I believe that God has given me a plan in order to facilitate this. It is BridgeHeart Ministries. I believe that BridgeHeart is to be a gift not only to the Artist but also to the Church. I believe in days ahead it will be a major factor in helping the gifted among us to "rebuild the ancient ruins...raise up former devastations...and repair the ruined cities, the desolation of many generations". (Isaiah 61:4) I believe that it is a plan to institute a contemporary application to the structure we see set forth in the ancient Levitical priesthood. The actual and exact restoration of the Levitical Priesthood as it functioned in the days of King David is not our primary aim. Our mandate is the restoration of the centrality of worship of praise to our spiritual experience and subsequently, the encouraging of artists to lead us into those experiences. Sometimes this is also called "The restoration of the Tabernacle of David."
Now the question is: What is your part in this move of God? Has He called you to be one who stands in the gap; to be a restorer of the breach; to be one who builds the walls; to be one who takes his or her place beside us as we go forward to obey and implement this plan?
Of course we need and desire your financial help. Of course we need and desire your encouragement. However, we also believe that God will place within you a desire to pray for BridgeHeart as it comes into full operation. The vision we have is not that BridgeHeart seeks to adjust the current methods of how an artist functions within his world or his church, but to revolutionize what exists until it becomes a tool by which the best artistic wonders that God has poured into us all may be given back to Him in a form of fully realized potential. In this, the Church will be vastly enriched; we as artists will be transformed and Christ shall have what is rightly His own.
But, no true move of God is sustained or energized without God's people accepting their responsibility of prayer and then obeying the directives that they discover through listening to God's heart. Historically any true advancement of the Church has happened because she was in the humble posture of kneeling. This vision of BridgeHeart is way too large for one man to accomplish. It will take God breathing urgency into an army of prayer warriors until we see played out in tangible form what is the will of God for BridgeHeart on earth as it already is in Heaven.
The current Gospel Music Industry is made up of these very few that have somehow "made it". For every artist whose name is found on the charts, there are literally thousands of equally gifted ones that have not found the highway that would take them from being a person of potential to becoming one whose gifts have been brought to their full state of maturity and usability.
BridgeHeart Ministries defines its mission as being a group of seasoned professionals who are building a superhighway for this latter group of individuals. We at BridgeHeart have had the opportunity to work within the existing music and book publishing industries. We understand those systems. We also have worked within the church structures all of our lives. Simply stated, we know both worlds.
The obviously visible need is not so much that every church singer, composer, writer, etc., be given the key to the corporate headquarters of Word, Sparrow, Nelson, StarSong or the other existing companies, for that is not always what is desired or appropriate. The need, however, demands that every truly gifted artist within the Church be given an opportunity to become fully functional and productive at the level most suitable for their gifts...whether that is local, regional or national.
In order to accomplish this BridgeHeart has developed a comprehensive plan. The first step of this plan is a series of nationwide seminars and workshops covering every aspect of the "How To's". These seminars and workshops will have a full range of accompanying educational materials available to the registrant. Upon completing the seminar, a registrant could easily walk out with enough knowledge and materials to build their own successful careers and ministries.
BridgeHeart, although confident in the effectiveness and success of our seminars, does not plan to stop there.
We have seen artists zoom through the heavens like a bright comet only to flame out and fall to the ground, broken and burned. More often than not, upon examining the causes one sees a lack of accountability and a lack of continual spiritual nurture. In short, the artist left untethered to a warm, nurturing church body to whom he or she is accountable, is often the artist that makes the tabloids later on down the road. Accountability is urgent...Nurture is essential...Roots are crucial.
BridgeHeart has a simple "care system" to institute in participating churches that will do much to prevent these losses, while greatly increasing the spiritual, financial and emotional well being of the artists.