Giving up music for the Lord's desires
“Father, let my desires become your desires.”
If you have ever prayed that prayer, you know exactly how scary it can be. But, if we follow Jesus, those words must pass our lips. If God is Lord of my life, He is Lord of all of my life. When I spoke that sentence in fall of 2019, I never thought that I would ever play music again. I think I was okay with that. In my heart I thought he would replace music with a great marriage or some sort of new hobby in this career of mission. The Lord provided me with a great marriage, but I was wrong about the big picture plan God had for my life…again. I stopped making plans a while ago. Or at least, I am writing them in pencil now and God has full access to erase and rewrite them in stone if he wishes.
Truthfully, I am living the dream. When I accepted this missions job, that is mainly work from home, I thought I was going to get tired of it, because somehow I thought I “needed” adventure all the time. When GEM hired me, I took a spiritual gifts test and my number one gift ended up being “administration”.
“What in the world? Admin? Really?” I said to myself.
Looking back over these last few years, God has used my position in GEM to recruit, disciple, and send laborers to the harvest field. Not just that, but I have also been given the task to make more and more people aware of the need for missions in Christian communities in the USA. God has been faithful to call and send.
A new passion
I remember going to see “1917” with a bunch of friends in January 2020. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. There is one cut scene in the entire film. It is remarkable. Right after the first and only cut scene, a song composed by Thomas Newman called “The Night Window” starts accompanying the film. Newman scored the whole movie, and his music sparked something new within me. The cinematography combined with the music of this scene changed my life forever. I sunk deep into my chair and got lost in this scene. Boom! My love and interest in film scoring and composing began.
I dove into this new world and tried to find some opportunities to try to practice. This led me into the world of producing, recording, and writing music consistently. I was always afraid to do this because I thought I needed super nice gear or it needed to be perfect, but I did it anyways. I did a few small projects in college where I didnt know what the heck I was doing, but this time I was serious. So I would practice producing in my off time after work. This led to a new and exciting opportunity I never thought would happen.
Scoring films for missionaries
I come to find out that there are three locations in GEM that actually have a need for musicians to score their films. These ministries make movies as tools for evangelism, community outreach, and because it is their passionate way of connecting with their church/community. With technology these days, I can drag their movie right into my digital audio workstation (DAW), and score their film right here in TN. Is this mission work? It seems to me that I am only working on music? Well, these films are translated into different languages to convey the gospel story they include, these films include non-believers in the community who ask questions about God, and they help the field build relationships with their community/church. Doesn’t look like mission, but it is? Wow! One of the film groups is literally called “Soul Catalyst”. Their films could be the catalyst to someone’s soul.
Starting a podcast
When March of 2020 hit. Summer mission stopped. Traveling to schools stopped. But work had to go on. “How can we mobilize people to get to the mission field without being in front of them?”, I asked.
I took the liberty of answering my own question & bought the classic SM7b microphone, with an interface to record, and a mic stand. A hefty investment on a missionary budget I might add. Worth it? Every penny. Here is what some people shared with me after listening.
"I listened to the podcast and this convicted me about going to serve in this location.”
“I learned about the need for Europe from listening to the Ten2 Project Podcast.”
“I knew God was calling me to Europe, but I didnt know where. So I listened to the podcast, and God placed Italy on my heart. So I am pursuing full time mission there now.”
Now, I have great news. The podcast has gotten fantastic traction and we are launching into the “Why Europe podcast” that is all across Greater Europe Mission. Rather than just telling people about the Ten2 Project, we are telling them about Greater Europe Mission.
Producing, podcasting, & interviewing missionaries is work? Well its getting people to the field and making others aware of the need, so yes!
Breathe on Us & Worth the Risk
The fall of 2020 hit and there was a need for a theme song for Greater Europe Mission’s annual conference. The title of the conference was, “Breathe”. Ironic because of the pandemic. lol But anyways, I was given the task to write and record a song for the conference! I was still an amateur at the time, so I hired a friend to help me produce, mix, and master the song, and voila! “Breathe on Us” was released.
The following year, I co-led a team to Kosovo for the summer. You can read about that doozy of a summer in my other blog posts. A doozy for me, but also one of the most transformative summers of my life. That summer, I got to lead worship more than 50 times. I recorded and produced a live worship night. I got to mix and master a few of those songs from that worship night. And that is also where I wrote “Worth the Risk”. Which is definitely the best song I have ever written. This led me to come back to the states and record it. I hired a legit producer for that song and learned a ton just by watching him and becoming inspired. So many have loved and been encouraged by that song. I am more than grateful.
It seems that every time I try to walk away from music, the Lord places it right back in front of me. As soon as I took the full time position with GEM in 2019, the next month was when my love for film scoring developed. Coincidence? I don’t think so. But this time, my focus is shifted. I no longer make music for fame, money, or popularity. My focus is the kingdom, blessing my friends, my family, and hopefully inspiring others to do great things for our Lord.
I thought that I would have to give up music in order to pursue all that God had for me. But right now, it seems that the Lord is pushing me more and more to pursue music for Him to show me all that He has for me.