God & Music
The $20M Pyramid: What does The GMWA Glorify?
What The Fuss?
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.
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.
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.
Holy Racket: Musicians gather at the Hammond vendor.
The Point
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?
Christopher J. Priest
30 July 2006
editor@praisenet.org
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