"Religion and Music shouldn't be mixed"

"Religion and Music shouldn't be mixed"  - this is something that was said to me fairly recently by someone who is well known in musical circles. It was in response to a church who were seeking to use concerts as a way of getting people into the building and sharing the Christian message with them.  However, certainly in the Christian faith music has always played a huge part in worship.  In the Old Testament part of the Bible there are many examples of music being used in the Temple worship and we have the book of Psalms which is basically the Bible's hymn book.  While the New Testament contains less examples of music being used in worship, it still talks about Christians encouraging one another with "Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs".  Similarly Revelation, the last book of the bible, talks about there being music in heaven. So music always has and always will be a big part of Christian worship.  However, should we seek to use music to share what we believe with others who perhaps don't share our beliefs? I think this is what was being objected to when the comment I opened this blog with was made.  I guess this immediately gets me thinking of Handel's Messiah and many other great sacred works in the classical repertoire.  Handel's Messiah was certainly controversial in its day and led to complaints for being too theatrical and operatic!  However it has been said that The Messiah has done more to convince thousands of mankind that there is a God about us than all the theological works ever written (Myers, Handel's Messiah).  So whatever our beliefs might be, music has certainly been used for many years to introduce people to the Christian message and as long as people continue to perform the great Oratorios of Handel and others then this will continue.

Feel free to post any comments or thoughts you might have.