As the Executive Producer of We Will Stand, I am very grateful for all the comments I have read on this FB group today regarding our event last night. As a fan of all forms Christian music, I absolutely love your passion for the songs, artists, and history of Christian music. Hopefully, this post will give all an inside look at the story behind the event. I share your passion for Christian music, and that is why (at the Lord’s directing) I spent the last 18 months writing what I call “the story of the formative years of Contemporary Christian Music.” In the process I interviewed 65 of my former colleagues, competitors and friends throughout the industry (most of whom approved their part of the final manuscript). Thus, the story is a “collective recollection.” Writing this book spurred the idea for the event “We Will Stand”—celebrating 40 years of CCM. I (and trusted friends around me) sensed the Lord’s nudging to take the risk (time, resources and reputation) and see what we all witnessed last night come to pass. My 45 year history in this industry has allowed me to work extensively with every genre of Christian Music, including many of the iconic artists that might be categorized as Jesus Music. That background includes amazing diversity. From Andrae, Larry, Second Chapter, Paul Clark, Pat Terry, Randy Matthews, and Randy Stonehill to the Happy Goodman Family, Bill Gaither, the Cathedral Quartet, Petra, Mylon, BJ Thomas, Glen Campbell, all things Maranatha! and Star Song, including Pure Metal, Amy, Smitty, Evie, Newsboys, Al Green, Shirley Caesar, the Mighty Clouds of Joy …and on and on. At one point at Word during my tenure, we had 150 artists under contract plus 11 distributed labels of artists (including Solid Rock, Maranatha!, Light, New Pax, Home Sweet Home, and Good News for fans on this site). As I said the list is very lengthy and very diverse musically. And those are just a few of the names from 1969-1989 that you will recognize. As I began the book, “We Will Stand,” I believe the Lord guided me to stay focused on Contemporary Christian Music as it is become known over the years. That was very difficult based on the number of amazing stories of God’s grace in other Christian music genres that I have witnessed or experienced, but I followed His direction. I personally value every word of encouragement, admonition, and correction I have read on this FB group page. Our effort in creating the event “We Will Stand” has been long and very strenuous and ultimately involved more than 200 people who sacrificed their time and resources to bring “We Will Stand” to life last night. Telling the story of the formative years of CCM (roughly 1967-1997) in a 240 page book (including more that 40 pictures) was an 18 month process. I chose to focus on the key pastors/leaders/artists/events/songs of that era. I also believed it was important to include the impact that radio, television, retail, festivals, the GMA, and touring had during that period of time by sharing the stories of many of the men and women who served in those areas so faithfully. For the live event, our leadership team worked diligently for 12 months to make the best choices we could in light of the schedules and desires of the artists we contacted. There is obviously no way to include all of our favorite artists (including mine), but we did our best to acknowledge a large number of artists through the video wall which may not be evident on the stream itself (but hopefully more visible in the DVD and edited TV version). At the same time, please know that we acknowledged a couple of other high profile artists that have been mentioned here in the auditorium while the viewers were on a break because those artists simply could not be available on January 21. I hope you will have an opportunity to read the book. I pray that it does give a balanced view of the many different elements that the Lord brought together to create this amazing era of music that we now call Contemporary Christian Music. And it contains the story of the exact day in 1975 that we at Word began using the term “Contemporary Christian Music.” I have no doubt that others used that term possibly before then of course. But I think you will enjoy the insight in that part of the book. Like every book of this kind, it tells the story from the author’s personal perspective. In this case, that perspective is built on 45 years of first hand experience and the insights of 65 others who shared a common history. I may be unusual, but I truly enjoy the perspective of those who take their time to read or watch or listen may share on sites like this.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:11:59 +0000
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