Vol.2 - Issue 1

Howdy folks-

Whoowee, it's been along time since the last issue of C.u.t.s!

I am humbled by the number of new subscribers to C.u.t.s., in spite of the fact that I was unable to publish anything in recent months. I am ever so sorry, dear readers, but I had an unfortunate encounter with a deer tick, contracted Lyme disease and wound up having to stop my life for a very long time. Lyme disease is pretty dreadful, so please put on your tick repellent this spring/summer! (If you need convincing, read this
interview with author Amy Tan (washingtonpost.com), who also got Lyme disease.)

In a move to reduce work and get info out more quickly, C.u.t.s. is changing formats. Our news is now hosted by Blogger, so we should be more efficient in getting news to you. Even though our current site is a hodge-podge of the old and new, we wanted to get out the NEWS page today. So pardon the dust and confusion, but hey - it's free! (BUT- the column for pages hosted at Blogger may appear off center in the Internet Explorer browser. THe info is there,the cloumns are just off-kilter. If anyone out there is a CSS or blog genius, please DO get in touch.)

Don't miss writer and DC area worship leader G. Kishore Carey's exclusive interview with Mark Hall of Casting Crowns (below.) Kishore is also headlining a concert this weekend at Pender UMC in Fairfax, VA. He is a very talented worship leader, so check it out if you can.

This month's "Ask C.u.t.s." letter comes from a gospel songwriter who wonders if he was duped by a company that contacted him about his songs. If you have recently applied for a song copyright you'll want to read this.

That's about it for the time being. Please send your announcements and questions, and we'll do our best to get an expert answer for you.

God is good all the time, so be encouraged!

Chris Anderson, Editor
C.u.t.s.

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Industry News
WORD RELAUNCHES MYRRH. Founded in 1972 as a division of Word Records, and discontinued in 2000, Myrrh Records is re-launching with new worship artists.
Read about it here...

Community News
If you are a member of the GMA you can ad an e-profile to their web site:
More info...

The Pender United Methodist band Common Ground, will present Momentum, a special evening of worship music on Saturday night, 4/30/05 in Fairfax, VA. This event is a fundraiser for a mission trip to Poland. Led by G. Kishore Carey (who penned this month's interview with Casting Crown's Mark Hall.)
Get the scoop here...

Got a question about your career as an independent Christian songwriter, musician, singer or dramatist? Ask C.u.t.s. and we'll try to get an expert to answer it for you.

Interview- Mark Hall of Casting Crowns

Before Casting Crowns came to town with Steven Curtis Chapman last November, writer G. Kishore Carey was able to arrange a phone interview with their leader, Mark Hall. Mark was gracious enough to spend about half an hour on the phone to answer a few questions.

GKC: I see that you have a new live CD coming out. Can you tell me what we can expect on it and if there are any surprises on it?

MH: It’s a CD and a DVD so there’s 2 disks in it. It’s a DVD of our live concert and stories behind all our songs; interviews with out students. We talk about our Jumpstart ministry that we do for Youth pastors. There’s an extra long testimony at a live concert about the song Voice of Truth that talks about my struggles with dyslexia and A.D.D. That’s always a big part of our concerts.

We also made our first music video for the song American Dream and that’s all on the DVD. Then the live CD is something they can play in their car with all the songs live including a new song, Beautiful Savior. What I’m find out is a lot of people don’t know it’s a DVD.

GKC: I see in your bio that you didn’t plan a career on the road. Has your perspective on being on the road changed at all?

MH: No, I’m still a full time Youth pastor here in Atlanta, so we only travel Thursdays and Fridays. I just brought on a co-Youth pastor with me, one of my former students. I’ve been a youth pastor for about 14 years so Casting Crowns is just another arm of the ministry in our church, at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist where I’m on staff. I still don’t feel that full time traveling is what we’re called to. It makes our traveling kind of limited but we just feel that’s where God wants us so we roll out Wednesday nights after Refuge, our student worship time and then we’ll roll in Sunday morning. Most of our band members teach small groups so we’re really plugged into our church.

GKC: When you do your concerts do you consider them to be worship events?

MH: I consider everything to be a worship event. I mean we’re supposed to glorify God in everything we do so there’s definitely a lot of worship in the concerts. All the words to all the songs are always on the screen so you can know everything that’s going on. WE do worship songs; we do songs from our CD and a lot of testimony and the Gospel and intro to God in everything we do. To me it’s just like going to church but it’s a little louder.

GKC: Do you personally see a difference between worship music and a lot of the mainstream Christian music? If so, can you elaborate on what you see as the difference between the two?

MH: Well, one thing I see is that a lot of times radio will steer away from worship songs and they want normal songs which is kind of strange. I never knew that till someone showed me a review when our first CD came out. I don’t read reviews ever, because I just don’t understand one person telling the world what a CD is like so I never have done that for movies or anything. So I read it and it said the first 6 songs are awesome and then it “wanes” into worship songs. Good Lord, what does that even mean? How does anything wan into worship? That’s a lot of what the Christian music community things about worship. I think everything’s a worship song.

To me it’s all the same thing. I don’t sit down and say I’m going to write a worship song. I’ve written songs just because that’s the message God’s given to me and some of them are written to Him and some are sung to people and it’s all worship.

GKC: So can you tell me what’s next for Casting Crowns?

MH: All I know bro, is that I’m getting on the bus tonight. I’m telling you everything that’s happened in the past year of my life I didn’t do a thing to make it happen so I’m not about to jump on it and making it happen now.

We didn’t have a demo, we didn’t have promo packs or anything like that. A CD we made for our Youth group got into the hands of Mark Miller and Steven Curtis Chapman through a college kid in our church. So it’s never something we chased down, it’s something God brought to us so it takes the pressure off, we just keep it going.

GKC: This interview will reach a lot of the local musicians, so they connect and grow in their pursuit of good music. Any words of encouragement for them?

MH: One thing that I try to write to every band, because I answer all my emails, and I get a lot of emails from bands that are getting started and what I tell them is, Oswald Chambers said try never to make your experience a standard for other to live by like this is the only way God can work but for us we pour ourselves into our church. Out there your talent belongs in the body (of Christ) first and that’s what we’re committed to.

We’re in our church Wednesday through Sunday and that’s what we do because that’s what the body is. There’s not a lot of talk about bands traveling in the Bible. We understand about ministry and all that, I’m not downing that. I’m just saying there’s a whole lot of talk about the church and what we need to be doing is investing there and a lot of times we’re off looking for something huge to happen “one day” out there in the future and we’re tripping over the ministry that God has for us right now.

The ministry He has for us is the body and if He chooses one day after you’re faithful to move you a different direction and I’m careful to say “move you to the next level” because I’ve never seen the next level in the Bible either. I don’t think making a record or being on TV is a next level of suddenly a legitimate ministry. If He chooses to take you a different way of serving Him that’s cool, but if He doesn’t we have to understand we bloom where we’re planted. I’m telling you that the only reason I know this is because I’ve done it the wrong way and you start looking too far ahead you start tripping over stuff God’s calling you to now.

GKC: Right, that’s an awesome perspective. Well, those are my questions. How can people get in touch with your concert schedule and learn more about the band?

MH: Well the website: www.castingcrowns.com has got the schedule on it. It features a web store, question and answer stuff, and our emails. Like I said, I answer all those. That’s been a really neat blessing to hear stories all over the country of what God’s doing in people’s lives that way.
Also there’s www.jumpstartresources.com is our website for Youth pastors. What we’re doing is we’re taking everything we’re doing in our Youth group we write our own stuff as far as camps and retreats and Bible studies and stuff like that and we’re putting on this website so Youth pastors can come and print it off for free, it’s a totally free website. We’re trying to help as many as we can that way too.

GKC: Thanks again for your ministry and all the things you’re doing and especially for your perspective on doing it.

©2004 by G. Kishore Carey.

G. Kishore Carey is a local worship leader and musician who’s been actively working on bringing great music to the DC area for the past 7 years. He currently leads worship every Sunday morning at Common Ground, a new contemporary worship service at the Pender United Methodist Church in Fairfax, Virginia.

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Contests

Kellogg's Gospel Sing Off

6th Annual Southern Gospel Contest
Gospel Music Channel- Gospel Dream Contest
Australian Gospel Songwriting Competition
Exalting Him 2005
Bluegrass in the Park
GMA Academy Spotlight - Song of 2005 competition

Bob Jones University Playwriting Competition
Welcome to Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands

Conferences


Sandy Cove Christian Writers Contest
More than music: windows to transforming worship