On Christian Musicianship, Pt. 1 (backstory)

Why? What's the point? What am I doing, and is it meaningful? How often do musicians ask themselves this question? And is my answer different than the answer of a non-Christian musician?

I used to not have much of an answer for the question of “why a Christian classical pianist?”  To me, a “Christian musician” was someone who used their music directly for ministry purposes.  Since I wasn’t doing that more than one day a week, I had to start wondering what it means to be a Christian and have a “secular” job and what the relationship between the two should be like.  All I had to go off of at first was Ephesians 6:7 and Colossians 3:23, both of which essentially say “whatever you do, work as if you’re working for the Lord instead of for men.”  This was the extent of what I was taught growing up in church pertaining to being a working Christian.  It translated to me as “have a good work ethic; work with a good attitude, work well, and work hard.”  Beyond that, there would also be a lot of talk in my church and at home of evangelism and sharing the Gospel with co-workers.  This still didn’t connect deeply to the aspect of work itself, and isn’t necessarily sustainable if you don’t have a plethora of co-workers.  I was looking for purpose in my work as a musician.  The “best” place I arrived at was the idea that I would be working primarily in university settings and in the fine arts departments in particular — a setting where visible Christianity is relatively rare.  I thought “God will have me in a position where I am one of the very, very few orthodox, Biblical Christians working in my field in an academic setting, and He will use me to help guide or inspire students (if the conversation ever comes up) in order that they might either come to faith or simply be encouraged knowing that there is a Christian faculty member around.”

This is all fine, and I still believe that all three of those above “purposes” (witnessing via my work ethic, witnessing via evangelism, and just generally being a light in a dark place) are valid and important.  However it wasn’t until I started being taught more about the meaning of a Christian worldview, presuppositional apologetics, a more optimistic eschatology, and the continuation of the dominion mandate that I finally saw deeper meaning in my work.  And since then, I have never had to question the validity or value of what I do within the Christian framework and in light of being a true follower of Jesus.  And it excites me more and more every time I think about it.

Continued in Part 2.