Missional Teaching with Jane Hoffmire | Ep. 4

No matter how good of a player you are, we will all most likely have to teach at some point in our music careers.  So, how can we make the most of it as Christians?  Today, Casey is joined by her mom, Jane Hoffmire.  They discuss how Jane came to the Lord, her journey in the classical music world, and her missional approach to teaching.  

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:33 Jane's Testimony and Early Life
• 8:46 Her Journey With the Violin
• 17:27 Starting Her Music Career
• 20:43 How Has Your Teaching Developed Over Time?
• 26:01 Ministering to Students
• 30:20 Getting Over Fear of Judgement When Ministering to Students
• 32:08 Closing Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Friends, my name is Casey Rinkenberger, and I am so excited to welcome you to the Instruments of Worship podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to encouraging and equipping classical musicians to tie the name of Jesus with their instruments, but also their lives. Today we have the joy of getting to spend some time with my mom, Jane Hoffmeyer. I've talked about her in previous episodes, but now we officially get to meet her and we're going to have a conversation about teaching and what that looks like being a Christian. So here we go. Okay, so mom, tell us just your testimony, how you came to know the Lord and Anything else you wanna share regarding that? Absolutely, I'd love to. Well, it's so nice to be here with you all and it's just a privilege. So I grew up a farmer's daughter in the Midwest in Illinois. My mom was a homemaker. And so I grew up really seeing my mom invested in the home. And I just felt like there was so much benefit in that. And so I grew up knowing without a shadow of a doubt that that's what I wanted to do, that that would be my dream job to be at home with my family like my mom was for us girls. I'm the older sisters by 9, 11, and 13 years. So I basically grew up with four moms, essentially. And that was just really loads of fun. And I just appreciate the relationship that I have with my sisters still today. So growing up, my parents really emphasized the value of being good, doing good. But it wasn't really... Oh, and we went to church every Sunday to a Mennonite church in the town that I grew up in. It wasn't really until those sixth grade where I feel like I heard the gospel, understood the gospel due to an intern that had come in to work with the youth in our church. So it was that point that I realized that I couldn't just be good enough or do enough good works to spend an eternity with Jesus. So I realized through this intern's teaching what a relationship with Jesus looked like and that we are all sinners and we are all in need of a Savior. And so it's at that point that I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life and started down the road of sanctification

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or

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being more like Jesus, becoming mature in my faith. And I will say that at the beginning, it was... baby steps, baby, baby, baby steps. And I feel like it wasn't really probably until college, grad school, marriage, where I really started to delve in and take that relationship with the Lord seriously and grow in my faith. And so I wish it would have been sooner, but I'm thankful that the Lord really was patient with me and Thank you so much. Became a Christian, sixth, seventh grade in there. Wanted to have friends that would be iron sharpens iron. And I do really feel like the Lord provided that for me in high school through my best friend who was a fantastic cellist. And so I became friends with Amy. She invited me to her youth group where I really was taught the gospel and gospel principles and the Bible. And She introduced me to Darren, who is now my husband and has been for the past 31 years. And so I'm just forever grateful for Amy for that time and for how the Lord used music really to bring her into my life to introduce me to more of a relationship with the Lord. So fast forward, being a violinist, being a musician, I decided that that was the best avenue that I could have to be able to live this dream job of being home with my family and raising my family. I did love music. At an early age, I would always be teaching something. I would be trying to teach my dad to have better handwriting. I would be trying to teach little kids the ABCs or whatever. And so I knew that I really had a teacher's heart. And so I thought, well, this seems like it could be really the perfect scenario to be able to teach in my home and still have the priority of raising my family and being a godly wife, but still be able to use the gifts that the Lord had given me. So for me, It's just been the perfect complement to where the Lord was leading me to be at home. Yeah. So there's honestly a lot in there that I didn't know. But two big takeaways just about the sanctification through life of how– It's just a process. We're still not completed, you know. Totally. And I can say at 55 years, I absolutely have not arrived. Right. And no one ever will. There's a lot of people who would look at you and probably say that you have in terms of your teaching or, you know, your involvement in church and all that sort of thing. But it's been a lifelong journey. And it continues to be a lifelong journey. And I think that's the takeaway is that it never ends. It's sort of, I guess when you put it that way, music and music sanctification or becoming more like Jesus really goes hand in hand. You never really arrive in music. When you're preparing a piece of music for a recital or a competition or a concert, you never really arrive. There's always something you could do better. That's something that usually discourages people and makes it kind of a headache instead of a joy if you let it. But You're right. There is a parallel between faith of just that patience of letting the process and the Lord work all of that out. And we will never be Jesus. Right. And so you still have that process of knowing him more, learning more about him, living more for him, growing the fruits of the Spirit. And so I think to look at it, Darren, your dad, my husband, always talks about it being a long-distance race and not a sprint. And so... faith journey is not a sprint. It's a long distance race. And so I find great encouragement in that. I know what you said reminded me just of how perfectionism can be such a a downfall for people, something that they struggle with in classical music. The goal is to play a perfect piece when that's definitely not the goal. But even as Christians, we can strive just for perfectionism in our walk with the Lord. And that's definitely not what he calls us to. There is only one who is perfect, and that was Jesus. And so that's not the goal. He doesn't ask us to be perfect, but he asks us to just be faithful and to walk every day with him and to worship him in the process. And he will do so much of that. sanctification for us. It's not up to us and in our hands. It's in his. So absolutely. The other thing I loved about your story is just the impact of Amy and just how it can even take one person, you know, one close friend. Yes. Do you want to tell about Amy recently? Yes. Yeah. So Amy just had a life that No one, I think people that knew her wouldn't have expected her life to turn out the way it did. She had many, many trials throughout life and trials that were just beyond difficult. And yet through it all, she kept her faith and her faith was still steadfast to the end. Amy passed away just a few months ago due to the disease of Alzheimer's, and she was sweet and content and lovely till the end. And so I'm just really thankful that in the process of her life, she moved back to my hometown. And I was able to really connect. You know, when people move away, it's just harder to have those close friendships. And so when she did move back to our hometown, I was able to just be with her in the last stages of her disease and just see her steadfastness, which was such a blessing to me. So I'm so grateful for the Lord bringing, like you said, that one person in your life because it really only takes one person. Right. Yeah. Right. And just the joy that she had throughout life, even through the midst of hardship. and the impact that she had on your life, and now the impact that you get to have on others. Absolutely. What a gift from the Lord. Yes, yes, you bet. Okay, so let's talk about your journey with violin, and when that started, and then what that kind of looked like from the beginning to even the end, and what you do now. Right, right. So I had started taking piano lessons in the second grade, and I love to play fast.

UNKNOWN: 9:03

Oh, wow.

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Doesn't everyone? Yes, exactly. And so I really did enjoy piano and was fairly competent in it and just didn't mind practicing, actually loved practicing. And I said that I grew up as a farmer's daughter, but yet I didn't love to be outside. I didn't love... you know, chores and, you know, really being intimately involved in farm life. I really enjoyed music more. Didn't mind putting in the hard work to practice. And so my mom said to me in fourth grade, hey, you know, you're going into fourth grade and in the public schools, you would have the opportunity to play a strained instrument. Have you ever thought about playing the violin? And at first I was like, huh, I'm pretty sure I know what a violin is, but I Yeah, I'd definitely like to learn more about it. And so Mrs. Knopfsinger, Karen Knopfsinger, was the orchestra director at the time, building a program in our hometown in the public schools. And she was just a dynamo. She was just electric. She had such a wonderful personality, was a believer, and just a really great, great person. inspiration. And so absolutely, I wanted to play the violin after meeting her. And so I did start playing violin and my piano background was really helpful for that to already be sufficient and proficient in rhythms, all of that sort of thing. And so I progressed very quickly. I loved the people I was meeting. I had met this new friend, Amy, and, you know, met lots of different people through playing my violin. Because the Elementary schools were all separate at that time. Exactly. So this was the time that you really did meet a new influx of people. Exactly. Exactly. We would go to the junior high, I think like at 7.30 in the morning, and all these grade schools would come together to practice before school. And then we'd all get bused back to our grade schools. And it was just, it was a delight. And then I started taking private lessons and it just kind of spiraled from there. Right after you did school orchestra? Yes. Yes. I started taking private lessons from Mrs. Knossinger. Okay. And And then I did that for a couple years. She then recommended I go to a fabulous teacher in Peoria, a Hungarian man named Elmer Sepsey. And he was very different, probably about as different as you could get from Mrs. Knopfsinger. And I came home from my first two lessons bawling my eyes out because of the things he said, how he said them. And I just was not used to that. And my parents were like, oh, it's okay. You don't have to go back. You can quit. That is so interesting. I know. I know. But I think they knew I wasn't going to quit. Yeah. And so it was kind of like a little bit of reverse psychology. And I'm like, oh, I'm not going to quit. Yeah. Why would I quit? And they're like, well, you're bawling. You're saying you don't like him. And then I was like, I had to do an evaluation. The reason I wasn't like him is because he was speaking truth to me. Right. And I needed to change a bow hand. Wow. And I needed to keep my wrist straight. And I needed help with my vibrato. Yeah. And so, you know, it was kind of a... a shock, but it was absolutely what I needed at that time. And I can look back on the different teachers that I had. And I really do feel like it was the Lord's leading that he brought the teachers that I needed into my life at the exact time that he did. So I would not have done well if Mr. Sebsi was my first teacher. Yeah. But, you know, because I had that love and that foundation and that excitement from the school orchestra program, I was ready to go to him. And I could say the same for my other teachers then as well. But how needed it was that because it's the school program, it's great to have fun, but the technique, it's so hard to do when you have a large group of people. Absolutely. Absolutely. So really would have needed his advice and expertise. Yeah. Right. Right. And his Hungarian-ness in, you know, just really saying you're going to do this right. Yeah. And not giving up on that. So I appreciate that he didn't give up on me.

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Yeah.

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You know, in the tweaks that I needed to make. Right. Especially my technique took your work, you know, right. Absolutely. It's gotta, it's gotta be a team. So then after Elmer, what, Yes. So then I, through high school, I played in a couple of competitions, never won a thing, but I was concert master, you know, here and there. And so that was nice. I went to all state, you know, competitions and that sort of thing. And I think because of my never winning a competition, I have carried that through. It stuck with me of how that made me feel, how, and certain things Yeah. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Maybe for some it is, some it isn't. But that really stuck with me. And I wish I would have used it more as a growing experience instead of kind of accepting defeat, so to speak. That's something in the music world. Again, that's kind of niche is that, you know, you try to win these competitions and then you think you've made it. You think if you get concert master, then you're, you know, you have worth and all that sort of stuff. Absolutely. It can be a huge trap. Yes. Yes. But it's a lot of these young kids that can kind of find themselves in that and they need to be able to handle those situations. And I think these conversations that were happening today are, that we are having today are really important because it's the heart that's in it. So you don't win a competition. Is it the end of the world? Absolutely not. It's just a way that the Lord can grow you, but your heart really has to be right in it. Okay. So then... So then I took an all-state audition my senior year, and one of the judges was a violin professor at Illinois Wesleyan University at the time. And he approached me afterwards and said, I am wondering if you would want to come study with me at Illinois Wesleyan University. I can tell you that we are offering four full-ride scholarships for violins, specifically starting this year. And of course, my eyes got relieved. Because I hadn't thought of really college or the expense or anything like that. I would have been out of my four sisters. the one that went to a four-year college. My other sisters did two-year colleges. So that whole process was kind of new. And so I came home and I said to my parents, how's the audition? Great. You know, went along and I said, oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you, this guy said that, you know, I could maybe get a full free ride scholarship at this university. And they were like, okay, we need to pursue this. And so I took the audition. I got one of the scholarships. And in the meanwhile, then he had left the school. And so a new violin professor was going to be coming my freshman year. Then I studied from a Russian violinist, Vadim Mazzo. And again, I really feel like that was what I needed at the time. He was very regimented, very forthright in what needed to be done. And I very much needed that at that time. Then I After college, I decided to pursue my master's degree. And so then I went to the U of I and was a teaching assistant there, studied with Peter Schaefer, along with other wonderful faculty there via chamber music and other sorts of things, and really enjoyed both the small things. University of Illinois Wesleyan, but by my senior year, I was ready for something bigger. And again, the Lord provided this opportunity at U of I. And I just feel like both experiences, all three experiences, high school, college, and grad school, were all very, very beneficial. And I should say that Darren and I started dating our senior year of high school. And so we had a very long-term relationship. I just said, I don't think I can be the wife that I desire to be and also be a music student. So it was better for me specifically. He would have gotten married, but I kind of put the brakes on because I knew that I couldn't do both well. Yeah. And so then we got engaged when I was in my second year of graduate school and then married a month after I graduated. So then what was that like after you got married and started your career? How did you do that? Yes. So again, Lord's Providence, hand orchestrating all of this. I moved back to our hometown of Morton and the In the meanwhile, a friend of mine from the youth orchestra in high school, she had been teaching Suzuki Method in the area. She just happened, just happened to be moving outside of the area. And so Kathy said to me, hey, could you take all my students? Which happened to be like 20. Wow. And so that was a great start. And then I also... received more private students and then started teaching at the prep department at Illinois Wesleyan University. So I, right from the get-go, had about 50 students. That's crazy. And so it was really wonderful. Yes. Did you play in any symphonies at the time? I did. So during my time at Illinois Wesleyan, I played in the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. And then I When I went to U of I, then I played in a couple orchestras down there and then kind of ratcheted back through time with that. So explain that. What does your career in music look like now? Right. So I continue to play in the Peoria Symphony and teach. But as we started having children, I very much decreased that. We also were led to homeschool. All of our daughters and up to a certain point. And so with that, I knew that I could not have 50 students be a wife and homeschool our children. So just gradually reducing that teaching load over time is what I did. I was pregnant with you and we still had, you know, a five and a six year old at home. And I remember going to a Puri Symphony rehearsal and actually crying during the rehearsal. And I don't know what it was, but basically like, I want to be at home. I just can't do this anymore. And so it's at that point that I took a year's leave of absence that kind of stretched out to a year. 25 year leave of absence. And I played here and there. But again, the Lord really worked out another avenue of me using my gifts. And that is to be the manager of a string quartet that provides musical services for weddings and parties and different events that people have funerals. So that has kind of taken the place of that. And I love just the variety of things that I'm doing right now. I just really feel like I've hit a stride and it's wonderful. I had a friend say to me one time about teaching because I think sometimes I would have a little bit of a grumbly spirit with that. Why do I have to teach? I just want to do nothing other than homeschool and be a wife and that sort of thing. And she said, really, you can adjust your schedule by the half an hour. Nobody else can do that. You want to back off an hour, you back off an hour. You want to take another hour, take another hour. And at that point, I think there was a mind shift thinking, this is such a blessing. I hadn't thought of it truly as a blessing. I thought of it as a means to an end, but I hadn't thought of it as the blessing that it really is. Yeah, for sure. So then how did you first learn to start teaching? How have you developed that over time? Right. So I have never taken a teacher course before. I'm not saying that is wise because looking back, I wish I would have taken a Mimi's White course, a Paul Rowland course, a Suzuki class, something like that to better equip myself to teach, especially young beginners. And I think as a teacher, you start to realize and determine and discern where's my niche. Is it four-year-olds? Is it junior high students? Is it high school students playing concertos? Where is my niche? And so I have taught young beginners. I don't know that it's my niche. But you kind of do it and then you find that out. I basically just kind of repeated what I had been taught through the years. And I'm not sure that was always, for beginners, great. But then... just different things that I picked up. And of course, now there's so much on the internet, right? You can go and access. How do I teach vibrato? How do I do a bow hand? And so I think it's, it's, Teachers are in a great spot now because you have so much available. When I was starting out 30 years ago, you had to go for a week or you had to go for a weekend or a course, which, you know, just added so much expense. Now you can just make a couple of clicks in a Google search and you can come up with really anything. Yeah, that's true. So then how has that changed over time? So I would say that when I first started my teaching journey, again, it's all about the heart. And I don't know that my heart was always right in it. And it's still something that even today I have to check my heart in it because there are some students that you really click with you really gel with and you're like oh I can't wait to see you know you fill in the blank and then others that are maybe just a different personality type or you have to work a little harder with or they don't love it and their parents are making them come and so it's just a struggle but I I desire to have the heart now of really seeing this as a mission field and not to create competition winners or music majors. And if that's a path that someone is taking, awesome. I will do my best to help aid in that and to teach through that. But to really see my job more as this is a person. It's not just a musician. This is a person that needs guidance, that needs an encouraging word, that needs discipline, that there's so much that you can teach through music that is not just music. And so that's what I really appreciate now. I feel like my heart over the years, again, the Lord has matured me in this way to see my students as people that need the Lord, people that need encouraging in their walk with the Lord. And I try to make that my primary focus and seeing that, you know, the people that call that email about lessons, I see it again as God's hand as, you know, if it works in the schedule, then this is who the Lord wants me to teach. But you would say that when you first started, it was more like you want everybody to go to school and music. Absolutely. It was really more cookie cutter. Yeah. You know, like, you must do this. Yeah. Well, not everybody is equipped. Right. Or has the desire. Yeah. To do higher level music things. And that's okay. Yeah. And I'm sure that really, though, changed what even your normal lesson looks like. Absolutely. You know, and how you relate to students. Absolutely. All of that. Absolutely. Like, literally, now I can truthfully say... I'm excited to have a student walk in the door and ask how their math test went. Right. Because they told me last week they were having a math test and they were a little stressed over it. Right. Yeah. Or seeing if they got that gift for Christmas that they were hoping for or seeing how the track meet went. And I just, I'm excited to have more of an involvement in their whole lives. Yeah. Than just, how's your G scale? Right. Right. Did you do what I asked you to do? Yes. Yes. For sure. Sometimes it's easy to be frustrated as a teacher. Absolutely. Things that happen or don't happen. Yes. But... There are a lot of things that may be going on in their life that you really don't know about. Absolutely. As a teacher, you see them in the music settings. Yes. That's all you're thinking about. Yes. Having a greater view. Yes. You know, what their life may be like. Yes. You never know. I had a student come in just a couple months ago and I said, hey, how was your week? Because that's always my question. Tell me one great thing that happened this week. What was one thing out of the ordinary or one thing exciting? And the student said, my dog died. And he just got really sad and he said he died in my arms and so then I could take that information and I could say okay So maybe you didn't get as much done as I had hoped you got done. But I can deal with that. Right. Because I know what kind of a week you've had. Right. And it's okay. Right. Yes. Yes. And it takes kind of creating a space, though, where he feels comfortable. Totally. To say something like that, where you're not going to judge him. Right. Get over it. Right. It's a dog. Right. You know? Yeah. Right. For sure. Right. So obviously, I would say that's an example of ministering to your students. Are there other ways you would say that? you seek to or have in the past, maybe more advertently, maybe more just in general, have ministered to your students? Absolutely. Again, I just want to emphasize this has been a process. I have not had this heart focus for 30 years. I wish I would have. And I think probably another thing that really changed how I looked at teaching was when I had my own children. And I thought, how do I want their music teacher to interface with them? And then all cases for my three daughters, I was their music teacher at one point. And I wish I could say I was patient all the time. I was not. And that grieves my heart. But the Lord has been gracious to mature me and grow those fruits that be continuing to grow those fruits of the spirit. And I'm just so grateful because I think when you go to teach others something, it reveals a lot about yourself. And Putting another layer on that, when you begin to teach your children, whether it's through homeschooling or craft that you love, being music, it brings something out of you that is not always positive. Yeah. You want them to love it. Yes, absolutely. And you know the potential that they have. Yes. And so you want that developed in the worst way. Yes. But there's a good way to go about that and then a not so good way. What would you say, what were some hiccups that you found in your own? Well, I was traditionally... you know, Paul talks about a thorn in his side and his flesh and my thorn in my side, as you know, and your sisters would attest to has been patience. I have just not always been patient like I should be. And so, um, again, through teaching, I feel like the Lord has spoken to me saying, why are you more patient with everybody else than you are on your own? And so it's that kind of heart transformation that teaching has really helped me You know, I don't know how many times I've had to apologize to you and your sisters for I'm so sorry in the way that I spoke to you about this or that or whatever. And so I just really appreciate that has definitely been a part of my faith journey. And then also just seeing my students as not just income workers. not just me using this degree that I've worked so hard to get, but that I desire to do this because this is the Lord's calling. He's provided this opportunity for me, seeing it as an opportunity and a blessing. And that has really been transformation, but it's not a quick transformation. It's again, it's not a sprint. It's a long distance race. And so I appreciate us having this conversation so that maybe we, Some teachers can start out earlier on this journey, maybe on a bright transformation path than I did. Yeah. And you asked, how do I do that specifically? I think one thing is getting to know the students and their other areas of interest, getting to know their parents, getting to know the family situation and what's important to that family. And then I can more readily be involved in that and maybe go see a concert, maybe go see a track meet, maybe go to something else that they're involved in, a baptism or whatever. I think for me, that's very important. And I love that. I love seeing how God is working in them. Or even like texting on the day of an audition. Yes. I know you've met people you don't teach anymore who are now maybe in college or whatever, but they still ask you to get together for coffee. Right, right, right. And that is just so sweet is the ongoing relationships that you can have. So I can text you know, the day of a competition and say, I'm praying for you. What time is your audition? I want to be praying at that time. Before recitals, I always pray with the students and accompanists, whether they're believers or not. We are going to pray and we are going to ask the Lord to be in what we're doing, to be an audience of one, to be our focus, and that our focus is on glorifying God through our music and not glorifying self, and just thanking the Lord for the gift of music and the gift that they are developing in whatever stage. Did you ever have to get over any fear of judgment or awkwardness with that? Oh, absolutely. I mentioned that my sanctification was a process, and I was not used to vocalizing my relationship with the Lord

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for

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a very long time. And again, that grieves my heart because I think of all the opportunities missed. But it was when my daughters were little, I would just speak prayers out loud because I thought, well, they're little, they're babies, they're in their car seat. They don't know. And so I practiced that way, just speaking out loud, praying out loud so that I would be more comfortable speaking to others about my faith. then I don't know if it comes with age. I'm 55 years old. And when you get older, you're just kind of like, you know what? That's what it is. So I just think, you know, in the nicest possible way, my house, my rules. These students are not being demanded or commanded to come to my home for lessons. And so by coming into my home, I feel like I have the right, I don't know if that's the right word, or right, Definitely the opportunity to be me. And so that is who I am. And if that is not something that a parent desires to have their student be around, then I am most happy for them to go and find a better situation. I try to interject it just in little small ways. This is such a blessing that you are working so hard. I know that the Lord must be very pleased with, you know, how you are doing in that. And then reminding them before auditions, especially believers to say, you know what, you are playing this competition for an audience of one. Is there anything else that you would want to share just to encourage teachers or something you want to leave with them? Yes. So you had mentioned the idea of mentorship. And I think that's a great word to use because you can think of it as, oh, authority and then an underling, or you can think of it as a mentorship. And I think a mentorship relationship is a much more positive way to think of the teacher-student relationship. And then I just, again, encourage... Teachers, no matter what phase you are in, whatever age you're in, whatever season you're in, just to think about your heart in it all. Like I had confessed, my heart has not always been right in my teaching, but it's not about how your students can make you look. It's not about how, what you can get from your students. What you can give to them though is what it is about. And what you can give to them could be spiritual things, obviously skills in music, dedication, you know, think of all the things that you are able to pass along to your students to make a positive impact in their lives. And with the ultimate goal that they would know Jesus, that they would have a relationship with him

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is

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I think to me, the most exciting part about the student teacher relationship. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks so much, mom. You're so welcome. It was so fun. Thanks for having me.