Using Your Gifts to Bless the Body of Christ - Part 3
“We don’t want to be the church piano player that is really difficult to work with, really easily offended, and someone that everyone tiptoes around. Rather, our interactions with fellow members should be marked by love, grace, and kindness.”
As we come to the last post in this series on using our gifts to bless the body of Christ, the third responsibility we're looking at is…
...Sanctification
In John 17:16-17, as Jesus is praying for His disciples to be sent into the world, He says these words…
...16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
...17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
So how does sanctification relate to using our gift as a church piano player?
Well, firstly let's define sanctification; the most simple definition of this would be “the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, helping us to be more like Christ”.
It also has the idea of being “set apart” which is what our lives should be as we become more Christ-like.
Sometimes referred to as progressive sanctification, this is a process that is continuously taking place in the life of a Christian. The reason it relates to how we use our gift of music is simply that if we are not consistently grounded and growing in our relationship with Christ, then we are far more at risk of using our gift in an ungodly way or developing ungodly attitudes beneath the surface when things don’t go our way, or as we start to feel like we want praise or a pat on the back for blessing the church with our gift.
In those words I just read from Jesus, we see that the direct link to sanctification in our lives is the Word of God. This comes back to what we touched on in an earlier post where we looked at the importance of cultivating our personal relationship with the Lord. This isn't to make us saved, but to make us safe around others!
We don’t want to be the church piano player that is really difficult to work with, really easily offended, and someone that everyone tiptoes around. Rather, our interactions with fellow members should be marked by love, grace, and kindness.
So really, this point is just about making sure we are spiritually minded in our role, desiring to please God above all, and that as we grow in sanctification, we bring more of Christ into the lives of others.
As we seek to use our gift to bless the body of Christ, let's just be reminded again of the 3 responsibilities we have:
Sanctification
One of the blessings about those 3 responsibilities, is that they are also privileges too! If you think about it, it’s a privilege to be entrusted with a gift, a privilege to serve God’s people, and a privilege to have the Holy Spirit working in our lives, helping us to become more like Christ.
[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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