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State of the Industry Address

It is a sad day in the eyes of God for the industries that comprise Christian Music. As if it wasn't enough that satan was able to separate God's church into denominations, now he is working to separate the worshipers as well. We have reached a place where people are tyring to draw lines of separation between genres of Christian music, calling one good and the other evil.

I recently read a blog on a major gospel website where a person asserted that all of the Southern Gospel industry artists are egotistical and bigheaded and care nothing about ministry anymore. Because of this he has switched his radio station to Christian Country. Others threw daggers back at Christian Country. Finally, a person stated that they were all missing it because we should be working together for the same purpose of spreading the gospel.

It is unfortunate, but true, that there are groups that care nothing about ministry and changing lives and are just interested in a chart and an award. It is unfortunate that people see these groups and make assumptions that the entire industry of artists are all like these. We were at NQC this year and we witnessed a little of what this man was saying, but we saw a lot more of the good. Artists actually getting along and enjoying each other's company. We witnessed one group insisting they were better than the rest and should be bumped to a more favorable time on a showcase, but the other 20 groups that were a part of it were not complaining and were just excited about the opportunity.

You see too many times we make assumptions based on one or two observations and it causes us to miss out on a bigger blessing. How many times have you heard the excuse for not attending church be because they were ALL hypocrites? Now we know there are some in every church, but does that represent the majority. Would people choose to go to hell because of a couple hypocrites? Would people choose to miss out on a lot of good ministry because of a few egotistical, bigheaded artists?

Sure there are problems in the gospel industry because there are humans in the gospel industry. I would be willing to bet that even what you have been in charge of has had problems because of people. What we have to do as Christians is search for the good in everything, search for the ministry opportunity, search for God. If you get caught up in a little negative then you will miss out on a big blessing. Look at all the lives the gospel industry has touched despite a few problems along the way.

No matter what style of music or genre people try to tag us as, we think that it is great that God chooses to use us and we will strive to serve him all the days of our lives and will seek to bring glory and honor to him through our ministry. We cannot control everyone else, but as for our house and ministry we will serve the Lord!