Bible we uphold. I hope that, understanding the truth, we will stay on God’s path from henceforth. I do not bring or do what I like when I’m in someone else’s house. It is our church, but BPCWA belongs to Christ. BPCWA is God’s church, and we must tread carefully and reverentially in His house as God reminds, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1Ti 3:15).

The Injunctions from God’s Word. 1) Preaching is God’s ordained means to reach the heart, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1Co 1:21). God sarcastically used the word “foolishness” for preaching because that is how exactly many feel today – music, plays, dramas are wise means, not preaching. But you ask, what about Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”? This is congregational worship singing, not an instruction for musicals and performances. Such singing was to “one another”, not one-way performances. But does it mean that we just have the congregation gather and sing for an hour to each other? Surely we know that the preaching of the Word should take central focus because of 1 Corinthians 1:21. 2) Ultimately, the church is to stand for God’s truth, and to exalt and glorify God alone, for “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God” (Exo 20:5). Everything in church must centre upon and exalt God, as He has clearly instructed, “that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col 1:18). God has commanded His church to preach (2Ti 4:2). Preach means “publish, proclaim, by public proclamation to exhort”. By the very common use of the word “preach”, we would reject any implication that the Apostles adopted any other means than the simple clarion call of proclaiming the gospel and His Truth as they went about establishing the early church. BPCWA must believe that the Holy Spirit will bless if we follow the pattern Christ and the Apostles laid down for Christ’s church. Despite the use of musicals and dramas in society to bring across messages to the masses in their days, the Apostles did not resort to such performances nor give any instructions to the churches to do so. On the contrary, God warns against viewing preaching as a foolish means. May BPCWA forever resist the downward trend and not allow anyone to attempt to bring such ideas in. For if we go down that downward path, we may be, as someone has aptly said, we will end up “entertaining the goats instead of feeding God’s sheep”.

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Act 2:42)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor