NEXT GENERATION OF YOUNG CHRISTIAN MUSICIANS: TAKING ON THE BATON AND KEEPING

THE FAITH OF OUR CHRISTIAN GENERALS IN CHRISTIAN MUSIC BY ‘BOLAJI OLANIYI

Group Music Discipleship Session

Introduction (5 Minutes)

Thanks to God! More young and gifted youths are coming up to the spotlight of church music ministry
today than we experienced in the past few decades. Young people are showing increasing interest in using
their musical talents for the Lord in our churches while some are increasingly launching out their personal
musical albums and gospel music bands. This is good for the church if these youths and their churches
handle the opportunity well. Before we move into the focus of our discussion, let us make some clarification
here about Christian music. Christian music are music that are purposely consecrated solely to glorify God,
solely to edify or disciple the believers in Christ and solely to evangelize the world. Take note that not all
songs that mention the name of Jesus or God may qualify as Christian music but this is ‘a horse of a different
colour’ which may not have a room in our present discussion. Yet, for the gifted young musicians to take
on the baton of Christian music from the older generation of Christian musicians successfully, there are
certain things to be considered. If you are to take on the baton of Christian music as a young and gifted
musician, it means that you must acknowledge that there are certain accomplishments already made
by those before you that you must uphold if you must be a good successor. Failure to uphold this
accomplishments of your music predecessors will do a lot of harm to the future of Christian music. Presently
in our societies, it is obvious that certain accomplishments of the past Christian music Generals that those
who took over from them could not uphold have watered down the impact of Christian music upon the
hearers in our societies. This unfortunately is ‘THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’ of Church music today
that everybody knows about but few want to talk about it. For the Christian music to continue to have a
good and finishing ending, those who take on the batons from generation to generations must take the issues
that will be raised here very serious. Such young Christian musicians (according to Myles Munroe) must
determine not to break ‘the long chain of purpose that was designed to fulfill the divine desire of the
Creator’ of music. As we share together, bear this in mind that Christian music is not about you but it is
all about God. When God is not glorified in your music, you are no different from club and party
musicians.

Biblical Perspective of Music Leadership, Mentorship And Followership Keeping the Faith (5
Minutes) The Bible gives us some direct basis for music leadership and followership while it also gives
some general leadership and followership guide to the sustenance and upholding of the good standard of
Christian music. This reminds us of our hymn – BH 252 “Faith of our fathers, living still,In spite of

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dungeon, fire and sword, O how our hearts beat high with joy,Whene’er we hear that glorious
word!Faith of our fathers! holy faith! We will be true to thee till death!Helpful scriptural references for
our discussion are:

Genesis 4:21; His brother was Jubal, the ancestor of all musicians who play the harp and the flute. GNT

1 Sam. 16:18; One of the servants said to Saul, “One of Jesse’s sons from Bethlehem is a talented harp
player. Not only that—he is a brave warrior, a man of war, and has good judgment. He is also a fine-
looking young man, and the LORD is with him.” NLT

1 Chronicles 25:6 -8 : All these men were under the supervision of their father for the music of the temple
of the Lord, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God.

Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the supervision of the king. 7 Along with their relatives—all of
them trained and skilled in music for the Lord—they numbered 288. 8 Young and old alike, teacher as well
as student, cast lots for their duties.

1 Tim. 4:12; Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers
in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. NIV

1 Tim. 5:1-2; Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, cyounger men as
brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity (ESV)

Jer. 35:5-10; Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink
some wine.” 6 But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab[a] son of Rekab
gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. 7 Also you must never
build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live
in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’ 8 We have obeyed everything
our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters
have ever drunk wine 9 or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. 10 We have lived in tents
and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us.” NIV

Lev. 10:9, “You and your descendants must never drink wine or any other alcoholic drink before going into
the Tabernacle. If you do, you will die. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from
generation to generation.” NLT

Psalm 137:1-6: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they

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said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign
land?5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. 6 May my tongue cling to the roof of
my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

2 Tim. 1:5. I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your
mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

All these scriptures affirms that the music, the gift and the faith did not start with us. Some people were
there before us and as they hand over to us the young musicians, we must know how to handle it carefully
and still make God smile on us. In other words, the good heritage of music in worship must not end with
us because we did not start it, rather, it must be passed from one generation to the next.

Finding Solution to the Problem of Young Christian Musicians Inability To Keep The Baton Handed
Down To Them (50 Minutes)
Break Out Session (25 Minutes)
1. Break out into groups of three or four people
2. Give the following Bible passages to different groups to read and study together.
a. John 3:3 ; Acts 17:23, Exodus 31:1-4 ( Requirements for all Christian musicians)
b. 1 Sam. 16:18 ( David’s Resume as a Potential Palace Musician)
c. 1 Chronicles 25:6 ( Young Temple Musicians under supervisions)
d. 1 Chronicles 25:7-8 ( Three things very needful for young musicians)
e. Joshua 1:8 ( The main ingredient of Church music)
f. 1 Tim. 4:12 ( Young Timothy advised)
g. 1 Tim. 5:1-2 ( Young Timothy’s dealings with various age groups)
h. Jer. 35:5-10; Lev.10:9, 2 Tim. 1:5 ( Passing and keeping the baton in Christian Music)
i. Psalm 137:1-6 , Daniel 1:8 ( Saying ‘ Yes or No’ as a young Christian musician)
j. Exodus 28:1-2; 42-43 ( This is now becoming a problem among church musicians today)

 Discuss the passages of the Bible given to your group

 What lessons can all aspiring young musicians derive from them as Christians who want to take
on the baton of Christian music and still keep the faith?
 What lessons can the church at large learn from this in order to encourage aspiring young
musicians in the church?
Rapping up Session (25 minutes)
1. All groups should come together.
2. Share lessons derived from their study
3. Let fast readers read out 1 Sam. 16:15-23, 2 Tim. 1:5, Romans 13:1-2, Matt. 7:12 and
2 Tim, 4:7-8 together, and discuss what message God is passing across to us as aspiring, and
gifted young musicians taking the baton of Christian music ministry today

Conclusion (10 minutes)

Closing Session with Prayer (10 minutes)

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 Let us sing the stanza one of the hymn above “ Faith of our Fathers”
 Thank God for the session and pray that God will help us to be faithful in keeping the faith
handed down to us as young Christian musicians by those music Generals who have come before
us.
 Use this time to surrender your life to Jesus, if you have never done so, because you can’t handle
Christian music if you are not born again.