Host Tools
We are so grateful and excited that you would like to host a GTM music mission team in your town/country. We hope and believe that this will be a wonderful and inspiring time for you all and that God will do great things in the lives of the people there.
Some of you will be hosting our team for a week, while some of you may host a short event. The content/programming of the trip may vary for each of you. However, we would like to share some general tools below that may help you prepare the best way possible, and one of our coordinators will communicate with you about all the SPECIFIC details pertaining to your trip. They will walk you through every part of the process to make sure your event will go as smoothly as possible.
What is Music Mission Trip?
GTM (Gospel Through Music) Ministries mobilize short term music mission teams to share the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. We would love to bring a team to your town/country/community to SERVE you through a music mission trip.
You do not have to be a Christian to host us, but we would like for you to be aware that our main reason (= mission) for doing these trips is to share Christ, and music is the platform and vehicle. The teams may share personal testimonies, what the songs are about, teach/sing songs that have Christian lyrics, share from the Bible, pray, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ, etc.
We also hope to encourage you, share some amazing musical moments together, inspire, and have a fun and great time of fellowship.
About the team
THE TEAM PAYS FOR THEIR OWN TRIP, and the reason they do that is that they have the heart to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with more people. They are not there mainly because they want to be known and heard, they are there to serve you while serving the Lord.
After we decide on the dates we will send a team to you, as well as a suggestion to a program for that trip; we will work at finding a team that would be a great fit for you. When we have a team interested in your trip, we will let you know who they are, and you can see if this will work for you. When you give us you YES, the team will shortly after pay a non-refundable deposit to us that confirms their trip. We ask you to not start planning until we have the final confirmation/deposit from the team.
For most of the trips, our teams will be in your country/area for about one week.
Some teams are very small (from 1 person and up), and others are large. We ask you to let us know approximately how many people you would like to receive, and we will try to find a team that would fit with that. We ask you to be flexible if possible in regards to the exact number and composition of the team.
What are your responsibilities?
There are different responsibilities for different hosts and type of trips.
For example, in Western Europe (and other countries/hosts that may have available finances for this) when you host a whole trip, we ask that you will provide full accommodation (lodging, all meals, and all ground transportation while there including taking the team to and from the airport) as well as full accommodation + ticket for one of our coordinators (keep in mind that they may be in the same country as you or in a nearby country, so that may be a small cost). Lodging in a hotel is preferred, but not necessary. They can stay in a local home or a church/center of some sort; we only require that they have some privacy, that it is clean, comfortable, safe and that they have access to shower and toilet.
If you are not able to provide any or all of this; please let us know, and we may include these costs in the MMT (music mission trip) cost for the team.
This is NOT a requirement, and we know that this is NOT possible in some places in the world. We do not want money to keep you from receiving a music mission team.
In that case, the team will pay for their own lodging, meals and ground transportation. We would ask you to help us put this together there though, as you are the expert on the area, and we need your expertise and organization on this.
You will also be responsible for the events (getting a location/venue, equipment, marketing etc).
And if you can also organize a little sightseeing while there, we know the teams really appreciate experiencing some of your local sights and specialties.
We will work on a program together with you.
Deadlines
You should request a team normally at least 9 months in advance (exceptions can be made for reasons such as us already having a team planning on traveling at that time etc), which gives us time to find a team, and for them to fundraise and prepare accordingly.
Once we together decide on a date and an outline to a program, we will share about this opportunity within our network (such as our website, social media, and communication directly with current music missionaries, etc) so that artists can apply to go on this music mission trip.
Once we have a team interested that we believe can be a great fit for you, we will let you know so you can confirm (or not).
When you have confirmed that you would like this team to come; they will pay a deposit, which is their confirmation that they commit to going on this trip. Please do not start with any major planning or making big announcements before we have their final confirmation.
Shortly after their confirmation, you will receive information about the team, such as the names/composition of the team, as well as material to use for marketing material such as musical bio and pictures to use for a flyer/poster, etc.
If we do not have a team by 6 months prior to the trip, we will talk with you about possible changes; such as giving it a little more time, postponing or even canceling.
The team will have their plane ticket about 3 months prior to the trip (unless otherwise agreed upon).
At this time you will also start receiving more detailed info from the team so you can get down to the specifics in your planning.
Our coordinator/contact person will work closely with you throughout the planning period and will let you know what are good times for you to have certain things in place; such as program, lodging, marketing, venue booked and more.
Communication
All communication will go through a GTM representative, most usually one of our coordinators who is based out of your part of the world. They will help you with everything you need to get this ready and communicate with you so that you can have the best music mission trip/event possible. Our coordinator will most likely be on the music mission trip together with the team.
If you have anything you would like to communicate with the team, we ask you to do that through our contact person. Some of the reasons are that we want to make sure we don’t miss out on any details that may be important to us, liability, avoiding misunderstandings as well as communicating doubly about things you may have already spoken to the artist about, etc. It is also easier for the artist to only have one contact person. There may also be some cultural differences we hope to bridge.
What are your needs?
For us to best prepare the team and to be most effective in serving you, we would love to know as much as we can about the needs and challenges of your target group; especially in regards to the spiritual climate and what may be difficult for the people there socially/culturally/personally, as well as what you would love for us to focus on musically.
Welcome the team
The team is there to serve you. We encourage you to make sure they are also very well taken care of and appreciated.
Be aware that there may be cultural differences. Our coordinator will prepare you as best possible for this beforehand, but it is impossible to formulate a plan that will cover all potential cultural challenges. So, we encourage you to embrace it, be prepared to be flexible, don’t be afraid to ask questions and be interested in their culture. The differences may end up becoming a big blessing instead of an obstacle.
This rest of the information in this passage is specifically for those that host the team for the entire trip.
Make sure they have a good place to stay (check details under “What are your responsibilities” above), have some friendly faces that check up on them and can be their point of contact throughout the trip (you can switch that between several people if that works the best for you, to avoid wear-out for one person), make sure they have food that they can eat (we will send you a list of special dietary needs/restrictions if there are any, and keep in mind that you have some familiar foods also for the picky eaters;-) and water to drink that is safe for foreigners, be on time for picking them up and stay in communication with our coordinator (or even team) about the pick-up (where you will meet them as they get out of customs/baggage claim, etc), make sure they get to enjoy their time there also by maybe taking them “sightseeing” some etc. The sightseeing does not have to be elaborate and it can be completely free. But, they may enjoy seeing where they are visiting, even things that you may be used to and take for granted may be very cool for them to see ;)
Make sure they have some time to rest. They may have jetlag and their bodies may also struggle to adjust to new climate, foods and more. They will most likely have some adrenaline from the excitement of being in a new country and meeting new and wonderful people, which may give them extra energy; and we do want them to be mostly very social. But, we know that it is important that they get some time to rest and prepare in peace and quiet, so if you can allow for that in the schedule, that would be perfect.
Representing GTM
We would love for GTM Ministries to be represented at your event.
Depending on if this is just one event or an entire trip, we can do this in various ways which you can decide together with our GTM coordinator/contact person.
Here are some suggestions to how GTM can be represented:
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Give room for us to share about GTM throughout the trip (at the workshops, concert, etc)
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Collect a love offering to GTM Ministries continued work around the world (possibly a specific project)
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Use our logo in your marketing material (ask our coordinator to send it to you)
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Tag #gtmministries in pictures and videos posted on social media (and please also send us pictures and video we are allowed to use to info@gtmministries.comthrough Google Drive, WeTransfer.com/ WhatsApp or something of that nature)​
Just to make sure…
We can not guarantee that we will find a team for your trip. If we fail to find a team, we can look into options such as postponing or canceling.
IF for some reason the team has any problems getting their plane tickets/finances ready, we will keep you posted on this. This may be cause for cancellation or re-arranging/changing the team. Their plane tickets are due 3 months prior to the trip (unless otherwise agreed upon with the team), so we will have a very good clue at that point, and make changes accordingly.
There may be special circumstances that may lead to a cancelation, such as a sickness/health challenges, death in the family, trouble getting a visa in time, and emergencies of various kinds. In those situations we will do our very best to solve the situation together with you; so we ask you for flexibility in these situations, and an understanding that some things are beyond our control, and we can never guarantee a team. ​
Specifically for choirs
We do a lot of trips to community gospel choirs in Europe, and we thought we should give you some specific information:)
We usually have a team that comes to your choir for a week. Most usually they will arrive on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, and will leave again the following Monday.
The team will consist of gospel artists, mostly from the USA. This can be a choir director, pianist, soloist and more.
Often we do rehearsals with your choir during the week (+ perhaps a gospel-workshop in a school, band rehearsals, dinner with the choir etc), and then on the weekend we will do a mass choir weekend that others from the town or even other choirs in the surrounding areas can be invited to join in. This weekend will end with a concert.
Our coordinator will help you set up a great program.
We would like for your choir to have a chance to prepare musically for the songs that we will be doing together this week. The team will send some songs in advance for you to familiarize yourself with (learn the melody plus lyrics as best you can). Please note that you will usually not receive sheet-music for these songs, but audio (and/or video) of the songs as well as lyrics.
When the team gets there, they will work on the harmony and making it all sound great :)
The better prepared you are with this, the more the team can focus on details and taking it to a new level instead of spending too much on you learning the song.