Greetings,

This is Daniel speaking …

We have a few gigs scheduled for this summer (as we do every summer). However, we’re kind of at a cross roads in regards to these events. We are, first and foremost, the music worship band for the Christian Church of Jasper but we also enjoy playing in and around the region at various festivals and assorted gigs. It’s so much fun and fulfilling to take the message out through our music to places that want to hear it (and even among those who don’t). The frequency has increased from year to year and with that comes a problem.

The sound.

We have a PA that can play a small room (seriously, a pretty small space). We do not have a PA that can fill an area of the sizes we have been playing recently. And, you guessed it, those types of PAs cost much cash. For instance, we played at Lincoln Amphitheatre this summer along with several other bands and a “big-name” speaker. That type of PA can run around $100,000. Do you have that kind of cash? Neither do we. Of course, we’re not arrogant enough to think we could even fill part of Lincoln Amphitheatre by ourselves so that kind of system is only an example. However, we do regularly play the area fairs and festivals and a PA that can fill that space runs at least $30,000 … not to mention you have to have something to pull the trailer the church has generously purchased for us to use. So tack on another $15,000 for a used van. See how depressing this gets?

We have, in the past, paid a guy with a system comparable to what we have at CCJ (in the actual building) a few hundred bucks per time to do sound for us — and that is a steal. Unfortunately, that guy moved out of state and our steal of a deal went with it. There are, of course, other people that do the same thing in the area that we could hire.

The real conundrum here is whether we are at a point of diminishing returns in hiring someone each time we have a gig. Do we want to expand what we do as a group outside of the walls of CCJ or do we just call it a day on those type of events and gigs? We’re not talking money that can be raised with a bake sale or a benefit or something I would even dream of asking individuals for.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not rock stars, we’re not trying to be the David Crowder Band or Chris Tomlin here. We just want to be wise and prudent and good stewards of the things God has blessed us with. It’s a tricky situation, to be sure.

Pray for us, if you would, that we would see a clear direction going forward. Don’t worry, CCJ, we will do what we do every week for as long as God wants us to do it.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

— Daniel

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Special thanks to the Foote kids for recording this on their digital cameras. I didn’t think we had anything.

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