There are brethren who feel that if the accomplished violinist Itzhak Perlman was a member of the church, we would be derelict in not letting him practice his craft for our benefit and, presumably, for God’s glory. There is no question that we should use our talent, whatever it may be, to bring glory to God. But the idea that because a person has talent he or she should be allowed to display it by, for example, playing musical instruments in the assemblies, and by doing so, he brings glory to God, is hardly convincing.

In the first place, even if the argument had any merit, it proves too much. I know at least two of our members here who were excellent athletes in the past: Randy Clark was an exceptional baseball player and David Carrozza holds high school rushing records that have yet to be broken. Having played both sports, I can tell you it takes talent to perform at the levels these two men did. So, shouldn’t the church arrange for these superior athletes to somehow demonstrate their skills, "to the glory of God." Maybe we could have Randy and David conduct a camp each year for young Christian athletes, completely financed from the church treasury—just think of all the contacts! Think of all the good we could do in putting their ability to work.

Nonsense, you say? It has as much scriptural authorization as allowing some of our young musicians to play their instruments in our assemblies "to the glory of God." (Having said that, I do believe that whether you play sports or play tuba, you should do it to God’s glory [I Corinthians 10:31]. But there is no authority for it in the assemblies).

There are a couple of other reasons why God does not authorize musicians to demonstrate their ability through instrumental music in the assemblies. For one thing, in any public activity, whether of singing, preaching, or you-name-it, there is the opportunity to deflect the glory from God to self. That’s why we preachers need to be biblical first, and everything else second. Many times, I have heard musicians play instruments so expertly that it took my breath away. I’ve heard violinists, cellists, pianists and bassoonists, and been so in awe of their ability to bring beauty from a piece of metal or ivory or horsehair. But did I necessarily come away with a higher opinion of God? If I did, it was only because I try to think about God in everything aspect of life. But my first tendency is to give glory to the individuals.

The same is true when a person with a great voice sings. Our human impulse is to praise her for her great talent, instead of praising God for His great gift. A lady used to attend with us at Huntington Beach and I had never noticed anything special about her singing. One evening we went to her house for dinner and she sang a couple of songs for us. One of them was a German song that she sang a’capella. All who were there were electrified by her singing; yet she refused sing that way in the assemblies precisely because she knew it would draw attention to her, instead of God. That’s one reason we don’t do solos, or even quartets and choirs. God has arranged things so that we can all equally participate, regardless of our respective talent (or lack thereof).

One final thought. Do you really think that under the New Covenant, with so many people lost in sin and so few of us to spread the gospel, that he really wants us to spend 5-6 hours a day, or more, perfecting our talent to "glorify God" with it? I can’t imagine Jesus telling us to do anything that takes us away from our primary responsibility to teach the lost and serve others.