Improve Your Art

To improve your art is an important endeavor as a church musician. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.”

Creativity flows from having a vast array of tools or skills to choose from.

Practicing
Before you performed for an audience of One, I’m sure you practiced several hours a day. I know I did. We should be careful not to confuse our acceptance in God’s kingdom and freedom from what people think of us as excuses to offer a lesser sacrifice in our worship.

For a church musician practicing our instrument should be as consistent a part of our lives as the practice of any spiritual discipline.

Listening
Are you an organist? When is the last time you listened to Miles Davis? Do you play in a contemporary worship band?

Have you ever listened to understand Handel’s Messiah?

Why is it a good idea to listen to divergent styles of music, or those that are outside our comfort zone?

You should be doing whatever it takes to expand your borders.

Doesn’t God’s creativity imply this?

What if everything was the same color? Boring…

Learning
According to 1 Chronicles 25:7, if you had served as a musician in Israel’s temple worship, you would have been trained to improve your art.

To continue learning can free you from wanting to label people who mistakenly judge you as only knowing how to produce one style of music.

One thing I enjoy is an annual trip to the Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio. I always come away from that time refreshed creatively and thankful for other cultures and artists who teach us so much.

Appreciating Visual Art
Why not expand your appreciation of art beyond only music and observe excellence in other areas? In my various travels around the internet I am amazed at how really good art - beautiful paintings and drawings - can be obtained fairly easily and inexpensively.

Part of the creative life is to try to appeciate new things. Visual art, like painting, can surely help you do that.

Improve Your Art

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