Encouraging Words from Cary Schmidt » music

Why Ministry127.com?

caryschmidt — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:17:34 +0000

Two months ago, we launched a new website—Ministry127.com. It has had a wonderful start. Friends and co-laborers from all over the world have written and expressed appreciation for the site and the resources it contains. Contributors have continually sent in submissions that are practical and helpful. The site has been overwhelmingly received and used in just these first two months. And this is just the beginning!

To me, it’s one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever had a part in, and I wanted to share with you the “why.” Why would Pastor Paul Chappell invest the time, the staff, and the resources to create such a website—and then make it FREE? What’s the motive in building a site that isn’t “about our ministry” and isn’t generating income? What’s the point behind Ministry127.com?

The simple answer is that it’s a true reflection of Pastor Chappell’s heart and philosophy of ministry. As long as I’ve known him, he’s a man who avoid politics and stays focused on local church ministry, and equipping others for ministry—soulwinning, discipleship, and service. He’s a man who desires to bring people together around solid biblical values. He’s a man who loves to encourage pastors and church leaders. But beyond that, there are some core values that drove the decision to create Ministry127.com. Here are just a few:

We believe in local church—this site is designed to help facilitate and encourage ministry in local, New Testament churches. Each article and resource is chosen to breathe life and ideas into local churches. And the heart is especially to help and encourage smaller local churches who may have limited staff and resources. We believe in God’s work in your local church.

We believe in the value of encouragement and edification—there’s plenty of carnality and bad attitudes among Christian leaders today, and for those genuinely desiring to serve God, that carnality can be discouraging. And for some reason, the internet became the default parking place for much of that carnality. We felt it appropriate and biblical to launch an entire site committed to the purpose of encouragement and edification.

We believe in the principle of synergy—independent Baptist churches have a lot of success stories happening all over the country. Many of our leaders are being greatly used of God, but often out of the “limelight”—their stories are not heard the way they should be! Our prayer is that Ministry127 will bring great content from many dynamic voices that others may benefit from what God is doing in many places.

We believe in the value of ministry resources—we’ve experienced first hand how difficult it is to find trustworthy resources and fresh ideas for ministry. What better way to share ideas and glean from ministry successes than a website like Ministry127? Whether it’s a sermon idea, a graphic, a video, or a challenging article—we believe there is great value in the things we’re adding to this site.

Bottom line—Pastor Chappell really has a heart to help equip and encourage spiritual leaders in the ministry. Pure and simple, Ministry127.com is an online outpouring of that heart. As God has blessed our local churches, we desire to bring those blessings to a table where others can use them as well. To that end, we sincerely pray that Ministry127 will be a destination for your team for years to come—a place where you can find encouraging friendships, trustworthy ideas, and powerful resources for your local church.

You Are What You Listen To (Part 2)

caryschmidt — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:23:55 +0000

This article is part two. You can read part 1 here.

Music Influences Your Heart (Your Mind, Will, and Emotions)

Music, primarily harmonies, always communicates emotion. In many ways, music is emotion. This means it powerfully impacts your thoughts and decisions. You could say your music is the soundtrack of your life—it paints emotions, thoughts, meditations, moods, and ultimately helps determine the choices you make and the logic behind them.

Music is perhaps the most powerful external influence to who you are—how you think, how you feel, and who you become! In fact, the very word music comes from the root word muse which literally means “to be absorbed in thought…” That’s what music does, it absorbs our conscious and subconscious mind and directs those thoughts either in spiritual or unspiritual directions! Here are a few examples of God’s Word tying music to our heart, thoughts, and meditations:

Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”

Psalm 9:1, “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.”

Psalm 28:7, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

Psalm 57:7, “ My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.”

If you find that you often struggle with emotions, thought patterns and choices that are unspiritual or unbiblical, have you considered the influence your music is having upon this process?

The Bible commands in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The word keep means to protect in a good sense—to guard something very valuable! The word issues means the outgoings—the things that proceed forth—your emotions, your words, your decisions, and their consequences.

No matter what decision you make, from choosing lunch at a fast-food restaurant to how to treat your family, you always consult your heart—your mind, will, and emotions. And what you listen to powerfully influences that heart. Do you see the direct connection that music has to the rest of your life? The fact that music is so powerful over our hearts should compel us to make careful choices to listen to godly music.

Music Influences Your Spirit (Your Relationship with God)

Music, at its core, influences our spiritual lives and our relationship with God—either drawing us closer to the Lord, or quenching the Holy Spirit. God always desires our lives to be filled with and controlled by the power of His Holy Spirit:

Ephesians 5:18-19, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”

1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Quench not the Spirit.”

Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

The biblical fact is this: the right kind of Spirit-led music can be an immensely powerful force that aids us in bringing our body and soul into submission to the leadership and control of the Holy Spirit of God. That is to say, it can feed and fan the flames of the work of the Holy Spirit within.

In summary, music provokes physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual responses that result in choices. Therefore spiritual music will contribute to spiritual responses, spiritual choices, and spiritual outcomes. To the contrary, fleshly music—that which accentuates rhythm or soul-ish lifestyles (emotion led), will diminish my ability to “walk in the Spirit.” Spiritual music will contribute to my walk with God and the Spirit-filled life.

Music impacts the totality of our being!

We’ve seen three compelling reasons to choose godly music. When you listen to music, you are giving a form of media a powerful influence over every part of your being—body, soul, and spirit. Scripturally, we are commanded to give that type of influence only to the Lord. Nothing else should control or have mastery over us in that way.

Simply put, God desires to have my music, because God desires to have all of me! Romans 6:16 teaches, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

The Christian life should be a quest for purity! It should be a Spirit-filled journey. But being Spirit-filled leaves no room for carnal choices or carnal influences. Your musical listening habits always have a direct correlation to your spiritual condition and direction in life.

May we listen to music that helps us lead Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, God-centered, God-glorifying lives. You really are what you listen to.

You Are What You Listen To (Part 1)

caryschmidt — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:49:44 +0000

You’ve heard the statement “you are what you eat.” And, physically this is true—your body and health are merely products of what you digest. But rarely do we make the same connection to our spiritual lives. In other words, “you are what you listen to.”

Have you ever considered that your musical listening habits have a direct correlation to your spiritual condition and direction in life? Music is a powerful influence that helps to create a direction and then feeds that direction at the same time. It shapes emotions and attitudes that become desires and decisions, which ultimately become destiny.

In this article I’d like to briefly explore the principles that make music such a powerful force in our lives, and then challenge you to apply them to your own listening choices.

Does God Have His Way in Your Music?

It should be the life goal of every Christian to have a thoroughly biblical worldview—a truthful, God-centered perspective in every area of life. No area of life should be exempt from biblical principles and the glory of God.

And yet, so often we compartmentalize our relationship with God. We reserve for Him that which is convenient, but we rationalize personal allowances—for instance in our entertainment, our dress, our personal pleasures of living—and yes, in our music.

As sure as God wants you to have a biblical worldview in broader areas, so He desires that His principles permeate every area of life. With this in mind, consider this simple question: Does God have His way in my music? Is He truly God of what I listen to?

God tells us in Isaiah 46:9 “…I am God and there is none else….” For instance, with my children, I am Dad, and there is none else. And I’m always Dad, not just sometimes. I’m Dad in every area, not just a few. I’m Dad—period. My children don’t negotiate with my right to be Dad—when I’m Dad and when I’m not. For instance: “Dad, when it comes to paying bills and buying school clothes—you got it! You’re Dad. But when it comes to my grades—you’re not Dad.” No, I’m always Dad. There’s no compartmentalizing in this relationship.

The fact is, God is God! He’s not only God when I have a lot of prayer requests. He’s God when I put in my ear-buds. And He has a lot to say about my music, my song, my meditations, and even my ears! Here are just a few examples:

Psalm 78:1, “Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.” (incline means to spread out toward…)

Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”

Psalm 119:97, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”

With this foundational understanding of God’s rightful preeminence, I would like to give you three compelling reasons to honor God through your music:

Music Influences Your Flesh (Your Body)

God’s Word has much to say about our flesh and how we are to manage it. Throughout Scripture we are commanded to reign in our flesh and to bring it into subjection to the Holy Spirit of God. Here are a few examples:

1 Corinthians 9:27, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Romans 8:13, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

Romans 6:12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”

These verses are relevant to music because there is a physical component to music called rhythm which produces physical responses in our flesh. Rhythm was designed to give structure and direction to the music, but the world and the flesh always accentuate and distort rhythm. And there are most definitely rhythms that provoke and enlarge carnal, physical impulses.

Cutting right to the point—if you desire a Spirit-led life you should listen to music that is not dominated by rhythm. A Spirit-led life and rhythm-dominated music are in conflict with one another.

On the other hand, a Spirit-led life is greatly facilitated by Spirit-led music. The Lord makes this connection very clear in Ephesians 5:18-19 where he ties a Spirit-filled life to Spirit-led music, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”

The great struggle of the Christian life is the “flesh against the spirit.” Our flesh continues to rise up and desires control. Have you ever considered that your music will either be a facilitator of the Spirit or a facilitator of your flesh?

In part two of this article, we’ll explore two more principles—stay tuned. To read more on the subject of music, you might consider the book Music Matters from Striving Together Publications.

Living Hymns—A Personal Story

Cary Schmidt — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:06:22 +0000

During my senior year of high school, the Lord allowed me to meet Dr. Al Smith and have lunch with him. I was visiting Bible colleges with my father and praying about God’s will for my future. Little did I know that God’s will for me would include serving in music ministry. I’ll never forget that lunch. It came during a time in my life when Christian music was changing rapidly, and I was forming what would become life-long convictions about how the Lord would use music in my own life, home, and ministry.

Dr. Smith was a servant-hearted, joyful man with a large personality and a happy disposition. He had never seen me before, but acted over lunch as if he had known me for a long time. He shared his life story with me—going back to directing music for Billy Graham and then publishing his first song book and starting Singspiration—the first Christian music publishing venture in modern times.

The strongest memory of that lunch was of Dr. Smith sharing his sorrow over the change in direction in Christian music publishing. With a passionate heart, he challenged me to stay Christ-honoring and conservative in my future music ministry. He urged me to resist the trends of the up and coming CCM movement.

After lunch, he gave me a book, shook my hand, and challenged me one more time to serve the Lord faithfully. That’s the only time I ever saw him, but his impression was long-lasting.

Twenty three years later, the Lord opened an amazing door that took my mind back to that lunch table—the opportunity to help revise and produce a 2nd edition of Dr. Smith’s most well-known life work—Living Hymns. For years I had wanted to use Living Hymns in our own church, but it didn’t have orchestration, and later I thought it was completely out of print. I have long believed it to be the best hymnal I’ve ever used.

After many months of labor, it’s a real joy to see Striving Together release this 2nd edition of Living Hymns, and it was a great delight to take a great hymnal and help to make it even better by adding over 50 incredible hymns and songs. I’ll be forever grateful for Dr. Smith’s kindness and encouragement to me. And I’m praying that another generation of Christians will benefit once again from his work to preserve our great heritage of hymns. Click here to find out more about Living Hymns.

He Restoreth My Soul Volume 2

Cary Schmidt — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:24:23 +0000

He Restoreth My Soul Volume II – Released July ’07 (Piano and Viola)

Fourteen songs featuring ten hymns and four originals recorded on grand piano. This CD features solo piano with viola played by Clark Graham. The music is designed to be a Christ-honoring, relaxing background to the routines of your life.

Purchase or listen to portions of this CD

Music Matters

Cary Schmidt — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:13:15 +0000

Understanding and Applying the Amazing Power of Godly Music

In this thought-provoking book, you will discover a biblical and encouraging perspective on the power of music and how to use it effectively in your life. You will be challenged to consider music as more than entertainment and to make wise choices that will facilitate greater spiritual growth.

(104 pages paperback)

Click here to purchase for more information or to purchase Music Matters