Feature Articles

The Stutzman Family

The Stutzman Family is a true “family” group. Ryan and I went to the same little country church all through high school. So, we grew up singing special music and in the choir together. After we got married we got busy with life, college, raising a family, etc. and we kind of drifted away from singing. We tried our hand at a lot of other forms of service, but God always brought us back to music! The Stutzman Family started out as a duet when the girls were small, but we are very excited with the sound we have grown into. Today, The Stutzman Family consist of dad and mom (Ryan and Heather), Belinda (18), MaKayla (14), and Rebecca (who will be 11 this month).

Share some of your musical background. Were Ryan and Heather involved in the music ministry before they got married? When did you know that you were to have a family ministry?

I guess I already answered part of that….but let me address the musical background. We had very little. Other than piano lessons or playing instruments in band, and singing in choirs and that type of thing we really didn’t have much theory or “formal” training. We started attending Stamps-Baxter School of Music about 7 years ago. I personally learned more there in just a year or two than I had the entire rest of my life. We try to take every opportunity we can to learn “music” and the “music business”. Whether that is thru private lessons, schools like Stamps or intense seminars like Elijah Conference . We always want to be honing our craft to be able to serve God in the most effective way.

I've heard that Ryan has had a long list of jobs in his life. Care to explain in great detail?

We like to tease Ryan about all the jobs he’s had. Several years ago we sat down to make a list ( for his application for the TV show Survivor ). They weren’t all paying jobs, but we came up with more than 50 jobs!! He’s done everything from installing radio towers, construction, real estate, insurance, mechanic (auto, diesel, and aircraft), photography, modeling, acting, process pickles, you name it…he’s probably done it! Except, oddly enough, he’s never worked at a fast food place!

Are there any songwriters in the group? What inspires you to write a song?

I (Heather) am a songwriter. It took me a while to feel like I had any right to say that. I’ve only been writing for about 5 years now, I was very blessed from the beginning to have great writers like Rodney Griffin and Daryl Williams who were willing to listen and would give me honest feedback. I find my inspiration in a lot of places. Usually it starts with just a word or a phrase I hear someone say or that I hear in a sermon or Sunday School lesson. Something that makes me say, “I never thought of it that way before.” Then I try to pass that thought along thru a song.

How would you describe your style of music? Who were your musical influences? What made you decide that Southern Gospel was the niche you wanted to seek?

The Stutzman Family has a variety of styles. And as the girls have grown up and become a huge part of this ministry we have finally found a niche that works for us. I guess you’d call us Southern Progressive. We love all styles of music and with the girls we can do songs with a little more “contemporary” flair but still keep true to what makes Southern Gospel so great—a message wrapped in harmony. Some of the people who have influenced us the most musically are groups like The Cathedrals and Greater Vision, and vocally for the girls Lauren Talley and Allison Durham-Speer.

As a young family starting out in this ministry, what innovative ideas have you tried? Do you have anything exciting planned for the future?

We spent many years as the girls were growing up just learning while we ministered. We knew we weren’t ready for anything large scale yet. Since we made our “debut” at NQC in 2007 we’ve tried to be wise in the use of our finances. We see so many groups spending and spending without having much of a goal…they just want to sing. We try to market to a specific group of people. For instance, at NQC in ’07 we wanted to spend our time meeting DJs, Producers, etc. so that’s who we marketed to. “Come Fly with Me” was our new CD that year so we took advantage of the whole “flight” theme with flight attendant outfits, luggage tags, airline peanuts and barf bags. We knew DJs got a ton of CDs and things handed to them at NQC. And they can’t possible remember every group but, I bet they probably only got 1 barf bag!! I don’t know if it was innovative, but it was a lot of fun. As far as the future…you never know what we’ll come up with next.

Do you have any lofty goals of places the family would like to sing at?

Obviously we would love to expand our territory, and we can’t think of anything better than being able to do it with our family. “Suffering for the Lord” in great places like Scotland, Ireland, Hawaii and Alaska would be nice. LOL Ryan also has it in his heart to work with Rotary International on placing water filtration systems in remote African villages and combining that with our music ministry.

How has travel changed as the kids grew from babies to toddlers to kids to teenagers? How has ministry changed as the kids have grown older?

Any mother that travels knows that traveling with children is MUCH harder. In the old days, making sure we had all the sound system and tracks wasn’t nearly as important to me as making sure we had the pacifier, bottles and lots of extra clothes!! Since mom and dad were both on stage we were always relying on a pastor’s wife or other complete strangers to watch the little ones….which was very stressful for MOM. We were blessed with very good kids, so I’m not complaining, but the idea of a pot luck made me cringe (now I have to bring ANOTHER set of clothes for when they get spaghetti down the front of their dresses)! When the youngest was about 3, Ryan decided it would be easier if the girls all sat behind us on stage…that lasted about 1 performance!!! Seriously, it has been a great joy to see our girls learn to serve the Lord. I’ve seen times when just their sweet little song melted hearts that not even the most professional of singers could have ever touched. And the reward as parents is when they finally understand that it’s not about us, it’s about what happens when God uses us.

What is a typical service or concert lik with the Stutzman Family? How would a Pastor or promoter contact you?

Our concerts vary a lot depending on what the pastor or promoter wants because it is our goal to serve them. But we like to give people a variety. We will do some upbeat more progressive songs, mix in some good old quartet songs, maybe a shaped note song, then we like to have a little time to do some hymns and allow folks to sing along. We like to have fun, so there will be some laughs as well as serious ministry time. We want people to know God loves them…no matter where they’re at or what they’ve done and there IS hope. People can learn a little more about our ministry at http://www.thestutzmanfamily.com or they can get a hold of us anytime at 574-936-7926 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The Stutzman Family
http://www.thestutzmanfamily.com