Title to a great song by Brady White, a dear friend to this ministry who gets it.

Click here to listen to it via My Space.

…is all you need, according to Kevin Kelley:

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.

They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

The hard part:

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

Author/marketer Seth Godwin calls 1000 fans “a breakthrough opportunity” for artists and songwriters.

Consider:

1. What would it take for you to acquire 1000 ‘true fans’?
2. What are you doing now to make that happen?

“If he has like a ninja or superhero quality, it’s definitely his ability to see that one, tiny little spot that’s not filled and put something in it that you’re like, ‘oh my gosh.’ That becomes literally to me as the artist, that literally makes the song.”

- singer/songwriter Dave Barnes on producer Ed Cash.

To check out Ed Cash and David Barnes creating in the studio, check out this interview from NPR Nashville:

Audio stream

Mp3 download

Transcript

Ed assisted in writing two of the three finalists for our Song of the Year, so this is a particularly interesting piece if you’re interesting in songwriting and recording.

Some good insight here including:

• Discipline in songwriting (he sometime writes a song a day for a month or two).
• He appreciates old school rock (Sting, James Taylor, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin).
• The importance of melody and “swagger.”
• Stealing from Kierkegaard and Augustine.

View on YouTube here.

HT:  Daniel Renstrom

The Minneapolis native’s new release, Fireflies and Songs, was profoundly affected by the needs overseas for the poor & disenfranchised:

“The phrase ‘social justice’ can be loaded. To some people it is a political or a liberal conversation, but to me, it is a Kingdom conversation.

There are people behind these stories and statistics, and God’s heart for justice burns on their behalf.

I wanted to write songs that drew attention to the people like Elizabeth who know God deeply because of their suffering. There is a commonality in all of these friends, and that is the perseverance of hope.”

You can stream the new release at HearItFirst.com here.

Very good interview w/British songwriter of “Blessed Be Your Name,” “Better Is One Day” and “Let My Words Be Few” (the younger Robertson shows a good grasp of his subject).

Matt earns his plug with comments on:

• ‘Letting God’s truth steep’
• Preparation vs. spontaneity
• His wife as co-writer

Click here to view from CBN.

Title cut from their sophomore release:  The Twenty-first Time.

Click below for YouTube video or here.

(HT: Reading & Weeping)

Bill Gaither on what it takes to become a successful Christian artist:

I think he has to understand feet washing…a real follower of Christ gets down on his hands and knees and washes the other person’s feet…I think that’s the beginning…

Not all (young artists) understand that…kinda hard to understand that when the lights on the stage are shining pretty bright…

Jake Hess used to say that when the lights on the stage are shining brighter than the lights at home, you better go home…

He also has interesting comments on the sacred and the secular in songwriting and what are the most requested Gaither-penned songs.

The interviews starts at 3:53 into the podcast here (stay tuned for the quartet practice backstage at the National Quartet Convention at the end – it’s priceless).

(Photo cred:  Gaither.com)

Sovereign Grace Ministries has done the church universal a great favor and posted all of the video and audio from the 2009 WorshipGod conference on-line free of charge and obligation.

• John Piper is pastor of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis and a great preacher (you need to hear him if you haven’t).
• Bob Kauflin is Worship Leader for Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, formerly with Glad, and a noted writer and arranger.

You can both listen and download from their site, but I’ve listed some downloads I plan to listen to below for your convenience.

For all downloads, right-click and select “Save Target/Link As:”

The God of Worship (John Piper)
Download MP3

The Heart of Worship (John Piper)
Download MP3

Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Leading (C.J. Mahaney and Bob Kauflin)

Download MP3

The Future of Worship (Bob Kauflin)
Download MP3

First Things First: Maintaining Priorities on and around the Worship Team (Julie Kauflin, Shelley Reinhart, and others)

Download MP3 | Download PDF

Let All the People Be Glad: Corporate Worship and Expressiveness (Bob Kauflin)

Download MP3 | Download PDF

Reviving the Hymns (David Ward)

Download MP3 | Download PDF

Thoughts on Songwriting, Part 1 (Keith & Kristyn Getty)

Listen | Download MP3

Thoughts on Songwriting, Part 2 (Keith & Kristyn Getty)
Listen | Download MP3

Much more available (including sessions on time management & priorities, leading children in worship, managing tech & teams) available directly from Sovereign Grace here.

May God bless them for providing these!

Jen and Brady White were simply counting on a getaway, not on God changing their lives.

The young couple – known to audiences across America as the band Wrent – visited the Dominican Republic in September of 2007.  They became part of a trip organized by Cross International to help donors understand and appreciate the work being done overseas to care for the poor.

Jen was working for a Cross International board member at the time that was not able to come, so she and Brady came on his behalf.

“We didn’t know anything about Cross International or what we were going to see,” says Jen, “We were just excited to go.  So we went, and the LORD changed our hearts forever.”

Jen says the ministry began before they even got off the ground:  “We had already formed an unbelievable community as a group going down, even before we arrived in the Dominican.  Cross International set the tone for the whole trip – we felt so loved before we even got there.”

Brady & Jenn White (Wrent), Coral Ridge Presbyterian, March 2009

Once touching down in Santa Domingo and driving 30 minutes out of town, Jen says they “became immersed in the most severe poverty I’ve ever been around.”

“The floors in homes were made of dirt and it would rain every night,” she explains, “and since there was only one bed for 12 people, the family would have to sleep in shifts for 2 or 3 hours.  It was horrible!  The floor was literally washing away from under them.”

Now Jen uses this story to illustrate the conditions to their audiences across the U-S:  “It’s a perfect picture of how desperately people need help.”

Brady and Jen’s song Believe – birthed from their time in the Dominican – illustrates in music the cry of the poor for deliverance from wretched circumstances and conditions.  They have given it to Cross International to distribute to churches that want to focus on serving the poor during worship.

Jen explains the process of writing Believe:   “We started writing it before the trip, but we just couldn’t finish it.  We just had a couple of lines and a tune, but that was it.  But after the first day in the Dominican, when we got back to our hotel room, and Brady started playing with it again, and it just came together then.”

“God used our time in the Dominican to call us into our current ministry,” says Jen.  “It was then that we decided we wanted to raise money for and awareness about what ministries like Cross International are doing to serve the poor and fight poverty around the world.”

• Jen and Brady White travel extensively as the band Wrent, and share the love of God and the needs of the poor with hundreds of people at churches, youth camps, radio audiences every year.

• Music charts and video of their song “Believe” are available to church music directors free-of-charge through Cross International’s Harmony of Hearts program.  Click here to preview and for details