Good Morning.

Happy Thanksgiving week. I have always found this to be an odd two Sundays to plan, from a worship standpoint. Do you celebrate Thanksgiving on the Sunday before, or the Sunday after the actual day? Neither, for me, is entirely satisfactory. And, when you consider that most of the time the church at which I serve has been in or at the end of a stewardship campaign, it gets complicated. I think our Canadian friends have it much easier, since their Thanksgiving comes on a Monday (for our American readers, just look at the Monday closest to Columbus Day and you'll have an idea), so celebrating on the day before seems much more obvious. By the way, as long as we are having gratuitous Canadian references, American Thanksgiving weekend is also celebrated in Canada as one of the biggest holidays of the year--it's called Grey Cup (inside joke...don't worry if you don't get it). Anyway, since my wedding anniversary is such that it normally takes place on or about Thanksgiving, I solve the problem by taking one of my vacation weeks, and letting my assistant deal with making the worship design decisions. I'd be interested to know what you all do. Email me by clicking here, if you don't mind, and let me know.

On to business...Thanks to all of you who participated in our first Fantastic Friday. Congratulations to the CLN members who were randomly selected in each of the categories to win a copy of the new Gener8xion Entertainment,  Dove Family-Approved holiday film: Noëlle. The winners have already been notified by email, so if you haven't checked your email, just look for a separate entry in this Blog to see the list of the winners. We're going to do it again next month, so watch this space for more details.

Before I talk about this week's Monday Morning Email, let's get some new information and reminders out of the way [just want the new information? read the "this week's reminder" bullet, and discover some great new articles that are available).

· Remember that all of our Select 20 anthem reviews since 2004 are on our site, with more on the way. You must log in to see these, so log in and go here.

· This week's reminder about the many things available at our website to help you do your ministry better: You'll want to bookmark our articles page. We continue to add more of the over 1200 articles from Creator's print publishing history to our website, and you are sure to find things that will assist you in your ministry. Just select the topical category or categories that interest you to see what is there. Among the new titles this week are several intriguing and thought provoking ones, including a discussion of how to deal with the problem of a congregation's willingness to accept "new"music or art, one entitled Taste Wars, and How to End Them (anybody dealing with that?), some hints for singers and accompanists, a couple of things on congregational worship, and a wonderful article by noted conductor Max Ulbrich, on conducting. Click here for these and other articles.

· Thanks for taking our survey about children's music programs. I find the results fascinating...particularly that most of you do all this great work on less than $500 per year. Haven't taken the survey? Just click here.

· One last reminder about our helpful financial resource offered by guest MME contributor Angie Hollerich. Financial worries are on everybody's mind right now, and Angie has made it possible for us to offer her book Money: Is Not the Root of All Evil as an instant download. Just click here to get this wonderful resource now.

· OK...on to this week's MME. Doug Lawrence let the cat out of the bag last week about my book, and I am still not sure if that's a good thing. So all week, people have been contacting me, asking, basically "what's in the book?" Now I'm the kind of creative person that has what might be termed the "usual" mix of artistic sensitivities and control issues about anything I present for public consumption. What, you thought these sterling, funny, MME emails just typed themselves with no thought? (don't answer that!) The book is in what might be called the draft stage, with only a working title. The topic -- pastor/musician relations (not relationships--that's for someone else to write) -- is a contentious one, filled with heat and light. So is the...let's see...discussion...right, discussion, about worship wars.

[Pardon the interruption...Just typing that reminds me of a conversation I had around 1990 with three other choir directors, all from the San Francisco Bay Area. We had formed a covenant group, and were away for a weekend retreat when the subject of worship and the unsettled nature of the future direction thereof was broached. We came to the consensus--rightly or wrongly--that those of us in California were dealing with things that the rest of the country had not begun to even hear about. I remember distinctly that the conversation came to a screeching halt when one of us said: "Wait until it gets to the midwest...then it will get really bloody." Memories...]

So I've been talked into printing the draft of my book's introduction for this week's email. In some ways, I'd much rather talk about Thanksgiving. Since what you are going to read is a draft, I've given you a chance to give me feedback, and even, perhaps, help me by telling your story. Check this week's MME page for your chance to tell me what you think. Start your reading here.

This week, pray for all those who are celebrating Thanksgiving, particularly those who are having trouble finding things for which to be grateful, and please tell your friends and colleagues about Creator and MME (and my book!--sorry...shameless plug) too.

Blessings,

Vern Sanders
Publisher
Creator Magazine

Good Morning.

Happy Thanksgiving week. I have always found this to be an odd two Sundays to plan, from a worship standpoint. Do you celebrate Thanksgiving on the Sunday before, or the Sunday after the actual day? Neither, for me, is entirely satisfactory. And, when you consider that most of the time the church at which I serve has been in or at the end of a stewardship campaign, it gets complicated. I think our Canadian friends have it much easier, since their Thanksgiving comes on a Monday (for our American readers, just look at the Monday closest to Columbus Day and you'll have an idea), so celebrating on the day before seems much more obvious. By the way, as long as we are having gratuitous Canadian references, American Thanksgiving weekend is also celebrated in Canada as one of the biggest holidays of the year--it's called Grey Cup (inside joke...don't worry if you don't get it). Anyway, since my wedding anniversary is such that it normally takes place on or about Thanksgiving, I solve the problem by taking one of my vacation weeks, and letting my assistant deal with making the worship design decisions. I'd be interested to know what you all do. Email me by clicking here, if you don't mind, and let me know.

On to business...Thanks to all of you who participated in our first Fantastic Friday. Congratulations to the CLN members who were randomly selected in each of the categories to win a copy of the new Gener8xion Entertainment,  Dove Family-Approved holiday film: Noëlle. The winners have already been notified by email, so if you haven't checked your email, just look for a separate entry in this Blog to see the list of the winners. We're going to do it again next month, so watch this space for more details.

Before I talk about this week's Monday Morning Email, let's get some new information and reminders out of the way [just want the new information? read the "this week's reminder" bullet, and discover some great new articles that are available).

· Remember that all of our Select 20 anthem reviews since 2004 are on our site, with more on the way. You must log in to see these, so log in and go here.

· This week's reminder about the many things available at our website to help you do your ministry better: You'll want to bookmark our articles page. We continue to add more of the over 1200 articles from Creator's print publishing history to our website, and you are sure to find things that will assist you in your ministry. Just select the topical category or categories that interest you to see what is there. Among the new titles this week are several intriguing and thought provoking ones, including a discussion of how to deal with the problem of a congregation's willingness to accept "new"music or art, one entitled Taste Wars, and How to End Them (anybody dealing with that?), some hints for singers and accompanists, a couple of things on congregational worship, and a wonderful article by noted conductor Max Ulbrich, on conducting. Click here for these and other articles.

· Thanks for taking our survey about children's music programs. I find the results fascinating...particularly that most of you do all this great work on less than $500 per year. Haven't taken the survey? Just click here.

· One last reminder about our helpful financial resource offered by guest MME contributor Angie Hollerich. Financial worries are on everybody's mind right now, and Angie has made it possible for us to offer her book Money: Is Not the Root of All Evil as an instant download. Just click here to get this wonderful resource now.

· OK...on to this week's MME. Doug Lawrence let the cat out of the bag last week about my book, and I am still not sure if that's a good thing. So all week, people have been contacting me, asking, basically "what's in the book?" Now I'm the kind of creative person that has what might be termed the "usual" mix of artistic sensitivities and control issues about anything I present for public consumption. What, you thought these sterling, funny, MME emails just typed themselves with no thought? (don't answer that!) The book is in what might be called the draft stage, with only a working title. The topic -- pastor/musician relations (not relationships--that's for someone else to write) -- is a contentious one, filled with heat and light. So is the...let's see...discussion...right, discussion, about worship wars.

[Pardon the interruption...Just typing that reminds me of a conversation I had around 1990 with three other choir directors, all from the San Francisco Bay Area. We had formed a covenant group, and were away for a weekend retreat when the subject of worship and the unsettled nature of the future direction thereof was broached. We came to the consensus--rightly or wrongly--that those of us in California were dealing with things that the rest of the country had not begun to even hear about. I remember distinctly that the conversation came to a screeching halt when one of us said: "Wait until it gets to the midwest...then it will get really bloody." Memories...]

So I've been talked into printing the draft of my book's introduction for this week's email. In some ways, I'd much rather talk about Thanksgiving. Since what you are going to read is a draft, I've given you a chance to give me feedback, and even, perhaps, help me by telling your story. Check this week's MME page for your chance to tell me what you think. Start your reading here.

This week, pray for all those who are celebrating Thanksgiving, particularly those who are having trouble finding things for which to be grateful, and please tell your friends and colleagues about Creator and MME (and my book!--sorry...shameless plug) too.

Blessings,

Vern Sanders
Publisher
Creator Magazine