What It Takes To Be A Rock Musician
September 21st, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Theology
I thought I’d share with all of you the document we hand all potential new music ministry members (as well as current members from time to time) communicating to them the standard we expect of music ministry participants. I hope you find it helpful.
The following are submitted as requirements of a member of The Rock Music Ministry. They are not intended as a set of legalistic requirements by which one will be measured and judged and found worthy or unworthy. We are all severely lacking in all of these areas when we are measured against The Standard of Christ. However, all of these components have been prayerfully considered and found through experience to be vital to a healthy, growing, and effective music ministry in the context of The Rock in Ames.
Level of “achievement” in these areas are not the point. That is to say, we don’t care how “far” one is “down the path” so long as it has been determined that one is actually “on the path” and headed in the right “direction”.
1. A passionate lover and follower of Jesus
It is said that music is the language of the heart. Our job is to communicate The Gospel and draw attention to the magnificence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, through our music and our lives. Therefore, a Rock Musician must first and foremost be a passionate lover and follower of Christ.
We must all recognize two things: (See Ephesians 2)
1) There was a point in our lives that was “before Christ”. We were lost, helpless, selfish sinners. All of us deserved an eternity of hell for who we were and what we had done to God. No one was born a follower of Christ.
2) If you are a Christian, there was a point in time that God revealed himself to you, revealed your need for him, and enabled you to come to him. This required a response of repentance from “doing life” your way, and instead trusting in God’s way of doing things: acknowledging your sin and failure to love God, and banking on Jesus’ sacrifice on The Cross as payment (atonement) for your sin.
This recognition leads you, on a daily basis, to seek his way for your life, and give up doing it your way. This change might have happened in a moment, or gradually over a period of time, but it is the life of a Christian. We don’t submit perfectly every day, but now, through his power, given by grace, we have the ability to choose to.
Recognizing this Grace breaks our hearts. It causes us to say and do crazy things about and for Jesus. It makes us different from the rest of the world in the way we think, conduct our lives, and make our decisions.
Our job is to communicate the gratefulness we have in our hearts through music, the way we carry ourselves on stage, and most importantly by the decisions we make in our daily lives. This leads to:
2. An example of a life of worship
Being an example of a life of worship is not something we set out to do as a goal, but is something we become as we obey Christ’s commands, which is how he says we will show whether or not we love him. (Obedience, being a result of love for him, not obedience leading to love for him, though it often does…)
As worship leaders, we ought to have lives that can be pointed to as an example, no matter “how long” we’ve been “at it.”
Romans 12:16 is a hugely powerful summary of part of what it means to “live a life of worship”:
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”
This verse has three parts that are hugely applicable to us:
a) “Live in harmony with one another.” How are your relationships with your family (physical and spiritual)? A worshiper’s life will mean doing what is necessary to have - Peace with your parents (physical and spiritual) - Peace with your husband / wife - Peace with your children - Peace and Purity with your brothers and sisters (physical and spiritual)
b) “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.” Another way of putting this is “give yourself to humble service.” What an amazing thought.
We as Rock Musicians are nothing special. This is one of a hundred ways to serve the church that are all of equal importance. Of course, when everything is working together as it should, there is very little that is more fun than playing music together, but there is a lot of pain and hard work that goes along with this.
The humble service piece is an important one. We are instituting an new piece to Rock Music this year. “When you aren’t playing, pick up a broom.” We are going to aid the facilities team in preparing [The Venue] for The Rock every week. The weeks we aren’t playing, we are going to be doing the dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, setup and tear down that is necessary to make The Rock happen.
c) “Never be wise in your own sight.” We are all young, and in various ways, immature. We have ideas and pet projects that seem like “the right way of doing things” that really aren’t. (You probably aren’t believing me on this point. I’m talking to you. If you are scratching your head as to what I mean, good.)
It is critical for us as believers to be submissive to authority. Do a word search for “authority” in the new testament some time, look at the results in the epistles.
We, as a ministry, exist to serve the vision of Jesus for this church. He tends to lead the leaders. Therefore, we are to be submissive to the pastors, and the various ministry team leaders appointed over us (team leaders, production team leaders). We are here to make their vision happen, not to impose or further our own vision.
Since it will be difficult to get to know all of your personally and meet with you all on a regular basis, I need to rely on your team leaders to keep a pulse on how you are doing. Therefore, in order to be involved with Rock Music, you need to
- Have been serving in another ministry in The Rock for 12 months
- Have been an active member of a Life Group for 12 months.
3. A skilled and committed musician
“‘Great works’ (of art) and ‘good works’ (of charity) had better also be good work. Let choirs sing well or not all. Otherwise we merely confirm the majority in their conviction that the world of Business, which does with such efficiency so much that never really needed doing, is the real, the adult, and the practical world; and that all this ‘culture’ and all this ‘religion’ (horrid words both) are essentially marginal, amateurish, and rather effeminate activities.”
C.S. Lewis, “Good Work and Good Works” from The World’s Last Night, and other essays
This is not scripture (though I argue that it is scriptural), but it has haunted me ever since I read it.
There is no biblical mandate for a New Testament Church to have a band. We exist as a display of gifting God has given the church. We are called to do everything we do with all our heart. We serve a God of excellence. We take our music seriously. I need you to take your music seriously as well.
We need to be a ministry of skilled and committed musicians. Therefore, in addition to the heart of love for Christ, the Church, and Service, a Rock Musician:
- Is skilled at their instrument. This is determined by the leaders of the music ministry. It is a rather subjective requirement, but please trust our judgment.
- Has consistent access to (ownership of) high quality equipment necessary to your music.
- Has consistent attendance at practice time
- Has consistent personal practice time
- Is involved in the local music scene (going to shows, getting to know other bands, involved in ISU music, etc.)
- Studies the pros (go to concerts, watch concert DVDs, etc) in an effort to progress in their art.
Communication
Because of the way we facilitate and communicate with the music ministry, you must be able to check e-mail at least once a day. You will be held responsible for announcements that are older than 48 hours, emergency requests may be made within 24 hours. Last minute requests tend to happen as well.
We coordinate our services via planningcenteronline.com – you must be able to access this site regularly.
Being Lead to serve in Music Ministry
All Christians have been “called” by God to salvation. We have been created as a new creation by Christ for good works, which Christ has prepared for us to do. (Ephesians 2). Discovering what it is that God has for us to do is one of the great challenges, and joys of the Christian life.
God has given each of us gifts, skills, talents, and abilities. We are told that we are to use what we have been given to serve the church.
It is our desire to help you learn what it is you are supposed to be doing (and these things may change over time!) and to let you use the gifts and talents you’ve been given to serve the church.
How your gifts should be used is most often determined in community and under spiritual authority. There are many ways for music talents to be used in The Rock. We have a very specific vision and standard of excellence for how music is used on Friday nights and Sunday mornings. There are many opportunities, however, to use your skills on a small group level. If your skill level is not yet up to the standard of Friday night, you will be asked to “keep practicing”. Our sincere desire is for you to improve in your skill so that you can play. A great venue to learn to lead worship is in small groups, and of course, by being a worship leader in character, which is more important than skill, and is described above.
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Ministry Philosophy, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
