Before we go further, let’s develop briefly the theological underpinnings of “Ministering to the Ministers.”

According to our Creed, we believe in a Trinitarian God who exists in community. If we are made in the image and likeness of our Trinitarian God, then we, too, are meant to live in community. Although we are created as unique individuals, we are not meant to be alone, unconnected, isolated.

Our first community is the family into which we are born, from whom we learn how to love—or how not to. Our family community is part of various larger communities: neighborhood, church, region, country. We find our own place in different communities as we grow older and take on more responsibilities—in our educational opportunities, in our workplaces, in shared interests, in the families we form and, not least, in the church communities we choose.

When we enter music ministry, we enter a community in which our service is both for the glory of God and for the spiritual enrichment of the larger church community. In offering our talents and skills, we commit to certain requirements and rules of the music ministry community.

In the process of sharing the talents that are God’s gift to us and the skills we have worked to achieve, we learn the most crucial criterion of any community: love.

Love one another. That’s the basic commandment, the radical commandment that underlies every aspect of community. Our skills, our gifts, our talents mean nothing unless we love one another as God loves us.