A Minstrel
The word minstrel carries the sense of a ministering musician who travels from place to place, delivering the now, or prophetic word of the Lord to the situation at hand.
The shepherd boy, David, was a minstrel and a psalmist. A psalmist worships God, one to One, recognizing His Precious and mighty Personhood with music, songs, and poems of faith and praise. The instrument played was traditionally stringed, or a pipe (flute). A minstrel plays his or her instrument while singing prayfully, and minsters healing and deliverance to others by imparting the Lord's word as he travels - as when, for example, David was called to soothe the tormented mind of King Saul at the court. A worship leader, by contrast, is called to lead a congregation into the Holy of Holies to experience God's Divine Presence with song and dance. King David was a worship leader of his people later in his life. The Minstrel; Spurgeon's Archives
The minstrel gifting has largely been lost to the western Church due to our reliance on organized structure in our services; but the time for its restoration is coming!
Minstrel was the word spoken to Linda Brown when the Lord released her to begin Tangent Music. Characteristically therefore, Linda often ministers from location to location, wherever the Lord tells her to go. She has been invited, as a minstrel, to minister in churches and at conferences both at home in Western Australia, and as far away as the United States. The songs and prophecies that she receives deliver the Lord's now word to the time and place that she is sent. Linda is one of only a few Christian ministers today truly operating in an understanding of this gifting. On her website you may read more about this ministry and how Linda experiences it.
An example of Linda's ministry as a minstrel can be read below, where the Lord's word came as prophecy, sung directly to the church at Elk River, in Minnesota; October 2004. This word was delivered during an evening of ministry, facilitated through music, the Word, and prophecy, and also from prayer from the leadership team at the end of the meeting. The Lord also gave Linda a song for the meeting called Hear the Sound - (The Breaker is Here!).
