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This week we're talking about what our mission is in music Ministry.
It might not be what you think.
I want to start with a quote by Saint Augustine. "Singing is for the one who loves."
My Pastor, Father Murphy, preaches about this quite often, and it's something that I've picked up from one of his homilies. It is that God is the singer. God is the singer, and we are his song. And the entire reason that we exist is because God continues singing.
That is a beautiful reflection of music and God being the source of not only all our music, but of creation in general. And the fact that he is still singing over us is the reason that we still continue to exist.
We have music within us. So then we can say that our song is our love song and our expression of love to God. And that is beautiful.
So the mission that we are on in Music Ministry is that we are facilitating that love song for others, for the Body of Christ.
The first part of our mission and the most important part of our mission is...
We are facilitating prayer through music.
Everything that we do should facilitate prayer through music.
What do I mean by everything?
I mean everything that we do in music Ministry...the songs that we select, the key signatures that we choose to use and to play those songs so that the congregation has a voice and can sing them to make sure that we are singing with the congregation's voice so that we are leading them in being able to sing their love song to God.
How we arrange the music should facilitate people's prayer in music. Being emotionally connected to the lyric, making sure that we have practiced and rehearsed the lyric enough so that we have an emotional connection to it so that people can engage with it and pray with it. The tempos that we use, the effects like on our guitars and the patches and the sounds that we use in the keyboards should all facilitate prayer for people. The dynamics we play with should facilitate prayer. Everything we do should aim at helping people pray with music.
The second part of our mission is that music should unify us as the body of Christ. Music should unify us as the body of Christ. I don't know if there's anything more beautiful than the sound of a packed Church singing hymns and praise to God there is so much discord and agitation and frustration in our world right now. And we as music ministers have an opportunity to unify people, to bring people together, to bring the Church together, to sing praise to God.
Unifying the Church through music also means that we have an opportunity to present what our Church teaches. So there is theology in the songs and the hymns that we choose, and that is so important. It's another way to catechize the people sitting in the pews. So our second mission in music Ministry is unifying the Church, unifying our voice, bringing harmony, peace, unifying the body of Christ.
The third mission in music Ministry is what I would call creating moments of prayer for people or "creating moments". Everything we do should facilitate prayer through music. So in creating moments, what I'm talking about is a concept I learned because I'm a student of a guy by the name of Tom Jackson. And Tom Jackson is a live music producer. He's worked with major label artists that we've all heard of. The most prominent is someone named Taylor Swift. She's a singer songwriter based out of Tennessee. I'm sure you've heard some of her music. Tom's entire principle in teaching is one of not singing songs, but one of creating moments for people.
So how do we translate that? How does that look? So if your favorite band was playing in town and you had a ticket to go see the band and you showed up at the venue and the band came out and they played every song exactly like it is on the record, that would be okay, but it's not ideally why we went to see a live show. Odds are you already know those songs and you already have the record.
We are going to see live music and participate in live music events because we are looking to connect with that artist or we're looking to connect with those songs, and we're looking for an experience.
We're looking for a moment.
So now as music ministers, we are not looking to create a moment for people to connect with us. We are looking for opportunities to connect people with God.
We can create a prayerful moment within a song. We can create a fun musical moment within a song. Yes, we are liturgical and worship musicians, but we can still create things that are fun musically to engage people and connect them to God. We can create lyrical moments within songs. We can create sensitive and open moments within songs. I'm not talking about emotionally manipulating people. I'm talking about creating a space for people to be able to engage in prayer with God. Back to our first principle mission, which is to pray through music.
Thank you for bringing your love song to music Ministry. Your love song for God your love song for God's people your love of music thank you for bringing that and showing up with that every single week. That is so vital and so important.
We are facilitating prayer through our love and through music and it is absolutely beautiful.
I am a child of the best decade ever for music that existed (The 80's) and there is a huge band that came up through that decade. I didn't really connect to them until just a couple of years ago, and that band is U2. I've always kind of known their music and I've heard the music and I've appreciated what they've brought to music. Recently, within the last five to six years I've really invested and loved going back and listened to these records and just love this band. There's a quote by Bono that I think is so profound and it emphasizes our mission in ministry.
"Music can change the world because it can change people." - Bono
My brothers and sisters, thank you for joining me in this mission to bring beauty to the world, to help people pray through music, to help unify the Church through its song and to create moments and spaces is for people to encounter the living God.
Until next time, God bless you.
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