Mission(s), Chapels, and Calling

I never thought about joining the military.  I never wanted to be a missionary.  I never wanted to be a worship leader… God had other plans.  My history with the military and military chapels has groomed me to be all of the things I never thought I’d be.  Now, I am running a missions organization serving specifically military chapel communities.  Renegade Music Ministries’ mission is to provide quality worship experiences to military chapels.  It is more than just a worship leading organization, though.  More than just music.  It is structure.  It is consistency.  It is event planning.  It is quality of service.  It is fluidity.  It is support for our chaplains and doing battle with them to keep chapel communities healthy and vibrant.  This is what we were meant to do.  We are going to serve our military communities the best way we know how.  When everything is going out, we want to go in.  We want to enroot ourselves into the heart of these communities and fill in the empty, unmet spaces and needs. 

This is the mission field I have been called to serve.  It started over ten years ago playing a guitar on Sunday mornings.  It has grown to being fully involved in several chapel leadership teams.  Over the past few years I have met several others who also feel called to minister to military communities.  Our goal is to be missionaries to these communities, and we want to invite you to join us in this adventure.  By partnering with Renegade you will be touching the lives of men and women who put their lives on the line every time they put on a uniform.  Today we are helping four chapels on the island of Oahu, and we want to continue to grow and help as many chapels as we can.  Eventually we envision Renegade ministering on every military post, base and installation, serving chaplains and their communities.  Our aim is high and our dedication runs deep.  We believe in this mission and we believe God will make an impact through us.

Please consider joining us because we cannot do it alone.  We need your help.  If we are to achieve our mission, we need to be able to sustain ourselves.  The military budget is already stretched so thin trying to keep other ministries alive.  So we are turning to our family and friends around the world.  Please consider supporting this mission.  Our young military communities need help in their chapels and we want to give it to them.  Chaplains are working hard to stay afloat amongst their many other tasks at company and battalion and unit levels.  Our chaplains are overworked and under-appreciated and we want to step in where we can to help them reach these communities for the betterment of God’s Kingdom.  Please pray for this mission.  Please pray for our service members.  Please pray for Renegade.  And if you feel so led, please send your support by going to our website: www.renegademusicministries.com and hit the donate button, or send in our electronic transfer form. 

Please help us support military chapel ministries and communities.  

KICK OFF

We are starting something new. Something that has the potential to be a huge, life changing….thing.  Renegade Music Ministries now truly is a living organization. Our board of directors met earlier this week and let me tell you, I am excited to be working with such knowledgeable and helpful folks. The insights they were able to share to propel this mission forward excited me. They are a well-balanced group of people from all facets of life coming together to build a worship based organization for military chapels!!!!!!

Can you tell how excited I am?!

The initial meeting was enlightening. Everyone asked important and smart questions. Everyone had ideas of how to fuel this organization. Everyone had a concern about legal documentation. Everyone…..seemed smarter than me. I was beginning to get stressed out.

Then the best thing happened. As I sat in the room with them and realized I may be in over my head we took a pause. They reminded me that they were here to make this mission come to life. That I need not stress about the questions we cannot yet answer. We are all here to learn together and take this thing to where God intends for it to be. They are behind the mission of Renegade Music Ministries one hundred percent.

I was relieved.

I had never held a meeting like this before and I had no idea of how it was going to go. I had prayed about who to invite and include in this, and believed I had the right people. And then God proved it. At a moment when I was just trying to figure things out, He brought people who understand and want to help.

This is a team that God has put together to make great things happen. I cannot wait to see how we grow and what the coming years have for us. I have faith that God is going to take our energy and do wonderful things with our efforts.

Romans 8:28

Good things are happening.

God things are happening.

I want you to be involved too. We are always looking for a little help, and little prayer, a little encouragement and some little donations. Please sign up for our newsletters and email lists, I want to keep you in the loop on everything that happens. You do not want to miss what God is going to do through Renegade Music Ministries.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Robbie Phillips.

www.renegademusicministries.com

Small Successes

It wasn't even 6am, but I just couldn't sleep any more.  The excitement within me was too much for more snoozing.  I got up and went straight to the chapel.  The only people there were the cleaning crew and they were surprised to see me.  They were even more surprised when I started bringing lamps from my car into the sanctuary.  Have you ever piled 15 lamps and shades into a car, it's an odd experience.  

The rest of the day is a haze of set up work.  

Worship as One was that night.  

It was our first large scale event as Renegade Music Ministries.  I spent the day with some friends ironing out kinks in a sound system, and testing cables and microphones.  We staged the drums and the amps and the keyboard and the speakers and the lamps.  The idea was to transform a normal chapel sanctuary into an unrecognizable place that looks like everything a boring sanctuary shouldn't look like. 

 The lamps.  

Soon our friends at Armed to Worship showed up to begin their workshop.  I got them settled in a class room and their students started arriving.  I went back to the sanctuary, there was much more to do.  Soon sound checks would start and I wasn't even sure if the speakers were working properly.  The stress was building and my shirt was wet with sweat.

Short prayers.  

Deep breaths. 

Red Bull.  

I didn't know what to expect.  You never do.  We advertised this worship concert and workshop all over the island.  We visited chapels on Marine Bases, Army Bases, Naval Bases, and Air Force.  This was supposed to be a military community builder.  I asked all of the ministries I knew if they would play a small role.  I reached out to neighboring churches with hopes of some sort of local support.  Surfers Church, who has been a friend to me for the past few years, was even eager about a speaking role.  My local chapels and chaplains were making announcements and putting info in their Sunday morning bulletins.  But that didn't mean I had any idea of what our turnout would be like.  I told people I was hoping for 300, but would be happy with 100.  Secretly I wanted more.  I wanted huge!  I wanted everyone, everywhere to come Worship as One.  

But numbers don't matter.

I didn't even do a head count.  

We turned the lights down low and got started.

I started the event with a prayer.  All I remember saying was that if God showed up then it was all worth it.  All the stresses of organization and testing gear and advertising and people counting, and sweating, all went away.  

Josh and Juliette started singing.  

They sang their hearts out and set the tone for what became a beautiful evening of worship.  

 Worship as One was a small success.  It was a trial run for bigger and better things to come.  And I believe those things are coming soon.  I believe God has given me a purpose and through Renegade Music Ministries I will continue to work with military communities.  It has already been proposed to make Worship as One a reoccurring event.  I love this stuff and I love doing it for the betterment of the Kingdom.  Nothing gives me a greater feeling of accomplishment than knowing I did my best at my art to lead people to the throne.   I cannot wait for another opportunity to do this.  But now it's time to rest and start looking forward.  

How can Renegade Music Ministries reach more military communities?

How can I work harder for the next event?

How does God want to use us next?

How will He bless these small successes?

These are my thoughts and prayers.  

And I'm excited about it.