Faithfulness vs Virtuosity

“It’s a sobering reminder that when we take our eyes off the Lord, and start to become too self-focused, we can actually see our greatest strengths turn into our greatest weaknesses.”

How does faithfulness versus virtuosity play into our role as church piano players?

Well, as you know, the last couple of posts have been all about the importance of practice and establishing routines that help us make progress and improve our skills as church piano players.

There’s no doubt we need to be committed to this, but there's also another aspect that is important to consider. This might be helpful, in particular, for those of you who are known for striving for excellence, or who are perhaps very driven to do or achieve something at the highest possible level you can.

Now those can be great characteristics, but they can also be a hindrance at times if we’re not balanced in our perspective.

Many years ago, I heard a pastor make this statement, and it’s stuck with me ever since. He said, “an unguarded strength, is a double weakness”.

What did he mean by that? Well, he meant that for many of us, the greatest strengths that we have, meaning those things in which we excel or do well at, or those good characteristics that we are known for, can actually be our greatest weaknesses if they are not kept in check or kept in biblical balance in our lives.

The example this pastor gave was that of the Apostle Peter, who, as we see in the gospels, was known for his courage, his ability to lead, and of course his willingness to speak boldly on behalf of Christ.

Now these can all be good traits, but what was the biggest failure in Peter’s life? It was an act of cowardice instead of courage because he was scared of the girl who sat by the fire and pointed him out. Instead of being willing to lead others, all he did was retreat. And he was too timid to speak boldly on behalf of Christ, ending up denying Him instead.

It’s a sobering reminder that when we take our eyes off the Lord, and start to become too self-focused, we can actually see our greatest strengths turn into our greatest weaknesses.

What does this have to do with being a church piano player then?

Well, if we’re not careful, our desire to achieve excellence and be the best we possibly can at something, if not guarded, can cause us to take our eyes off Christ, and how He would want us to conduct ourselves. And so we end up becoming more self-focused, thinking only about what we are trying to achieve, rather than the role in which God has called us to serve.

For example, you may get so focused on practicing and getting the pieces you play so good, so technically excellent and so polished, that you lose sight of the fact that your role is not to be the best sounding, most polished virtuoso on the church piano. Rather, your role is to do the best job you can to support the congregation as they sing and worship God, with minimum hindrances and distractions, for the glory of God.

I can tell you this with confidence - most pastors and church leaders would rather have a faithful church member who plays the piano well enough to lead the congregation in worship, than a virtuoso piano player who’s main concern during the worship service is how well they played, whether they made any mistakes or not, and what people were thinking about how they're playing.

Does that help you to see how a strength can become a weakness? I hope it does, and that it encourages you to yes, practice and improve your skills - but also to not forget that as you do that, you mustn’t lose sight of why you are doing this. And that why has to be something more than just satisfaction in your own personal achievements - it also has to be about how you can serve and bless others.

In other words - faithfulness is a far more valuable characteristic to develop in your life, than excellence or virtuosity.

So, may our church piano playing be marked by a genuine desire to be faithful in pleasing God, and being a blessing to the congregation.

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.

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