Acts of homespun ingenuity characterize much of the Haiti fund raising. Jeff Winton, a seventh-generation North Harmony, N.Y., dairy farmer, says he sold four cows and two bull calves and donated the proceeds, $4,000, to the Coalition for Haitian-American Empowerment, a New Jersey nonprofit.

“The more we sat in front of the TV, the more we realized we needed to do something,” he says.

Below is a photo of Sister Jane Meyer making a 14,000-foot skydive, capping an $88,000 fundraising for St. Agnes Academy in Houston.

If you would like to do something less risky but effective, please consider presenting a song with your church worship team on behalf of the poor.

Photo cred:  Wall Street Journal

All that’s required is an email, zip code, and your choice between a Tweet, Facebook plug, or email to friends.  $$ is appreciated, of course (I’d encourage paying something), but not necessary.

If you are looking to publish & distribute your music, NoiseTrade is something to consider.

Check out Derek Webb’s newest below or on the site here.

Free chord chart and Mp3 downloads are a nice bonus.

This would work well anytime during Lent or for a focus on Communion.

In My Place – Training Video from The Village Church on Vimeo.

So do a lot of other Christian artists.

Click above or here to view video.

Download the song here ($1.29 via itTunes) or click on banner below.

Here’s some of what he says from the experience:

I guess I could have struggled with the apparent dichotomy between my circumstances and the songs we were singing. Or ignored what my family was going through altogether and pretended that nothing was wrong. Or complained  about how hard life is sometimes.

By God’s grace, I actually drew great comfort from God through the truths we sang. So after the first song, which is based on Psalm 150, I shared a few thoughts not only for the church, but for my own soul.

The conclusion:

We don’t lead others out of a vacuum or a sanitized form of Christianity that bears no resemblance to normal life. It’s important that we take time to grieve, acknowledge pain, and confess our struggles. But when, not if,  you find yourself leading out of weakness, challenges, and trials, don’t minimize what’s going on or succumb in despair to your burdens. Lift your eyes, even as you lift the eyes of others, to the Father whose compassions never fail and to the Savior whose mercies are new every morning.

Whether God changes our trials, or more importantly, changes usthrough our trials, we praise him now in joyful anticipation of the day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).

The whole post here.

It takes a degree of trust to launch out with other musicians into the unknown waters of spontaneous composition. Our tendency, especially as Greek-mindset influenced westerners who rely on empiricism- that is, on what we perceive by our natural senses- is to lean too heavily on the sheet music. It seems safer that way, we like structure.

But does our structure make room for God? He dwells not in temples (structures) made with human hands. He came in the unlikely womb of a young virgin… to the natural minded a woman of reproach. A King? Yes, but born in a stall surrounded by smelly animals and lower class shepherds. The Word was made flesh… the Eternal/Invisible clothed, indeed bound Himself with Time and the Physical so that we who were blind could finally, by faith, see the Father.

The church is a wineskin for the Kingdom of God, not an inflexible piece of pottery that crumbles under the intoxicating pressure of the flowing wine of God’s grace and Presence.

I am not advocating that we have no structure, no wineskin, only that the new wine of the Kingdom of God is poured into the accommodating wineskin that the church is meant to be.

Full piece here.

Some of the story, be it a literal tale or an emotional or spiritual narrative, is revealed in the first act, which most often is the song’s first verse and chorus.  The second act, usually the second verse and chorus is a new beginning; more of the story is introduced and then summed up in the second chorus. The remainder of the story is then told in the third act often the bridge and final chorus.

In my own work, if I then see that I reveal too much, too soon in my song I make changes. One technique espoused by a friend of mine is to take the first verse and make it the second verse… and to write a new first verse that is more of a prologue… so that the story has somewhere to go! Likewise if the song is slow to develop, I have the option of trying my second verse as the first verse. Experiment!

Bottom line: a song is not a painting. It doesn’t exist all at once. It has a beginning, middle and end, and it needs to flow, rise and fall throughout its lifespan. (In filmmaking they call thisadvancing the narrative.)

Full piece here.

Click here to listen to it via My Space.

Please do not attempt this at home.

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?