Season 4 Premiere - Chris Allman Interview

Welcome to the Ministry Focused Worship Essentials podcast, where we explore the heart of worship, leadership, and the journey of faith, as well as talking about issues involving worship in today's church.

I'm your host, Brian Foster.

Let's talk some worship.

And welcome to season number four of the Ministry Focused Worship Essentials podcast.

So glad to be back on the airways with you guys.

And uh I hope and trust the Lord has been good to you, uh, that he has blessed uh throughout your summer, and that you are ready to see what he has in store for us as we transition into the fall season.

So uh God has been good to me uh and he's been good to my family.

We enjoyed uh the rest and the time of way, uh, and I feel refreshed and uh raring to go uh for season number four of the uh ministry focused worship essentials podcast.

Before we get started on today's show, as always, let's uh open with a quick word of prayer.

Father God, we thank you and we praise you, Lord, for being so good to us more than what we deserve to be.

And Father, I just thank you, Lord, for uh the rest I was able to get uh over the summer.

And uh, Lord, I just uh pray that uh you were able to bless the listeners uh during their time during the summer, Lord, that they were able to uh not only enjoy time together as a family, uh, but time away from work, Lord, and and uh just to be able to recharge and to refresh themselves.

And uh, Father, we just want to give you praise for uh the last three seasons of this podcast and how you worked through that.

And Lord, we're just looking forward to what you have in store for us this season.

And uh, I just want to lift this podcast up to you, Father.

I pray that you would use it for your honor and glory.

Uh, Father, may I be hidden behind the cross.

Uh, I just yield my tongue to you.

Uh I pray, Lord, that you would have me speak uh the words you would have spoken, uh, and that you would bless our time together here today.

And as always, I give you praise, honor, and glory for the way you're gonna work and bless through this podcast and in the days ahead.

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, I had originally thought about a different way that I was gonna start the podcast this season, uh, but as um um good fortune would have it, uh I was able to uh talk to a gentleman that I hold in very high regard.

Um I have followed his career um for a number of years.

He's one of my favorite uh uh tenors uh in Southern Gospel music, and he's also one of my favorite songwriters.

Him and his partner, uh Rodney Griffin, uh, I think has written some of the uh some of the best uh songs in Southern Gospel uh within the last five to ten years.

And uh, of course, I'm talking about Brother Chris Allman of Greater Vision.

Uh they were in the Sand Hills area not too long ago.

As a matter of fact, as this podcast is uh being released, uh this took place over the Labor Day weekend.

Of course, you know, we always have our annual uh fellowship time and worship uh with the fine folks at Beulah Baptist Church up in Bennett, North Carolina, and uh for their Labor Day camp meeting in Greater Vision was a part of this service.

And I was able to steal a few minutes away uh from Brother Chris and talk to him about music and worship uh and uh what God is doing in his life.

So without further ado, let me turn things over to my conversation with Brother Chris Allman of Greater Vision.

Pleasure for me at this time to be talking to uh a gentleman that I hold in high regard in the Southern gospel music industry.

Not only is he a fantastic singer, but he's a fantastic songwriter as well.

And most of you will know him for the time that he has spent in the group Greater Vision.

And it's my uh uh pleasure and honor this time to be talking to Chris Allman from Greater Vision.

Good afternoon, my brother, and welcome to Bennett, North Carolina.

Well, it's uh it's a pleasure to be here.

You know, I'm from North Carolina, so uh just right up the road uh over in Burlington, North Carolina, that's where I was raised.

So I guess this is my home state, so it's always good to come back.

Amen, amen.

And um, so my listening audience is a little bit on the younger side of things, but uh of course I'm an old man, so I I've known you with Greater Vision for many years now.

But if you would just kind of give uh my other younger younger audience a glimpse of where you came from, how you started in ministry, any groups that you've been with before you uh you uh came on with Greater Vision.

Sure.

And since you're uh since your audience is mostly young, that's good because I'm the youngest member in Greater Vision.

Okay.

You know, I started with Greater Vision when I was 21 years old back in 1990.

Uh now when I first knew that I wanted to do this for my livelihood, for my career, and e even back then at nine years old, you don't really look at this type of thing as a career because you're not thinking career, you're not thinking livelihood, because uh, you know, that's making money, and you just don't think about that at nine years old.

But I knew when I saw the cathedral quartet uh when I was nine years old at my father's church, People's Memorial Christian Church.

Uh he had them when they were coming through.

And uh for the very first time I heard this music from that group and saw Kirk Talley singing the tenor part.

And uh when he sang, he communicated he he communicated in such a way, and anybody who knows anything about this music would agree that he was probably one of, if not the best communicators to come along in in this music.

And uh it just communicated to me that night, and at nine years old, you know, I decided that is what I want to do.

I want to sing that music, and I want to sing that part, and God obviously heard the desire of my heart and granted me this uh to be able to sing and to be able to sing tenor um at that.

So, you know, I that's when I the seed was planted in my heart to want to do this.

Uh then of course I sang in my church.

My father, as I said, was a pastor for 32 years at People's Memorial.

I sang there, was very instrumental in the music program in that church, and uh sang with my sister, Robin, and with Steve Lee, who actually was with the cathedral quartet the first time I ever saw them there at nine years old.

And then Mark Trammell took his place.

So Steve Lee was out of our church and did our music when he came off the road.

So under him, uh it that's who I really sang with and learned so much from him about this industry, about this music.

So we had a trio, the almonds.

Uh we would open up for Gold City Quartet every now and then when they'd come through, the Greens when they would come through, and uh, we had that opportunity.

And of course, anytime the cathedrals were uh anywhere around, most of the time in Winston-Salem, you know, they used to come there all of the time, I would go see them.

And of course, as a little kid, we'd bug them at the record table.

So they got to know me as I grew older.

They knew me through the years, I knew Mark well.

So when I heard that Greater Vision was putting or that Gerald and Mark were putting together this trio, Greater Vision, um, and I'm giving you a lot of details here, like I said, you can edit out what you want and you can keep what you want.

Um, but when I heard they were start when they were starting a trio, Savannah Faust, who wrote Somebody Touched Me.

Remember that song?

That great cathedral quartet song for Danny Thunderbird.

And Bloodwashed Band.

Uh, she wrote several songs for them.

Well, she went to our church.

So this was the day before cell phones, um, even the day even in the days before email, you know.

So if you had to get in touch with somebody, it was go to their house or find them, you know, through a landline.

And uh she called me and told me that they were putting this trio together because that's who I used to go see concerts with all the time, Lou and Savannah.

And uh when I heard that, I called Mark Trammell.

I asked if uh there was any way that I could have a tryout, and I was the very first person that Greater Vision tried out.

So at 20 years old, it went from uh wanting to do it at nine years old, the seed was planted, and then 21 years old, um I got it, I got my job with Greater Vision, and really, as far as groups go, that's all I've been with, other than my my family group, the almonds, before I went with them.

You couldn't go wrong with having heroes like the cathedrals, George Johnson, Glenn Payne, Mark Trammell, Kurt Talley, uh the list goes on and on of uh the great talent that the cathedrals uh had back during the years.

Since your time in ministry, and you you've been with greater vision, like you said, ever since uh uh you had your your family group, um compared to when you first entered the gospel music industry, what do you consider to be the greatest addition or improvement to the Southern gospel industry?

Improvement.

That that's gonna be a hard one there.

Um, you know, I can say what I feel has changed.

And sometimes those things are good, and sometimes those things are not so good, you know.

Um you'll know this as well.

Of course, a lot of the style has changed in our uh musically in our um industry.

A lot of people have kind of wanted to go to the cool vibe type thing, you know.

They want to do the more progressive country stuff and more pop sounds and things like that, where you'll know that greater vision has pretty much stuck with what we started with.

And um I think that's been very beneficial for us.

Um that has changed a lot, so you can either look at that and say, I really like that change, or I don't.

That's a matter of opinion.

Um tech uh technically things have changed.

You know, you've gone from the world of analog um to the world of digital.

Uh now, you know, it's not just uh two big house speakers up there and four mics and uh and a kind of antiquated uh sound system.

Now we've you know got the digital boards uh that are you know they're automated and you can save things.

And it's just uh we also have videos now or we never had that before.

So all of this stuff has come along.

Like I said, um that's all of a matter of opinion, really.

You know, some people love that stuff and some people hate that stuff, you know, and it's just it's crazy.

It's just like in the church, you know, some people love hymns, some people love praise and worship music.

So some people would see that as an improvement.

Some people would say it makes me not want to go to church, you know.

So I it's it's really a matter of opinion there.

You brought up an interesting point.

I kind of want to follow up on that as far as the the transition or the the change in styles within Southern gospel music itself to a more progressive type sound, or like you said, the cool vibe sound.

Greater vision has stayed true to the the pure Southern gospel sound.

Has at any point has there be any and has there been any temptation to kind of go, well, you know, maybe this they're they're selling this record pretty on the cool vibe side.

Maybe we should try it.

Has there been any temptation at all to try to go to that particular uh style of Southern gospel?

Uh not at all.

No.

Um we we love what we what we do.

We um are excited about uh we're excited now as we were when we started about our music.

You know, we we've not we're not tempted to to go another direction with our music.

And I'll tell you why.

The the fan base, and I hate to really call them fans because we've got a lot of friends, a lot of supporters, people who come to see us, but you know, for your audience's sake, for the fan base that we have, they are they are very opinionated, and we hear loud and clear that they love the fact that we have stayed where we are.

You know, we still wear suits and ties, and we will always wear suits and ties.

Why?

You know, people are like, oh man, that's just you know, that's a thing of the past.

You need to to be uh more modern, you need to be more with today.

But the bottom line is, you know, we see it as consistency.

We see it as when you come to see greater vision, you know exactly what you're gonna see.

You know exactly what you're gonna hear.

And um I I th I think that serves us well.

Yeah.

You know, Jesus brought his very best to us.

Why should we not bring our best to him at all times whenever we're in his house?

Is the way I've always looked at it anyway.

And I'm old school like you are, so uh, but you know, you mentioned uh about him singing.

I want to kind of touch base on that.

Bru Brother Gerald started this, I think, back in the 2010s, 2013, 14s, so to speak.

How did that come to be and how's it how has it existed for as long as it has to this point?

Yeah, we were in a place called Shipshuana in Indiana, and uh we were in a little uh theater called the Blue Gate Theater.

It probably seated about 300 people, maybe, not a whole lot of people, but it was packed.

And uh we were singing in that little theater, and then on the second half, uh Gerald did a thing where he said, you know, I'm gonna play, I'm gonna take three hymn requests from the audience, and I'm just gonna play three hymns.

I'm gonna put them together in a medley.

And he started playing.

Well, when he started playing the very first one that they had shouted out that they wanted to hear, um, the people just started you know, on cue singing along.

And they got louder and louder, and then on the second one they sang along.

On the third one, they sang along.

And when he got done with those three songs, they started shouting out more.

They wanted to hear more hymns and they wanted to sing along.

So when we got on the bus that night, I I mean they took control of the program probably for the next, well, about the whole second half.

Um, so when we got on the bus, you know, Gerald said, you know, I just really feel like people miss that.

They miss singing corporately and they miss singing those songs that are familiar, you know, and you know, there's something about familiarity.

Um you know, it's hard to compete with a memory, right?

So when I was raised, I was raised with the hymns, and that's what I remember, and that takes me back to a great place.

And I think it does the same with with uh all of these folks that we sing to, and what we're finding is the churches they go to, they have, if not altogether, pretty much abandoned the hymns, you know, just gone to new stuff, new stuff, new stuff, and they're starved for that feeling that they had, right?

Uh, way back in when.

So I think that that also serves for the answer of how has it survived?

You know, people they've experienced it, they love it, it's fun.

You know, we have a great team with the Milan Hayes family, the Wisnitz, Jim and Melissa Brady, Mark Trammell, Quartet, um, uh the hymn sing band.

I mean, it's a live band, so it's a very exciting night.

And uh it we have humor, you know, we do some of our own things, and the people sing along most of the time.

So it's been a great, great thing.

Just I feel like to take people back to a time that they really remember and that was special.

Always kind of akin to when I grew up, I grew up on the gospel singing jubilee.

And whenever I see the hymn sing and watch the tapes or or the DVDs or see it on YouTube, it always brings me back to that time and and what a special time that was when I first cut my teeth uh in Southern gospel music.

So y'all have done a tremendous job with that, and it's been a blessing to me and and my family down through the years for sure.

Uh I know our time is is growing short, and I I want to ask you two more questions if I could, Brother Chris.

So, of course, this is the Worship Essentials podcast, and I would be with remiss if I didn't get your thoughts about worship in the church today.

Throughout your ministry and as you've gone to different churches and has uh you have experienced worship in many different ways and forms, how has worship evolved or changed since you started a ministry?

Yeah, that's that's so funny that you would ask that because we talk about that every now and then, and I have very strong opinions on this.

Once again, I will say you can edit what you want, what you don't, but I have strong opinions on it.

I you know, I we go into churches a lot of times, and it I don't know, it it almost seems like worship is they that you've got your worship, quote unquote, leader who tries to force people to worship.

It's like, okay, it's 10 15 or it's 1030, it's time to worship.

And, you know, you'll see people talking, and when he says that, it's like uh, you know, they uh they ring a bell and all of a sudden they go into a trance and they lift their hands, they stand up and they go into their worship position, if you will.

Now, I'm not gonna say that it's false, and I'm not gonna say that it's not uh sincere, because I don't know the hearts of anybody.

But I don't know, it just seems it seems a bit forced.

It seems like, you know, you gotta know that, man, you got people there on Sunday morning who for six days have been in the world, and uh some people are are are got very bad news that week.

Some people uh they fought on the way to church, you know.

Uh the kids are in a bad mood.

I mean, thank things are some people are there and they just are not in in the frame of mind to worship.

Right?

Right.

And when they when it's like, hey, no, now it's time to worship, get stand up, put your hands together, put your hand in there, do this, you know, when they're probably needing just to hear a word from God to hear something, I don't know.

It that's that's a touchy subject because that make sense to you?

Yes, sir.

And absolutely, I mean, you know, a lot of people in today's church, and I don't know if you've seen this or not, but in my position, uh in that some of the churches I visited, that uh people uh do not understand what worship really is.

They think that it's at 10 30 Sunday morning and the music starts, that's when you worship.

Worship is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week sacrifice, uh, whether it's by word, whether it's by song, it's all worship if it's done focused on our Lord and Savior.

Um and I think a lot of people miss that to where they or they've been um indoctrinated, I guess, for lack of a better word, in that worship begins Sunday morning at 10:30 or at 11 o'clock instead of making it a uh a livelihood, uh uh a seven-day-a-week uh event within us because worship starts within each and every one of us.

I mean as a worship leader, I shouldn't have to prompt you how to worship.

Exactly.

Uh I I should be there to lead you and focus you on who we're worshiping, but not prompt you into worship.

Right.

Let me you you will I think that you will say, I know exactly what you're talking about when I say this.

Um the word says that God inhabits the praises of his people.

Yes.

So essentially what that means is when the people of God sincerely worship, he can't help but come down and be in the midst of that.

Absolutely.

Okay, now let me say this.

When when Moses or excuse me, when when the disciples were up on the mountain, uh, not all the disciples, but I I think it was Peter and maybe one more, and he showed and the Holy Spirit came by.

You know what I mean?

Yes.

And and and he said, I want to see, and they only let him see the back of them, okay?

Right?

I I guess what I'm trying to say is when you were truly in the midst of God's presence, you can't take very much of it.

No.

Now, and here's what I was gonna say, I think you'll relate with.

Back in the day when we would just come and we'd open the hymn book, have church, choir would sing, and we would do what we did to the best of our ability.

There were those there were those certain services when the Holy Spirit fell.

Absolutely.

Not because he was on the bulletin, not because a leader said, I think the spirit's gonna fall today.

It was just because somehow it was the perfect storm, this song was sang, it hit somebody in the middle of the eyes, they got up, came down the aisle, and went to the altar, and before you know it, somebody else was coming to the altar, and then somebody else, and my dad would say, The big preacher showed up today, there's nothing that I can do to add to this, and we would just have church.

And do you know what I'm saying?

Yes, sir.

That's a worship service to me.

Yeah.

And frankly, you wish those things would happen all of the time, but I don't think you would physically be able to take it if if it did.

Right?

Um, so you know, I think worship, you know, if we are in an attitude of worship, it's just something that if we do, God will inhabit that.

And uh I don't think it's it's I don't know.

I I just don't think that that's meant for every single service to be that way.

Right.

Right?

He decides when he's gonna show up the way he's gonna show up.

I've always been a firm believer believer, Brother Chris, that if people would understand where worship begins, and that's in each other's hearts, and if we would experience worship on a daily basis and bring that into the church setting, I think uh we could experience more of those kind of services instead of waiting for someone to prompt us or wait on that song to ignite us at that point.

If we all came in prepared, we were prayed up, we were ready.

And we were ready to worship in spirit and in truth, I think we could see a lot of that exhibit in our churches again today.

Thank you so much for your time.

And I I want to ask one more question for you.

We could go on and on with the worship.

But the last question I want to ask you, Brother Chris, is being in the Southern gospel music industry, and we talk about the trends and and and what you've already experienced, if the Lord tarries for the next five or ten years, what do you see or how do you see the Southern gospel music industry in the next five to ten years?

Uh, you know, I'm a I'm afraid that that would not be a an encouraging answer.

Because if you know anything about our music, you know, you will you will know that well, just look back to the nineties, look back to the eighties.

Look, look at how strong it was.

Yes, sir.

And I'll tell you what, we talk about the church, our music in the night in the early nineties, even to the mid-90s, even to the early 2000s, I guess, but especially 80s, 90s, early 2000s, our music was the music of the church.

Yes.

Uh, when you came to church to a Baptist church or I'm sure independent Baptist church, Pentecostal churches, wherever, you were hearing the top 40 of Southern gospel sang in church.

They would put groups together, they'd sing those songs.

The choirs would sing those songs, right?

Mike Spett were put he was putting together choir, and it was those songs.

So that that made our genre very strong because churches all that was a network of churches all over America that knew our music, right?

Well, now our music has been replaced in the church.

And now I'm not bitter about that.

You know, it's just it is what it is.

Um our music has been replaced.

Um the young the young generations that are coming up, unless their grandparents take them to a concert or their parents take them to a concert, they have no clue about what this is.

Churches, you know, it used to be our our schedule, the Sundays at the beginning of the year were gone like that.

They were booked up solid.

That's the first ones that went.

Now those are seem to be the dates that we'd be looking to feel.

Because now churches have their own singers, you know, and those singers want to sing.

You know what I'm saying?

That's their time uh on Sunday.

And, you know, I don't see as many young singers in our genre wanting to sing, they're more pointed towards contemporary Christian music because that's what they know.

Just like I was pointed towards this, is what I knew.

So, you know, I'm not gonna say that it's going to die on the mind.

You know, God's God uh God has his plan for this music.

Um I think it will be around for a long, long time, but as far as it thriving and being even like right now, it's not what it was in the 80s.

Right.

Now it is not what it was in the 90s, and you know that, and that's just a harsh reality.

I wish I could say, man, we are blowing going.

Right.

And and if I was trying to impress somebody, I would.

But the the fact of the matter is, you know, we need uh the uh older people, the the grandmas, the the moms and dads who were up in their 50s and 40s, 50s, 60s, to take their kids and to listen to this music and to say, hey, listen to this.

This is really good.

It's what I heard when I was a kid, and I think you'll enjoy it.

You know, if we would start sharing it so to where they knew about it, you know, it might take a turn for the better.

I agree with you on every aspect of that.

And my prayer is that Southern Gospel will continue to grow until the time the rapture takes place, uh, and and will continue to be a very vital part uh of the the worship uh within our churches and throughout our country.

Really quick, I want to give you a chance because I know Greater Vision is coming out.

We've been speaking about the hymns of the church, and that's a new project that's easy it's just recently come out that you guys uh recorded uh some of the hymns of New Church.

Give us a quick overlay of of that project.

Yeah, Timeless Hymns.

It's one this is the second time we've gone to London, England and recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

So these are two very special projects.

And what I when I say two, we did a Christmas project with them uh four years ago, I believe, three or four years ago at this point.

Um now we've gone and we just cut and just have finished this project Timeless Hymns.

It's 14 hymns uh that were arranged by Trey Ivey and Gerald.

They got together and decided how they wanted this to go.

And uh it is an amazing project.

I mean, to hear the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on these songs and the arrangements are so encouraging and uplifting, and I think we did a pretty good job on the vocals as well.

And uh it's just a strong, strong uh project, and we're very proud of it.

Um comes out at the end of September here, uh, will be released, and anybody who is listening will be able to go to Greatervision Music.com and uh order that, look it up.

Uh as far as strength, everybody always says, is it gonna be streaming?

Can I listen to it on Spotify?

Not right away.

We'll be record we will be sending one song at a time here and there, but we're not gonna release this whole project because of course it's a very costly project.

Yes.

And you know, uh just because we live in the world, we got to recoup what we've spent.

Absolutely.

So uh but but we're very excited about it.

Um uh the people there don't know, but we're here at church tonight and we're gonna be singing, so we'll be sharing one.

So uh it's a great hymn.

And I will, for one, tell you that when that project comes out, it's gonna be played heavily on Impact Radio.

I'll assure you that.

Brother Chris Allman, thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate it.

Like you said, you're getting ready to sing, so I've got to let you go and get ready.

But uh again, thank you so much and for your insight.

Uh, I pray God will continue to bless you and continue to bless greater vision uh in the days and the weeks ahead.

And thank you so much again for your time.

Hey, thank you so much.

My pleasure.

And there you have my conversation with Brother Chris Ullman, and I pray that uh that was a blessing to you, and uh uh that uh you were able to get to know Brother Chris a little bit more uh than hopefully you uh you've had in the past.

And uh again, I would encourage you, uh it's the the time of year where the National Quartet Convention uh will be taking place and uh here at the last of September, the first of October, uh there in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Uh and I would encourage you, if you don't have plans, that you would make plans uh to go to the National Quartet Convention and you could get to see and talk to Brother Chris up close and personal, along with uh Brother Gerald Wolfe and uh Brother Rodney, uh, and uh that you would uh have that opportunity uh to meet him in person and and what a great uh brother he is, and I so look uh look forward to uh the next time uh that they come through the Sand Hills area.

Um as far as what the Lord has laid on my heart for season four of the Ministry Focused Podcast, you know, when uh we ended season three uh back a few months ago, I had the pleasure and honor, of course, to talk to uh my mentor, uh Brother Kenny Lamb.

And at that point, he was just rolling out uh the book called Healthy Worship.

Uh this is a a guide for everyday worshipers, uh, not just for worship leaders per se.

And it uh he wrote it to to the church uh to be used by everyone, uh, to get a better a better understanding of what worship uh in spirit and truth really is, and some steps you can take to enhance your worship and your time uh of worship, not only in a corporate setting uh at your local church, but also in uh private, uh in your private time with the Lord.

And uh, you know, he created this book uh that you could uh have small group studies with, and also you could do uh a class uh with this particular book.

And uh I was praying about it and uh I had already cleared it with my pastor uh to do a class about it.

But you said I I I started thinking to myself, and and as I was praying, uh I became led to want to teach this on the podcast.

Uh it's uh 10 weeks, uh 10 chapters, so a chapter a week uh with healthy worship.

And um I feel like I I uh brother Kenny would not mind.

Uh and I am gonna seek his permission, so don't don't don't worry, folks.

But I don't believe he would mind uh me doing the teaching on this podcast through his book, Healthy Worship.

Uh so I would encourage you uh in uh uh for the next time we come together, which will be uh on October the 1st, which will be the the next uh we're gonna still do this every two weeks, like um uh we have set it up originally.

So every two weeks, I'm gonna bring another chapter of healthy worship.

Now, in the end in the meantime, if you would like to study along with me, I would encourage you to go to renewingworshipnc.org.

Okay, so that is uh the uh brother Kenny's uh um site, renewingworshipnc.org, and you can order a copy of the book, uh Healthy Worship.

Um I I it's the cost is very minimum.

I I think it's ten dollars, uh, and maybe a little less than that.

Uh I know if you are a member of the um the Baptist Day Convention, if your church is a member of the Baptist Day Convention, you can get it for maybe half price.

Uh, I will double check and make sure on that, but you can go to renewingworshipnc.org and order your copy of the book.

And you can study along with me as I bring the teachings each week from this.

There's also digital copies.

You can go on uh Amazon.com and order a digital copy of the book.

Uh, it's a little bit more.

Uh I think the copy I got was 15 uh for the digital copy, which you can download on Kindle.

Uh, and if you are so moved to um uh read uh books on iPad or iPhone or Android, uh then you can get a digital copy of the book uh and download it uh and study it along with me that way.

But I would encourage you uh to uh get a copy of it and read up on it and follow along with me.

Uh and this is gonna start uh Thursday, October the 1st, which is our next broadcast date for the podcast.

And we'll start then.

Of course, we may have a little break between Christmas and uh or Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We we do some special shows doing that particular time.

Uh, but uh hopefully we'll get uh finished up by the first of 2027 if the Lord uh tarries.

Uh and uh I hope you'll uh pray along with me uh that God will not only open up my eyes uh and help me to teach this correctly, but uh would impart upon your heart uh to want to study more and uh enhance your time of worship with our Heavenly Father.

So again, that is coming up over the next few weeks here on the Ministry Focused Worship Essentials podcast.

But for now, uh I want to thank you again for uh blessing me with uh tuning in into this podcast.

Be sure you share it.

You can still contact me at um uh bfoster at faithwestn.org uh or you can email me at impact at faithwestn.org.

Uh either way, but please send in your request, send in your idea, send in your prayer request.

Uh let me know what the Lord is doing in your love uh in your life, and uh we'll look forward to uh talking to you then.

But if this podcast has blessed you, please share it with someone and remember worship isn't just an event, it's a response to who God is.

Until the next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may your worship ever be pleasing in his sight, keep a song in your heart, and keep Jesus in the center.

So long for now.