Instruments of Worship

Introduction | Ep. 1

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Welcome to the very first episode of the Instruments of Worship podcast hosted by Casey Rinkenberger! 

Today, Casey tells you a little bit about herself and why she feels passionate about starting this podcast.  She also explains the two-fold meaning behind the podcast name and her future hopes for it!

Make sure to check back every Friday for another episode of Instruments of Worship!

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SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, my name is Casey Rankenberger and I'm so excited to welcome you to the very first episode of the Instruments of Worship podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to equipping and encouraging classical musicians to lift high the name of Jesus with their instruments but also their lives. Today I'm going to start off by telling you a little bit about myself and why I feel passionate about starting this podcast. Later on I will be telling you a little bit about the meaning behind the name Instruments of Worship and my future plans for for this podcast. So I hope you'll join me and let's get to it. As I said, my name is Casey Rinkenberger, but if you knew me before this summer, you would have known me as Casey Hoffmeyer. I just got married this summer and it's been such a dream. I married my high school sweetheart. His name is Quinn and we have just been enjoying marriage so much. We got married on the heels of four years of long distance dating, which was totally worth it, but not ideal. It can be very difficult if any of you have gone through long-distance dating. It has just been so fun to soak up time together, never having to say goodbye anymore. It's felt like a dream, so we're super thankful for that. Quinn and I both grew up in central Illinois. We were raised by loving, God-fearing parents who cared for us well and always pointed us towards Jesus. I was blessed to grow up on a farm with two older sisters, and for the majority of my upbringing, I was actually homeschooled. I really enjoyed homeschooling and I eventually transitioned to public school right around junior high age. I can say with full confidence that I loved both types of education, homeschool and public school. I see the value in both, but I will always be thankful for the foundation that was laid for me in the homeschool years, a spiritual, social, emotional, mental foundation that gave me the tools that I needed to be able to think critically and know what I believe by the time I went to public school. So I'm super thankful for that time. It really, I felt, set me up so well and I'm so thankful for those years. The other positive thing about The homeschool life is that it did give my sisters and I time to be dedicated and invest in our instruments, which at the time were violin and piano for all of us. My mom, her name is Jane. You'll get to meet her, I'm sure, on a podcast sooner or later. But she is a violinist, and she did the whole music thing while also homeschooling us. It was incredible. She had a very healthy load of students while also... gigging full time. She runs a quartet in the area that she contracts out players for and also playing in the symphony in our area. So she was a busy lady, but she did it so, so well. Because of this, my sisters and I were just constantly surrounded by music. We were constantly hearing her teach, constantly hearing her play. And that was just a great environment to learn in. So I naturally started violin from a very young age. My mom was my first teacher and it actually went very well. I know that it can be a struggle depending on personality types and different things. When a parent tries to teach their skill to their child or, you know, especially a musical instrument. But we did, we had weekly lessons and we just got along well. So I'm super thankful for that. That lasted for several years, lots of years, actually, from when I was about four till high school. In high school, I started studying with a violin professor at a regional university in the area. But I had a very good relationship with the violin. It came very easily to me. I enjoyed that it allowed me to do things like play at church. And I loved playing in our youth symphony, playing more challenging symphonic works and learning how to play in a quartet. All of those things just I enjoyed. And I had a good relationship with the violin. But I never, ever would have suspected that I would fall in my mother's foot steps to pursue violin at the higher collegiate level. But to my surprise, I sure did. The Lord definitely has a way of surprising us sometimes. So I would say when I think about my decision to pursue a music degree, a violin performance degree, it really came down to two things. One was that I enjoyed the violin. I didn't have any ill will towards it. But at the same time, it I wasn't obsessed with it. I didn't come out of the womb playing the violin. It wasn't the reason I lived and breathed. It was something I did and I enjoyed and I thought for me that was enough. I enjoyed it. It came naturally to me. I was good at it. So that was the first reason. The second reason was I knew that I could do as much or as little as I wanted depending on the season of life that I was in further on down the road. And I really think that That part comes back to the model of my mom. I'm so thankful that as I grew up, my mom loved the violin and music and That was her career. But it was not what her life was all about. Her life was all about Jesus. And she never sacrificed being an amazing mom, an amazing wife, but still using the gifts that the Lord gave her. And so she modeled that. She balanced it all so well. She was able to homeschool us full time while she also had her music career of teaching, gigging, and playing in symphony. So she had a lot going on, but she balanced it so well. And I never, ever had to doubt what her priorities were. She made it so clear. She would always tell us, this is one thing that I loved. She always told us that her dream job when she was growing up was always just to be a mom. And for me, that was always so comforting. I was so thankful that I never felt like I had to compete with the violin or her students or whatever it may be for her love and affection, that I never felt like I was the reason she couldn't fulfill her dream because I was part of her dream. Having kids having a family, ministering to us as the Lord would lead. So the way she loved and prioritized our family made me want to do the same when I got older. I knew that I valued family and doing a career that would take tons of years in school or would just take so much time throughout the week. It would be so demanding. There are certain jobs I feel like that just don't necessarily lend themselves well to raising a family. And I felt like music could because I had seen it done. You're probably thinking, oh my goodness, this Jane woman sounds like an amazing, amazing woman. And she is. So you'll get to meet her very soon. Don't worry. so when all was said and done it just felt like it made sense for me to pursue a violin performance degree but that meant that the very arduous journey of auditioning and taking lessons and touring schools had begun so my junior year was just oh it was so anybody who's gone through it knows what i'm talking about was just so demanding, always having to keep my rep up, having to make a good impression on all these different teachers, constantly traveling to all these different schools. I think I had lessons with probably 11 different teachers. I don't know. Maybe that's not a lot to you or maybe it is a lot to you, but it it felt like a very arduous process, much less you have to you have to take lessons with teachers but then you have to go back and you have to audition at multiple different of these places and i lived in illinois and you know there's only so many good music schools in illinois so it meant lots of travel lots of busy weekends away this whole process to me i really felt like the lord had his hands just all over he really by the at the end of the day made it very clear the story is that my parents and i went down to texas over a spring break trip It would have been spring break of 2019, and we went to go take lessons with teachers at UNT, University of North Texas, and UT Austin, UTA, which both, as you probably know, have really great, great music programs, great teachers there. But in the middle, of course, we had to stop at Magnolia, if you know in Waco, the fixer-upper show hosted by Chip and Joanna Gaines blew up several years ago. And so you can go, you can visit there. They call it the silos, all different sorts of things. They really put Waco on the map. And so of course we stopped in Waco. We did all the Magnolia things. It was so fun, but we had never really heard or thought about the school, Baylor University, until we were in Waco, because it's in Waco. And we got to look around. We got to see the campus. It was beautiful. And one of the main things that stood out to us was that the music school was so beautiful and it's so taken care of. And it really felt like that was something, oh, like maybe they prioritize music at their school. And if you have done any of this process, I don't know if it was just me, but the schools that I visited, the music building was almost under undeniably the most dumpy place on campus. Some of those practice rooms felt like jail cells. It was so like not well taken care of, very dark physically and probably spiritually places. And so this was just so refreshing. There were windows in the practice rooms and it was so light and beautiful and very homey in there. So that was the first thing that struck our interest. In doing some of my research, found that Baylor was on a list of top 10 hidden gem music schools. And so it did kind of pique our interest, but not till we visited the school and really saw the campus and that sort of thing. Upon further research, we found out that they were hiring a new violin professor and her name was Patricia Shee. And so naturally I reached out to her, asked for a Zoom lesson, which I, you know, going into it, I think all of us can maybe agree that there's nothing that can compare to an in-person lesson or an in-person audition or something like that. Doing a lesson over Zoom, I was like, okay, how well can this really go? But I say that there were fireworks after that lesson. I just fell in love with this woman. She was just amazing. It's so incredible how someone can take your playing from sounding one way to sounding a completely other way and just... an hour lesson. She was so encouraging, but so obviously gave me great instruction that was very applicable in such a quick amount of time. And so it just felt like our personalities would go well together. And that is so important. If you're looking at schools right now and you're potentially wanting to pursue a music degree, I would highly, highly encourage you that the most important part in narrowing down your search is the teacher, because you're going to be working with them so closely. I cannot imagine leaving a lesson and just every week week upon week feeling like I can never measure up I'm a failure like I can't play it can be so deflating and defeating but Patricia just had this way of really being encouraging and being so supportive while also being an incredible example and inspiration musically of when you watch her play, you're just in awe. Like, how is she not just touring the world? She's incredible. So I knew that I definitely wanted to tour and audition at Baylor. So then fast forward, it was more my senior year, which was 2019 to 2020. So obviously that year, 2020 was when COVID happened. It really felt like a God thing. I had done some auditions late 2019 and Baylor was going to be in February. It actually turned out that both of my mom's parents died in within a month of each other. And right in the middle was when my audition to Baylor was going to be. But, um, my mom and her sisters and everyone still encouraged us to go and we're so thankful we did because then right around the corner was COVID and if I maybe didn't get to have a live audition then maybe I wouldn't have gotten certain scholarship money or that sort of thing or who knows what their admission process turned into after that but I was able to get my in-person audition in, have a tour of the school, all the things. And it really felt like it would just be such a good fit for me. I knew that's where I wanted to go. But like I, one thing that I really processed through in my brain was the Lord wouldn't call me to make a decision that is unbiblical. And then number two, unwise. But it felt like it was certainly not unbiblical. And it was certainly at the end of the day, not an unwise decision to go to Baylor. And so it felt like there was total freedom and just the Lord, allowing me opening that door to go. And I was super excited. If you're auditioning at Baylor, though, make sure that you're prepared to wait for scholarships to come back in because it did take a really long time, but it's worth the wait. Believe me. So by the Lord's hand, I packed up my things and moved to Baylor. It's 14 hours away from home. I had never, ever even just moved houses in my life. I had always grown up in the same town. And at the same time, it was COVID. And at the same time, I was kind of starting this relationship with Quinn. It was a very prayerful process with that, that we were starting to kind of get into a relationship. But it was like, oh my goodness, now I'm going to Baylor. Is this really what you want, Lord? So we took time. We waited to start dating until... My first semester was pretty much over when I came back for Thanksgiving break. That was when it became official. But we took time to be prayerful about it. Didn't want to rush into anything because we knew it was what we wanted to do, but wanted to just be careful to make sure that it was what the Lord would desire for us. Also, it was really hard. I missed him right away. And on top of that, it was really hard to make friends during all the COVID thing. My experience at Baylor was incredible. as a whole, immeasurably more than I could have ever dreamed or imagined, as it says in Ephesians 4. It was so good, but it was also so hard. I would say the first two years at my time at Baylor were just defined by so much refinement, so much growth through just such suffering and trials that I had never experienced to that degree before. I'm such a people person. I love getting to know people and My people are really what makes a place feel like home. And so when I moved to Baylor, 14 hours away from home, leaving my family, starting college in the midst of COVID, there was no welcome week stuff. There was no chances to get to know people. Instead, quite the opposite. They said, you cannot get to know people. You can't even show your face to people. It made the transition so hard. But I'm so thankful for that time because it brought me to my knees in a way that I had never, ever experienced before, a way that I needed to be in the word in the morning to just hold on to promises to get me through the day. It was one of those things where I remember calling my sister and her saying, you don't even take it a day at a time. You take it a moment at a time. And it really was just so much refinement through the fire. So that would, I would say, define my first two years, but so much growth and even a little bit in. I couldn't even recognize the Casey that I was before I left. It was incredible and so needed. But then my last two years, I would say the Lord just completely released all this this grace on me of just incredible opportunities musically amazing friends just such a solid support group i loved my church i got to play the worship ministry there which was at the time a full orchestra also a worship band with full choir and it was just incredible and i loved the people that i met there those people poured into me in a way that i had never ever seen before i I'm walking away from my time at Baylor and just being in awe of what the body of Christ can really look like and how we can reach out to others and love them and encouraged him so well. Oh my goodness. I am so forever thankful just for my church body, my church community that was so supportive and really became family to me while I was down there. It was all by the Lord's hand. And then there were so many musical opportunities, just an incredible, incredible experience. It was all by his grace. And I will forever be so thankful for my time at Baylor. Another thing that I really loved about my time at Baylor was my junior year, I decided to start a Bible study for the girls at the School of Music. I think the School of Music at Baylor is different than your average school of music in terms of it has a really high level of playing. They seek after excellence for sure. It's a really great music school, but at the same time, it attracts a certain type of person. With Baylor being a private Christian school, a lot of the people there do love the Lord. Others of them don't. It's not that everyone there is a Christian, that's for sure. I met some great, great, just amazing players, but beautiful, believing gals who I really wanted to connect with more because Thank you. It felt like an incredible opportunity. Like, oh my goodness, we could learn so much from each other. We could encourage each other so much. If we build each other up within this group, then how much greater than we can be spurred on to go and be a light to those around us. The rest of the people in the music school who may not know the Lord, we would get together once a week and we would study a book of the Bible. And it was so needed and so fruitful. One of the main reasons why was because we had a lot of the same struggles as musicians. And I learn this more than ever, we do have a niche. We have a unique set of struggles that not everybody can relate to. A lot of things that came up in our Bible study were things like performance anxiety, struggles with audition results. We would have weeks where people got the audition results they were hoping for and others didn't. And we had to work through that. And there would be tears and there would be vulnerability because they knew that the people around them understood. We all had crazy busy schedules. You know, the life of a musician can be very hodgepodge all over the place. Weekends, weeknights, after school, all the things. It's just so much. So many concerts in a semester, so many performances all the time. You have to be on your A game and ready to share that with people. So that can create a lot of stress. We talked about that. A lot of disappointment, sometimes burnout. It can become so exhausting if you have all this pressure all the time. Just felt like a very cool opportunity that in the music world we can create a community and we can do ministry with each other but sometimes I don't feel like that's being taken advantage of especially after After you graduate, when you're not all on top of each other, you're kind of more dispersed. So my heart behind this podcast is that I want to take advantage of that unique opportunity that we have as musicians to relate to one another, to minister to one another, to encourage one another, to know how to tackle this life as a Christian classical musician. Another reason is that after I graduated and now that I have been adjusting to being in the real world, I realized how all-consuming that life can be, especially in school. Now, as a professional, it can take up so much of your thought, your attention, your direction in life can be so much geared towards the music you're making, your jobs, all those sorts of things. And when you're in the thick of it, it can be very difficult for the Lord to remain the one thing that your heart seeks after, the one that your attention and your thoughts are geared towards. And sure, other things come out of that. But it's very easy to get so sidetracked really in the music world to idolize different things, to pursue success, wealth, job, whatever it may be. And I was convicted that while I was in the thick of music school, that the Lord was a thing that I pursued, but he wasn't my whole life's pursuit. He wasn't my everything, that I was distracted and I was still pursuing other loves in my heart. My worship was really not all that selfless and not all that God-glorifying. I probably did idolize some of the recognition that music got me. I loved the high of a busy schedule. I love to be busy. The satisfaction of a good performance and And playing music that you love, it's not bad. But when it becomes your everything, then it can definitely be harmful and not be what God intended. I was convicted that my life was not a sacrifice of worship to the Lord, but I was living for myself. And I think it's a trap that many classical musicians can fall into. And it's one that we need to be very aware of and mindful of. And as other classical musicians, we can help each other with that to encourage each other to always keep our eyes lifted up that he's our goal and our prize and our life is for his glory, not our own. But we can get so fixated sometimes in what's right in front of us. So we need to be reminded and we need to be encouraged. So the meaning behind the name Instruments of Worship, everybody largely associates worship with singing and instruments and what we do on a Sunday morning when we gather together at church, which is super fair because God did create music. He gifted it to us as a greater means of engaging our hearts in worship. So it's totally fair. Yes, worship is using our instruments, using our voices to lift high the name of the Lord. And as musicians, we get a super unique and special opportunity to be a part of that, whether it's playing classical music, Or it's in a worship service or however the Lord is using you in the music world. We get to be a part of using our instruments as a means of worship. But that's not all. The other part of this name is that we can be used as instruments in God's hands to do whatever he asks. In Romans 12, 1, It says, Therefore, I urge you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. So worship is singing, but it's so much more than that. It's our whole lives. It's giving our lives in complete surrender to the authority of the Lord, saying that he is so much greater and we are so much less and we are his people. We don't live our lives for ourselves. We live for him and that we were made for that. We were made to worship. We were not made to be the center of our own universes. And that a lot of times, you've probably found out, will lead to despair and destruction and sadness. But when our lives are surrounding the Lord and he is at the throne, the throne of our hearts, he is in the center of what our lives are all about. There's so much freedom. There's so much joy. And it's beautiful to see that worship lifted up. So worshiping in our lives and with our instruments, the name instruments of worship came out. So my hopes for this podcast is first and foremost that Jesus would be lifted high, that he would be made big, and that we would be made small, that we would lift him up in worship for all that he has done and all that he is. And I pray that through this podcast, he will show us even more of who he is, more of his glory through some of the things that we discuss and some of the things that we experience in life. Our goal is his glory, whether we're teaching or playing or ministering to others or gigging or doing organization stuff. Whatever it is, our goal is his glory, not our own. And it can get twisted in classical music. So I hope that Jesus will be lifted high. Practically, I really hope that this podcast will be an encouragement to you, that it will provide very real and practical help on how to navigate the unique world of classical music as a people who desires to serve and obey Jesus. I hope that you will feel equipped and built up to live lives on mission for His glory and His kingdom wherever the Lord has you using your music. I also hope that you'll just be encouraged. It is not always easy to be a Christian classical musician. I think we'd all agree that we're largely in the minority in the classical music world. When I play in a symphony, sometimes it really does feel like I'm very well the only believer in the room. And that can be definitely discouraging. It can be... something that we really do need encouragement with. Encouragement from the word, the only source of true truth, and encouragement that we never walk this life alone, that that's a grace from the Lord that we get to do life alongside other people. There are other people going through the same struggles that we do. It seems to me that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There's an immense opportunity for worship, for ministry, for community in the classical music world. It's not easy, but I hope that this podcast equips and encourages all of us to lift high the name of Jesus and to be a light wherever he has placed us. Some of the types of episodes you can expect are that I hope to have conversations with other friends and colleagues who are classical musicians, but who also love the Lord. So I hope to do a lot of interviews, but I also hope to be spending time in the Word because there are lots of examples of what worship looks like in the Word. Lots of examples of people who were amazing worshipers, sometimes with instruments, but even just in their lives, how they handled certain situations and how the Lord used them. But honestly, it's really hard for me to say because this is my first podcast I've ever done. So who really knows what other types of episodes will come out? If you have any ideas, please let me know. I really hope that this can be a place of connection. I hope that instead of just silently consuming, that you will actively connect with the other believers through the comments and engage with one another in encouraging and helpful conversations. I don't know what that will look like long-term. It would be so cool to get to know each other in person and through Zoom. Who knows? Maybe a Bible study one day. I don't know. We'll see what comes of it. But I really do hope that we can connect and not just silently consume, but be a part of what the Lord's doing here. I'm going to shoot for 30 minute episodes, but it's hard for me to know what that's going to look like without having ever done this. So please be patient with me. Interviews may be longer than that. Maybe they're never even up to 30 minutes. I really have no idea. So we'll see. But I hope they're not too long or too short. So I am just so thankful that you are willing to share so many minutes of your day with me today. And if you like the direction that this podcast is heading in, please feel free to follow this channel so that you never miss a new episode. I sincerely hope that you will join me on this journey as we seek to greater worship our King with our lives and our instruments. Our lives were never meant to be about us. Our success, our music, our teaching, our money, our wealth, none of it. It's all about Him. And he is the only one who is worthy of our worship. So to him be the glory and the praise forever and ever. Amen.