In a recent episode of Adventist Waves, a podcast dedicated to Adventist podcasters, musicians, and audio engineers, we had the privilege of interviewing Eric and Monique. This dynamic duo has taken an unconventional path, leaving behind traditional careers to embrace a life dedicated to sharing the Gospel through their music. Their story amazes me! Sound has a wonderful way of touching hearts, inspiring faith, and connecting people with God.
A Divine Calling
Eric and Monique’s journey began with a bold leap of faith, leaving behind stable jobs to answer a call to music ministry. “We quit our jobs and gave our year to God,” they shared, “just an open-ended year… to be open to following his path for our life.” This decision launched them on an extraordinary adventure filled with unexpected challenges and divine provisions.
Songs of Faith and Doubt
Their personal experiences with faith and doubt have become the fertile ground from which their music grows, resonating deeply with listeners. “A lot of the stuff about all the songs about doubt and faith… that is where we were living, we were living by faith at that point,” they explained. This authenticity allows their music to speak to the hearts of those navigating their own spiritual journeys.
Breaking Down Walls
Eric and Monique have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of music in ministry. “There’s a lot of stories… where someone was brought to the concert at just the right time, where something was happening in their life, and one of the songs or what they were preaching about was the exact thing that they needed,” they recounted. Their music has become a vehicle for healing, hope, and spiritual connection.
Purposeful Creation
Their approach to songwriting is intentional and Spirit-led. “We usually try and make sure that there’s like some kind of hook… That it’s memorable… and usually you think you can’t get it out of your own head, but that’s a good sign,” Monique revealed. They weave biblical themes and personal experiences into their music, creating a tapestry of sound that speaks to the soul.
At Blue Vineyard Audio, we’re passionate about helping Adventist ministries harness the power of sound to share their message and inspire their audience. Eric and Monique’s story is a shining example of how music can be a powerful tool for ministry.
If you’re looking to create a podcast that connects with your community on a deeper level, we’re here to help you every step of the way. Contact us today to learn more about our podcasting services and how we can help you make your message heard.
Podcast Transcript:
Welcome to Adventist Waves. They left their stable jobs to pursue a year of radical faith and led them to an unexpected path, one filled with music, ministry and a message of hope that resonates across continents. Who are Eric and Monique and what led them on this extraordinary journey? Find out on today’s Adventist Waves podcast.
When Eric and Monique were both growing up, they loved music. Eric grew up in Australia, a part of a musical family and discovered that he had a talent for music performance and loved it. Yeah, so I’ve always, I feel like I’ve always had an interest in music and I’m not sure whether that’s just because as a small kid, I just watched my, my auntie who actually is a music teacher herself just do this crazy stuff on the piano and she would like just improvise and play Beethoven but with a twist and it was just really cool as a kid. I was probably only like five years old and plus my, my, my grandpa was into banjo and I guess yeah, the musical side of the family from, from, from watching them and um, you just really got into playing piano as a, as a kid. So your auntie had a big influence in your life? Yeah, I think, yeah, I think so. I think that was probably my initial memory. Growing up is watching her and just thinking how cool it was. I mean at the time I just was excited to put it on like the thunder clouds and the trains like you’re on the MIDI keyboards he can just like do all that crazy stuff but yeah, I realized pretty quickly that I found it fun to also write music myself like I discovered that even if it was like really simple, simple songs at the time as a kid but yeah, I just loved just making up songs on the piano and and um, yeah, it would eventually go and do formal lessons I guess for three or four years but I mean that’s, that’s a story in itself because I ended up quitting that as a lot of teenagers do and um, just loving, just writing music and having a bit more of a less, I guess, formal learning playing by ear and stuff so yeah, really enjoyed. Did you belong to a church when you’re growing up at that stage?
Yeah, so I’ve been, yeah, I’ve been in the church all my life so um, you grew up in a little place called Moorland Bar up near, I don’t even say that right, Moorland Bar. Moorland Bar. Go home town. I’m like, I’m trying to push my head into a name. Yeah, and just went, went to church all my life and as I got older, I think the teachers also had a huge influence because they would encourage it, they would say, hey, notice that you play the piano, why don’t you do a special item at school assembly like chapel and I was too scared to sing at that point. I kind of convinced myself that I didn’t sing, I just played piano and that was it but eventually I would be brave enough to sing in front of people and I think yeah, just through the influence of watching family and the teachers as well and especially church, like I got into the worship music at church and yeah, just through all that it’s sort of sent on a path towards where we are now, I guess. On the other hand, Monique had a talent that took time to mature.
Well, my mom is a music teacher and so I started getting lessons in music when I was super young. I had violin lessons from when I was three or four and I had piano lessons when I was like six or something and but the problem is, is that because it was my mother, I wasn’t great at practicing, I was like this rebellion thing that I had so that’s a big regret of mine that I didn’t actually practice it and actually have consistency in it throughout my life but yeah, so that was on and off my whole life. I was in choirs and stuff but I became incredibly shy due to several different events and things that happened and to me singing in front of people or doing any kind of music in front of people became something that was just like a nightmare and I didn’t want anything to do with it and I went far away from all of that kind of thing before I met Eric. Yeah, I was a lot more into writing. That’s something I’ve always really, really loved. Just the creative writing and creating a story in a whole world using words. That’s something that I really, really love. Yeah. And so when I met Eric, yeah, when I met Eric, he actually never heard me sing for like the first two years of our relationship. Like there’s a difference, right? So there’s like, you’re in the in the Pugels singing worship songs and I mean everyone’s blended in together, right? Even then I’d be singing pretty softly. Yeah, you were like really timid in that area.
But it wasn’t until later that I was like, whoa, like you can sing. So we’re not like a lot of musician couples that kind of meet through both of us doing music and kind of hanging out on a friendship that started that way. Ours did not. But it sounds like you came from a musical background anyway. Yeah, your parents encouraged you to get into violin and piano early. Yeah, my mom and dad were actually in like a music group when they were young. They used to go around to different churches with some of their friends when my brother was a baby. That’s right, I forgot about that. Wow, there you go. Did you grow up in the church as well? Yeah, I did. My parents were high school teachers for the church and we moved around quite a lot up into Papua New Guinea and run Australia and New Zealand. It was while they were at college that their paths crossed and their love blossomed from there. Well, I had gone away for, I was at Avondale College for three years and then I took a year off to go volunteer in Ukraine. And it was in the year when I was over in Ukraine, Eric came to Avondale at the end of that year. And so when I came back to finish my final year, I met him in a library with him pretending he needed computer help, but he didn’t. Like, he’s very good at computers. I like computers. It was just to try and talk to me. So yeah, we talked for like several hours the first time we talked and it was just, it was really, really cool.
And then he left asking if he could take me home because I lived off campus. He was going to walk me home at night and he tripped over a rubbish bin. How’s he left? Rubbish one everywhere. That was a good first impression, I think. And I think it wasn’t too long after that. I can’t remember if I actually invited you or whether you just turned up. Student services, I can’t even remember who asked but they said, oh, they were aware that I did music and could you do like a little concert? So in the cafe thing. So yeah, you told me about it because we were just friends at that point. And you told me about it. And so he was playing this little mini concert at the top of Student Services in Avondale. And I remember walking up the stairs with my friends and I heard this voice and we just all stopped. We were like, wow, sounds amazing. And then we’re like, that couldn’t be Eric. Could it be Eric? And we walked up and when I saw it was Eric, I realized that I liked him more than a friend and I proceeded to ignore him for the rest of the night because I was so shocked that I actually liked this guy. Who you thought was like a first year for a while? Yeah, I thought like he’s so young. Similar age anyway. But anyway, yeah.
Yeah. Oh, wow. And we can, we continued being friends for a bit and then. Oh, I think we were just hanging out a lot. You told me you liked me. Yeah, yeah. It was that kind of stuff. And then I’m pretty sure you started. Yeah, we were dating. We’re pretty much dating, but for some reason you didn’t think that we were, but we were. I thought it was pretty clear, but anyway, but there was a bit of confusion. But yeah. And then we just started hanging out a lot. Yeah, we dated for, it was nine months before we got engaged. And I graduated and moved down to Melbourne and we were long distance for a year. Yeah. Eric was pretty amazing. He used pretty much all of his money to be able to come and visit me. So yeah, I was working at college with a random job and that was back when flights were, I wouldn’t say cheap, but they’re a lot more cheaper than they are now. And so I just tried to get down every month. I used all my money basically.
After they got married, they decided to quit their jobs and dedicate their lives to ministry. My nickname explains their experience. Eric took some time off college and came down and he was working for the church in two different churches. Like as a youth. It was like a youth Bible worker. And it was during that year that we, I don’t know how sometimes when you first get your wage and everything, it can be easy to get caught up in society and caught up in the lifestyle and the things that you’re meant to be doing that society tells you should be doing. And we realized that and we realized that rather than doing ministry for the ministry’s sake, we were working for the church, but our hearts really weren’t into it and we didn’t like that. So we prayed a lot about it and we decided that we would quit our jobs and give our year to God, just an open-ended year to God, that we would be open to following his path for our life rather than us creating a path that we thought was his path just because it was working for the church, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And so we quit our jobs and that was right before the financial crisis of 2009. Yeah, so we got married in 2008. Yeah. So right before the financial crisis of 2008 happened and we had already quit our jobs and like, okay God, well, we’ll just, our life’s in your hands now. So yeah, we bought, we ended up volunteering in Ukraine and we bought a one-way ticket to Ukraine and we just, that’s kind of how the rest of this whole thing started, how music actually started by doing that. As a couple, yeah. As a couple. Yeah. Yeah, we went to Ukraine for a while and then we felt called to go to a Bible college.
Erica Minnick’s faith was tested when they decided to up and go to the West Coast of the United States and study at her eyes. We had no money to do that and so we prayed to God that if he wanted us to go to Bible college, that he would need to provide us the money for it to get the tickets to actually, first of all, go to the Bible college and to pay for the Bible college and so we prayed about that and we applied for the Bible college and it was a rise. They were in California at the time and within just like a month or so, money had come from all different locations, all different things, some of the money we didn’t even know who gave it to us. Yeah. And there was one situation where for whatever reason they’d underpaid me. So I got like a lump sum randomly hit the back account which happened to pay for one of our tuition fees. Yeah. So yeah, the timing of God’s amazing. Like just it all sort of everything like you take that step of faith and then it just all sort of snowballed. Yeah, we actually, we had enough money in the end to pay for all of the tuition for a rise, but the tickets, we could only have enough money to get to the east coast of America. There wasn’t enough to pay to get to the west coast and I was talking to my grandparents once and we were just talking about that and they said, hey, what month are you needing to go from the east coast to the west coast? And we told them the month and they said, we’re going to be in America at that time and we’re wanting to do our last RV trip because they owned an RV in America and my uncle and some cousins live in America.
So they used to go and visit him and they said, we’re wanting to do this RV trip and then my grandmother’s like, but to be honest, we’ll be really good. If your grandfather didn’t have to drive all the time, he’s like in his 80s, it would be good if he didn’t have to drive. Would you guys want to hitch hike a ride with us? And so like if you drive, Eric, you can just hitch hike a ride and you would only have to pay anything that would be beyond what we’re going to pay anyway because we’re going from the east coast to the west coast. So we ended up hitchhiking a ride with my grandparents and we went on this one month holiday with them through all the national parks and everything and just only having to pay like, you know, the extra little bit for two extra people on these campsites. And it was a really amazing special experience just to spend time, that much time with my grandparents and to, you know, get to know them so much better. It was just such a special time. And yeah, it got us to a rise. It’s like how God just puts together all of these things because they would go and visit my uncle, but they rarely ever went to visit him and to do these trips in that time period when we needed it. But that for that year, for some reason, I believe it’s God, they were doing it at the exact same time, the right time when we needed to get from the east coast to the west coast. Yeah, just really lined up just even before that, like even the flight, getting the flight across to the states from Ukraine, we didn’t have enough money for that.
But then back in Australia, they were giving people like a lump sum under a certain tax back at which we work as we’re volunteering. And that was the exact amount we needed to get across to the dollar, like cross to the exact dollar, albeit ailingus, but you know, we survived. Yeah. And I don’t know, I think there’s so many stories, we can’t tell them all right now, but there’s literally story after story of how living that that year, just putting it into God’s hands, how we would get down to like our last couple of dollars and someone would come up and randomly hand us an envelope or like it just all these different experiences where God just provided and we just had to trust him. The couple’s experience at Arise helped shape their ministry, it drew them together and started their journey as musicianaries.
Yeah, so at Arise, the class was very international, we probably had 50% of the class from overseas and quite a few Aussies as well. A lot of people from Europe. They’re also very musical. Very musical group and our teachers picked that up pretty early on. People like James Rafferty, was he there? No, he wasn’t there yet. It was just David Matthair. David Matthair. Yeah, that sort of group and they wanted to like use that for evangelism. So the church, the Sonora church at the time, we had this evangelistic kind of concert that they were planning and so it was up to each of the students that were into music to come up with different special music items to put into a concert format and yeah. Eric was going to do one.
I was not because that’s a nightmare for me at that point in my life and so Eric was practicing his song. It was this song called, I don’t know if you know our song, He Knows and Eric had just written that in Ukraine. That was written in Ukraine. Yeah. And so he was just practicing it and I was sitting next to him and I was bored and so I started to like, you know, just very quietly like sing and I was singing like little harmonies and stuff really quietly and a friend of ours, a fellow student, his name is Ben, he walked through the door and he heard me before I could see that he was there and he came over and he’s like, are you guys singing up for the concert? And Eric’s like, yeah, yeah, I’m going to be singing it. He’s like, wait, Monique, aren’t you singing? That sounds really good. You know, I’m like, no, I’m not singing. Because you’re doing harmonies, right? Yeah. And I’m like, no, I’m not going to sing.
He’s like, you have to sing. And I’m like, no, I don’t sing. It’s not something I do. And so he ended up annoying me for a couple of days. It took like two or three days to wear me down. Every single time he saw me, he was just like, Monique, you got to sing with Eric. You have to do it. Like every single day. And I was like, no, I’m not going to do it. And eventually he just got to the point where I said, yes, will you stop asking me if I say yes? And that is how I started singing with Eric. Yeah, that’s where it all began. Like, and God somehow uses this guy and just being annoying to get me to say yes, I was very un-stubborn. But so we did it the first time and I was terrified, like honestly terrified. And there was this grand piano, like a music stand and a lamp on the grand piano. We actually have a photo of it. It’s very embarrassing. And I’m like, I decided the best place for me to stand would be behind Eric, the grand piano, the music stand and the light.
You can barely see me. I’m like right back there sitting there. And that was the only place I would sing. So that’s how we did our first song together. And it was that song that David heard it and he came up to us afterwards and he said, that song’s perfect for this sermon series I’m doing at GYC this year. And I’m wanting to get, he had this vision of getting different Adventist singer songwriters and musicians to sing the appeal song at the end of each of his sermons. And he also wanted to have this vision about this like evangelistic music tour thing that he was interested in as well. And so we prayed a lot about it and we didn’t have money to go to GYC either. But it’s like the story of that year. We had no money, but God did. God provided the money and we ended up going to GYC. And that was the third time we ever sung was in front of thousands of people.
And it was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. I remember beforehand I was so scared because I don’t know if you’ve heard David preach, but he never preaches on time. And like the time limit was there. So he went behind and we just were waiting and waiting and waiting. It was like 40 extra minutes and we’re behind there. And like for a person who’s nervous about being in front of people, I was just getting more and more nervous and I was getting into my head. And I had gotten so far down into my head like, because they’re also filming it as well. Yeah, they were filming it as well. Like Eric was up like waiting to go on and I was like sitting down because my legs wouldn’t work. And I was just praying and praying like God, I can’t do this. You’re going to have to somehow do it for me because I cannot. If this is something you’re wanting me to do in my life, you need to give me the ability to because I don’t think I can even walk out into that stage right now.
And when it was the time, I remember walking out onto the stage and it was like this literally felt like this tidal wave that just went over me and all of my nerves disappeared. It was gone. Like there was not one bit of nerves and it was honestly the most amazing experience because it was for an appeal. So it was for an appeal and everyone was kneeling down. And it was like this real moment for both of us when we realized that this is for God, that this is about worshiping God and everyone’s worshiping God together. It’s not about us. It’s not about our nerves, our ideas that we have in our head or it’s about God. And that’s what music should be to focus on Jesus. And yeah, it was a really big turning point, I think, in our lives. It was at this GYC that the idea of the Songs of the Centur was born. Yeah, it was. And even that night, I think, it was the end of GYC. So people were hanging out together as late as they could into the night. And then this brainstorming session happened about getting together. I don’t think it was the very next year, but it was the year after that to do this thing that they would call Songs of the Cent, where the concept is preaching, but with having music that weaves its way through the message.
And yeah, we’d meet other musicians that were still very close friends to, like literally, on tour with them last month. And yeah, that would be the next part of the journey. Just doing that. After GYC, they returned back to Australia, where they recorded their album Pilgrim. Back to Australia, I had been given a Bible teaching job in at Gilson College in Melbourne, and Eric started doing Bible work again. And we did that for three years while we recorded Pilgrim. And we did that with Salter Music that was running at the time in Sydney from the Advenus Media Center. We were so grateful for that opportunity to be able to record with them and that they provided us with that opportunity. And then the following year, we went on tour in America with about four other Adventist musicians and a couple of evangelists. And we did that through our California. We did three songs of the Cent Evangelistic tours over the next couple of years. I think there’s four different groups.
I asked them what lessons that they had learned along the way. This is what they said. The biggest lessons, I think, were how to separate ourselves from our music ministry. And I guess what I mean by that is to make sure that the number one focus is Jesus and the ministry you’re doing, that the number one focus is how Jesus is actually using your music and that that is the most important thing. It’s not the numbers. It’s not anything external. It’s not anyone’s praise or anything. But to make sure that your head is focused on Jesus, is focused on what, how he is using it. And I think that was the biggest lesson because whenever you’re doing anything creative, people will always come up to you and say good things about it. Yeah, there’ll be people who say bad things, but there’s also a lot of praise that comes along with it because that’s what makes people feel sometimes like they’re a part of what you’re doing if they’re, you know, encouraging you and all of that. And I think that a bit of a trap that musicians can get into no matter how much you want to focus on Jesus is that it can get to your head if you’re not careful with it.
And I think it’s really important for any musician to actually make sure that they have a group of people or they even have just a couple people who can pull you up if you start to go down that road. And I think that’s what this Songs of Ascent thing did for us in that beginning, to be able to make sure that no matter what other people are saying that your focus is I’m an instrument of God. This is about Jesus. This is about sharing Jesus with others and that it never wavers from that. Yeah, for me, because it was linked with an evangelistic style of approach, like with preaching and that’s kind of the goal is to bring people to God because the music was so integrated with that helped me focus on the ministry aspect, not like less so on the music. Like music was the vehicle and we took a lot of those initial learnings and we sort of took it on as our vision as well, like even down to our concerts are not what you would describe a typical concert. There’s preaching in the concert, like it’s sort of kept those original learnings.
I guess it became our sort of thing, we did that style, I suppose. There’s a lot of stories we can’t remember them all, but where someone was brought to the concert at just the right time, where something was happening in their life and one of the songs or what they were preaching about was the exact thing that they needed in their life. And I think that seeing that firsthand, it kind of really taught us how music can break down our spiritual walls and God can use that in a way that just words sometimes can’t. Like there is a place for music in ministry and in evangelism because it’s… what’s the word for it? Just give me a second. Oh, it’s like an entry point, yeah, easy entry point. It’s an easy entry point into Christianity. It’s like what’s easier to invite someone who’s against Christianity, hey we got this concert or hey we got this person like a preacher. Yeah. Like someone inviting people to music is just such an easy thing to do. And I think God can really use that very powerfully when it’s paired with the gospel. Yeah. I think we saw that very clearly on that first tour and it kind of… yeah, it just really helped us to know where to go from there. It also gave us lots of lessons with money in ministry, which is a difficult thing to talk about sometimes, but it’s a fact of life.
Like no matter what you are doing, it does cost money. And we were all very nervous at the beginning about, you know, asking for an offering or asking for different things. And one of the evangelists, Matt, he came up to us and he’s like, why didn’t you guys announce the offering after this thing? And we said because… That was like the first one. Yeah, it was the first concert we all did. And we’re like, oh, we’re just feeling really nervous. You know, we wanted this to be about Jesus and we’re wanting, you know, the focus not to be about music. And he was like, but that doesn’t mean it’s not. Like without telling people that they could contribute to your ministry, you took away their ministry. Yeah. For some people, the only way that they can contribute to ministries, like what you guys are doing, where you’re going around and you’re sharing Jesus, is to give money to it. Yeah, support it. To support it. And when you don’t offer people that opportunity, you’re taking away their opportunity for ministry. And I had never, we had never thought about it that way before.
Yeah. And I mean, even from that, people have different approaches, which is fine. But we always felt very strongly about just having it as a free will. Yeah. So there’s no ticket sales. Yeah, just free, free will stuff. And the biggest learning we ever got from that is God always provides, no matter what, which is incredible. Just to think about, I mean, we’re talking crazy stories, like a bunch of concerts being canceled, and then some random person comes up with a white envelope and in it is exactly the amount that you would have gotten. Like that kind of stuff. Amazing story. Yeah. Yeah. Music ministry can be a very powerful thing. This one story that I have from those early years is we went to this church in WA and took their church service and kept going on tours, didn’t think anything of it.
But months later, we got this email from this lady who she said she had gone to this church service and she told us that she was giving God one last chance, but her life had gone really down a hill and she just didn’t trust in God anymore. And she basically told Jesus, God, you know, I’m going to church one more time. You need to convince me that you care about me or you’re out of my life. And we just happened to be doing the church service that day. And she said that God used our songs and what we were saying to just break down the walls in her heart and to show her that he was there for her. Because that was the theme about, that was actually the theme of our concert series during that tour. And she said that she just broke down. And she started to, you know, do Bible studies with Jesus again and then, you know, read the Bible and have devotions.
And she recommitted her life to God after that and got rebaptised and then got into Bible, like all this stuff. Yeah, that’s crazy. And we had no idea we just did it and went on. But that’s, but God used it in a way that we never could think. And there’s just so many stories like that. And yeah, that’s why we like music ministry. Let’s explore the heart behind the music. Another album that the couple have created is called Everlasting. It was written and produced in 2015. Let’s explore the heart behind the music. I wanted to delve more into the inspirations that drove them to write the songs on the album. And this is what they shared with me.
So we wrote those songs during the early years of doing music ministry. And so a lot of the stuff about all the songs about doubt and faith and that is where we were living, we were living by faith at that point for several years. And it just hit us multiple times how even when you’re living by faith and you have so many stories where you can see firsthand, God literally providing what you need in the moment. It’s still so easy to fall back on doubt. Like it’s so easy to let those doubt filled thoughts go into your head and let alone if you haven’t seen those, you know, moments of faith recently, because sometimes we live our lives and we don’t see them right in front of our faces. But I don’t know, it just that experience made us understand that Israelite’s a bit more like how you can see it right in front of your face and yet say, you know, we’ll just wrinkle these little lines. And so that’s where the inspiration for all the songs on that album about faith and doubt came from, our personal experience with that. And then we really wanted to focus on God because I think we had this little kind of thought that how so many songs that we sing in church, so many of the songs are about us, about our faith and in relation to God.
But there aren’t, you know, hundreds and hundreds of songs that are just focused on God, on who He is without any mention of us. And so we wanted to focus on God because we think that when you’re focusing on God, that’s when your faith can grow and your doubt can die. Yeah, there’s a sprinkling of songs just right through the whole journey of that time. And yeah, we wanted to focus in on like the character of God. I think some of the inspiration came from our rise itself, like the things that we’d learned to rise and songs like Neverlasting, which ended up being the title track for the album. Yeah, those kind of songs came very easy. Like some songs came, like they took a while to come up with, but Everlasting was quite quick. We wrote in in like 20 minutes and we have never touched it since. It was completely from God. I don’t, it just happened very, very quickly. The creative process is what musicians go through when they write their music.
Eric and Monique’s process is simple. Eric composes a music and Monique writes the lyrics. They unite their talents to reveal God’s character through their music. Eric usually starts playing around the piano. I’m usually in a chair with a Bible and a pen and a… You’re like the words Smith, who just write and write and write. And then we usually try and figure out from what Eric’s little tune is, what kind of biblical theme or thing about God or our life is that kind of inspiring us to. And then from there we start thinking of words and then we’re sharing it with each other. The best songs always come through like an attitude of worship. Like if you’re having a worship session essentially, like you would at church like singing songs, you know, you’re just worshiping God. Just whatever comes next, you can be surprised sometimes. Like you might hit a certain pattern of notes or chords, which will end up turning into like a song or yeah, just letting it free flow really.
And then that can happen together. That can happen individually at times. Like sometimes I’ll just go and play and then say I’ve got this idea for a song and then Monique will try and fit words to it. And then I’ll say, oh, that’s too wordy. Let’s simplify that a bit. Yeah, we’re usually pretty free flowing at the beginning when it’s just the beginning stages of it. But then once we have a general flow down of words, then we’ll start getting into a little bit more of the nitty gritties like whether it actually rhymes with the patterns of it and all that kind of thing. And that’s usually something that we do it after we’ve started the free flow. But we aren’t singing like songwriters that will force it. We generally if it’s free flowing and it’s an easy process and you know, it’s kind of in the heart of worship, then we’ll keep going with it. But if we start getting frustrated by it, we’ll take a break. Like we don’t usually force it to happen. Yeah. They end up being songs that well, we typically don’t use because it just comes across. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. It just doesn’t sit right. Like, yeah. That’s a beautiful thing. That’s the creative process for you. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
I find that I remember someone was saying like out of 2000 ideas, one of them is a really good idea. And so maybe maybe maybe the musical process is kind of the same thing as well. So we have a lot of ideas that we just didn’t go anywhere. It just goes away. And I think overthinking is one of the biggest enemies, I think. Just not in music, just in everything in life. Like you can overthink everything. And it’s hard to explain. Like I think it’s I’m sure it’s the same in many different creative endeavors. You just sort of know if that makes sense. Like if you’re doing, I don’t know, like writing a song, I won’t speak for other disciplines. But if you’re writing a song, you just have this sense that yeah, this will work. You just it just makes sense. It sits well with you. Yeah, you could use the word vibe. Get a good vibe.
Yeah. We usually try and make sure that there’s like some kind of hook. I think that’s an important thing in some writing that there’s some kind of hook in it. That it’s a memorable, it’s memorable. And usually, you know, you think you can’t get it out of your own head, but that’s a good sign. But if you can get out of your head, then you’ve got to have to, you’re going to have to do some work on it. Then once we actually have all of that down, we actually like to, with the music part of it and with harmonies, we like it to somehow reflect the meaning of the song. Like with the harmonies that I choose to sing or who is actually singing or how Eric’s playing, we like it to reflect, reflect the theme of the song so that everything is focused towards the same thing.
So nothing detracts from the message that we’re trying to show. So like an example of this is in Everlasting, the first chorus, we sing it in melody, both of us. So it’s completely in unison. And we try and the way that I sing the melody with Eric, if I was just singing normally, I wouldn’t sing in that register, but we sing it in a way so that we meld and it tries to make it sound like one voice. And we wanted to do that to reflect that God is one God. And then in the second time we sing the chorus, I go into harmony. And that’s the show that even though God is one God, he’s three in one and that he is multifaceted in his character. And so he’s his creative God. So we kind of try and have little tiny musical ideas like that for different songs.
Their music reveals their personal experience and faith in Christ. A lot of the songs are definitely stories from our own life. And then there are other ones which we try and make sure that in some way a Bible verse can be found within each of our songs. It’s mostly not word for word for the Bible. But yeah, if you’re looking for it, you can find the different like a Bible verse in every single song. I think there’s some of the newer songs that aren’t even on album yet. Just thinking about some of those. There’s a song called This I Know That We Sing A Lot On Our Latest Tour. And that’s a time from around the pandemic. Like you can work in multiple different situations, but when I think back to the words and the way it is, it’s like, oh yeah, you wrote that during the pandemic. So it’s everything about you comes out in a song. All your experiences, like it’s crazy, like everything you’ve heard in your life. All influences just come out in songs, whether you can pick it up or not at the time.
Eric and Monique are very purposeful in the way that they create their music. Through it, they want people to experience the peace that they have been given. Well, our overall goal is to help people rest in Christ through Word and Song. That’s like our motto. We just want people to find peace through the music, just to be able to connect with him through the songs. Yeah, because I think this world is just getting more crazy and we’re in this like stress pandemic as it were. People are rat race, way too busy. Yeah, just if people can just come away for a while and be in a space of worship where they can just focus on God and reflect on who he is. That’s sort of our goal, our main goal.
And praise the Lord for your ministry. It’s like, I think that’s so needed in this time that we’re living into that. I think it all reflects more so like in upcoming project that we have an idea on. Like it’s interesting, each album that you do is a sort of a snapshot of that time of your life. And I think the next one, we’d want to have it a lot more acoustically driven and a bit more sparse if that makes sense. The future is bright for the couple who’s recently got back from a tour in Europe. They shared with me what they’re currently working on.
We’re working on like an acoustic type album. That’s something that we kind of started recently. A lot of the songs on it, I would say they’re very, very personal songs. Like the last several years we’ve gone through quite a lot as everyone has with the lockdowns and whatnot. Like I personally went through like postpartum depression and anxiety through that time. And so a lot of the songs reflect that and they’re very personal, very opening songs about relationship with God through those types of times. And as Eric said, we’re wanting that to be more of an acoustic album, more of a live type of acoustic thing to show that rawness, I think.
So working on that, we just came back from a Europe tour to some German speaking countries, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. And we did that with these musician areas from America, Matt and Josie Minicus. They have beautiful music. We love them dearly. Who you should definitely interview as well. Yes, they have an amazing, amazing story. We’ve known them since the Songs of Ascent tours that they did. And we’re wanting to collaborate with them for another tour in America in a couple years. And then I’m also writing like a book for primary school aged kids. I did a festival of faith at a primary school recently. It was like this creative story about these two little kids, James and Sammy, who went on this imaginative journey to the cold planet of Neptune, I think it was. I need to remember. But yeah, and it’s all about like the whole journey of having a relationship with Jesus and struggling with sin and then being able to go home with him to heaven. And I’m writing that down into a book. That’s probably the thing I’m currently working on.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple have not been able to do any touring. But now they have caught the bug again. And it’s possible that more touring could be on the horizon. We’re dreaming of and we’re talking with our friends, Matt and Josie Minicus, about going back to the States for a tour. And also, he’s a very good audio engineer. So we’d love to do some recording in his studio over there. Whatever that happens to be, that would be great to do some recording. And there’s a couple churches in Victoria that have asked us to come by this year. But yeah, we’ve kind of just finished a six week tour. And because Eric’s a pastor, we use his holiday time for it. So we kind of sprinkle it in. But yeah, that was the first tour we’ve done since 2019. We had a little bit of a break with the COVID, of course.
But then also, I was struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety. And our daughter decided that she hated me singing. So we’re like, okay, well, let’s just take a break from music touring and stuff. And it was good in a way because we had been doing it nonstop since 2009. And so sometimes you can, it kind of wears you down a little bit to give that much of yourself and to constantly be doing that all the time and having a little bit of a break kind of refreshed it for us and kind of gave us more creativity and more passion again. So even Jesus rested sometimes. Sometimes it’s nice to have a rest and to get some perspective. And yeah, yeah, thinking back to that time. Yeah, I think I was either burnt out or approaching burnout. I’m not sure. But yeah, just thinking about that time, like you can, because yeah, it was it was our full time thing for like over 10 years. And and when you’re doing something for that long, and I don’t know if it’s like the like you talked about before, trust and doubt, like that back of your mind, is God going to provide this time when he always does? But it’s like you’re sort of living by faith and taking each step at a time. So whether all those mental stresses were just, yeah, it’s just it can be difficult.
It’s also like when we were touring before Eric was a pastor, we would be away from our home for like around six or seven months a year. And so you’re on the road visiting church after church after church, just meeting new people constantly. And it’s amazing. It really truly is an amazing experience to hear so many people’s stories, to meet so many people and to be able to be used by God in that way. But it also it’s hard to be able to really be in a local community and to have roots in the local community because you’re not there half the time. And so we had a really beautiful church community. We went to Leongatha SDE church while we were doing that. And they’re wonderful, like the most amazing church. And they were always so welcoming. And like, we were a part of that community, but not being able to 100% kind of give to a local community after a while, we really kind of missed that in a way. So it’s been nice with Eric being a pastor to be able to have that type of opportunity as well too. Yeah, have some of my work you call home.
Yeah. Eric and Monique have a heart for musicians who want to get into ministry. Are you ready to step out in faith? No, you’re why. Why are you actually wanting to do it? Like if God has called you to be a musician for him, why? Like what is your why? And to make that, even to make it a statement, something that you can look back to in the hard times because trying to put music out there, trying to put yourself out there isn’t easy. You’re always going to, everyone has opinions on music, even people who can’t do music at all. Like everyone has an opinion on it. And there’s also a lot of, especially in the Adventist church, there’s a lot of controversy and there’s a lot of different ideas because as soon as you start to do music, people unfortunately lump you in with the last music ministry person they saw. And so whatever issues they had with that person, they put on to you.
And I think that having your why, especially when it’s connected to Jesus, can help you to remove yourself from criticism enough that you can continue focusing on the music and the ministry. And that when the difficult times come, that you can refocus yourself on Jesus and you know that that’s why I’m doing this. It’s not for personal gain. It’s not for popularity. It’s not for money. I’m doing this for Jesus because everything else will come and go. It’s like a roller coaster. Yeah. Yeah. If anyone out there is listening that’s aspiring to do that and has that dream in their heart and that vision and that sort of thing, they can’t ever get out of their mind. They’re just thinking about it. It comes up all the time. I would just say don’t ignore that because you’ll regret it one day if you never, never try.
And it’s always like, yeah, just to step out in faith and to give it a go because and watch the Lord, you know, take you on a journey, an amazing journey. Like I feel like in the last decade or so, like it’s been a whole another lifetime, just the amount of experiences you get. When you step out in faith, it’s just amazing, adventure with God. So if you’re even a bit like curious about it and you have a passion for it, give it a try because you most likely will regret it if you don’t at some point in your life. So step out in faith. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Step out in faith and focus on Jesus because as soon as you put your focus on how on yourself and your own abilities, that’s when you’ll start to fade.
They’re journey from leaving the comfortable lives and well-paying jobs to throwing themselves into the deep end of the sea of the world’s needs have taught them to go all in. They have given their lives to God and inspire as many to do the same. Don’t be afraid to be different for Jesus. Don’t be afraid to go away from what society and what everyone thinks is the right path. If God’s calling you in a different route, go for it. Yeah, this time, I mean, seriously, like you couldn’t always be a teacher 10 years later. It’s okay. I mean, obviously, I say that pretty bluntly, but at the same time, obviously, you’ve got to be responsible as well. You are responsible. I mean, if you’ve got young ones, obviously, you have to be responsible for that. But yeah, just go for it. And I think people need to be very uncomfortable with being comfortable.
Yep. Yeah. The comfort zone is a scary place to be, I think, if we spend two… Yeah, normal should terrify you. We always need more musicians who are doing stuff and who are writing songs in the Adventist church world. There is so much room for you. Like, if you have something to say and Jesus has put it on your heart, there’s so room for you. To connect with them, please check out their social media platforms and check out their music on Spotify. You can find us on Spotify for our music. That’s just Eric and Monique, if you type that in searcher. And basically, if you type that name into anything, Instagram, you’ll should find us. Yeah, Instagram, all the socials. Yeah, all the socials.
They have a website, ericandmonique.com. Yeah. We’d love to connect with you. And if you are interested in doing music ministry and you have any questions you want to ask us, we are always open to chatting. Yeah. We love meeting other musicians. We hope this episode of Adventist Waves has given you a fresh perspective on how media can be a powerful tool for ministry. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review and connect with us on social media. You can also support our work directly by becoming a patron at patreon.com forward slash Adventist underscore waves. Your generosity enables us to produce more high quality content and reach a wider audience. Special thanks to our production team at Blue Vineyard Audio and our producer editor mixer and sound designer, Khan Elmas. We’ll see you next week as we continue to explore the art of sharing the gospel through sound. Adventist waves.
Here is a summary and description of the podcast based on the transcript:
Summary:
This episode of “Adventist Waves” features Eric and Monique, a musical couple whose faith journey led them to a life of ministry through music. The episode follows their story, from their individual backgrounds in music to their meeting at Avondale College and their decision to quit their jobs and dedicate a year to God’s service. We learn how they were led to volunteer in Ukraine, then to study at Arise Bible College in California, where they began singing together and were inspired to start a Songs of Ascent tour.
The podcast delves into the creative process behind their album “Everlasting,” exploring the themes of faith, doubt, and the character of God. Eric and Monique share their songwriting approach, emphasizing the importance of a spirit of worship and the power of music to connect people to God. They also reflect on the challenges and rewards of music ministry, including the importance of staying focused on Jesus, the financial realities of ministry, and the impact their music has had on listeners.
The episode ends with advice for aspiring musicians and ministers, encouraging them to step out in faith and trust God’s plan for their lives. Eric and Monique emphasize the importance of finding your “why” in ministry, being consistent in your efforts, and recognizing that God always provides.
Podcast Description:
In this episode of “Adventist Waves,” we meet Eric and Monique, a musical couple who traded stable jobs for a life of radical faith and ministry. Discover how they were led to volunteer in Ukraine, study at a Bible college, and embark on a journey of evangelism through music. Eric and Monique share the inspiration behind their album “Everlasting,” reflect on the challenges and joys of music ministry, and offer encouraging advice for those pursuing a similar path. Get ready to be inspired by their story and learn how you can use your own gifts to make a difference for God.
