MACKIE Magazine August-Sept Issue 4 MACKIE Magazine The Special Edition Issue 2 | Page 17

Say Hello to Author and Christian Band Help CEO, Marie Wise Christian Band Help is a ministry of Unleashed Arts, run by me, Marie Wise. I have been working in the Christian music ministry for 30 years, in a variety of positions… musician, concert promoter, visual artist, band manager… you name it, I have probably done it. My husband, Mark Wise, was the bassplayer for the band Right Side Cast. Mark has been a Christian musician for over 20 years. My goal now is to support the ministry of art. I hope to put the emphasis back on the ministry that art has to The Creator, the one who is doing the creating, those who are enjoying the creation, and all the people in between. The Ministry of Art is experiencing relationship with God through creative endeavors. Some examples of the potential impact of art are: a song lyric that gets stuck in your head, a painting that you just can’t stop looking at, or a poem that grabs your heart. The ministry of art is significant because it bypasses the mind and goes directly to a persons spirit. We need to support this important ministry as a key tool God is using for this generation. Yea, it’s a big dream. But God (my two favorite words) tends to think bigger than we can imagine. So, I am starting by serving Christian musicians with ChristianBandHelp.com. We’ll add visual, performing, and literary arts as we go along… unusual? A little quirky, maybe? Definitely not inside the box. Sounds like God to me. Do you want to know more about what we do and why we do it? CLICK HERE Don’t forget to check out The Christian Band Guidebook. It is our best resource to get you started on your journey towards an extraordinary music ministry. CLICK HERE to find out more about the book. You can contact me at: [email protected] or [email protected] Follow UnLeashedArts on Twitter and Facebook to be notified of the latest updates. Q1: Hello. What is your name? How long have you been involved in the entertainment business? Marie Wise over 30 years Q2: When did you know that you wanted to be in this business and what was your motivation? I went to a traditional church most of my life but did not have a relationship with Jesus. When I went to college I,of course, did not want to attend church because it was boring. My friend invited me to a church (college campus outreach ministry) where they played guitars and sat on the floor of an old house. I was hooked because of the folk music and came to know Jesus first hand shortly thereafter. A few years later I was working as a staff member of an inner city outreach that had a coffeehouse with live music on the weekends. We also promoted larger concerts on a college campus. One of my sisters came to the first large concert I was involved with and met Jesus at the concert. Since then, and still now today, I am convinced that Christian music is one of the best tools we have to connect with many people that would not normally attend church. Music has the ability to reach directly into a persons heart and create an experience that changes us forever. I call this the ministry of music when Christians use this experience to bring people closer to Jesus. Q3: Who has helped you along the way and inspired you the most? My inspiration comes from the Grandparents of Contemporary Christian Music: Nancy Honeytree, Randy Stonehill, and Larry Norman. Their ministries were all a little before my time but the effects of their lives and the way they looked at C hristian music changed my life. People who have helped me the most would, of course, be my husband Mark Wise. You can read a post by Him at http://christianbandhelp.com/god-wants-us-to-wear-pink/. I joke about how people used to tell me to marry the man who looks most like Jesus. So, I did. There's a photo of Mark at the bottom of this page: http://christianbandhelp.com/about-marie-wise/. But I actually 17