THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN GOSPEL MUSICIANS/MINISTERS/ARTISTES AND ARTISTES/MUSICIANS By Asu Ekiye

 

THE debate is gradually gaining momentum. There is a growing minority of young people venting, postulating, analyzing and exegesizing on the fact that the word gospel music should actually be non existent in our musical lexicon. Their opinion is that there is nothing like gospel music. According to them, Music is music.

And sadly, a great number of people have started to catch up with the bug. They continue to dissociate themselves from being recognized as gospel artistes/musicians or music ministers so they can probably have the liberty to sing cross over songs and gain secular appeal. They call themselves either “music artistes or musicians”. Their opinion and belief is that attaching the word gospel to their nomenclature even when they sing spiritual songs, diminishes, restrict, limit or subsumes them under the cover of a sectional or parochial variant. They ask questions like: “ is there anything like gospel doctor, gospel lecturer, gospel banker, gospel accountant, gospel engineer or gospel architect etc?” Why should there be anything like gospel musician?

My response is simple: if only you understood the meaning of the word gospel, and why it is associated with Christian singers, you would gravitate towards rather than scamper away from it .

Music as it is practiced in the church today is a fallout from the original Old Testament practice where the tribe of Levi was dedicated to the service of the altar and a major part of that service was the functional activities of the levitical priesthood among whom were those whose role it was to sing in the altar. Music ministry basically is an altar service especially when it is practiced inside the church. Although I do not intend to discountenance the efficacy, propriety or reality of the existence of gospel music at social, ceremonial, governmental and other secular events. I believe there is also a place for all that. This will be a discussion for a different essay. But the genesis of spiritual music emanated from the altar and that is where our present status is derived from.

However, it may be important here for us to know why some persons and activities have the word “gospel” attached to their titles, nomenclature or work e.g, gospel musician, gospel artiste, gospel music minister, gospel preacher or gospel movie, gospel comedy, infact some people prefer the usage, music ministers while also adding a prefix to the word, calling it Gospel music ministers .

The emphasis here is on the word “gospel”.

SO WHAT IS GOSPEL?

Gospel is the teaching or revelation of christ. “In Koine Judeo-Greek the word euangelion that is interpreted as Gospel is a compound word that is made up of two separate words “good” and “message”. To proclaim the Gospel literally means to announce to someone that something (really) good has taken place.”

Now , we also refer to the record of christ life and teaching in the first four books of the New Testament as the gospel. So the word gospel is about christ and it is about good news . By implication, any activity that is derived from Christ is referred to as the gospel. Additionally, any action that brings good news from the perspective of christ can be referred to as the gospel.

Now, let’s be direct with the issues: Any musician whose works are derived from the work of christ is a gospel musician. When you see music as ur talent from which you express it dedicatedly to worship the giver of the talent and also to edify the body of christ, you are gospel musician. If you minister in music as a product of christ’s death and resurrection, you are a gospel musician. If you sing with a mindset to also preach Christ, you are a gospel musician. Wether you are called a worship minister, song minister, music minister, minstrel, or Levite, you are a gospel musician. This is in-spite of your love or detest for the word “gospel”.

Moreover, the point must be made that the secular world considers anything Christian as the gospel. That’s why in most music awards counting from the Grammy Awards to other secular awards, there is a category that is dedicated to Christian music and such groupings or categorizations are regarded as the gospel category. So it is just natural from a global perspective to regard those who are practitioners of christian music in the above regard as gospel musicians.

The word gospel cannot be equated with a secular job like medicine, architecture or law etc, even though most of these professions can be tools for evangelism especially where the practitioners have a relationship with christ . Music ministry emanates from the alter. So when u distinguish yourself by removing gospel from ur nomenclature just to appear acceptable by those outside the gospel community, you also deny urself of identifying with the finished work of Calvary. It is also as bad as saying that you should be referred to as a Human being and not necessarily a Christian even if that is your faith and exactly what you practice.

Whatever you like call yourself. It doesn’t deny the fact that you manifest the gospel. Rom 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of christ; it is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe.”

I am a product of the gospel and as such will not be ashamed to identify with the gospel. If you like, call it limitation. The truth is that most of you who are proponents of this jaundiced philosophy are not better placed in terms of influence and popularity.

Conclusively, I make bold to say that No one standing in between the both extremes has ever ruled either worlds. They have continued to play second fiddle in both worlds. They neither rule the secular nor the gospel world. It is obviously a needless identity crisis.

Written by

Asu Ekiye.

The intl President of FOGMMON