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Dan Mullis - The Church Orchestra as a Picture of the Body of Christ
66 Plays1 month ago
Dan Mullis serves as Associate Music and Worship Minister at Dawson Family of Faith in Birmingham, AL and was the most recent host of the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference.
About Dan: https://www.dawsonchurch.org/meet-our-team/details/dan-mullis/
Dan's article for Samford University: https://www.samford.edu/worship-arts/blog/2024/Cultivating-the-Church-Orchestra
The Lute and Harp Website: https://www.theluteandharp.com/
Contact: theluteandharp@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Intro
00:00:00
Speaker
Praise the Lord! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the lupin horn. Praise Him with timbrel and dance.
00:00:11
Speaker
Praise Him with st string instruments and flutes. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him with clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
00:00:24
Speaker
Praise the Lord! Well, hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Luton Harp, the podcast that is focusing on the importance of instrumental music in church worship.
00:00:36
Speaker
I am honored to have on the podcast today as my guest, Dan Mullis. Dan serves as the Associate Music and Worship Minister at Dawson Family of Faith in Birmingham, Alabama. And he was just recently the host for the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference, which we will be talking about in this episode.
00:00:55
Speaker
I do have a couple disclaimers before we get started. First of all, there was a slight mic issue that is causing some noise. I have tried to clean it up as best I can, but there might still be a little bit more noise than is normal in future episodes going forward.
00:01:11
Speaker
Secondly, I am hoping next week to post an episode talking about the start of this podcast, where I got the idea for it, what my plans are for it going forward. And you will see that this has been a long time coming.
00:01:25
Speaker
In fact, I had recorded this episode several months ago with Dan in anticipation of the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference. But unfortunately, i did not get everything together and ready to go for the podcast in time for this to be published before the conference.
00:01:41
Speaker
However, Dan gave a wonderful description of what this group is, and so I wanted to is still include it in this episode.
Dan's Musical Journey Begins
00:01:48
Speaker
If there are any of you out there who are directors of instrumental music or you have any type of instrumental music in your ministry, I highly recommend that you make an attempt to attend this conference, and and I know it would be a great encouragement to you.
00:02:01
Speaker
Dan was an excellent host for our most recent conference, and I know that next year in Charleston, South Carolina, it's going to be another great one as well.
00:02:12
Speaker
Without further ado, let's get into the interview with Dan. All right, Dan Mullis, welcome to the Luton Harp. It's great to have you on here. appreciate It's great to be here. Thanks for the opportunity.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really excited to talk with you. So um part of what we're doing through here is just reaching out to people who are instrumentalists and Christians and who are part of their churches. And um so with all my guests, I'd just love to hear a little bit of your background when it comes to both music and church and when and how those two things intersected. So did you grow up in church? And if you did, kind of what type of church did you grow up in?
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, so I definitely grew up in a church environment. My dad was ah a military chaplain, so that means we moved a lot and were part of several different churches and and as we moved. But I think church became a centering point for us when we moved a bit. And then ultimately, as we got older and more involved, and even younger as as children with with children's choirs, but music ministry started to become that connection point from church to church that we can plug in and serve with.
00:03:16
Speaker
I was born into a military family, but my dad was out pretty early, so I didn't do all the moving and everything that comes. Did you ever live overseas? when We did. We lived in Okinawa for a number of years and did that, traveled, lived in different places in the U.S. as well. so So when you were in Okinawa, the the church that you attended there, was it more of a military church where it felt kind of like an American church in Japan or was it a local congregation? it was definitely, I would say, more of an American church. It was a Presbyterian church there. was more American in its style and delivery.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'm always interested in, you know, just again, when it comes to worship and anything like that, that can look very different from culture to culture, but military sometimes blurs some of those lines a little bit. sure are Are living.
00:04:02
Speaker
So do you have any specific memories of what the music looked like? and you you said you moved quite a bit. So it was kind of different churches. Were they all musically similar or was it pretty different with every move that you made?
Transition to Orchestral Music
00:04:14
Speaker
Early on, i think it was churches built around a choir, piano and organ. That would have been through the early 80s and so forth. And then as we started to get older and get involved in youth groups, we were at churches that tended to have full choir, full orchestra, full youth music programs. So there was some similarity in that. But of course, over time, the music would develop and change. And so you get a little bit of different styles and different things that come together. Yeah, absolutely. So when did you personally first start to study music?
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, so I first picked up my instrument. I played trombone when I was in fifth grade. I didn't pick it. I always say it picked me, and that's a long story. But through moving three years of band, I joined my church orchestra when I was 16 with our student orchestra and with our adelaire orchestra and really engaged with the church ministry in that way from the time I was 16 and been a part of a church orchestra pretty much ever since.
00:05:02
Speaker
Okay, that's, that's awesome. I had the fortune as well, once I was in high school, to be in a church that had an orchestra and and play in one. And I think it's a pretty special opportunity for someone who's in that age range, because where were you in school when you were in high school? Where were you living? Sorry, I was in Virginia Beach. Okay, Virginia Beach. So did your public school have an orchestra? Or were you it was a pretty much just a band experience?
00:05:24
Speaker
It was pretty much a band experience. They had orchestra, but it was a the strings were a separate entity. And I will say by my senior year, the directors had finally kind of brought the choral program and band and and orchestra together to create some symphony stuff that we could do together, which was a great, great time.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's great to hear. I think for a lot of people when they're younger, you're in band or you're an orchestra, but like the the two sides don't always meet. And so having that opportunity in the church to hear how all the instruments sound together and hear how arrangers use the different instruments, I think that getting that at a young age is pretty cool.
00:05:56
Speaker
Do you remember kind of when you first joined that orchestra for for the first time? And what was that like for you when you were a young musician, you got to sit in and orchestra at church for the first time? I can remember a friend of mine joined with me. He played French horn and he was a far superior musician in French horn.
00:06:12
Speaker
But yeah, we were the young young people in this adult group. And I think that always feels just a little strange for a student. But the people within that section, within his section, really came alongside us and became mentors. And I think it was a great place to even build healthy adult relationships that we otherwise wouldn't have if we were just with students all the time.
00:06:32
Speaker
That's a great point. I've often lamented a little bit about the way that some church cultures have moved. And I understand the value of walking through life with some people who are the same point as you. But I think once we've segmented so far where all Sunday school groups are then by age category or by marital status category or anything, it's like then you stop interacting as much with people who are different from you, are in a different stage of life from you. And I think you can miss out on some of those opportunities to really gain some wisdom and gain some different perspectives.
00:07:01
Speaker
I think that's a pretty cool thing that church orchestras can offer. i know I experienced that as well. That's great. yeah Were any of your family musicians or were you one of the first? Yeah, I think that's one of the unique things for my family and and quite possibly part of the reason music was always kind of in our center. a mom played clarinet. My sister played clarinet. My older brother was a drummer. My younger brother was a trumpet player. wow.
00:07:23
Speaker
I don't know that we ever all sat down together and and made music together in one spot, but it's just been something through the years that our family has had. yeah I can go back to my... My grandmother my mom's side was ah played the music as well. So definitely something in the in the family genes, I think. And it's been a fun connection for us as a family from time to time. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:07:44
Speaker
So you went on to study music. With the musician family, was that an encouraged pursuit or was it a discouraged pursuit? I know it like it might seem obvious as to which one it is, but sometimes it's surprising. Yeah.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, it was encouraged and not so much the fact that it was music, but just was really blessed to have parents that just said, if you feel like this is where God is leading you to study, we want to do everything we can to support that.
00:08:06
Speaker
think I could have told them anything that I you know firmly believe God was leading me to and they would they would have given me the same kind of support. And that's a real blessing to have. so What was the next step for you out of out of college? What did you find yourself working first and doing?
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'll take a step back and just say through that early orchestra ministry, around 16, 17, I really started to feel a calling on my life for music ministry. Didn't really, of course, know what that meant. And and honestly, to this day, I think God is still developing and and showing and stretching what that is. But that is why I i did go study music, moved 12 hours from home and to to study music in Nashville and and to get that church music degree. It became what I just believed was the next step that I needed to take. And you know oftentimes we've heard it said that we might not know the whole path, but if we can be faithful to the step in front of us and take that step and see what God reveals along the way, that's really been kind of my method in ministry over the years.
Music Ministry and Career Growth
00:09:05
Speaker
From my period where I was teaching at a university, i've interacted with a lot of students who were in their undergrad years and really don't know what they want to do. So, you know, being in high school in 16, 17, and feeling that strong impression on your heart, it's a gift.
00:09:18
Speaker
I understand the word calling and and where we use it within church culture, but I also really wish we would talk even more about gifting and spiritual gifting, particularly and seeing that, because I think sometimes that's something that comes across in our life when we start to notice it. But then there's usually people around us, part of the body of Christ that are speaking and affirming that spiritual gifting within us as well. Did you feel that in your life? Was there yeah your music minister or orchestra director, people in your orchestra that they they saw that gifting that you may have to be in ministry? I definitely had support from our pastor there that church. And the music minister was ah
00:09:50
Speaker
a big-time mentor for me. And I don't know that at that age I understood it as spiritual gifts, but ah I've come to understand, you know, really through administration tasks and through teaching, those kind of spiritual gifts have been very useful in ministry, regardless of the setting of the ministry.
00:10:06
Speaker
yeah And I think those have been common denominators, if you will, from place to place as God's opened those doors. So you studied church music at Belmont. And after that, did you go straight into full-time ministry out of your undergrad? Yeah. So while we're at Belmont, met some friends in the jazz band, a band was developed and a ministry was started called Denver and the Malheur Orchestra. think in the traditional sense of full-time ministry, people would say that's not what that is. That was a a separate thing from full-time ministry, but really for myself and for our band, we tried to operate it as a full-time ministry. We partnered with churches as we came in to make sure that people, they responded to music in a certain way to the urging Holy Spirit, that they had counseling and a connection with a local church so that they could continue to be discipled and followed up with. And that was really our heart was to see people connect with God through the music in whatever way that might be on their journey. So that was six years of ministry there as I finished school and then immediately post-school, being able play music and record and share. And it was just a great time of fellowship together with a lot of fun friends. And then God moved us into church ministry, full-time church ministry around 2004.
00:11:18
Speaker
Okay, and where was that? He opened up a door for us to move to Jacksonville, Florida, and when we were at Westside Baptist Church down there for about nine years, working to to strengthen the orchestra that was there, ah continue to grow that program. We started a jazz band ministry there as well, and even developed a second orchestra that we called University Orchestra.
00:11:37
Speaker
It was really an opportunity for students and adults to come together and relearn or learn their instrument, but then also to learn like, what does the Bible say about instrumental music? How are instruments mentioned throughout scripture? What were their uses and purposes? And then in that time, we also were able to cover basic theory scales so that after they finished the 26-week course or two semesters, they could graduate and be up into the worship orchestra there and and feel equipped and ready to take that step.
00:12:08
Speaker
i I love that idea. I find that is a challenge a little bit with what we do. Sometimes I get younger players that want to come and play in the orchestra where i where I direct. And one of the things that is is kind of challenging is like we actually do quite a bit of hard music and at a really fast pace. And we go through almost every key signature, you know, every Wednesday, or we're going to go through most of the major key signatures in one night um between all the all the pieces that we hit.
00:12:34
Speaker
And I know lot of times when I have middle schoolers and High schoolers, there's only a handful of keys that they've really been exposed to sometimes. And so I love that formal organized way where you kind of got them trained and gave them opportunity to learn some of the things maybe that's a step ahead of where they would have been in their school training and got to use that within but the orchestra. going have to ponder some of that, maybe do some implementing down here.
00:12:57
Speaker
it was ah It was a great help. And then members of the the regular worship orchestra would sit in as mentors and they'd be able to build relationships and answer questions about fingerings and bowings and so forth. So when that person was ready to come, they knew people.
00:13:10
Speaker
It wasn't a whole new experience for them. Yeah, kind of building a bridge from one to the other. Yeah, I love that. So you spent some time in Jacksonville and then was it a move straight from Jacksonville to Birmingham? Has there been something in between that for you and your family? or Yeah, there was a, I mean, that was a straight move from Jacksonville to Birmingham, but ministry change kind of bridged the gap there.
00:13:31
Speaker
I was serving ah four years full time with a missions group called Operation Mobilization and working to help engage musicians in all of our fields across the world really and did that for a number a number of years and that kind of bridged from from leaving Westside to come into Dawson and even started here at Dawson while still doing that for a little while.
00:13:52
Speaker
so Yeah. And then God, God moved us here and it's been eight and a half years of of ministry here already. i can't believe that time has come by. Yeah, my word. Okay. so six years in Jacksonville and eight and a half years at your current church. So within over 14 years of working with a church orchestra specifically for your job, and then with your other job, you know, the missions job, also still working within music and the church and, and how all those list things interact clearly.
The Spirituality of Instrumental Music
00:14:19
Speaker
You're a thinker, someone who has who has really thought about how it's it's not just notes. it's It's not just entertainment on Sunday morning that the that the orchestra or the choir or any of us are providing. There's something deeper in what we do. And I think um'm I'm projecting maybe what other people think and people can correct me. But when we think of choir or hymnal singing or any of these things, anything that involves lyrics. I think people ascribe maybe some more weight to that because it's like, oh there's, you know, we're singing words and these words have doctrine in them and some other things. And then once it gets to
00:14:58
Speaker
anything that doesn't have that actively, any type of instrumental music where maybe the lyrics aren't present, I think we can think of that less as worship experiences. Something that hopefully, as we talk more on this podcast, we can see through a lot of different perspectives where that's not the case, where the ca these can be highly worshipable moments. But you wrote an article for Samford that's last year, at the end of last year, i was posted on cultivating the church orchestra.
00:15:27
Speaker
From your perspective, how have you kind of seen the landscape change of orchestra music specifically within the church? think in the last 20 years, 25 years, there's been the the churches kind of went through what's always been called the worship wars. And, you know, is it traditional music? Is it contemporary music? And what what do those words even really mean?
00:15:47
Speaker
I think that's ah that's a different conversation to hash out. But my heart has always been that, like, regardless of the style of music, I think instrumental music has a place in it. And I think that's true because God has put that ability in his people.
00:16:01
Speaker
Throughout Scripture, we see instruments used as a means to accompany worship, signify worship, sound the alarm, and you know, and even even all the way into Revelation with the mighty trumpet blast to signal the return of Christ. Mm-hmm. There's an instrument thread throughout Scripture that really, i think, affirms the use of instrumental music ministry within the church.
00:16:21
Speaker
But I think there has been a struggle to preserve what has always been instead of being willing to adapt as needed. And that doesn't mean throwing everything away. It might be adding to.
00:16:32
Speaker
think one of the unique things that I was able to do when I came to Dawson was start to show that the orchestra was functioning in a very traditional format, symphonic orchestra, no rhythm section in it whatsoever. And that was great.
00:16:44
Speaker
And we continue to do that. We still, to this day, we'll go back and grab some of that. But over the years, we've been able to mix that rhythm section into the middle so that our worship can develop, so that our our song choices and orchestra can develop and really able to give a wider range of musical interest, which ultimately allows us to have a wider range of potential spiritual impact because the Holy Spirit will use different music to touch people in different ways.
00:17:11
Speaker
Something that I think it speaks to my heart greatly is i i find sometimes music ministries within themselves can end up being a little divided where it's like there's the the choir ministry and the orchestra ministry and the band ministry and the pricing ministry. And these are almost like.
00:17:26
Speaker
four separate entities ah rather than No, this is the music ministry at the at the church. We're all one team. We're all playing on the same same team. And once we get to Sunday morning, right, this is the same group and we're all with the same end goal in mind.
00:17:43
Speaker
When you were talking about your ministry, I think you pointed out several things that also came up in your article and what you do when you were talking about the and different age groups ah that you got to interact with and how some older people got to pour into your life when you were ah young orchestra player.
00:17:59
Speaker
Another thing that you mentioned the article that I thought was really fascinating was showing how the orchestra is a visual example of the body of Christ and that diversity within the body of Christ. You want to kind of speak a little bit on that concept that you wrote about?
Orchestras as a Metaphor for Community
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:17
Speaker
1 Corinthians 12.20 says that there are many parts, yet one body. That's a pretty familiar scripture to most believers. And he's rightfully using it in a way to help talk about gifts within the church and everybody doing their part. And I think that can easily pertain into the orchestra.
00:18:33
Speaker
The beautiful thing about the orchestra is it's sitting right in front of the church's face, literal face, as a representation of that scripture actively working in front of them. Because in a given score ah for a church orchestra, you have anywhere from 15 to 19 or maybe a few more parts, literal parts. And so every part has to be played to actually represent the full intent of the composer's writing. And so everyone has to be willing to play their part to do that.
00:19:02
Speaker
And then breaking that further down, yeah have melody and harmony and rhythm and and things that must submit to each other, but also come in and lockstep with each other so that it doesn't create unintentional tension or just really a cacophony of sound that can happen if we're if we're not willing to submit together.
00:19:19
Speaker
Right. The same is true for the body of Christ. The same is true for for me and my family. God has given us all unique gifts and abilities with thoughts and opinions and experiences that we bring to that family, to that body, to that orchestra. And if we can come from a place where we bring it together as a kind of like an offering to one another... then we can see God in each other that way. And then we are all made stronger as a body of Christ. We're all made stronger as an orchestra.
00:19:46
Speaker
When we say, hey, we're all going to follow the beat of the conductor. he's going to He's going to lay down where that's at, or she, and then we're going to tune ourselves to one another. We're going to find a common tuning note to tune our instruments to, or in life to tune our hearts to, and start to build harmony and melody from that central place. So I really think on display for the church every Sunday when an orchestra sits in front of them is this display of 1 Corinthians 12.20 that we are many parts, yet one body.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. it's ah It's a beautiful picture. I had never, and honestly, I'd never really thought about that passage in scripture and just connecting it to what we do and then saying like, hey, this is on display. That's visual representation of that. I really enjoyed reading that. And then you've you've gone even to a little bit more into it here than you did in the article, breaking it down into the even just the tuning idea of of where where are we unified? Where are we one body? But then there are a lot of parts where like the ear can't be the eye, no matter what, if the eye wants to hear or whatever, we still have our individual functions. It was really, that's really great.
00:20:48
Speaker
So I think we'll probably have some listeners who have had very different experiences with the
Encouragement for Musicians
00:20:54
Speaker
church changing. And there may be some people within their church context where maybe they feel that currently as an instrumental player, if they play a trombone or a French horn or something, that that particular skill set that they have is not something that they're able to use within the context of their church. It's not something they feel is valued or needed, but it is something maybe within their heart, something that they desire.
00:21:16
Speaker
This is a ah moment of ministering ah to ah to a to a heart. Maybe what what's something that you might say to somebody who's in that position that would just give them some encouragement for their walk in their church?
00:21:28
Speaker
I think if you're in a church where there's not an instrumental ministry of some sort happening and you're feeling and God might be leading you to do that, you know, you play an instrument. I think the first place you have to go is to prayer. You have to make sure you're having a conversation with God about, first off, am I in the right place to do this ministry that I feel you calling me? Is it is it here?
00:21:49
Speaker
Maybe he's stirring it up in you because he needs you to move somewhere else. I don't know. i think likely it's because you're there could be the catalyst that's needed. And then once you have that assurance, I would then be sure to talk with the the worship minister or even the pastor. And sometimes it's all the same and approach it from like, can you share your vision for me about where you feel God's leading our church for worship?
00:22:13
Speaker
I'm feeling this from him. Is there ways so that you might be able to help that pastor or worship minister have a new possibility or they hadn't considered it? Because oftentimes Sunday's always coming, right? You hear that a lot in...
00:22:27
Speaker
and always say in circles yeah I always say Sunday's always coming and it's five days away. It's terrible math, but it's reality. Because of that truth, it really is, is you get yourself not not into interrupt but into a routine.
00:22:41
Speaker
And sometimes it's helpful to have somebody come along and say, hey, what about, have you thought about this? Or I'm feeling God leading me towards this. Or I have this gift I'd love to offer to the church and worship.
00:22:52
Speaker
How would that work? How could that look? and then And then I think the hardest part, honestly, if you know if they say, let's try it, let's do it, let's try it for a period of time, start small, don't commit to every Sunday.
00:23:04
Speaker
you know Maybe it's the first Sunday of every month. Maybe it's for three or four months of a season and let it let it naturally grow. But the hardest part is to then to do it.
00:23:15
Speaker
and And oftentimes if you're that person in your church bringing that idea forward, it can feel like you don't have a lot of resources or where do I start? You're listening to this. I know Victor or I would love to be resources to help help that.
00:23:28
Speaker
in any way, shape or form. Absolutely. There's a lot of grace in that response. Okay. So another group of people, some people, maybe if they're in a church that does have an instrumental music ministry, but currently they're not playing, there could be a couple of reasons for that. Maybe one, they don't think they're needed to maybe they think they haven't played in a long time and they're not able to do it anymore.
00:23:48
Speaker
As orchestra conductor, I always know, I know there are people sitting out there Who could be up here playing? I don't always know who they are, but I know they could be. I would love you. Come, please come. But what what would you say to somebody who's who's sitting there and has those abilities, but maybe hasn't quite started using it within their church yet? Yeah, I'd say if you're in that situation, you're feeling the urging of the Lord to to explore it.
00:24:10
Speaker
You need to do it. and And really, again, the hardest part is is starting and going. You may not feel fully ready musically. You may not think you are. You're you're comparing yourself against what you think you hear in the room.
00:24:22
Speaker
But getting, like going to that rehearsal and go get in the habit of going to rehearsals and figuring out that pattern and that rhythm, because what you've done now is you've built that into your schedule, which is honestly one of the hardest things to crack through these days.
00:24:37
Speaker
but you've made that an important spot. So therefore, at least once a week, you're going to have your instrument out for an hour, hour and a half playing some music that you maybe just would otherwise think about and never really get to, which then could lead to, I need to practice this part that I am still trying to figure out. So you pick it up at home. So like there's a there's a musical growth and discipleship, if you will, yeah to just being obedient to going, just go get in the go get in the water and swim.
00:25:04
Speaker
you know yeah I think back to just a few people in my ministries through the years. I had one gentleman who hadn't played his trombone in 32 years. And he's like, Dan, I feel like God's telling me to play, but I don't have an instrument. It's been so long. And I was like, hey, I tell you what, I've got an instrument here at the church. You can use it And what I want you do is I want you to come put it together and sit through this first rehearsal. i want you to meet everybody and we're going to find the B flat.
00:25:32
Speaker
Can you play a B flat? Okay. Yeah, that's a B flat. Where is it at in the music? Okay. Look for those in every song and only play B flats tonight. I know that it's going to be a long road yeah for someone like that.
00:25:43
Speaker
But the beautiful thing about it is if your church has an orchestra, they have the ability to give you space to travel that road. Yeah. And you're going to learn better and quicker. by obediently coming each week.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah. We have several people in our orchestra who who were the same thing. You went years and years without picking up an instrument. One thing I always tell people, they don't believe it usually, but I'm like, your body remembers. Our brain is really good at compartmentalizing things and putting, if we don't need that information anymore, it goes into some deep dark hole in our brain, but it's still there. And I think they're often surprised that once they come and they're there every Wednesday,
00:26:21
Speaker
Little by little, some stuff comes back and then you add to the stuff that your body starts to remember. You add to the stuff that you are now learning. ah week after week. yeah And I'm even shocked often by the amount of progress that some of these people will make within a few short months of that consistency. It's very true. And church orchestras across the country or around the world are built off of the, I used to play a long time ago type of person. And and God uses that.
00:26:46
Speaker
I've heard from professional musicians like, I don't get how much your church goes through all this music and you're able to play play all this stuff all the time with, you know, just an hour and a half rehearsal every week and you're changing it, you know, constantly.
00:26:59
Speaker
So you think about ah a symphony is going to to play a certain set of music for a certain amount of time. Yeah, until that concert is finished, right? So we, we, we go through music every week.
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It's something I always say, it's like, we are going to go through a lot of music and some weeks are a little bit more chaotic than others. But We'd love to see other people who want to play and want to be there. And so I think like the environment, if you were afraid that, you know, you're going to come and play a wrong note and someone's going to boo hiss you out of the room.
00:27:29
Speaker
Most people may be shocked to find that that's going be, couldn't be further from what they would experience. Well, they're going to, they're going encourage those other players. The players are encouraged to see more players. Yeah. This is having an impact on people.
00:27:39
Speaker
Oh, I think every every time we have a new person come into the room, it's it's a highlight week. Everyone's ah so excited to see we have one more. The bigger we get, that's they they just get more excited. that's That's pretty awesome.
Metro Instrumental Directors Conference Highlights
00:27:51
Speaker
So you and I first met through the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference. Now, I came out of, I grew up in independent Baptist circles and didn't come to more of a Southern Baptist church context until after college for me.
00:28:06
Speaker
And so there's these things called metro conferences that I had no idea what that was. People were talking about it like it was just super normal. The pastor was going to their metro and the youth pastor was going to their metro. And So what is Metro? I think in general, the concept is an opportunity for people who do the similar ministry that you do to conclave together and talk about things specific for that ministry. Ours is the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference. Once a year, we gather with directors and and and many spouses from across the country. And we look at writing techniques. We look at new music that's available. when We look at sharing prayer requests and partnering together. How do you handle these
00:28:45
Speaker
kind of conversations or what are some things you've experienced this way and ah learn from each other. You know, I know with with our Metro, we're gearing up to equip and to encourage and to refresh for both the director and the spouse each time we meet together.
00:29:00
Speaker
And you build that friendship and that relationship that then throughout the year, And throughout the years, you know you can come back to each other and how are your kids doing? And it helps to know that other people out there are in ministry doing the same thing you're doing.
00:29:16
Speaker
ah praying for one another and supporting each other, kind of holding each other's arms up, if you will, in many different ways. And so that's the purpose of our Metro for sure. And I think one thing that's unique about ours is it is more denominationally mixed and it's for anybody. If you have any type of instrumental ministry going on at your church, it doesn't have to be full blown orchestra.
00:29:36
Speaker
If you get, if you're actively using instruments in your worship at church, we want to try to help resource that in different ways. And one of that is training and so forth that we do at this conference. That's a fantastic overview. How long have you been ah a part of Metro? When was your first Metro conference?
00:29:52
Speaker
Do you remember? My first Metro conference was in 2005. So you know right out of the gate from joining with full-time church ministry. Ironically, that that year was in Nashville and was living in Nashville during the planning process. It was kind of brought in to sit in and learn and and build relationships with the guys and ladies that were up there.
00:30:11
Speaker
And then when I moved to Jacksonville, I was then reattached to the conference as an attendee and not not in the hosting vein of it all. So it was fun. Everybody kind of has different opinions of conferences. Some people, it's really about the sessions and the training. And some people, they don't really care about that. It's just really about interacting with ah other humans or ah for for you just personally. how How would you see your ministry different if you were not a part of Metro? For me, it's building those relationships through the years. You know, when I'm sitting there conducting a piece and I see a composer's name on there, it's not just a name. It's, I know this person, I know their family, I've prayed for them. And i think it actually helps me interpret that music better because I kind of understand their personality and the experiences they've had.
00:30:55
Speaker
I know for my wife too, it's been a great thing for us these 20 years of ministry to have that constant support, that recurring support when we gather back together and being able to check in with each other. And even throughout the year, if you need it, you know, lot of people connect together through throughout the year outside of the conference.
00:31:12
Speaker
I think one thing that's unique, you mentioned the the sessions and stuff for for Metro. We have the sessions. We have cultural experiences that we try to do wherever we're at. We we eat really well. We eat very well. That's...
00:31:25
Speaker
But I hear from people over and over again, it's the conversation I had on the bus going yeah between things or late at night when we stayed up with another couple and and played games together. You know, just those relational moments, you know, in some ways are intended, but honestly not you know, poured over in the planning necessarily. It's it's the between moments that really mean a lot.
00:31:45
Speaker
There are some people at Metro, I'll do a little bit of an inside joke here, but there are some people at Metro that you will not get to know them truly until you play Taboo with them. Like that's like their real personality, the inside, like the who they really are comes out and at that time.
00:32:00
Speaker
I'm relatively new to the Metro world. I'm one of the the the youngins, I guess, at least when it comes to how long I've been apart. My first one was supposed to be 2020. Obviously that one ended up being canceled. So started coming 2021. What you're describing is what I truly left with, what I think is is unique.
00:32:19
Speaker
There's truly a really deep sense of community that I have seen that I see people come in Monday ah little tired. And leaving Friday looking younger and more energetic than they did five days before.
00:32:33
Speaker
And it's really made me believe a lot in what's done there and and the and the group of people, because I can just see that it really has a profound effect on the people who are able to be there. And I know that they're going into another year of ministry much more refreshed and ready to continue doing the work that's in front of them. I think it's a good and a good and right thing that we get to do for each other.
00:32:56
Speaker
Dan, I have really appreciated it. This has been a good conversation. i think it'll be an encouragement
Closing Thoughts and Contact Info
00:33:01
Speaker
to a lot of people. Something I'm asking all my guests just for fun. I'm asking everyone if they could snap their fingers and play an instrument that you don't play right now, like with some proficiency, what instrument would that be and why? I would say the acoustic guitar.
00:33:14
Speaker
I have tried and it does not agree with my fingers, but um I love the versatility of it. Culturally across the world, it's an instrument that's used at the drop of a hat. So it's just a fun one to be able to pick up around a campfire, around the worship center, wherever you're at, you can use a guitar.
00:33:31
Speaker
I happen to be currently trying to start. That's been part of my 2025 thing. And I will say, I wish for sure that I could snap my fingers and just be able to play it because that's not how it's going at the moment. It's a tricky thing. I watched some just really good like finger pickers and other things. And I look at it I'm like, it's magic.
00:33:47
Speaker
Like there's the sound and what I'm seeing doesn't match up. It's crazy. yeah All right, Dan, thank you again so much for being on the podcast. I really enjoyed talking with you. and Awesome. Thanks again for the opportunity. Really enjoyed it.
00:34:01
Speaker
I'm telling y'all, Dan is one of my absolute favorite people. He is such a gifted leader, but he is also so incredibly humble. If you are interested in learning more about the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference, feel free to reach out to me at thelootandharp at gmail.com, and I would be happy to get you some more information.
00:34:19
Speaker
If you are enjoying this show, please subscribe, like, and share it with your friends, and I will look forward to seeing you next week.