CONTENTS:
1 Initial Development of Great Commission
Musicians & Artists Track for Local MISSIONSFEST Missions Conference
Underway
+
Vancouver
Missionsfest - Great Commission Musicians & Artists Track
Seminar Cassettes Available - Jan.2002
2. Great Commission Musicians & Artists Networking
Retreat for Local Music & Arts Ministry Leaders
3. Great Commission Worship & Arts Conference
4. Great Commission Musicians & Artists
Resource/Networking Center
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1. Initial
Development of Great Commission Musicians & Artists Track for
Local MISSIONSFEST Missions Conference Underway
Grace Wiebe (April 2001)
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With the growing numbers of missions-minded musicians and artists
that God is raising up in our cities and nations, we as music
and arts ministry leaders want to find ways to connect with these
folks to provide the resources and encouragement they need to
help to see them become firmly established, trained, equipped
and released into their biblical role/calling in the Great Commission
- locally and overseas.
We want to encourage them to use their gifts to see the lost reached
in the marketplace; we need to see the lost reached in our very
multicultural cities, and we need a logical place for these that
God is stirring in these directions to find some help, consultation
possibilities, opportunities, resources and connections/networks
with individuals, missions and ministries which share similar
vision.
I am greatly encouraged at the kind of emphasis and support that
I understand URBANA recently provided regarding facilitation of
the musicians and artists that attended their most recent conference!
It would be wonderfully encouraging to see this continue to develop!
One of the things we are beginning to develop here in Vancouver,
BC, (Canada) is a “Great Commission Musicians & Artists Track”
as a new arm of our local Vancouver Missionsfest, which is a major
missions conference which began in Vancouver many years ago and
which is expanding not only to other cities across Canada, but
to other nations as well.
The Great Commission Worship & Arts Center has submitted to them
a proposal which includes several graduated phases which we are
hoping to implement in conjunction with them in the coming years,
beginning in Jan. 2002. They are quite enthusiastic about this
proposal and we are in the process of coordinating, with them,
the specifics of the first phase. One of the ideas for one of
the later phases, which we will need to discuss further, is to
potentially include, after Missionsfest, an International Music
& Arts Festival as an outreach into the city of Vancouver.
If your local Missionsfest or denominational Missions Conference
is interested in what this kind of Track could potentially look
like in your region, we would be happy to send you the ideas from
the proposal and would be happy to help recommend potential speakers/resources
for you to begin your first phase, etc. We could also send you
some ideas of the steps that you could potentially take to coordinate
something like this in your region in conjunction with your local
Missions Conferences (especially larger scale ones).
For some ideas from the proposal and potential steps to take,
etc., or to provide your own ideas or desire to be involved in
something like this in your region, contact: GCWAC@DiscipleTheNations.org
CONTENTS
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Vancouver Missionsfest - Great Commission Musicians & Artists
Track
Seminar Cassettes Available - Jan.2002
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There are cassettes available on the following
seminars which took place at the Vancouver Missionsfest in Jan.
2002. More info on these seminars available at:
http://www.mfest.bc.ca/2002_conference/pages_2002/seminars2002_2.html
* John Berg of MEM - Utilizing the Arts and
Media to Reach the Un-evangelized Peoples of the World
* Jim Miller of Songs to the Creator - What is Indigenous Music
Really?
* Deb Sears of REELLIGHT - Hollywood or Babylon? A Movie Making
Mission
* Paul Neeley of Artists in Christian Testimonoy & Vernon
Charter, Ethnomusicology Prof of PBI - Effectively Using Music
in Missions
Cassettes available for $3.00 (Canadian) each
- plus postage and handling, from: Missions Fest Vancouver, 7200
Cariboo Road, Burnaby, BC Canada V3N 4A7, Tel. (604) 524-9944
Fax. (604) 524-4690 www.mfest.bc.ca
CONTENTS
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1.
Great Commission Musicians & Artists Networking Retreat for Local
Music & Arts Ministry Leaders
-
Grace Wiebe (April 2001)
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A growing need felt by many musicians and artists and music/arts/media
ministry leaders who have a desire to use their gifts/ministries
in the Great Commission - locally and overseas - is to network
together with others that share similar heart and vision…to share
stories and experiences, to share resources, to build relationship,
to provide prayer and emotional support and encouragement for
each other, to learn from each other, to minister to each other
and to find ways to potentially partner together in future projects/ministries,
etc.
One way to help to meet this need is for those who share this
type of vision and who have some administrative/coordinating gifts,
to begin to pray about bringing together a local team of music/arts
ministry leaders that share similar vision. Pray that God will
bring the leaders of His choosing who can come together to form
a local coordination team which can take ownership of coordinating
a local retreat in your city or region.
One idea is to begin by coordinating a local retreat for music/arts
ministry LEADERS that share a passion to see your city and/or
nation reached and long to see music and the arts reclaimed for
the Kingdom of God in your region. Once you have local leaders
on board, you may wish to also provide a similar retreat opportunity
for musicians and artists that aren’t (yet) ministry leaders,
in order to encourage them as well.
Once this has happened in your city, hopefully some in the group
will catch the vision of the kind of potential this type of resource/networking
retreat can have -- especially if they are from other regions
in your state/province, or even country –- and also begin to see
this happening in their regions.
The more this type of opportunity is reproduced and multiplied,
the more musicians and artists can be encouraged, supported, ministered
to, relationships can continue to be developed and ministries
birthed and/or partnerships developed. As the networks develop
and multiply, so God’s network of missions-minded musicians and
artists can grow to make an increasingly significant impact in
your cities and nations (and beyond).
The following rough outline of what this could look like is being
borrowed from Marie Umidi who, with a team of leaders, has coordinated
a number of these most inspiring and encouraging networking retreats,
which have also been a vital component in seeing the birthing
of other ministries and growing working relationships internationally.
Some helpful hints:
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With a leader’s retreat, you’d probably want to plan it during
the week when music/arts leaders are more likely to be available.
You may want to rent a nice hotel – which can often be very inexpensive
on the off-season. ONE of the keys to a successful networking
retreat is to provide as many opportunities as possible for networking
– so encourage the attendees to eat meals together as much as
possible. Have the various invitees bring with them their resources
that they wish to make available to the others that come. Use
your creativity to make the place you use and the plans you want
to carry out artistic, worshipful, comfortable and informal in
order to help to facilitate the development of relationships and
openness. It’s especially helpful if these retreats can become
an annual event where relationships are developed further over
time. A helpful resource to leave with the attendees is a listing
of all those that came, a summary of who they are/the ministry
they’re involved with, perhaps some of their current projects/future
ministry plans/some of their ministry needs and their contact
info, etc. This will be very helpful for further follow-up and
networking.
In the networking retreats that I have been a part of, we kept
the leaders retreats to a smallish group of about 30 people in
order to help promote intimacy, etc. We met in a fairly small
room (but not too small) around round tables which had some nice
centerpieces on them, with jugs of water to drink and some prettily
decorated candies, snacks etc. in the middle of the table (and
napkins). There were a few other decorations to help make the
room a more artistic place to be, conducive to what we were wanting
to see happen. Communion was beautifully done in a liturgical
and artistic manner.
There was a keyboard set up and a few instruments brought for
worship times. There was also an overhead and a screen, and a
small PA system to use.
Rough Outline:
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Objectives: You are invited to connect with key leaders
for prayer, fellowship, ministry, sharing of resources, networking,
and discussion of vision.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:
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Monday
2-5:00 p.m. Registration
5:30 Special "welcome” dinner (cost included in registration)
7:30 Worship and first networking session – history of how the
retreat came into being, (coordination team introduces themselves
and the ministries they’re involved with), concert of prayer
Tuesday
Breakfast (encourage networking as much as possible at meal times)
10:00 Worship, devotional and share some initial stories of what
God is doing around the world through music and the arts – also
provide some potential resources where folks can receive more
info like this – ie. the Global Worship Report or the EW&AF Newsletter
– we can send you a resource sheet via email which you can feel
free to copy for this occasion which will provide that and other
similar resources – just ask for it: GCWAC@DiscipleTheNations.org),
networking session
12:00 Break for lunch – (we would usually carpool to a nearby
restaurant for lunch in order to keep costs down – brunch was
included in our room rates. Suppers were usually eaten in the
hotel – Grace’s notes)
2:00 Worship, networking, open forum
5:30 Break for dinner (group dinner)
7:30 Worship, networking, open forum
Wednesday
Breakfast
10:00 Worship, networking, open forum
12:00 Break for lunch
Afternoon free
7:30 Worship, ministry, communion
Thursday
Breakfast
10:00 Worship, devotional, networking, open forum
12:00 Adjourn
Leave in afternoon
Everyone brings their own ministry newsletters, brochures, tapes/CDs
to give away/sell,etc. to add to the display table which remains
up the whole time.
Your attendance is vital. We urge you to come with the heart of
a networker and fellow servant of Christ....'in whom the whole
body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows
and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.' - Eph.
4:16
HOW TO PLAN:
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Marie says, "What I did first of all was to gather the support
of three other leaders to confirm the Lord's leading in initiating
a retreat. Then I asked them if they would serve in a co-leadership
capacity with me, and help design a three day event based on the
needs we knew about in our collective networks. We then agreed
that invitations would be sent selectively. We designed three
days of a combination of fellowship, worship, networking, strategizing,
and devotionals, not necessarily in that order.
A typical day was as follows:
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Welcome
Worship
Get Acquainted
First Networking Session - we invited key guests to share their
work, and whatever else was on their heart from God; needs, etc.
Food break (encourage networking and ministering to each other)
PM
Worship
Networking session – (a specific ministry would share what they're
doing -- encouraging things, struggles, vision, resources, etc.
They would then also be prayed for. – Grace’s notes)
Day Two
Worship
Devotional
Forum 1 - we selected forum topics and after a brief discourse
on the topic, opened up discussion to the floor
Lunch break
Networking session - informal
Dismiss for one on one time
Dinner Break
PM
Worship
Forum 11
Debrief (and hand out an evaluation and an opportunity to give
ideas/recommendations for coming years…ie. do they want to have
an annual leaders meeting? Do they know of ministry leaders in
other cities/towns that you could encourage and help by facilitating
a retreat in their area? If so, contact info and more about them,
etc. – Grace’s notes)
Ministry and Prayer for special needs
That's basically it -- fill in the blanks with lots of free time
to have one on one encounters - keep the meals delicious and cheap,
make everyone as comfortable as you can -- watch God work!!” says
Marie Umidi who provided the outline.
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