I read a FB post recently by a great singer, Bryan Hutson, that stated that one thing he has learned in his years of singing professionally is that "95% of ministry takes place off the stage." For a man that is as traveled and touched hundreds of thousands of lives with the great Kingsmen Quartet as Bryan is, that comment real bore into my heart for I realized in those few words just how true that fact really is.
Those of you that know me know I love music and love to sing; especially Southern Gospel music. I have been blessed to sing to many different crowds both large and small in many places for many years. It took me too many of those years to realize the real drive or motive for singing was to get to sing; a very ego-driven reason which, today looking back, is really sad. In the last five years music has become a means or a medium to minister to people that are hurting, struggling with issues and worry. For me, as Mr. Hutson so aptly stated, the great, great majority of the ministry of singing comes when the mic is turned off and you are meeting people, listening to hurting souls and empathizing with those that come into your path. But the real joy comes when you disconnect from the throngs and seek out that person that looms back from the crowd, eyes cast downward and you just know they need a touch, a smile, a word; just a moment of your time! THAT is when I realize the power of ministry is triggered and fertilized and that is when my heart grows so soft.
Ministry is about serving. Ministry, like leading, has at the common denominator the verb of serving. Music from the heart and not for entertainment is a powerful service medium. No longer do I sing a song for the joy of singing a song for to select a song to learn, that song has to touch my heart and my soul with its message. I have learned that if a song passes my selection hurdle then God will bless that song in ways unimagined when it is brought to the delivery point.
As a man that sings a great deal, you can see and know very quickly those listening to the song are being touched at the heart from a hurt in their life or if they are just enjoying the song for the rhythm and entertainment. There is a place for both please know but as I grow older and more mature in my faith, this work of singing God's Word no longer is driven to entertain but to minister, to serve, to help, to show caring, to give from my heart to a hurting heart something that can bring a respite in the winds of worry and fear.
So in realizing that the great, great majority of ministry does, in fact, happen after the lights are turned down and the mics are off, means that you the singer are surrendering yourself even if fatigued or your mind would prefer to be somewhere else at that moment, to the glory given in giving of yourself for someone else. Nothing thrills me more, now, than to be engaged before or after a singing to have the chance to hold a hand, give a hug, share tears with a hurting person I did not know until that handshake or that hug.
As I read the life of Jesus, one thing that stands out to me is when in the midst of hurting people, He was NEVER hurried. When all around him people were rushing and nudging Him to move quicker, He was steady, purposed and invested in people He did not know most of the time. That is, He is a perfect model for ministry which is giving fully of yourself to someone you may not know but in realizing they are hurting in a million possible ways, you give of yourself in listening, a touch, a smile, a tear that soothes that hurt. THAT is ministry. The singing is only the headline of the newspaper of ministry.
Your talent may or may not be singing but each of you have a talent. That talent is your headline to ministry if you develop it from the heart and not the ego. Go ahead, try it! You will love the person you are better and deeper if you invest in others with your heart after the mics and lights are off! I have made a commitment to myself and to God that never will I sing a song for my enjoyment but only for the touch a song has on my heart knowing that that same touch will be played forward to someone God will bring into my path as a result of that song!
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