CMB 033 : Bob Kauflin on The Parable of the Talents

The Christian Music Blog Podcast: Christian Music | Songwriting | Worship | Creative Productivity | Music Business

Here recently at the blog, the parable of the talents has come up a few times (CMB 029 with Stephen Miller, and this guest post by Kristen Gilles).

I had to originally reschedule my chat with Bob Kauflin, and before that, I had not heard his talk from the Worship God East conference. Thanks to Bobby and Kristen Gilles, I was turned on to it after she did her guest post here at the blog.

Suffice it to say, I was glad we rescheduled our Skype call. It seemed God wanted us to continue looking at the words of Jesus in Matthew 25.

The Parable of The Talents has been a challenging and inspirational parable for many Christian artists. We long to see that our talents not be buried and unfruitful.

But here’s the problem….

I have looked at this parable the wrong way for a long time. So many times I’ve used it to justify my selfish ambition, all in the name of stewarding “my gift”.

The Call of The Christian Musician

We need to pay closer attention to Jesus’ words in this very important parable.

A few years ago, I was in Gaithersburg, Maryland, attending a class for the Sovereign Grace Pastors’ College. While I was there, I spent a little time with some of the local musicians and songwriters in the worship internship that Bob was doing.

One day, while in the SGM studio, I saw a large plaque on the wall that said the following words….

The call of the Christian musician is to faithfully make music, in any context, that reflects a grateful servant’s heart to the gospel.

That’s what the Parable of The Talents is all about, and every one of us should ask for God’s help to daily apply these words of Jesus. When we do this, the master is glorified in and through our lives as people of faith who make music.

Here’s the breakdown of our conversation

• Bob’s story of faith
• Bob’s story of musicianship
• The call of the “Christian musician”
• A closer look at the parable of the talents
• How to discover your talents
• The value of getting feedback
• 1 Peter 4
• Serve people and watch what bears fruit
• The truth about self promotion
• How to reach out to someone about your music
• Looking for opportunities to grow and serve
• God promotes
• Sovereign Grace Music
• Why the gospel matters
• Bob’s upcoming book, True Worshipers

Important Links

• Bob’s talk at Worship God East- Faithful to Grow
• Bob’s blog – worshipmatters.com
• Grace Has Come: Songs From the Book of Romans
• Bob on Twitter

Other Things Mentioned

• Three Key Ways To Grow As A Worship Leader
• Caroline Cobb
• Dustin Kensrue’s new album, The Water and The Blood
• Matt Redman’s Your Grace Finds Me