One of the founding principles of Visible Music College follows Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s idea of the “visible community,” coming straight from his work, The Cost of Discipleship. We at the college desire to build a strong Visible Community, one centered on discipleship, worship, life together, and community service. This course is a focused way to help bring these components together for all Visible students.
Gathered Worship
Gathered Worship is a time for students to come together for the corporate expression of praise and worship to God as well as to receive insightful biblical teaching from select Visible staff, faculty, and local ministry leaders. Corporate worship and teaching are followed by prayer and ministry time, as well as discussion and discipleship in the form of accountability and Life Together Groups. Gathered worship happens each Tuesday and Thursday morning at 11:00 am CST/CDT. On Tuesdays, there will be either a staff member or guest speaker who will minister on a topic from Scripture. Tuesday gathered worship sessions will be held globally, via Zoom, to each campus, location, and online student. Thursday gathered worship will take place locally at each Visible Music College campus, and online over Zoom for our Online campus.
Accountability
Accountability is the weekly component of Visible Community that monitors and encourages professional growth within the student’s major for a weekly push towards skills development, divisional news, and portfolio development. Students will meet weekly with their department chair or division head in a group setting with other students studying within their major/concentration. Accountability is a time for students to gather within their department /division to discuss with their department chair /division head any nuances about the coursework and how the semester is going personally, professionally, and academically. Accountability happens on Tuesday following gathered worship starting at 12:00 pm CST/CDT.
Life Together
Following gathered worship each Thursday, students will meet at 11:30 am CST/CDT in assigned small groups – Life Together Groups. Life Together is a weekly time for students to come together in a small group format to focus on spiritual growth and development under the leadership of select Visible staff, faculty, and local leaders. This will be accomplished through prayer, discussion, and the study of Scripture. This is a requirement of the Visible Community course. The goal is to create a small group setting in which students can discuss the topic from our Tuesday worship gatherings as well as other issues pertinent to the students’ life. Attendance will be recorded accordingly.
Professional Advancement
One of Visible’s primary objectives is for students to take personal responsibility for professional growth and development while attending college. Students should graduate with a professional portfolio of work related to their major and priming future opportunities in finding gainful employment in a meaningful ministry and career. Students will attend weekly class sessions to learn about various aspects of professional growth and development. Class sessions will take place on Wednesdays from 12:30 pm-1:20 pm CST/CDT.
City Eyes
Each semester, students enrolled in Visible Community are required to serve
10 hours in local community service. These serving opportunities are to be 1) outside the walls of Visible Music College, 2) unpaid, and 3) outside the normal flow of your local church setting (i.e., not worship team, youth ministry, etc).