About

How Does Music Serve The Word?

WHAT WE DO

Music Serving the Word is focused on creating and presenting music that glorifies God alone…”Serving the Word” and not ourselves. Our musicians and musical projects seek to find and name the movement of God as each player is led in the moment, and to express this to audiences so that they are inclined to receive a deeper understanding and connection to Christ, the Living Word.

Music Serving the Word/MSW Music is passionate about fusing faith and the arts, bringing musical, visual, and spoken art forms into sacred spaces. Participants are immersed into an encounter with God that engages the senses and penetrates the heart.

The result? A deeper relationship with Christ – one that begins with contemplation and culminates in a celebration of His love and grace.

We do this at our live concerts and music presentations, with projected visuals and through the spoken word. Our events are reaching global audiences through internet distribution, and we intend to develop more live-streamed experiences in the future. Music Serving the Word is an outreach of MSW Ministries.

STATEMENT OF FAITH

Our ministry is blessed to serve pastors, worship leaders, churches, seminaries, and denominations of various religious heritages. We are thankful that God has called us to an inter-denominational ministry, allowing us to promote the unity that is found in Christ to the Christian church at large.

Each team-member of MSW (though from varied religious backgrounds) takes our theology seriously. We share a commonality in the central beliefs of Christianity that proclaim salvation through Christ alone, and the importance of Holy Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments) as the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct.

We believe in …

Jesus Christ and the faith of the apostles as recorded in Holy Scriptures.
The church universal, and that we are a part of the community of believers that began with Jesus’ first followers, is alive today, and will continue until Jesus returns.
That salvation is by God’s grace, through faith, in Christ.
The necessity of new birth, Christ’s mandate to evangelize the world, and the necessity of education and formation in a Christian context.
Baptism and Holy Communion as sacraments of the church
A Trinitarian understanding of one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
A dependence upon the Holy Spirit who enables our obedience to Christ, conforms us to his image, and empowers us to continue Christ’s mission in our world.
The reality of freedom in Christ that frees us to serve the community of faith and our world
MSW’s ministry team seeks to live out our theology by:

Serving Christ, the Church and our world.
Worshipping God with all our heart, mind, soul, and being.
And sharing our faith with others, so they, too, will learn of God’s love and experience God’s joy.

OUR BEGINNINGS

Bob and Gretchen Ravenscroft launched Music Serving the Word Ministries (a private operation foundation) in 2006. For decades, Bob and Gretchen have been committed to the cause of Christ, the renewal of worship, and to supporting music and the arts that serve God's Word. An able and avid teacher, Bob has served on several university jazz studies faculties over the years. Additionally, he toured for a decade with the Christian ministry "Majesty." Today, Bob records an improvised musical and inspirational podcast called " Morning Glories;" he also performs with his group, The Bob Ravenscroft Trio. Transcending mere performance, Bob is always in pursuit of that special place where, as he says, "music serves the Word." (more at bobravenscroft.com)