Four Days

Been an interesting four days.

Besides refereeing three soccer games and working on the foundation to the greenhouse and mowing the lawn and taking nap, we've had numerous talks and discussions with a variety of people on a wide range of subjects.

We've met with two different pastors from two different denominations. Both churches are places where we see God working. We've had brunch with some old friends who are frustrated with the direction of the music at their church. And we've spoken with some people who are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which just voted to allow gays and lesbians to be clergy members.

It is amazing because in some way, shape or form God is at work in all these places. One pastor told us that their building is big enough and he sees the church going to multi-venue worship. They need to go out into the community to reach out to others and not bring people to their fancy building. The other pastor laid out their plan for growth but it is all in God's hands and they won't grow until God tells them to. And there are really neat things happening in the church. Lives being changed. For eternity.

The conversation with our old friends was equally enlightening. The music in the church seems to be that anything written after Martin Luther wrote "Amazing Grace" is bad. The pastors seem to believe that if they keep doing what they've been doing they can't get fired. How sad! Where is the innovation, the excitement of trying something different, of failing spectacularly? I can't find anything about church being safe. We worship the creator of the universe who is so big we can't wrap our puny little minds around it. That is exciting and scary.

And then there is the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America a denomination to which we used to belong. We left over 15 years ago. At their annual convention in Minneapolis over the weekend they voted to allow gays and lesbians into church leadership positions. In the name of reaching out and being welcoming, they put the teachings of the Bible up to a vote. Majority rule.

And when we vote on the Bible, the Bible will always lose because we tend to vote in our own self interest. How sad.

One estimate was upwards of a third of the members will leave over this and go elsewhere to worship. Or just quit worshipping altogether.

Such a contrast: the pastors talking of reaching out and of equipping their congregations and sending them out to their neighbors and reaching the lost, the sick, the widows and orphans, the AIDS sufferers, the hungry and the homosexuals. And the pastors who want it safe and secure and comfortable and conservative. And the denomination that is prepared to tear itself apart instead of trying to come together to work out a solution that fits the Bible.

lots of time spent in prayer this weekend. And lots more to come.

And by the way, I do know that John Newton wrote Amazing Grace...

CIA Summit First Wrap Up

Finally home. Whew!

Got home this afternoon (Sunday) from Nashville. We drove in to see Bradford pears at full bloom and a couple of neighbors have broken trees from the weight of several inches of snow. It''s good to be home.

Last night was the wrap up of the CIA Summit in Nashville. After tornado sirens and large hail (which we managed to avoid), the Momentum Awards ceremony was held followed by a concert by Margaret Becker.

Yesterday was a good day of presentations on the Future of Music, Marketing in an Internet Age and Producers and AR. Solid information presented.

At the concert we were talking with a young couple attending the Summit for the first time. They said that they got more information out of this conference than they have any other and that they had attended a lot of conferences.

Loralie and I came away with a long to do list in order to move her music ministry forward. The music industry is changing and there is a fundamental shift in how the public consumes music. The future is about engaging fans.

It is an exciting time to be involved with music.

And I am tired.

CIA Summit Day 4 - First Pass

Wow! Again.

And I am beat...

What a day! (again). This will take a while to process through.

And it is late and tomorrow we need to hit the road and head home. Heavy thunderstorms hit Nashville today while a blizzard hit home and flooding was going on in Minnesota. Will be good to get home.

We heard a ton of good stuff again today, but the highlight had to be Tom Jackson. He is a live performance producer who helps artists get their shows ready to go. We will listen to some tapes from last year on the drive home, but the thing that he said that really hit home was: "Don't let anyone tell you that you are too old to do this." It was something that I have never heard him say before.

It was also good to hear that the artist has to build a relationship with their fans. And we heard lots of good ideas on that.

So much more to process and think about and more to write but my mind is pretty much mush.

In a good way though...

CIA Summit Day 3 - part One

Wow!

My head is spinning! Started the day off with some music and then teaching by the Pastor of Provision International, Scott MacLeod. Great message on serving the poor and widows and orphans, especially in the poorest neighborhoods.

Grant Norsworthy than got up and hit us right between the eyes with a powerful message of worship not just through music but all the time. What an incredible message! Grant was the bass player for Sonic Flood and he talked a lot about the paradox of Christianity. Grant also took Dietrich Bonhoffer's quote on cheap grace and updated to today.

I love this quote:
"Cheap worship is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly worship."

While I still think there is a huge battle against cheap grace, cheap worship rings so true to me.

We also have to admit that sometimes there are things wrong with us. That is a hard thing to do.

Then we had presentations on the structure of the music industry and a panel on management. Followed by an interview with a publicist and a panel on branding and a panel on merchandising. And somewhere in there was a presentation on podcasting and traps for musicians in thinking too highly of themselves and losing sight of God in it all.

The best part is the networking where we can talk with other artists and see what they are doing and what we can do to improve Loralie's ministry. Got to see the rappers from North Carolina again today as well as Change of Heart from California. They finally dropped off the charts and Loralie moved up to number 1! Pretty neat to see it finally happen especially at this conference.

Off again to a late night session of hanging out with other artists.
This is getting tiring...

CIA Summit (Day One Addendum)

Getting ready for day two of Nashville.

Looking forward to it. Will be a day of singer/songwriters and bands showcasing their talents and music.

Last night, those who were at the songwriting conference had their names put in a hat and if their name was drawn they could go sing a song. We heard some good and some not quite as good. Some New Southern Gospel, Bluegrass, Praise and Worship, Contemporary Christian and even a guy who played like Jimmy Buffet. I don't quite know how to classify him.

But classification isn't important. Whether it is in the music industry or in the world. Classification only helps us develop reference points with which we can communicate with others. It hinders us in that it puts others into boxes in our minds that they probably don't belong in.

And when we do that we start to dismiss people because we confuse the boxes with the people.

And that is not good.

So today I am going to listen to music. Some I like and some I probably won't like. And regardless of the genre' (my big word for today), I will do my best not to put people into little boxes.

Could be an interesting day.

Humbling

My wife Loralie is a singer/songwriter.

Actually, she is an excellent singer songwriter, but I have to admit that I might be slightly biased. But only very slightly.

She is a member of IndieHeaven, an organization for independent Christian musicians. Indie Heaven has as part of their site (indieheaven.com), Fan Faves where artists can post their songs and then fans can go in and vote for them once a day. Songs move up and down the chart based on the fan votes. Songs stay on the chart for 30 days.

Loralie posted her song "Face of Jesus" last Wednesday. It was up to 10 on the chart as of this morning.

I sent out a total of around 100 emails to people urging them to "vote early and vote often". Most are fans and some are friends and some are both.

The response has truly been amazing and really humbling.
We've heard from our daughter that a friend of hers is voting every day and asked his co-workers to vote also. We've never met the guy. but he is excited about the whole thing.

A lady in a retirement home (I mean "lifestyle enhancement community with a minimum age of 62") who goes to our church said that she was voting every day.

We got an email from a friend saying that his family was casting five votes a day since they have five computers.

Another friend called to say that she and her husband had just voted on their computers. Kind of a couple thing.

We heard from a couple that moved to Florida and had my original e-mail forwarded to them. The wife said that Loralie's song reminded her to forget the busyness of life and focus on what is important. Wow!

And these are just part of it.

My Mom is watching the chart everyday (I am not sure if she has asked the Knit Wits to vote though).

It is really humbling and it is really neat to see how the message spreads and the tribe grows.

Part of the beauty of Fan Faves is that it allows us to connect with Loralie's fans and ask them to do something simple. It engages them with her music and ministry in the absence of a live performance or a new CD.

People want to help and this gives them something concrete and easy to do.

And it also exposes her music to others who may not have heard it before. And some may not know Jesus.

Helping others know Jesus is what it is all about.

Even if we never know who might hear.

I have to go and vote now...

Fan Faves

So I have been busy the last couple of days working on letting people know about Loralie's song being up on Fan Faves at IndieHeaven.

The song that is up is Face of Jesus and we are excited to have it up and exposed to other independent artists.

I view this as all marketing and exposure for her music.

But it does give rise to the question: How much is enough?

For example, between yesterday and today:

We got an email from an outfit in New Zealand that promotes Christian artists and a guy in India that does music transcribing (which we need by the way). And then I had initiated contact with a group that reviews Christian CDs. And got an e-mail back from the guy who runs the review site. And mailed off a package of CD's to Indieheaven on consignment.

And did all the other stuff such as work and try to sleep.

So back to my original question: How much is enough? Part of the problem is that this is all fun and exciting. It is exciting to see how the new exposure of Facebook and IndieHeaven is helping us expose more people to Loralie's music and ministry.

So I guess I will know how much is enough when it gets to be drudgery and not fun. And then I can go back tot he XBox.