Using Your Gifts to Bless the Body of Christ - Part 1

“What greater way could there be of using the gift of music, than to facilitate and take part in the worship of God through song, during the corporate gathering of His people?”

As a church piano player, you recognize that God has given you a gift - the ability to play the piano, and maybe to sing or play other instruments also.

Music, itself, is a gift from God, and it is elevated to its highest form when used in the context of a church service.

What greater way could there be of using the gift of music, than to facilitate and take part in the worship of God through song, during the corporate gathering of His people?

Now when I refer to the gift of music, it’s important to clarify that this is not a spiritual gift, as such, but rather a natural gift, or ability, that is acquired through practice and diligence - and that natural gift is then used in spiritual service unto the Lord. As we know, some people have more of a “natural” gift when it comes to music, where it comes fairly easy to them, and others have to work harder at developing that ability.

There are many ways that God grants gifts, abilities and talents to His children, for the purpose of glorifying Him both in and out of the church context. Then there are also the spiritual gifts that God grants to believers, which mainly revolve around the activities of speaking and serving, within the local church.

Hopefully, one of the main reasons we are serving in this way, as church piano players, is because we genuinely desire to use our gifts, to bless our brothers and sisters in Christ. In this role, we have the opportunity to do this; and it can be a great blessing. But we also must recognize that with the privilege of a gift that God gives us, there are also responsibilities we have as to how we use that gift in a way that honors the Lord.

What are they, then? Well, over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at the 3 different responsibilities we have, as those who have a gift, and desire to use it to bless the body of Christ.

So firstly, we have the responsibility of…

...stewardship.

Understanding our responsibility of stewardship begins with the acknowledgement that everything we have been given, ultimately, belongs to God - in other words, our gifts, our resources, even our very lives, are given to us by God, and they belong to Him.

One author described stewardship as…"Utilizing and managing all resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment of His creation."

We see this principle clearly taught in the parable of the talents, which you can find in Matthew 25:14 -30.

In that parable, we see that Jesus holds us accountable for the gifts, abilities and resources He has given us, and how we use those.

As church piano players, we should want to use and steward our gift in such a way, that the Lord would say to us…

…21 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'

I recommend you read the whole parable after this post to get the context of this statement from Jesus.

So, as a church piano player, know that:

God has entrusted you with that gift and ability - which means...

...it’s not necessarily all about whether you think you should use that gift or not, but rather...

...are you being a good steward if you don’t use that gift to bless others?

I’m always encouraged when I talk to piano players, who share their desire to play piano for their church, but it doesn’t come across as some personal desire, but rather they have a deep sense of the need to bless others with that which God has given them - that’s a great perspective of biblical stewardship.

You will be such a blessing to your church if you sincerely want to use your gift to encourage and help your brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the next post, we'll be considering how we should be using our gift in the context of the church.

[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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