News
NEW! Jan 2011 News/Vision Update
January 23, 2011
Dear Friends,
Wendy & I want to thank you for your prayer, friendship and financial support since we started Wendy & the James Gang back in 1999. Since then, it’s been quite a ride, and it’s been an honor to have you in our lives…both in the past and in the exciting times ahead!
Without further ado, we’re preparing to launch Phase III of our ministry, and I would appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to read about it. In order to provide the proper context, allow me to review and refresh your memory with the extraordinary thread of God’s provision…
PHASE I
Phase I was Adult concert ministry, where Wendy was primarily a soloist and songwriter. Wendy began doing concerts at age 17, and began in earnest after marrying me in 1985 (25 great years!) and carried through the birth of Zac (’89) and Ben (’92) through 1999. Zac & Ben as young kids were cute supporting performers and comic relief. I had full time public accounting and Controller/CFO jobs and ran sound, handled logistics and sang the occasional sappy duet. It included the “Wendy James” CD of adult worship and story songs that she wrote and hundreds of concerts, special music and worship team appearances. The CD also included the song “Jonah”, which would eventually be used by God to open doors for a TV pilot, which led to the songs that launched Wendy & the James Gang children & family ministry (see below). A signature live song from this Phase was “How Great Thou Art”.
PHASE II
Phase II kicked off in 1999 with end of the adult concert ministry, as I left the corporate world for full time ministry to work towards the March 2000 release of the first “Wendy & the James Gang” CD Kids I: God Loves You and simultaneous debut of the first theatrical production of the same name at Spring Hills Church in Granville, OH. You may remember it as the show of a thousand costumes and a bed on stage (the show was set in the boy’s bedroom). We goofed up so many times that first show that we added most of the flubs to the script. I’ll never forget at the end of that show being behind the backdrop, feeling a little embarrassed & defeated because things didn’t go perfectly, thinking it was time to dust off the resume again and trying to pray and listen to Wendy as she gave the first invitation for kids to accept Christ. My faith should have been stronger - seeing 30 kids come forward to be saved brought me to tears. It still does just thinking about it. Zac was just 11 and Ben was 8. Between 2000 and 2008, so many people contributed time and talent to this that it would take pages to list them all. In total, over 13,000 kids came forward and accepted Jesus into their hearts, and hundreds of thousands of kids and families were ministered to. There was a 41 show, 6 week tour in South Africa in the summer of 2002.
By the end of the South Africa trip, the boys had physically and emotionally outgrew the bed and premise of “God Loves You”, and in July 2003 the “Song of the King” show debuted with the Kids II: Song of the King CD as the soundtrack. It was a huge production upgrade, with professional lighting, large stage props (rocks, the well and Dragon’s Lair), sound, 10x30 backdrop, trusses, costumes, etc. We lived and homeschooled in an RV & pulled a 25’ trailer of gear. Due to the success of SOK, in 2005 we added “Secret Agent Man” as a second huge show using the God Loves You CD as the soundtrack. Shortly thereafter we created “Backstage Pass” as a third show. It was purely a worship concert that combined the best songs from the first two shows and other popular worship songs. It was a blast – kids went flat out wild in worship! These three shows combined to create a package of three different evangelical children and family events performed over three nights that we called KingdomRock Live! In early 2007, video backdrops to all three shows replaced painted cloth backdrops.
All this required a $500,000 investment in equipment and people. It was so worth it to see all the kids accept Christ!! However, by late 2007, churches were directly impacted by the recession and despite the largest marketing campaign in our history, very few churches had budget for major outreach events. In the spring of 2008, we made a difficult decision. What followed can be summarized by this excerpt from our August 24, 2008 Prayer Letter:
“Finally, THANK YOU for your continued faithful prayer and financial support, as we continue to pay off the ministry debt for the investment in the three shows. As you may remember, about $500,000 was invested in bringing these shows to life. In May 2005, we had debt of over $225,000. Today, the ministry debt is now at $98,000. Breaking the $100,000 barrier is huge! We praise the Lord for this, but let’s be totally clear about what He said we must do:
We are committed by the Lord’s leading to be debt free before going forward with any new endeavors or ministry spending. We believe it has been miraculous that the debt has been reduced so quickly. So many of you have believed in this kids and family ministry and have supported us over the years. Quite a few of you still are… and we’re grateful beyond words. Thank you for building treasure in heaven by using your earthly resources to help finance the lives touched by the WJG ministry. Many of these kids are now teenagers. Please pray for them.
We have downscaled most of the ancillary travel gear by donating it to local ministry organizations. We’ve given away thousands of dollars of WJG clothing to the needy. However, we felt led to keep the shows intact for future use, to make the most of your gifts and your investment of time, talent and treasure. The Lord brought talented, top people from Nashville and Orlando into our lives to help bring these shows to life. They are still extremely relevant and usable. Kids love them, but we must become more effective in our production methods and in using the media to reach them in today’s culture.”
Transition Period of Training
When Phase II ended, God told us we would undergo a time of training and project work to prepare for Phase III. At the time, he didn’t reveal what that was. This period would last 3.5 years and would include not just training for all of us, but for Wendy an intense writing of music and other projects. To our amazement, we realized that it ended at the same time Ben would go off to college in September 2011. Empty nest time, hmmm…
I was blessed with a secular job for two years, which while being challenging due to intense time and travel requirements, was a blessing as it was a part of my training, I met some great people and helped to start rebuilding a bit of financial stability. That led to a startup opportunity called REALscore.com that I am leading now and will be live soon. It is also related to this greater mission. From a Christian leadership standpoint, in May 2011 I will have completed an outstanding, highly recommended 2 year course of leadership/pastoral training called the Vineyard Leadership Institute (www.vli.org). I graduate two days before Ben graduates from Granville High School. God’s timing.
Wendy has taken several classes on intercessory prayer and prophecy. Both this for her and VLI for me opened our eyes to new and amazing dimensions in our relationship with God. She has continued to grow her skills in art, guitar, piano, dance and especially voice. Also during this time, she has also been writing and working on several projects, including:
- Creating children’s books for Song of the King and Secret Agent Man
- Personally illustrating these books.
- Writing a 2-part book entitled “7 Steps to Simply Singing” and “7 Steps to Standing Strong”. Part 1 is a technical study of singing based on her 30 years of vocal teaching and experience, designed to help the common layperson as well as the serious singer improve and worship in a deeper way. Part 2 is a companion volume to Part 1 and highlights the 7 key pieces of the armor of God (from Ephesians 6), especially as it relates to powerful worship and use of the voice against the enemy. It’s all about the power of the voice, including our voices and the voice of God. We’ve trialed it with a first free class with outstanding results, as many grew in their vocal skills and in using those skills to sing with a deeper understanding of hearing God and praying for others in vocal worship.
Which bring us to…
PHASE III
Phase III is planned to kick off next fall, at the end of the Transition Period. God has given us to vision to create a media, speaking, singing, art and outreach ministry to reach across all ages. It will start with a strategic planning stage, with some things starting right away and others with implementation phased in over time. Here’s a high level look at some of the components:
- All the WJG and Wendy James music is on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and many other online sites – we will take advantage of this and roll out marketing campaigns for kids and families showcasing the Gospel message of love in the songs.
- Part of this campaign will be to create videos of the WJG songs and release them one by one on YouTube.
- The debt is at $88,000. We net about .62 per song sold on iTunes and Amazon. That means we only need about 142,000 people to invest $1 for a song to pay this off. Watch for a launch for this, but please start now!
- Utilize the amazing technology of digital distribution channels, blogs, social media, etc.
- Relaunch the web site – it was created in 2001 and while I’ve tried to maintain some content, it is sorely outdated. If you would like to help, let me know.
- Create full length DVD’s of the Song of the King and Secret Agent Man shows, in a studio environment. Planning is underway for this.
- Partner with Christian colleges for live productions and tours (i.e. in the summer).
- Video Game Ministry – Zac and Ben are prolific players. They are working on how to create compelling video games designed to appeal to gamers that will either 1) Promote a Christian world view to the secular audience and point them to what we stand for when they learn more about us, or 2) are geared directly to the Christian audience.
- Smart phone applications
- Wendy has been given a vision for a 3rd children’s book/DVD/CD that is in the process of becoming a story and 10 new songs.
- Children’s music & evangelism – the importance of such as not diminished and is still the best way to reach families. There’s more on this on our web site. Speaking, books, blogs, etc. to support and promote this cause.
- Wendy’s concert, songwriting and recording that will encompass Children’s music, contemporary/Rock, traditional/Hymns and Praise & Worship
- Wendy continues to be given songs to be used in adult concerts (she calls them journey songs), new praise & worship songs, Christmas songs, etc.
Ok, now for the BIG vision - there are thousands and thousands of gifted artists and lay church musicians who have been stifled by the church worship programs that exist now. We want to mobilize these people and give them hope of a future where they can use the gifting and callings within ALL OF THE ARTS that they were given. This would include physical facilities. It’s time to raise up a vast army of musicians, artists, dancers and creative doers, using the accessibility of the media.
Other Notes:
The greater vision for children’s work is that we would move primarily into the area of media and by using the characters already created to begin a series of shows for online distribution and via cable/DVD that would teach the Bible in a fun way. Anyone who knows Wendy knows that she has a deep love for the Bible and we believe that kids are capable of learning far more than we sometimes give them credit for. We believe that the entire Bible should be brought to light and life for kids in a way that is deeper and much less watered down than what is generally available. We learned about theology and doctrine and most of the Bible before age 12, sitting in regular services with my parents. Kids are sponges and we need to prepare them to understand the ways of God and to know the Bible and to be Praisers and Worshippers.
The coming age is tough – you can see the signs in the world reports. These kids need to know the truth.
We’re learning how to pray with belief for miracles, signs & wonders, to pray for people through intercessory prayer and to be more faithful to say what God would say to people in counsel, instead of our own ideas. All of these things will help us minister in word and deed as we go out with the projects we are producing to sing and teach a dying world that there is hope in God and in His Son Jesus Christ.
We don’t know if Zac & Ben will eventually work with us full time as a career, as that’s up to them and God, but they are in training as well. They have both expressed interest in future media endeavors with us and in performing from time to time as a family, as well as individually, so who knows where all this will lead? Both guys have a great piano & guitar heritage and are songwriting. Zac is a Junior at Cedarville University, studying to be a Worship Pastor, Performer and Studio Engineer and is well versed on a plethora of instruments. He’s in his second year of touring with Heartsong, a student ministry of Cedarville, playing electric guitar. Ben is a senior in high school and has a huge voice and has a great love of theatre, singing, video, video games, law and history. We know God is cooking up something amazing for him to use his gifts as he goes off to college. We are so proud of these guys!
All of the above will take place under the umbrella of Living Rock Family Outreach, the 501(c) (3) nonprofit ministry we founded in 2000. I am evaluating other structures, including for-profit operations, in some areas. To me, it’s all ministry and we’ll pray about the structure that God wants to use.
We have been blessed to have so much and have much to share with the world.
PRAYER NEEDS
In our road heyday, our Prayer Force was 5,000 strong, active and a huge part of the ministry. Please consider this your official invitation to be remobilized. In addition to the projects listed above, please pray for the following:
- For the $88,000 debt to be retired. Donations are tax deductible and can be made by going here to donate or get more information: http://wendyandthejamesgang.com/support_financial.htm.
- For people to seek out and purchase the music on iTunes, Amazon and other sites.
- For word of mouth to spread virally.
- For wisdom, discernment, perseverance and creativity as we come down the homestretch of the training period and plan for and work on Phase III.
- For REALscore to succeed and sustain the family.
Finally, as you pray, please pray Wendy’s life verse with us: God did not give us a spirit of fear – but that He is giving us a spirit of love and power and self-discipline to get this job done and bring much good and many people to the Kingdom of God!
Let’s rock 2011 for Christ!
May God bless you and your families!
David
David & Wendy James
Living Rock Family Outreach
PO Box 431
Granville, OH 43023
www.wendyandthejamesgang.com
P.S. Please forward this to your friends and family! Check us out on Facebook as well!
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