Instruments of Worship

How and Why You Should Start a Bible Study at Your School of Music | Ep. 23

• Casey Rinkenberger • Season 2 • Episode 23

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Having Biblical community to do life with is such a gift from the Lord, and most certainly for us as classical musicians!  In today's episode, I will share from my experience starting a Bible study at the Baylor School of Music, and tips on how to get one started where you are!  My hope is that after hearing today's episode, you will leave with a renewed sense of excitement to pursue and cultivate Christian community wherever the Lord has you!  As Hebrews 1-:23-25 says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”


Discussion Questions - Try discussing with a friend or in our Facebook Discussion Group 

  • Do you attend a local church? Are you involved there? If so, how has that impacted your life?  Might the Lord be nudging you to become more invested in your local church?
  • Why is Biblical community a gift?  Can you speak from experience? 
  • What’s the difference between classical musicians meeting once a week vs. Christian classical musicians meeting once a week to study God’s Word?
  • Have you ever felt like your faith was a secret identity?  How did you overcome that fear? 
  • Are gossip, complaining, and competition prominent in your relationships or vulnerability, unity, grace, and love?
  • Is there anyone in your sphere of influence right now who needs to be built up and encouraged?  How might you meet that need?
  • How are you leaving encouraged from this episode even if you are not in a season where starting a Bible study would be possible?
  • What Scripture was most encouraging to you from this episode today?


If you have interest in checking out the Daily Grace Company, check out their Bible study books here!


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SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, my name is Casey Rankenberger 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 let's high the name of Jesus with their instruments, but also their lives. Today we are going to talk very practical. We are going to cover how to start a Bible study at your school of music and why you should in case you're not convinced. The Lord never intended for us to walk through life alone. So he gifted us with community. Let's talk today how you can cultivate that community in the midst of your classical music career and not waste the opportunity to do so. If you think you know someone who might be encouraged by this podcast, please send it to them and make sure to download, follow and subscribe wherever you are listening. And we will go ahead and get into today's episode of the Instruments of Worship podcast. point I want to make today is that biblical community is an absolute gift from the Lord. So take advantage of the opportunity to be in biblical community wherever and whenever you can. And if you don't have it, you can feel free to create it yourself if you need to. We all know that this life can be so tiring and difficult. It can test our faith and be discouraging and lonely. So what a gift it is from the Lord that he gifts us with other people to do life with, to learn from and to worship him alongside. The Bible has a lot to say about this, but before we get into the practicality of starting a Bible study or why it might be important to join one, first and foremost, I want to encourage you that if you're not already, attend and get involved in a local church. The church was established and created by God. Ephesians 4, 11-13 says, So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to So in Ephesians, it says that Christ gave teachers and pastors those gifts to equip them for works of service, to build up the body. And so the church is God's family, and we as believers get to be a part of it. Hopefully the local is a place where you will be pointed towards God's truth ministered to through his word and it's a place where you will get to worship alongside others a place to serve a place to be equipped and built up and a place to really call home after spelling out what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross and how he made us in right relationship with God Hebrews 10 23 through 25 says let us hold unwaveringly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful And let us consider how we might spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching. So maybe you've never attended a church before. God's word encourages us to meet together, to be a part of a local church. And maybe you grew up in a church, but it's been a while since you've attended one. Maybe you went off to college and it hasn't been a priority. And I would encourage you from this passage, don't give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Return to the church and see how the Lord might seek to grow you there. There may be many around you who are in the habit of disregarding meeting with the church body on a Sunday morning. Maybe it's a day that they sleep in after a long weekend of concerts. Maybe they travel or practice on Sunday mornings. I don't know. But God's word says, let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we have as Christians and let us not give up meeting together. So make the local church a priority in your life and I don't think you'll regret it. But anyways, in today's episode, the encouragement from this verse is to consider how we might as Christian classical musicians spur one another on and encourage one another. There are many ways that we can encourage one another. A kind text, posting scripture on our social media, or even this podcast, I'm hoping. But there is also something about meeting together and opening God's word, checking in on each other, praying for each other. That is really special. And that's what we're going to talk about. You might say, well, why is this so important to you, Casey? Why are we even talking about this? And I would just say, well, from my experience, it's been awesome. This biblical community that we're talking about is a gift. And I really believe that we're missing out if we don't rally together as Christian classical musicians. Many of you know that I started a Bible study for the girls at the Baylor School of Music and that it is one of the things that inspired me to create this podcast it was such a sweet gift to meet week to week with other women who I rubbed shoulders with every day who understood the pressures of the music world but who also loved the Lord getting a group of classical musicians together to just be able to rant or complain about the music world or their lives or their stand partners once a week would definitely one not be beneficial and two would definitely not be life-giving. In fact, I would say quite the opposite. It would seem very, very draining if that's what you were doing week to week. But what a gift it is on the other side of things to get together with Christian women every week who will encourage you in the Lord, who will rejoice with you and cry with you, who will open God's word with you and who will pray with you and for you all while understanding you in a deeper way because they've also walked through those same highs and lows of life in the classical music world as you have. So when someone in our Bible study didn't do as well as they wanted to an audition or maybe they've even lost an audition, there were people who knew the pain that they were feeling and could empathize greatly with them and encourage them with who they were in the Lord, their identity in him. When someone struggled with performance anxiety or burnout or injuries or uncertainty about the future or the fear of man, there were people who really listened cared for, understood, and bore that with them, but also people who would remind them of the character of God and his promises to them. Real life was shared in that group, but real hope was also proclaimed. So again, we come back to the gift of biblical community, not just community, but Christian community and praise God for that gift. Another reason why I think that this topic is important is because if we can build up the body, then we are better able to So remember those verses that we read in Ephesians 4 earlier? In verses 14 through 16, Paul writes, Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of God, So after being built up from being together in God's word, Paul is describing the effect that that has. Christians will be rooted, not tossed back and forth by the winds, by temptation, by the different worldviews that swirl around them in an orchestra, They will become more mature in their faith, no longer infants. by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. So it's not a dead body, but it's growing and building each other up in love as each part does its work. So whatever our work is, wherever we are, whatever we're doing, we do it as part of the body of Christ, not on our own. We do it having been built up first, pouring from a full cup, not an empty cup. So when I started the like it was important because we could have a better ministry for the Lord at the School of Music if we were built up and then could go out and do the work that God has called us to do from there. So it's a building up so that we're stronger to go out and be a light in the dark world of classical music. So how did I make it happen? How can you make it happen? So before the study starts, you have to get the word out there. You have to invite people to your Bible study. So where to start? I would say start with the people you know if you have friends that are christians for sure start with them but if you are at a loss and maybe you feel like a lone bird right now but this is something you want to do pray about who the lord might bring to your group if you don't really feel like you know any christians where you are in your musical sphere then i would just say pray pray about who the lord might want to bring whether that's christians or maybe non-christians i don't know how the lord might want to use your group but pray about the lord's plan and i know that he will be faithful to answer that prayer. But in addition to that, I would say don't hide your faith and you'll encourage others to do the same. I don't know about you, but sometimes as a classical musician, we might be tempted to keep our faith as almost a secret identity. We don't really care for people to know. But why? May that not be the case. And let me tell you a little bit of a story where I felt like this. When I first went to Baylor, it was in the were non-existent even just with everyone walking around with half their face covered with a mask it was really hard to get to know people so my freshman year there i really wondered if i could be the only christian i just had no idea and i was even at a christian school but it was just hard and sad to feel alone like that i missed all the christian community that i had just left at home and so i was feeling really alone knowing no other believers and 14 miles away and starting this brand new season of life. Finally, at the end of my freshman year, when a whole year of that, two older violinists came up to me and said, hey, we were thinking of starting a campus ministry through the School of Music. Do you want to start meeting with us to pray about it? I was shocked, but also so excited because I didn't know that they were Christians and I didn't even know how they knew that I was a Christian. But anyways, we started to meet up, the three of us, to pray during our orchestra rehearsal break in the lobby of the school. And Oh my goodness, this was just so encouraging for me. That whole year of not knowing who any other believers were in the School of Music was just so depleting and I felt just very alone. And so this was just so, I guess you could say, food for my hungry soul, for my hunger for Christian community, especially in the music world, because that was just my world. That's where I spent most of my time. So through that experience, I feel like I may have a little bit more more of an understanding of what a Christian might feel like sitting in an orchestra and they may not even know who else shares their values. They're probably out there, but somehow I wish we could make more of those connections. And again, I wish it didn't feel like a secret identity in an orchestra. Even though we're maybe the minority Christians in the classical music world, it shouldn't feel like that. We're supposed to be lights. This is our hope. This is what our lives are built on. And so my hope is just that people feel so So secure in their stance with the Lord that they are obviously Christians. And then it doesn't feel so difficult to maybe make those connections with other people. Honestly, though, if you just start talking about how you're maybe going to start a Bible study or your plans for the Bible study, just go ahead and talk about it. And that's a great way to already just put it out there. Hey, I'm a Christian and I'm not ashamed of it. Go ahead and open it up to people when you're having those conversations, even if and maybe even especially if they're the people that you doubt would want to be involved. You never know how the Lord might use that invitation. But in our group, we had girls that were so good about just adding people to the group chat and then they would have the information and then they'd have the freedom to come if they want to. Not everybody did, but if they wanted to come, they would have it and they'd be included. You never want it to feel like an exclusive club, but in reality, not everyone is going to be interested in this sort of thing. So from there, I would say you're going to need to create a group chat for Baylor. Pretty much every group that you were in had a group me, which is just an easy way to keep people in the same group that might have iPhones or non iPhones or whatever. So it's a it's an app that can keep everybody included and isn't limited by like how many contacts you can have in there or what type of phone they have. It's really helpful, just a way to send out information. And then it's like, hey, like this message if you'll be there. you can kind of get an idea of who will show up and that sort of thing. So create a group chat, even if it's you and two other people at the beginning, it always will and can continue to grow. So then you'll want to pick material that you can study. Of course, you can always just pick a book of the Bible and ask the questions like, how do you see God big? How do you see humanity or us as small? And how can we apply this to our lives? Or maybe you have other questions that you're used to answering during your Bible study time. I don't know. That's always an option because it's so good to be just so scripture focused. However, there are other resources, though, too, that might be an encouragement or might be a good fit for your group. So what our group did was we used study books from the Daily Grace Company, if you've ever heard of it. I started the group before my junior year. So we had four semesters together. Three of those semesters, we did Psalms 23, a book on Esther, and then the Lord's Prayer all through the Daily Grace Company. It just felt like a good fit for us i love that the daily grace company is still so scripture focused but it also includes a brief commentary on the passage and then some discussion questions which is of course helpful if you're going to have a study group together when i was picking these books i was mainly limited by what was short enough to go through in a semester so i believe some of them were three week studies but we just did a day a week and then that took us through like 15 weeks or something but you could definitely also spread it throughout the whole year if you wanted to and just jump over the breaks and such. This is just how I felt convicted, but I tried to pick books from the Daily Grace company that were based on a passage of scripture, not necessarily just a topic. I know their topical books would be super scripture heavy too, but I just felt like studying God's word at face value was a priority for our group. I think topical books still have their time and place, but it might just depend on the group you have and how the Lord might be growing your discernment. We did do one topical biblical study, though, which was walking through the 31 day devotional titled Waiting on God by Andrew Murray. It's one that I had done before on my own, and I just felt like it was really appropriate because at the time we were all pretty much waiting on the Lord in different ways. And so this is one where we did have some homework throughout the week. So we'd probably read about three or so devotionals before our next meeting, and then we could discuss those there where the Daily Grace Company, we would just do one day per meeting unless we needed to catch up and that way to avoid people having to do any sort of like outside of Bible study work or like homework even though it's not homework people enjoy it but you know what I mean being in college it can just be really busy to have to put another thing on their plate so my last thought on picking material would just be because you are the one spearheading it I would say that you have the freedom to decide what material you feel comfortable using and what material you think is theologically aligned with what you believe. I would say that there are some Bible study materials out there that you want to be careful and wary of. So do your research ahead of time and pick stuff that you know will align with your theology. And in addition to that, I would just say I would just warn from picking like a topic that is super theological that may easily lead to disagreements or misinterpretation. Stick to what's clear in Scripture. The purpose of the Bible study really is not to be really heady and discuss or tear apart really theologically deep conversations or topics, but it's really to be an encouragement and a time of equipping to build each other up to better go serve the Lord in our school of music. So just some thoughts there when picking your material. Then what I would do before each semester is to create a calendar. Before your semester starts, you're going to need to pick a time and a day to meet for the Bible study. And just be aware that you may not be able able to get everyone on the same day in the same time people are so busy in music school as you know so just do your best then from there i would go and look at my planner and see how many weeks we had in this semester and then just divide the days of the semester and your study materials and then i would send out in the group chat before the semester started just hey we're going to be meeting on these days so everybody knows exactly what days we're going to be meeting and then the time i'm just giving you a heads up that it might you might have to work around some concerts, some rehearsal schedules, some school events, those sorts of things. It's just unavoidable, especially when you're working with college students. So then you'll want to pick a place to meet. And of course, if you're out of college, you could always meet on Zoom. That's an easy way to bridge the gaps between locations. But if you are in college, you're probably in a relatively close proximity to one another. So you might meet at somebody's house or apartment or maybe at a coffee shop or somewhere on campus. We typically met on campus because it was just a central location that most people could easily get to without necessarily having a car. Not everybody has a car in college. Another reason this spot was wonderful was the library was close to this music school. So people who had to go practice afterwards were coming from practice or had to go to a concert to get recital credit could go there really easily and really quickly if they needed to run there after we met. It was also relaxed enough that it was a place people could bring or buy dinner there if they needed to help just kind of work into their tight schedule. I also liked meeting in public because music school people would walk by and see us and come up and say hey and we could always say feel free to join us or add them to the group chat if they were interested but too busy yada yada yada. And the last thought on this subject is that my senior year I had the privilege of getting to know a husband and a wife who started coming to Baylor. They were Christians and fantastic musicians but they had lived in Cuba before coming to Baylor. And I just remember when she came to our Bible study when we met in the library and she just shared with us how special it was that we could open our Bibles and pray together in public because that's just not something that she was used to from where she was from. So anyways, really anywhere you want to meet is great, but hopefully that gave you some things to think through as you pick a spot. And the last thing I would say before your Bible study is just to prepare. Make sure you've gone through what you'll study a ahead of time. So you have some questions that already thought up that you might want to bring out ways you might want to lead the discussion. I'm just so thankful that in our group, it was just so great that pretty much everybody felt like a leader. Everyone contributed and just shared so freely and so openly. Um, but it's still helpful. I think to have someone who's kind of guiding this conversation if needed and making sure everything does kind of run in a timely manner also. So what our Bible study looked like week to week was we just generally tried to be respectful of everyone's time. I can't honestly remember what time we met, but it was in the evenings. And because we had sent out into the group, we had a general idea of who was coming and who maybe wasn't. So we try to wait for those people. Maybe some people would come in late, but try to remain timely. And then we go ahead and just dive in. We'd read what our passage was and our commentary. And most people brought their Bibles, maybe even a pen and a journal. Or if we did the Daily Grace Company books, they bring those books along. along with them. And then we'd go through our discussion time. We'd talk about it, answer questions, discuss all the things. It was so fruitful. And then lastly, one of my other favorite parts was just when we would pray for one another. It was the best. We would go around and share prayer requests and just kind of give an update of what was hard, what our life was like, what the last week was like. And people would be taking notes on their phones or in their journals so that they could genuinely pray for them throughout the week. And then we would just go around and pray for the person who was either on the right or to the left so everybody knew what people's prayer requests were and then we could go in a circle and just pray for one person in particular you know who was either sitting to the right or to the left of us and then everybody got covered in prayer and it was just a way to be intentional to pray for those specific things too instead of sometimes a blanket prayer so that was just a really intentional time and I know that I myself was and other people were praying for those prayer requests throughout the week and then coming and checking back in with those people which again is just such a sweet gift of biblical and christian community the other thing that's super fun to do with your bible study group is just go and do other things together you have your bible study time but you can do things outside of that time too we would text and just say hey i'm gonna go get a recital credit for this concert at a specific time anybody want to go with usually at least somebody would you could host a meal or a gathering for like friendsgiving or or Galentine's Day, we did. One thing that we did that I loved and was so fun was we got together and we wrote Bible verses and encouragement on sticky notes and then placed them all around the School of Music. And honestly, people loved it and it just felt like a very cool way to get to minister to people, honestly, in their practice rooms. We all know we need encouragement in our practice rooms. I know my roommate and I, we'd say, hey, our apartment's open. If you wanna come do homework, if you wanna come watch a movie, whatever you wanna do, We are happy, like just come over. So there are endless possibilities of things you could do together, but that does just make it fun. It helps you know each other outside of the music setting and the Bible study setting. It's a way to just relax and spend time together in these super sweet friendships. I think I already said this before, but just be ready for people to be so, so busy, especially in college and especially in the music school. Not everybody will be able to come to everything. Maybe they will come to only two things a semester or very little things, very few things. And that's okay. And so just know that going in, don't expect that everyone will be there every time. And that doesn't mean that they don't value being there. It's just that it's not possible. So if you're the one spearheading it, I just want to give you that forewarning ahead of time because you don't want to expect that and then continually be disappointed if people aren't able to come. Sometimes you might have to cancel a whole meeting if no one's able to be there. but you but just be willing to be flexible and do what you can to just roll with it because honestly there were times where I couldn't make it and they met without me or I couldn't make it and nobody else could either because we all had a concert or something so if you can switch it to a different day great but if you need to cancel that's okay too for sure lastly I just kind of wanted to talk about the environment that you're trying to create in your Bible study I would say some things to watch out for are for sure like God Gossip and complaining. That's a big one. I feel like in the school of music, honestly, gossip too, for sure, because, you know, there's always comparison going on. It seems like in the school of music, which is sad and it can be really hard and really discouraging to people. And so Bible study is just not going to be a place for that. Competition is always a big thing. And, you know, competition and vulnerability will just not be able to coexist. So sometimes you have to be wary of some of these negative actions so that you can really try to cultivate a positive environment for your time together so I know that every time the first meeting of the semester I would just kind of remind people that what's shared in the group stays in the group that a reminder of like the purpose of the group and just kind of setting some of those not ground rules but just expectations of the group and not in a controlling way but just in a gentle helpful reminder way and just it's again a reminder that it's a safe place too for people to come and to feel comfortable in. And that's one thing that I really admired the girls in our Bible study with, that they were just willing to be so vulnerable. And so that's one of the first things that, you know, you hope that you can foster in your group. Galatians 6 says, carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. So it's being willing to carry each other's burdens, but also sometimes being willing to let some of your burdens be shared. And I'm so thankful that girls in our group were so willing to do that. God has put the body together, giving great honor to the parts that lacked it so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. So I just thought this was a cool way of Paul describing of just how, again, the body works together, that if somebody has a win, then we all have a win. If somebody has burden, then we all share that burden and that everybody has a seat at the table no matter their status no matter their chair in the orchestra no matter what it's a place that people can come feel safe and share what's going on in their lives similarly something you would want to foster is just a sense of unity Ephesians 4 2 through 6 says be completely humble and gentle be patient bearing with one another in love make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace there is one body and one spirit just as you So something that I thought was really cool about our group was that we had girls from the Anglican church. We had girls that went to more charismatic churches versus more traditional churches. But that was never a sticking point for anyone. We all just loved the Lord. And that was the main thing that united us. And honestly, our different backgrounds and the churches we went to, I think helped our conversation and our thinking. It made our conversation more robust. Not that we were discussing super theological topics, but it was even just using different wording or something that would help someone understand something better or give you insight on something. And again, the body of Christ is bigger than our individual or local churches. And this is a helpful place to be able to experience that. And so just unity is something that the Bible talks about often of how we We want to have unity in our body for sure. And then, of course, grace. We want to foster grace. Colossians 3.13 says, bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. In the school of music and in this Bible study, there are going to be girls that live very closely with each other sometimes. Maybe they're roommates. Maybe they're stand partners. Maybe there's something challenging in their studio that's going on. Whatever it may be, there may be times that there has to be grace and forgiveness given and that's okay but we need to be willing to give it for sure in the school of music you know people are sharing practice rooms next to one another again there can be so much angst sometimes in the school of music because everybody's kind of doing life so closely together of course that may at times lead to conflict or to drama which it's sad but it's the reality and you just want to make sure that That's not brought into your Bible study. You know that here people forgive one another, you know, and people give grace to one another. We're not going to hold that against them because, again, we are the body of Christ. We're not against one another. We're on the same team. We are with one another. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. So those are just things that you want to cultivate, the forgiveness and the grace, even when we might disagree with what someone else is doing, just cultivating grace. And then, of course, love. Romans 12 10 says, be devoted to one another in love, honor one another above yourselves. So love and humility. And of course, these are all ways that we can shine his lights and point people towards Jesus within the group and even people outside of the group watching, looking in. So I hope that this gets you excited about the possibility of building Christian community in whatever season you are in. It is certainly a gift from the Lord. It is so meaningful to those involved and it is so honoring to the Lord. I'm not sure that God wanted us as Christians to just be little islands doing our own thing on our own. I think he wanted to bring us together to engage us to truly be the body of Christ. We can do so much more for the kingdom together rather than apart. So I pray that we can take advantage of that. Maybe it's not possible for you to start a Bible study at your school of music right now, but maybe this was just an encouragement to be more intentional about checking in with your friends, bringing faith up in conversation and getting plugged into a local church. But if you do feel like you have the capacity for this and you feel like the Spirit is allowing you to do this, then just go for it. It will definitely be a blessing to you and to many others. And I am just so cheering you on. It was such an encouragement to me and I know it will be to you. So thank you so much for spending part of your day with me today. Definitely check out the description for discussion questions that you can reflect on by yourself or with a group. We actually have And I will see you next Monday.