When I left off last week, I had just returned from a summer tour with The Continental Singers. For the next several months, I was helping my beautiful bride to be prepare for our wedding. Being on tour only whetted my appetite for doing what I thought God was calling me to do. I really felt God wanted my to be in full-time music ministry. The summer after our wedding, we contemplated touring together with Continentals. Pam would have went as a tech. I would have played bass, since that was still my main instrument. I had played around on guitar and piano, but I still enjoyed playing bass the most.
That next summer didn’t work out, but through a friend, I found out a band was looking for a bass player. It would be a three-piece Christian rock band. After several rehearsals, it was clear that there was something there musically. It’s not often things just click…each member following each other. If you’ve ever seen or heard Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, you’ll know what I’m talking about. We played primarily original tunes that were in a rhythm and blues style. If you listen to DeGarmo and Key’s rock albums (Streetlight, D&K, by the way, some of my favorites) this will get you close. We even covered “Rock Solid” along with several other tunes. I enjoyed playing with this band immensely. Musically it was very fulfilling, we even played quite a few shows (for lack of a better term.) Personality-wise, and philosophy of ministry-wise it was a disaster. By the time we had been together six months, I was looking for a way out. However this band was not without it’s influence. Toward the end of our time together, we played several “worship” events. This was the first time I had done anything like this. Hosanna Integrity’s earliest CD were just starting to come out.
During my year or so with the band, I wasn’t involved in church much except in a technical role. We moved the sound room from a small alcove in the balcony, out to the front of the balcony, making a considerable difference in sound. I felt God was leading me to get out of the band. It was the first time I had ever thought about not travelling in full-time music ministry. However, I still had to deal with the fact that God had called me. What would be next?
Dr. Dan Berry, became our pastor at Trinity while I was away with Continentals. He would become a major influence over the next five years. He spent time with me as we built the sound ministry, including some major equipment upgrades (that was as technical as we were at the time…no lights…no video.) He came along and really became my first mentor. He was talented at singing, playing the trumpet, bass, and piano. We spent many Wednesday nights before Bible study playing. He would play piano and I would play my bass. At one point, he brought in his brother to do a choir seminar. His brother taught us several songs and tried to show some of the other musicians how to play from charts…they were used to reading music. It turns out some of the songs he taught us, were early Brooklyn Tabernacle (When He Was On the Cross, He Is Fairer and others.)
Pastor Berry (as I called him then) was also influential in bringing me on the board. I was in my mid-20′s and I remember at the very first board meeting I was in, we voted on adding on to our existing building…Talk about feeling out of your league. But it was good, and God was beginning to clarify what He meant by full-time ministry.
These years were also my introduction to the dramatized musical. Up until then most Christmas and Easter programs were called cantatas. I remember we did a program called “An Old Fashioned Christmas.” I had on the job training as a technical director…We used theatrical lighting for the first time and had several sets built for the program.
Somewhere in this time frame our church also started a “Live Nativity.” A family down the road had started putting together a large outdoor display of lights. Many people came down the road and turned around in our parking lot. We came up with a way to present the Christmas story on our own property and the Live Nativity was born. Again, I was the technical “go to” person. I learned quite a bit from the school of experience. That first year was quite primitive…especially in the area of the audio. The lighting was simply floodlamps controlled by household dimmers. That system stayed in place for a long time. I was really disappointed with the audio the first year, so during the summer, I reworked it and it became the soundtrack of the Live Nativity for more than 10 years. This was long before digital recorders or CD burners, so everything was on cassette. I borrowed a friend’s Yamaha four track to create the tape. It was several years before we ever made a backup. God really blessed that, because we rarely had trouble with it.
A year or two later, I was asked if I would like to direct the Christmas musical. I accepted the challenge. This moved me from technical director to overall director and producer. This was a new and untried role, but one in which I flourished. We also started doing a large Easter program. During this whole time I was still learning how lighting worked and improving our sound. The program we did that year was called “The Word (became flesh and dwelt among us.)” It went very well. God was faithful to me as I tested my wings.
I had given up my dream of what I thought God was calling me to do, in turn, God began to show me where He wanted me to go. About a week after we were done, I called Pastor Berry and asked him to meet me for breakfast. We spent many breakfasts together during those five years. I shared with him that morning of where I thought God was calling me to. He partnered with me in prayer as God solidified my call. It was during this time that I knew that I would be working full-time in the church, not on the road.
As you can see our church moved from a very traditional music program to a more progressive music program. We now would sing a chorus as part of the morning service. I was also put in charge of the evening worship times. This consisted of several worship choruses, projected on the overhead (think 70 and 80′s scripture songs, “This is the Day,” “He Has Made Me Glad,” and “He Is Fairer” for example) and two or three gospel songs sung from the hymnal. About this time Pastor Berry resigned…This was a blow to me. He had dedicated both of our girls and both he and his wife Shelly had become good friends of Pam and mine. At his farewell picnic, he told me I had what it took musically, and I should consider getting ministry classes to move toward where God was calling me. The thought of a “pastoral preaching” ministry at that time scared me to death.
Pastor Shockley was called as our next pastor, and he continued acclimating me to the ministry. During his time, a scholarship trust fund became available for those who would attend a Wesleyan college. He encouraged us to follow God’s call. It wasn’t long after that, that we packed up our family left Allentown and moved to the flatness of Marion, IN. So, 12 years after my initial call, I started my education at Indiana Wesleyan, which I will look at next week.
