| |
December 2004 Table of Contents
Off The Top Of My Head
Catching Up
By Jerry Evans
 For the Last eight years I have found it very easy to give lots of advice to Ministers of Music from the perspective of one standing on the sidelines. Well the third week in September that all came to a screeching halt. The wonderful people at Tillmans Corner First Baptist Church, here in Mobile asked me to be their interim Music Minister. I prayed about it and told them that I would at least take it through Christmas and do the best that I could. I have to tell you that I had forgotten how much hard work was involved. Each one of you reading this article now has more respect from me than you could ever imagine. God has been good to us and has given me a superb group of people to work with, and it looks like I will be with them for a while longer, but all the planning and work that goes into this profession had slipped my mind.
A friend (can't disclose his name yet) called me the other day and told me that after many years of "Evangelism," he had accepted a church and would start in March. His statement to me was that I had to help him get "up to date." I told him that I was in the process of "catching up" myself and that I would be glad to share with him all the revelations that had come my way. We talked for a long while and I told him that the thing that seemed to be the most surprising was all the new visual media that we were using in the church. Now I'm not complaining, I am a big proponent of this resource, but keep in mind that at the last church I served, we were using a slide projector to put the words to the songs on a screen. Power point was just coming into being and the DVD player had not been released for wide spread use. To direct a choir and orchestra using a click track was not even on the drawing board.
Believe me when I tell you we have just scratched the surface in regard to this medium. The good folk at Brentwood/ Benson have seen the light and are producing more and more of their "Sights and Sounds" product. Number 2 is already out and they tell me that more is on the way. Word, never to be left behind, has several products already and more to be introduced in January. Lillenas, Praise Gathering and others are not far behind. I guess one of the most exciting things I've seen lately, in this regard, comes from our friends over at Integrity. They have a whole new division headed up by my old (I mean really OLD, sorry Dan) friend Dan Johnson called FILMUSIC Suites. Filmusic Suites is a multimedia worship experience for choirs and congregations. Each includes drama, scripture, and music built around a theme to either complement a pastor's sermon or enhance a worship service for churches of all sizes, styles and denominations. This audiovisual resource contains a DVD with breathtaking visuals and video footage from the award winning Visual Bible. The first of these to be released is called The Story: A Christmas Suite is arranged by Dave Williamson and is a 12 minute Christmas celebration. The thing that excited me about this was that at Tillmans Corner, since we are doing our Christmas music on the week-end of the 12th of December, we have a need for something on the 19th. The Story only requires the choir to do one number and the rest is meant to be congregational. It uses video throughout. The DVD comes with six audio options. (You can use split, stereo or click tracks, use either with or with out the dramatic voices, you decide which will be best for your church) The CD comes with rehearsal and performance tracks included. Orchestrations and Praise Band charts are available. I would say somebody has been listening to you.
There are three more scheduled for release this year. The Last Supper: A Communion Suite, arranged by Russell Maulden and David Hamilton, The Rose: An Easter Suite, with John Coates as the arranger and The Call: A Mission Suite arranged by Dick Tunney. Folks I tell you get used to using more and more visuals; I think we have just begun.
Jerry
Email Jerry
Back to Top
|
|
