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Welcome to the 19th Family Worship Newsletter, 31 July 2000
http://www.familyworship.org.uk
Previous newsletters are available on the website archives at
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/newslett.htm#archive
Contents
========
With relentless "Humour spots" in-between every item...
FW Site stats
Recent site additions
Coming soon
Should worship music be free?
Showcase spotlight - Steve Gibson
Check out...
Newsletter information
FW Site Stats
-------------
Newsletter subscribers are now around 1,500 - a special welcome to new subscribers.
Visitors to the website continued at an average of over 600 people a day through
July
Recent site additions
---------------------
MIDI files are now available for our top 3 songs, and may be downloaded free.
Based on the album arrangements, they will work on any PC with a MIDI player
and soundcard, as well as on any keyboard or synth with General MIDI capability.
More songs will be added over the coming months.
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/midi.htm
Coming soon
-----------
As well as the French translations of a number of songs, we are currently working
on German translations of the most popular songs, and will have them available
soon. If you are a German speaker and are interested in receiving an email version
of the lyrics, then simply send a blank email to
germantranslation@familyworship.org.uk
Humour spot
===========
End of term exam answers:
1. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics.
They lived in the Sarah Dessert. The climate of the Sarah is such that all the
inhabitants have to live elsewhere.
2. Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea where they made unleavened
bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide
to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.
3. Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.
4. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't
have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.
Should worship music be free?
---------------------------------------------
The Internet is considered by many to be revolutionising the secular music industry.
MP3 files have provided a completely new way for songs to be distributed, and
whilst it has been great news for smaller, independent or unsigned artists,
the major record companies have been frantically trying to get a grip on the
situation. Countless millions of songs have been distributed illegally by sharing
programmes such as Napster, and the lawsuits have been flying thick and fast.
Many people in the secular environment agree that artists should be rewarded
for their efforts, but feel that it's justified to swap songs illegally because
the companies and individuals in the business are rich enough already. The same
people who would not worry about copying a CD onto tape for a friend will not
worry about sharing files via the Internet.
On the one hand, advocates of this "free" distribution argue that
so far the Internet has not harmed global music sales - they increased around
10% in 1999. On the other hand, there are stories like the record store near
a US college campus that used to sell around USD 40,000 worth of albums a month
had to close when it went down to less than USD 1,000 because students were
getting all their music via Napster.
What does all of this mean for the Christian music, and in particular, worship
music? Many people feel uncomfortable that the Christian music "industry",
particularly in the USA, is already fairly indistinguishable anyway from the
secular scene: it is seen as big business, with personal and corporate integrity
and honesty of motive hard to come by. That is certainly unfair to the many
individuals who do work within the industry and certainly have honesty and integrity,
but whether they are in the minority or majority is a debatable point. In the
UK, the industry is much smaller, but the same worrying symptoms are there too.
There is a tension here for worship music: the "market" is already
huge, and every Christian would want it to increase as more people get saved
and start to want to worship Jesus! Also, whilst debate often rages about the
rights and wrongs of the royalty system for paying songwriters, generally people
agree that writers should be paid honestly for their creative output (although
the argument that any inspired song came from God so should be given away freely
is a common one too, although the same could be said of sermons, books, and
so on).
However, it upsets many people that the "marketing machines" behind
much worship music seem to treat it as a commodity to be exploited, re-packaged,
sold any way possible, and not just a reasonable return on investment, but mega-profits
made.
So, in this context, should worship music be free? Well, it's an interesting
question, and one that I can't honestly answer without a measure of bias, simply
because as a relatively unknown worship writer, who doesn't need to earn a living
from my songs, I have chosen to give them away freely. However, in ten years
time, my circumstances may be different, and if I'd written a worldwide worship
hit, the potential royalties from which meant I would never need to work again,
perhaps I would feel differently! However, that for me is one of the key problems:
it is possible to make significant money from royalties, and so when an established
writer sits down to compose a song, their motives can be rather mixed.
So, the bad news is that the commercial pressures can be intense, and can lead
writers astray. However, the good news is that God is still in control, and
is able to use songwriters who do have personal integrity and honesty of motive
to provide songs that do enable the church to worship, without worrying about
the commercial aspects! Three of the biggest songs in the UK, and worldwide,
in recent years have been:
Shine, Jesus, Shine by Graham Kendrick
Shout to the Lord by Darlene Zschech
We want to see Jesus lifted high by Doug Horley
All of the writers have subsequently described how they had no idea when writing
the songs how big they would become, and I'm convinced that God will always
take songs from the most ordinary of places and use them to glorify himself.
If writers and publishers choose to give worship songs away freely, that's great,
and the Internet will facilitate and stimulate more of that kind of distribution
I'm sure. Equally, if writers feel the need to charge the going rate for songs,
then that's their choice, and churches and individuals are free to choose whether
or not that represents good value in terms of the usefulness of the songs in
serving people in worship!
For more information on copyright and how it affects worship music, check out
CCLI's website: http://www.ccli.com
To download (freely and legally!) the Family Worship songs, visit
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/songs.htm
In the context of the above article, you may be interested to discover that
a number of Graham Kendrick's songs are now also available for free download
at
http://www.mp3.com/grahamkendrick
Humour spot
===========
Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School.
"Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on
a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the
Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked
across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an
air strike. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites
were saved." "Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?"
his mother asked. "Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher
did, you'd never believe it !"
Showcase spotlight
------------------
This month, we feature Steve Gibson, a young writer from the UK.
1. Tell us who you are, and where you're from.
I haven't always been who I am today. Confused? In November '99 I changed my
name from Steve Gibbons to Steve Gibson. Not a massive change I know, but when
you have a class of thirty children sniggering at you something has to be done.
At the moment I only do work experience in the classroom but hopefully in a
few years time I will be a fully-fledged teacher. I've just taken my A-Levels
(I'm 18) and hope to go to the College of St. Mark and St. John in Plymouth,
England.
2. What genre(s) do your songs fit into?
When I wrote my first song it was definitely old fashioned Praise and Worship
(OLD Mission Praise style). Since then, I've tried to modernise and branch out.
I've now written over forty songs in many different styles. Most have been composed
on the guitar but genres stretch from Latino to contemporary, children's to
traditional. I sincerely believe that as long as I enjoy the songs God gives
me, it doesn't matter what they sound like. If others enjoy them too, it's a
bonus!
Unfortunately, once you've heard one song by a composer you have a strict image
of what that person is about. Sometimes that is true - with me it's not. You
really have to listen to quite a bit. I suppose it's like Christianity. A person
has to try out everything before he can accept it - just visiting one church
for one service isn't enough to get a true picture.
3. What inspired you to start writing songs?
Simple - Jesus.
4. Choosing one song that you have in the Showcase section, tell us the "story
behind the song"
My most recent song (at least the one I wrote just before answering these) is
called 'Lord I Worship'. I think this was the first song I wrote in bed! I was
lying there thinking about how great Jesus is and all of a sudden I started
to hum. I think it must be the shortest, simplest song I've ever written but
it says it all:
Lord I worship you forever
Lord I love your name
When I see you looking down
I want to praise you forever
My soul leaps a thousand times for you.
Copyright (c) 2000 Steve Gibson
5. What are your hopes and dreams for the future in relation to songwriting?
One hope for the future is that I don't lose perspective. If my songs aren't
purely for God, it's not worth me doing it. A second is that one of the songs
(one will do) is published and used worldwide. Impossible maybe, but I would
love it if a song that I'd written was used by other people to focus on Christ's
amazing love.
You can check out Steve's showcase page at http://www.familyworship.org.uk/showcase.htm
and his own site, with several more songs at www.magweb.org.uk - along with
loads of other stuff.
Humour spot
===========
Six-year old Angie and her four-year old brother Joel were sitting together
in church. Joel giggled, sang and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister
had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud in church."
Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked. Angie pointed to the back of
the church and said, "See those two men standing by the door? They're hushers."
Check out...
------------
The new UK Christian portal site that we've been mentioning for the past couple
of months, Solidrock, is now live. Family Worship is delighted to be associated
with the site (providing content and newsletters for the Kids Zone) as well
as music links, so do check it out. The site features excellent search capabilities.
http://www.solidrock.uk.net
A new kids site, run by a 13 year old from Ichthus in London, is online. Called
"the Big Fish", this site is fairly zany and worth a look!
http://www.thebigfish.org.uk
If you have a website that you would like us to cover in future newsletters,
please email
newsletter@familyworship.org.uk
River of Life Discount Christian Bookstore, US distributors for the Family Worship
resources are online with a great site featuring an ever-increasing range of
worship recordings, songbooks, etc. Check it out at
http://www.riveroflifecbs.com
Don't forget that Family Worship, as well as loads of other "grass roots
level" ministries are featured in the christian sections of mp3.com
http://www.mp3.com/familyworship
Newsletter information
----------------------
This newsletter is written by Mike Burn and is published by Family Worship Resources,
part of Ichthus Christian Fellowship, London, UK Copyright 2000, Mike Burn.
Inclusion of links and quotations does not imply full endorsement of the contents.
The newsletter may be forwarded or reproduced in full or in part providing that
the source is acknowledged.
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Send comments or queries, or suggested articles or links for inclusion in future
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MikeBurn@familyworship.org.uk
Thanks for reading, and if you've made it this far, or even if you just skipped
to the end before hitting delete, blessings to you in Jesus' name
Mike