Meet Ben Jero

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Jero. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.

Ben, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

From the moment I was about 5 years old, I had one goal. That was to be an imagineer for the Walt Disney Company and design rides for Disney theme parks. All the way through high school this was my dream. I declared to California Baptist University as an architect major in hopes to achieve this dream.

If we rewind a little bit though, from a very young age I had a love for music. I loved to sing from when I was maybe 5 or 6. But I was so scared to sing in front of people. I hated it. In fact I never did. One morning when I was in 7th grade, my mom was driving me to school and I heard the song “We Believe” on the radio. That song changed my life and I thought to my self, I want to sing worship music for ever and ever. Still didn’t want to sing in front go anyone though. My freshman year of high school, I asked for a guitar for Christmas because I wanted to learn. I got one and started teaching myself how to play. I only played in my room though, not in front of anyone, including my parents. But I continued to learn these worship songs, sometimes singing and playing. I was beginning to fall in love with playing music for Jesus. During this time, though, my dream was still to be an imagineer.

I showed up to College as a freshman and within there first week I met this girl, and the first thing I did was tell her I sang a little. With what I thought was the biggest mistake at the time because I was so scared, turned out to be the biggest turning point of my life. I was peer pressured into singing some worship for my dorm hall. After about two weeks, I caved, and I did it. The first go round was scary, but the following week I did it again, and then again. Each time I got less and less scared and more comfortable. This was when I realized that God gave me a gift and my purpose was to further His Kingdom through music and song.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am currently a worship leader for Sandals Church, which is located in Southern California. Being a worship leader is one of the most fulfilling and life giving thing ever. Jesus gave me a voice, and as Christians, our calling is to use that voice to build the Kingdom of God. My job is to do that through song. I have the privilege of leading people towards an encounter with the Holy Spirit through music and song. God created music and it is our message, I believe, to use music to glorify Him.

One of the things I love most to do is song write. In Psalm 96:1 it says “sing to the Lord a new song”. Not an old song, but a new song. Songwriting, I believe, is so important for the church as it provides a way for us as believers to tell our story of what God has done and what He promises He will do through music.

I spend a lot of my free time songwriting for the Church. I write songs that hopefully get sung all across the world, praising Jesus. I’ve got some exciting new stuff I’ve been working on that I hope to share throughout this year and can’t wait for you all to hear them!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The first and foremost piece of knowledge that I have taken with me over the years is that failure is a part of learning. As a songwriter, this is super important. You will fail on a sing 90% of the time, and if you hold that and say “well you know what I guess I’m just not that good” and give up, then you will never grow. But if you keep working at it, every so often, you will get that 10% and write something that is special and worth sharing.

Another piece of knowledge that has been instrumental in my songwriting is that if a song glorified God, it was time well spent. You may sit down and spend 2 hours working on a song, and at the end of the day, maybe it’ll never go anywhere and that’s ok. If the song or the songwriting session glorified God, then it was time well spent.

A third piece of knowledge that I have taken with me is that what you do around people is an overflow of what you do alone. If you want to be someone who people enjoy being around then be that person when you are alone. Because what you do alone, will eventually break through when you are around people.

To any young songwriters out there, continue to write, every day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. Keep it up. Work on your craft. It’s like training a muscle, continue to train your self in songwriting.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

If there is anyone out there who loves the Lord, and has a heart for furthering His Kingdom through songwriting and creating music that will glorify the Lord, I would love to collaborate with you and connect and maybe work together on a project. You can reach out to me via Instagram @benjero55

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @benjero55
• Youtube: @benjero

Image Credits

The ones of me on stage singing, with the blueish backdrop, those are taken by Wyatt Faller.

The one of me with my guitar outside with the mic in front of me was also Wyatt Faller.

The one where my face is partly cut off and the background is completely black was Maryanne Hoffman.

The rest, the one of me in the stair case and the one of me leaning up against the wall, are by Auston Diaz.