Meet Minister of Worship Arts Candidate -- Jamie Bos

Jamie is a worship leader from a rural community in Oregon where he grew up working on rye-grass farms and helping with the mission projects of his parents.  Jamie completed a theology undergraduate degree in Texas before attending Wheaton for a graduate degree in Christian Spiritual Formation, and attending Campbellsville University in Kentucky for a graduate degree in Music concentrated in Worship.  Jamie is passionate about worship and discipleship in the context of a local church and loves to learn, but also just enjoys simple down-to-earth conversations with friends and getting outdoors for a hike or a trail-run on a sunny day.  He hopes to find a good church where he can settle and serve in the Pacific Northwest. 

How have you seen God work through you and/or your ministry? 

One of the favorite places I've seen God work in my ministry is in those rare moments when the congregation is singing so loud that I can actually hear them over my monitors.  Those moments of participation encourage me, because they allow an existential awareness of God’s Spirit at work in our lives.  

This past summer I was blessed to experience such an awareness while leading Worship at Grace Bible Church in Bend, Oregon.  Wildfires forced us to cancel our outdoor services with all of our performance plans on a massive outdoor stage.  Thus, we went inside the church where the soundboard wasn’t mixed and the stage was bare. We played an extremely minimal, acoustic version of the set we’d planned. 

This change in plans could have been very discouraging for the Worship team. The remarkable thing is, our congregation was extremely engaged with Worship that morning. The energy in the room was incredible and despite all the destruction of the fires outside, we felt joy.  That morning was an immense encouragement to me and stands out in my mind as an example of what Paul must have meant when he penned the words of Ephesians 5:18-19. 

 Ephesians 5:19 exhorts believers to sing to one another and make music from their hearts to the Lord. 

I find this passage of scripture edifying.  Paul says that when a believer sings and makes “music from the heart” to the Lord, that in itself is a sign that one is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Anyone who has ever sung a Worship song in a congregational setting with other believers and experienced this “music from the heart,” knows what Paul is talking about.  The joy of singing wells up and it is impossible to deny a sense that God is at work within us.  

What are you most passionate about in (Worship) ministry?

I’m passionate about Worship being a space with potential to reorder our affections, redirecting them away from the things this world says are important, so that they can be rightly aimed at better loving God and enjoying the goodness, beauty, and truth He has used to reveal Himself to us.  

What is your favorite Worship song and why?

My favorite modern Worship song definitely changes from time to time.  There are a lot of great songwriters currently working on interesting projects they hope will bless the church.  However, for me the best songs have always been timeless.  I enjoy modern arrangements of classic hymns that everyone knows so that everyone can sing along.  Toward that end, I’m currently loving an arrangement of “This Is My Father’s World” by a community called “People and Songs.”  It’s a sentimental song for me that I used to sing at my grandparent’s church as a child in the rural farming community where I grew up.  I love how the new arrangement honors the traditional version, while also adding just a hint of extra energy in the form of a rousing bridge that highlights the message of the hymn: God reigns. His creation is good and beautiful. Thus, our hearts can truly be glad.