What is a musicianary, you ask? Good question! Why we haven’t taken time to explain this in all these years is beyond us. A MUSICIANARY is a MUSIC-MISSIONARY. The term is not original… we tried to buy the domain name when we first thought of it. Apparently, others have thought of this term and all the good ones are gone.

How did f2fmi get involved with Musicianaries?
Good question! It all started when Amy and I were living in the UK in 2004. I was a radio DJ at the University I attended and was invited to MC an event with thebandwithnoname at the end of a schools week in Canterbury. I became great friends with the lead singer, chipK and was impressed with the powerful way the band presented the Christian message. They spoke a language young people could understand using MTV-style performances with singing and dancing in school assemblies, lunch time concerts, character education classes and at Friday night concerts.

On Tour with the Band
After returning to the USA, I received a book deal from Tate Publishing. As a way of cross marketing the book, I named my book after the band’s 2nd album – Schizophrenix. Then, I went on tour with the band for 2 months in 2005 running their sound, doing some preaching and sitting through dozens of auditions. At the end of the tour, there were several recruits and I opened f2fmi in Belpre, Ohio to help musicianaries get to England once they had been accepted in to a band produced by Innervation Trust.

Carissa & Kylie
The first two musicianaries that f2fmi sent to England were Carissa Jardio and Kylie Evans in 2006. Carissa was from Tampa and went to the renown hip-hop church, Crossover. Kylie was part of a dance studio in Missouri, hailing from Lee’s Summit. The two girls raised support in months and the next thing they knew, they had both landed parts in thebandwithnoname as backup dancers.

The Lodz Mission with Passion 4 People International
Another big happening in 2006 was a collaborative NGA mission to Lodz, Poland. I was recruited to direct the mission for Evangelist Brad Butcher of Passion 4 People International. I took thebandwithnoname in to the schools of Lodz leading to a concert at the end of the week for more than 800 students.

Lucy & Jennifer
The next two to go to England were Lucy Wells and Jennifer Elrod. Lucy’s parents are missionaries from England that moved to Atlanta, GA with Operation Mobilization. We sent Lucy back as a reverse-missionary to the country of her birth! Jennifer, also from Georgia raised support to be in an Innervation band. Lucy is our longest standing musicianary, performing in the all-girl pop band, tbc.

Genetik
Musicianaries were coming home before their contracts were up. We were troubled by this because of the amount of work it took to get them over there. The question was raised, “How do we prepare them better so they will stay?” Trainings were introduced. Meetings and phone conferences followed. Paperwork. The answer turned out to be using The Message Trust, another schools work organization, to train our aspiring music missionaries. The Message founded an academy for music and evangelism called Genetik. We began to send our missionaries through their program in order to see if they could cut it in the UK before offering them permanent positions in schools bands.

Ryan & Morgan
Enter Ryan Griggs and Morgan Dinerstein. When I re-opened the f2fmi office in 2007 in Connecticut, I met both Ryan and Morgan at my new home church, Calvary Chapel. Both of them were presented with the opportunity. Both of them went to Genetik. Ryan was offered an internship with The Message and toured for a semester in a new project called Genetik Revolution. When his internship was over, Ryan and the team were offered permanent roles with The Message. The band was renamed Twelve24 and thrust in to schools all over Manchester in the fall 2008.

tbc in the USA
f2fmi changed roles in 2009 from tour coordinator to regional partner. We hosted tbc in Southeastern Connecticut for one of their famous schools weeks! tbc did many shows throughout the week leading up to a main event at Connecticut College’s Palmer Auditorium for 400+. You can read the official Mission Report here.

Twelve24 in the USA & New Innervation Artist, Bebe Vox
In 2010, we saw a massive success in our community with Twelve24′s arrival on US soil. In the final week of March, Twelve24 blitzed our schools, performing and educating thousands of students on character throughout Southeastern Connecticut. Ryan and the guys also did a church track where we visited youth groups and had an outreach concert at the end of the week where we saw teenagers give their lives to Christ. Read the full mission report here.

In Lucy’s world, 2010 saw the end of tbc. Moving forward, she was offered a role in Innervation’s new project, Bebe Vox – a solo artist who performs in schools and is a positive role model for young people. Lucy serves as a backup dancer and choreographer to Bebe’s show.

2011 and Beyond…
f2fmi continues to be committed to Musicianaries and their unique call to serve public schools. While in the UK, you can still do this as a Christian, in America we have to approach this slightly differently. Character education is key to using schools bands in the USA. This happens through another organization that Tom is involved with called LifeFAQs. At the same time, f2fmi still works with schools bands in both America and the UK coordinating schools weeks and outreach events.

Would you like to become a MUSICIANARY? For more information, click here.