The Worship Music Musician Network

Hey there, Mark here just getting things kicked off.  I know it has been a while, but inspiration hasn’t stabbed at me in a while.  Actually, inspiration has been screaming at me to get off my butt, but [insert any number of excuses] has kept me from doing anything about it.

So what do you do?  Well, you go to church of course and listen to a fantastic sermon about moving from the Safe Zone to the Faith Zone.  (Check out a link to the podcast here:  Living in the Faith-Zone )  You know, stretch out a bit.  Do something a little out of your comfort zone and let God take over.

So here it is.  I have resurrected ForTheProphet.com.  It looks like it will take on a slightly different mission at first, but wouldn’t it be cool if the network actually flourished and musicians from all over the area offered their time to bring Worship Music to churches/others in need of the word?  Hmm…I say yes.

The first step in this endeavor is the youth.  I’m a big believer in mentoring the youngins, so if you’re in Middle School or High School, you play Guitar, Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, or sing and you want to rock out for God, click on the Schedule an Audition link in the upper corner of this page.

Think of this phase as the church version of the movie School of Rock.  We’ll get together and very simply rock out.  We’ll bring in experts on each instrument at different times to give clinics and to give special attention to individual instruments, we’ll talk about music theory, we’ll write some tunes, we’ll rehearse some tunes, and we will glorify God through music.

Now, the bad news…at this point we have to limit the participation due to time, space,  and people available to do the mentoring.  Hence the auditions.  We will start with intermediate to advanced players and we will grow from there.  I hope that you’re as pumped about this as I am.  I look forward to rockin’ out with you!

Mark

So, I guess maybe a little history is in order before we get into what this site is all about…

About 5 years ago…maybe more actually, I had the idea to create a Christian Rock Band.  I knew that I wanted to play relevant music, that had a message.  As I started writing songs and looking for band mates, I came up with the name For the Prophet.  I thought it was pretty catchy.  Being that I’m a bit of a computer nerd, I registered the domain name.

Well, after struggling to find like-minded folks to handle the drum, bass, and vocal duties (I’m a guitar player), I sort of scrapped the idea.  In fact a few years later I let the domain name go.  Then about a year after that, I felt like I wanted to do something with “fortheprophet.com” again so I looked to see if I could get the domain name again.  Well, it turned out that someone else had it already. 

So, about a year ago, on a whim, I thought I would check to see if the domain was available again.  Bingo, it was.  So here I am, off on Christmas vacation and ready to get something going again.

Now this time, I am approaching things a bit differently.  More history…

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see Northridge Church’s annual Christmas Music/Performance/Show and as usual I was blown away by how stinkin’ cool it was.  Every year they have fantastic music, acting, video production, and a great Christian story…actually, the greatest.  I leave completely blown away every time.  This year’s performance was no different.  I went with my wife, bro-in-law, and sis-in-law and couldn’t help but think that there was work for me to do.

My issue has been this:  I love music.  I love God.  I want to praise God with music, but dang, why does church music have to be lame?  My response…it doesn’t.

Many events have happened over the last few months to bring me to this point…one of the most significant was learning about a guy named Lincoln Brewster.  Lincoln not only writes great rock Christian music, but he plays the snot out of his guitar.  Completely inspiring.

Like I said before, I’m a guitar player…kind of a John Petrucci/Scott Henderson/Jimmy Herring wannabe, (neat mix huh?) so when I heard Lincoln playing this incredibly powerful, yet ripping music, I was hooked and again, inspired.

Now, the dilemma.  I’m conflicted.  The church I belong to is awesome.  We have the best Pastor ever.  I mean, he’s a great guy and his sermons hit me right between the eyes every week.  One of the philosophies we seem to have is to be all-inclusive.  If you want to participate, we let you.  Even in the worship teams.  Now, again this is where I am conflicted.  I also believe that it is great to include people, but I feel like when you have the wrong people on worship teams, it detracts from the worship experience.  Would love to hear other thoughts on this.

My thought is to pull off some great music in the church setting you need good musicians.  It’s great to have people that like to sing (the shower singers), but really we need some people that are actually practicing their art.  I truly believe that if you are putting forth some great worship music, others in the congregation will start working harder to be a part of the group.  If you let everyone in, where is the incentive?

So, now, the second part of the dilemma…if you get rid of the craptacular musicians, who do you have left?

This part is a bit harder.  Now, we could hire musicians every week, but it really would be nice to have people that are interested in “donating” their time to further the message.

So that is where For the Prophet comes in.  My hope is to find professional and semi-professional musicians that are interested/willing to play at various worship services around Southeastern Michigan.  Again, if it grows, that would be great…but for now, I can handle Southeastern Michigan.

Like a friend of mine said, the music ministry is the first thing people experience when they walk in, and the last thing they experience when they walk out!

I am also going to start myspace and facebook groups that will hopefully help spread the word.  I will keep you posted.  Again, I would definitely be willing to entertain ideas!

Stay tuned!