9 Days: No Coli Challenge

[concise]

Part 1:

The $20 Million Pyramid

WHAT DOES THE GMWA GLORIFY?

Left to my cynicism, I’d guess the mission of the Gospel Music Workshop of America is to perpetuate the Gospel Music Workshop of America. The GMWA rakes in millions of dollars in vendor fees and recording company promotional fees, creating the very epitome of the noisy, commercial temple bazaar that so enraged Jesus [Matthew 21:13]. While the concept is certainly admirable, in practice, fairly little of the qualities of Christ are echoed at the GMWA convention, which is a hotbed of aggressive, arrogant, petty church folk blowing wads of cash in a pathetic grab at external validation.



Of course, $20 million is probably wrong.

It’s probably much, much higher than that. The truth is, I can’t find even one published financial report from the Gospel Music Workshop of America. But, doing the math, it’s not hard to speculate that this national entity that hosts, among other things, an annual workshop convention of 80,000 attendees, rakes in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars each year, largely by shaking down gullible Church Folk. I couldn’t find an official mission statement on the GMWA’s national website. I found lots of information about paying money—to travel, for lodging, for admission, for membership dues—and I found info about how big the GMWA is and how important these Boards of Directors and such are. But not one word on a dollar figure for gross receipts or net profit. The GMWA's primary efforts seem focused on drawing the faithful to their annual convention, where the GMWA rakes in millions of dollars in vendor fees and recording company promotional fees, creating the very epitome of the noisy, commercial temple bazaar that so enraged Jesus [Matthew 21:13]. While the concept is certainly admirable, in practice, fairly little of the qualities of Christ are echoed at the GMWA convention, which is a hotbed of aggressive, arrogant, petty church folk blowing wads of cash in a pathetic grab at external validation. Left to my own cynicism, I’d guess the mission of the Gospel Music Workshop of America is to perpetuate the Gospel Music Workshop of America. While there is quite a bit of good done through the GMWA—classes and workshops and nightly preaching and musicals—a good deal of that is offset by all the Church Folk nonsense and competitiveness intrinsic to such huge gatherings of us folk. And, bottom line, the GMWA is about making money. Making lots and lots of it. Through its member dues, through its workshops, through its annual events and, most especially, through its CD sales and annual convention, the GMWA pulls in staggering amounts of cash, funding designed, presumably, to fund cultural resources, education and awareness of Gospel music. Lacking a clear accounting of what they take in, what their real expenses and salaries are, and what is done with the surplus, the GMWA comes across as less of a ministerial or cultural mechanism and more of a capitalist venture. In other words, on the surface, it appears the GMWA is there to make a profit for whomever runs the GMWA. Which may or may not be true, but, lacking any real effort on the GMWA’s part to clarify its mission and goals, we are left with an organization that appears, at face value, to be a ministry when it is, in reality, a business. One built on the oldest business model there is—the pyramid.

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”

—2 Timothy 3:1-9

Local chapters assemble these nice, well-meaning folks together who work very hard all year, running here and there singing their hearts out, looking forward to the big GMWA convention where these folks will finally get the chance to sing before the national convention. The unspoken hope, of course, is that they’ll get a record deal and/or get to sing with the national GMWA choir when it makes its annual recording. What many don’t realize is, there are travel costs to the convention, entry fees to the convention, performance fees if your choir wants to sing at the convention. Want an official portrait? Another fee. Want a VHS or DVD of your performance? Another fee. If you want to sing with the recording choir, there’s a fee for that. Yes, you actually pay to be on the album recording from which you derive no royalties or other income. The fact is, from the moment your plane touches down, you are paying. You are constantly opening your wallet for the next week or so. Many if not most visitors are happy to do it. The convention seems more like a frat party or perhaps a trip to Disney—they’re excited, lit up like Christmas trees. Grinning and giddy about their chance to rub elbows with the stars and perhaps become one themselves. So very many of us pack up our hopes and dreams and head to this event, our CD or demo in hand, hoping to make a connection with a record company or artist.

And, yes, that happens. More Gospel recording deals are made at the GMWA events than are likely made all year long. Record company execs roam the campus as do famous acts, preachers and promoters. It is a high-energy, non-stop orgy of flashy sales pitches, slick promotions, cutthroat competition and high-volume, high-emotion charismatic church services.

Over the years, it has not once been reported to me that personal evangelism was being conducted there. Among the vast litany of vendors offering every conceivable church folk trinket or hat or sharkskin suit, it has never once been reported to me that anyone was offering Jesus. I suppose the presumption is that everyone attending this conference is already saved, but personal evangelism apparently takes a back seat to the general competitive nature of the event and the star-gazing at celebrity singers and preachers. And the paying. Every day, all day, out comes the wallet. Pay for your packets, pay for your lunch, pay for these photos or that recording. The major GMWA event could be fairly considered a racket. One designed to get Church Folks’ money, and Church Folk are both eager and willing to give it to them. So far as I know, the GMWA is not about evangelism. Not about ministry. Not about comforting the lowly or feeding the hungry. I’m prepared to fall on face and be flat wrong about this, but I find no mention of money donated toward AIDS or GMWA grants to support church musicians, scholarships for religious music education, or funds available for evangelism or church planting.

Instead, all I see, all I hear, is how hot Israel Houghton is or PaJam’s new deal with iRocc or LaShun Pace’s new EMI Gospel project or Fred Hammond’s recording at The Potter’s House. Jesus said, if you love Me, feed my lambs [John 21:15-19]. James describes true religion this way: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. [James 1:27]

Most everything about the Gospel Music Workshop of America seems, at my distance from it, to be inconsistent with the divine example set for us by Jesus Christ. With the principles espoused by the Bible itself. And yet, so many of us, so many good and decent and spiritual people, flock to this circus every year and give up millions and millions of dollars every year without even questioning where all that money is going.

For years, now, I have asked the same question, over and over:

What’s the point of the Gospel Music Workshop of America?

Here’s what I see:

I see a lot of good, decent, moral, spiritual, God-loving people working very hard learning and perfecting music. I see these people paying dues and fees and travel costs to journey across the country to assemble themselves with other groups of decent, moral, spiritual, God-loving people who have likewise worked very hard learning lots of music and paid dues and fees and travel costs. I see these folks assembling somewhere in the country, where they’ll buy lots of things. Souvenirs, tee shirts, big Church Folk Hats (male and female), loud, shiny, embarrassing and expensive suits, and all manner of nonsense. I see these fine folks crammed into hotel rooms four and six to a room. I see these folks spending and spending and spending. I see them waiting for their slot on some nightly program where they assemble themselves with other likeminded groups who are not worshiping God so much as they are waiting to perform—a performance they paid a performance fee to do. Then I see these folks finally getting their twelve minutes to perform, these looks finally doing what they came to do—sing at the GMWA national convention. The excitement! The adrenaline! The lights! The fees! I see a congregation consisting mostly of other groups and choirs waiting for their chance to sing—fixing their hair, talking on cell phones, reviewing lyrics. I’m sure there’s some segment of the congregation that is actually watching the performance—and it is just that, a performance—but, in large measure, their attention is on themselves. I see these fine people being strictly limited to their twelve minutes, after which they are shuttled backstage where they are gouged yet again for photographs or a video of their performance, and then out they go. That’s, essentially, what I see of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. And, I wonder, where in this is God glorified?

From their website:
The Gospel Music Workshop of America is the largest International music convention of its kind. Each year, thousands will assemble in a teaching, learning and performance-oriented environment. Founded in 1967 by the late Rev. James Cleveland, the Gospel Music Workshop of America has more than 185 chapters in the United States, United Kingdom, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

 

[concise]

2:

Local Chapters (from various cities and countries throughout the world) are the basic unit of organization of the GMWA. Locally the chapter offers to its membership and others of the city in which it is located, performance, academic and ministry opportunities. A Chapter Representative heads each local chapter that follows rules and regulations established by the Chapter Representatives Division of the parent body.

It’s interesting that there is not one word about the current 2006 convention on the GMWA national website, and that its national officers are using random email addresses such as Yahoo (as opposed to using a gwanational.org email address). With the millions of dollars coming in, seems a little puzzling the GMWA apparently devotes precious few resources to its online ministry, a website that appears amateurish and outdated.

I’m sure there’s a lot of good going on there. That the workshops are useful somehow and the classes are useful. But the overall mission of the GMWA seems to be, first and foremost, to make money for the GMWA, having left evangelism and kingdom building in the dust decades ago. It is, largely, a circus, attracting, largely, circus folk. It’s all about promotion: the “stars” promoting their new projects and getting their egos stroked. The star-wannabes stalking the stars while promoting their own star aspirations. Choirs and groups assemble from all over the country and beyond for that slim shot at fame; that somebody might see them and sign them to a record deal.

Meanwhile, the workshop itself records several projects on-site, and folks are excited about appearing on one of these recordings—even though they won’t be paid. In fact, these people have paid to get in; paid the GMWA for the privilege of being on this record the GMWA will make perhaps millions of dollars from. And these nice folks will return home beaming and grinning and fanning and pleased with themselves and with their experience. And, you know what? If that makes them happy, I’m all for it. But, again, my question: who does all of that glorify?

These local chapters collect fees and dues and pay out of that to regional and national entities. What these fees and dues do is a bit beyond me since you still have to pay to get in anyway, and since the major record labels and other entities are pushing so much cash into this, the biggest Gospel music convention of the year, the GMWA event could, conceivably, be completely underwritten and thus require no admission or registration fees. There is an enormous amount of money changing hands every year, and there’s virtually no public accountability. The average GMWA member has no idea, none at all, where his or her dues money is going, since he or she still has to pay travel expenses, hotel and admission to the convention.

More than that, is the point of going to the convention, in and of itself, the actual point of going to the convention? If everyone is just standing around, waiting for their chance to sing, where is the actual worship going on? If the choirs are competing against one another, comparing spiritual gifts, choir robes, choir directors, who’s got the best musicians, etc., how does that magnify God? The over-priced, ridiculous Church Folk hats and the beyond-ridiculous looking loud suits these folks pay through the nose for: how do they, in any way, model the example set for us by Jesus Christ?

The jealousy and rivalry and competitiveness, the rushing and the screaming, all the sexual hook-ups going on—straight and gay—the multi-tiered caste system where how well you are treated depends, essentially, on how big a star you are, the non-stop price gouging, the petty rivalries—where is God in all of this?

I know a good many fine people who are very excited about this workshop. Who have planned and prayed and saved and sacrificed and planned their summer around it. Whose entire family plans have been moved around to accommodate it. And I roll on the carpet wildly protesting: if this stuff makes you happy, by all means. But, somewhere along the ride, in your quiet time, in your moment of contemplation, you really do need to ask yourself: in what ways, precisely, does any of this glorify God?

Nobody’s telling you not to go. Nobody’s telling you not to send these folks your money. But, in everything we do and everything we are, there should be a desire to serve God and to please God. In the midst of your excitement, in the press of your practicing and rehearsing, in the rush of your travel, there should be a still, quiet moment where you can actually talk to God. To hear His voice. And to wonder if He’s wondering the same things I am: in what way does any of this chaos please God?

If that’s a question you’re now struggling to answer, that really ought to tell you something.

It seems, to me, that this whole business is about external validation of insecure people. People who need to be seen. People who need a title. People who need to hear someone applauding them. Who need to sit high on a dais and look important and be recognized. I’m not entirely sure how God manages to work through these folks, since to know God, to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ seems, in every measurable sense, to be counter to those qualities. Knowing God, knowing Jesus, doesn’t make you insecure. In a true walk with Christ, you don’t need someone or something to validate you. You don’t need to win a contest or beat out all the other choirs. Your singing doesn’t have to be the best; it only has to glorify God. That’s it.

You don’t have to spend all your money and neglect your family and rush across country and cram into hotel rooms and get caught up in all the noise and all the utter nonsense typical of most black conventions—including the utterly useless National Baptist Conventions, also pyramid schemes so far as their effectiveness is concerned. You need only to know God and to trust God, to know His word and what it really says about these things. And then you need to summon the courage of those convictions to reasonably compare the conduct of these operations with the reasonable guidelines of Christian conduct to see the glaring inconsistencies, the questions that demand an answer:

In what way is God glorified?

Because, seriously, if you can’t answer that, what’s the point?