Disciples, Fish & The Kitwe Church Music Ministry
The morning at practice I made mention of our service that we stand in and our responsibility as the Music Team of Kitwe Church. I try to encourage all to understand our role to play in this and it took my mind back to the days that Jesus walked the earth and served everyone with His teachings around the sea of Galilee. I would like to take you back to that and explain some of the circumstances and how it is relevant to our current Music Ministry.
Most of Jesus Teachings took place around the Sea of Galilee and He had all his Disciples with Him. Today most of our time in music ministry would be in the church for congregation level of teachings and a smaller amount of outreach when we do special events outside the church walls, as we are to be disciples in our music ministry.
Disciples would serve the gathered for instance at the sea of Galilee, and try and organise the crowds and assist others to focus on Jesus. We as the music team have similar responsibilities. We gather the minds of those in the congregation to focus on the Word as from the onset when we start the service songs. Our daily life need to be of such discipline to serve others, not to think of our needs but the needs of those out there. The need that we essentially to cater for as the music team, is to direct everyone’s mind & heart to Jesus at time of the sermon.
As per Sunday morning discussion, remember the times the crowd have gathered to unexpected numbers and after they have spent time in listening to the teachings, they all were hungry and they collected the bread & the fish from the crowd. They brought it to Jesus, he prayed and it was served to the people in multiplication and it fed all of them & they had left overs.
Our responsibility is to do what the disciples have done. Gather the crowds to focus on Jesus (The Word of God) with our music. In the beginning we have all the fellowship the gatherings in the church entrance & people happy to see each other. There are excitement and laughter, just as in the days at Galilee. Then the crowd gathered around and settled in. For those days the people had a hunger for the Word of God, the Teaching of Jesus Himself. Today we have all walks of life gathering, who also have the same hunger and it is not easy for each and every one to just shut down the doors of the world to concentrate on what is offered from the Word of God in the sermon.
This is where we as the music team need to lead the congregation to the place where they can focus on the Teaching to be offered. We need to calm their thoughts and set their focus on Jesus with our music and singing. You will note that our music would have a level of excitement and reflects similarities as to when the congregation settle’s in, talks around this I would think in Galilee at the time would have been on how great Jesus is, what they have learned & would like to receive more of His teachings. We need to create this in our music and the flow of it has a number of similarities.
They would listen to the Teaching of Jesus, and the disciples then collected the bread & fish, gave it to Jesus, Jesus prayed and served the crowd. We have to set the table for them to feast on the Word of God. The Word to be presented is the bread & fish, for which we set the moods and the Pastor then will present it to the congregation. Note that we also pray before the sermon.
A note that I make to myself: Focus was on Jesus, disciples focus was on Jesus, disciples ushered & served the crowds, they didn’t get the glory, it all went to Jesus, for He has been the one feeding the crowds and they had left overs. Today we sent leftovers after a meal home with friends or share with others. You will not go empty handed, you will share in it all, but the Glory is to God.
A lot of times a song shared in the service would give people the connection to the Word and they would take it with them for the week ahead. This would encourage them, strengthen them & lead them closer to Jesus through their own circumstances. That is our music ministry. The focus is not the stage, the time we can deliver/present the music, but rather we serve and stand in awe as He breaks the Word through the Pastor and we could send the congregation home with a connection to encourage them.
Derick Van Staden