Well, we ended our first full day at Ridgecrest. It was a great day! We began with a "general session" from Randy Vader, who is a gifted communicator and storyteller (not to mention the founder of PraiseGathering Music) for some words of inspiration. He spoke on "two words" very important to music ministry. Those words were "so that" which referenced the many times in the bible that qualifying phrase was used to describe the "why" or "purpose" of why we do something. In other words, learning to evaluate everything we do in ministry for WHY we do it. Why do we have choir, for example? SO THAT God can be glorified through our music-making and that we can encourage and inspire others to do the same. The second hour was a reading session from PraiseGathering which mainly focused on some new cantatas and collections, but did feature one new pull out anthem I really liked: http://www.praisegathering.com/Site/Detail.asp?tid=14153 This is an arrangement of a very old Michael W. Smith Christmas Song, that surprisingly I don't remember despite being a mega Michael W. Smith fan.
After worship and another great message by Mike Glenn, I had another class that was tailor-made for music leaders at churches like Southside, one that dealt with multigenerational congregations, and how to look at music selection from a blended perspective. In fact, the speaker mentioned that he preferred the term "balanced" more than blended, because blending gave the picture of something being chopped and diced all to pieces, where balanced offering a mixture of things that kept their original intent and character despite being stylistically different. He alluded many times to his dislike of having separate worship services for separate ages, implying that in itself has led to some of the stylistic battles over the years. Some interesting thoughts, anyway.
We had another reading session which focused on publishers other than LifeWay. I'm very glad they do these each year, since it gives you a chance to see other companies materials without having to subscribe to and be inundated with tons of preview packs and junk mail. These sessions are always interesting, as they will feature everything from classical to Brooklyn Tabernacle-style pieces and everything in between. There were a few pieces that I really liked in this session. Three of my favorites were from Word Music, who other than LifeWay, seem to have selections that match my taste and the needs of the congregations I've served.
http://www.wordmusic.com/item/080689033230
http://www.wordmusic.com/item/080689037238
http://www.wordmusic.com/item/080689041235
The first two are more towards the contemporary side, but both have beautiful melodies and great messages. The last one, a little more bluegrass in flavor. All three are ballads for the most part, and would be good possible choices for us. We also heard two very nice pieces from Cindy Berry, who never fails to have some very nice pieces.
The afternoon and early evening brought a very big thunderstorm our way that unfortunately forced a cancellation of a bonfire for Nathan's daycamp, which was too bad. Nathan and Ginny are having fun in their respective classes, although Ginny is still having a bit of separation anxiety and tears for the first few minutes of saying good-bye to mom, but altogether not too bad. Nathan is getting used to needing to come to the evening sessions with us since he is old enough, and frankly, the little guy is a bit bored and restless, as one might imagine in a two hour concert each night. Having two little ones with you at this event is definitely hard work, even with the child care, but I'm still glad they are here.
The evening feature was a two-parter. The first part was the Louisiana Baptist All-State Youth Choir, who were very good. The second half featured the worship teams and band from FBC Woodstock, who were a very Brooklyn-Tabernacle style high-energy choir. They rocked it out in other words. They did a very unique alternate rhythm version of Michael W. Smith's "Great is the Lord" that was very interesting.
All in all, another good day. Much to process through in my brain after all this!
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