Mrs. Jane Foerster

• Hometown: Kansas City, MO
• Joined the BCS staff in 1993
• BA – Music, University of Missouri
• Masters – Music Education, Kent State University

Music often fills the air at BCS, thanks to music teacher and band instructor, Jane Foerster. Her desire is to inspire each student to embrace music in their own individual way. She says, “I enjoy being able to teach music in ways that will encourage students to sing and play for their Lord, and to understand and appreciate the wide variety of music in God’s world.”

Mrs. Foerster has worked with BCS students since 1993. Jane serves as a worship leader for the Friday Fellowship seniors group at Elmbrook Church. She also sings in Master Singers of Milwaukee, a local choral organization. Jane and her husband, John, are a blended family with 4 children and 3 grandchildren. She enjoys cooking, gardening, and playing the piano.

Mrs. Foerster shares, “I am a music teacher; no, a music educator; no, a Christian music educator.

What does that mean? Inasmuch as Jesus Christ is THE most important thing/person in my life, all that I do must in some way revolve around Him. He is the first description of who I am. Everything I do is shaped by my relationship with Him and my response to Him.

Being a Christian music educator means that I recognize God as the supreme Creator. He, in turn, gifted man with abilities to create and re-create. For these abilities, I am thankful. Music, in my opinion, has within it, a part of God. Just as people are tainted through sin, music, too, may be flawed by the sin of the man-creator. However, there are innate aspects that reflect God, just as in man, God’s image may still be seen. Aspects include things like order, emotion, and creativity. My job is to present a variety of music that shows God’s creativity, diversity and His desire for man to express emotion. It is also my responsibility, as an educator, to help my students identify God within the music around them and discern the instances that music has been tainted and may not honor God.

Another aspect of being a Christian music educator is to help students identify their God-given musical abilities; to help cultivate them; to help students learn to use their gifts in service to God. Service to God is not limited to “church.” Christians, by the mere fact of being Christian, take the name of Jesus with them EVERYWHERE they go. They take Jesus to a high school band practice, to a music lesson at the music store, to playing in a combo with kids in their neighborhood or being part of a worship service on Sunday morning. My job is to help students recognize that their abilities are gifts from God and due homage to Him should be given.

My life verse is 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  These verses remind me that I am nothing on my own. Only through total dependence on Jesus can I be strong. My prayer is that my students will learn total dependence on Jesus — that their abilities; their performances; their lives; must be one of total reliance on God.”