Are you sucking the life out of musicians?
 Summer tour season is here! Many of us have bought tickets to our favorite festivals, and are excited to see our favorite bands and discover new ones. But I am reminded of something as I think of the exciting Summer festival culture.
Festivals are designed for music listeners to consume music by the truck load. Multiple stages are timed to allow crowds to come and go in waves with the start of another band’s set. We go from stage to stage until our ears bleed, our feet hurt, or we collapse because we forgot to drink enough water. We carefully outline what bands we can see based on stages and set times, and do our best to not miss our favorites. There’s an art to it that I’m personally not good at. I try. Most of us can get so focused on ‘consuming’ all the music that we can, that we miss incredible opportunities to ‘produce’ life in the musicians themselves. Granted, many of us make valiant efforts to thank or encourage musicians we see walking around the festival grounds, but often miss the mark in doing so. Sure, musicians appreciate hearing “thank you”, or “you guys killed it today”. But to be honest, most of those accolades get put in the ‘bank of praise’ that has lost it’s sparkle.
What if? What if instead of mustering up enough courage to walk up to the merch table and thank a band for their music or their “ministry”; or instead of striking up the “how’s tour” conversation they’ve had 400 million times before, we ask the band “is there anything I can do for you”, or “anything I can get you”, or “anything I can pray for”? What if the life of Jesus was produced inside of musicians this Summer, by us. By you!
May we be a people who reflect and communicate the Good News of Jesus this Summer, in word and deed. May we change what it means to be a fan, to the glory of God.
Serving the voices,
Nick Greenwood
President & Founder | RYFO
RYFO.ORG |
