Interview by Humilitee™
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July 14-19, 2024-Memphis, TN
READ ALONG WITH THE ACTUAL INTERVIEW WORD FOR WORD (Transcript • Not a article)
BISHOP JAMISON: [00:00:00]
In corporate America, they're always coming together. Every certain amount of time of year, they come together to network to sharpen iron sharpens iron, and it's crucial for gospel singers, gospel preachers, gospel directors, gospel musicians, those that work on the radio, those that manage is crucial that we come together to meet a meeting of minds and to just learn from one another and to check on one another. After the last three years, we needed a well check. In corporate America, they come together three or four times a year, maybe every quarter, to come together to chat, to just learn from one another, to reset, redial, replenish. That's one of the things. Jesus did that. He went to Martha and Mary house to relax, to replenish, to get himself together to go back and do ministry. There gotta be a place that we come together to sit down and talk. To just get ideas from one another to check on one another.
BISHOP WILLIS: For 57 years. The Lord has blessed [00:01:00] us to use this board meeting to literally begin to strategically plan our convention which will be Memphis, Tennessee this year, and we use this moment to bring our classes together, our leadership together in order that they may structure their, , service,, for the workshop, , convention. And they do it in such a marvelous way. Then on Thursday, we have a day where they show us everything that they put together. So for 57 years, we have been strategically setting up our program, which makes the GMWA the greatest gospel music conference in the world. So I want to just challenge everybody out there that everybody's invited, especially to our night sessions and even those in the day sessions.
BISHOP WILLIS: If you want to be a part of somebody, this is the planning session. This is the moment where we get it all together. This is where the bricks, , and the mortar get put in place before we see the big, beautiful building. So I want to just challenge you to make sure that, , you're [00:02:00] a part of it.
BISHOP KEVIN BOND: We're actually so blessed to have our chairman, Bishop Jamison. That's our visionary that's, , been keeping the gospel music workshop alive on the forefront on the cutting edge to find out what's necessary . What's new? How do we heal our people? What's the next thing that needs to happen in the musical industry? So, Bishop Jamison has been, , forthcoming with so many artists as well as musicians. As well as preachers to keep us on the cutting edge and make sure we are servicing our delegates. For 57 years, as Bishop Willis has already said, we want to remain to be the best music workshop convention in the world.
BISHOP WILLIS: There are a few ways that we, , plan our community. Bishop Jamison has always been a person of the community and of the city that we go in to try to impact it. , so many, , different missions, ministries or going out in the [00:03:00] street to touch homes. Deal with the homeless and the beautiful thing about our convention is it is always mission minded, , we go out into the street every single year, whatever community we're in, to impact the homeless community there and to impact those who are less fortunate than some of us.
And so our goal is to not only bring revenue to a city, but also to bring ministry to a city. And that is the vision of our Bishop Albert Jamison, , to make sure that we do more than just sing that we are feeding the homeless, that we are clothing that we're doing the ministry of Jesus Christ. While we're in the city. Not just that, we also open up our doors to our local choirs, our local members, our local bodies to be able to come and be a part and sing and minister. It is not just all of us coming in. The local community has a major part that makes us what we are. So we strategically choose cities where we can impact in a mighty way.
DR. KEVIN BOND: [00:04:00] Absolutely. We also meet with the pastors in that community to see, what their needs might be, because we're not a church, we are a convention, and we want them to come and to be a part of what we are doing, because we are training their members to go back to their churches and serve. The academic department of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, we are the largest floating university in the world. And we train musicians Sunday school teachers, ushers, nurses, , drummers, you name it, singers, directors, we train them how to go back and serve in their local churches. It's where everybody is somebody. That's what our founder's theme and Bishop Jamison has kept that right in the forefront of making everybody feel like somebody and letting everyone know there is a part for you to play. And our vision is large enough here at GMWA to include you on it and we'll give you a platform where you can minister your choir can minister you'll get an opportunity [00:05:00] to get dates to keep you busy for the entire year just attending one convention of the gospel music workshop of america and being able to minister we ask all of the choirs soloists directors to work through your local chapter everywhere we go, we have a local chapter. As you work towards your local chapter, you'll be able to come to the National Convention and it will be a life rewarding experience for you. The one man show is over. So networking and collaboration is extremely important our chairman, Bishop Jamison is down to earth. He's hands on. You'll see him walking through the hallways speaking to everyone. Give you know everybody a good opportunity to meet with him. Those that need to meet with him I'm just saying he is not up in the sky somewhere u nattached to what's going on. He is in the midst with the people and trying to, meet the needs that they may have, or the churches may have, or the choirs may have, so he is the voice [00:06:00] that brings us all together. And make sure that we're all doing what God has called us to do.
BISHOP JAMISON: If you've known us and you've come, we have people from other countries, Northern Cal was one of our biggest counterparts where we had many people from different nationalities would come through Northern Cal, the late Helen Stevens. If you look on some of our films and you see where we had the Chinese, we had the Polish, we had the Russians, we had all kinds of people. The Bahamas, we have them all that come. It's a place where everybody is somebody. That's the statement. That's what we stick by. Everybody is somebody.
DR. KEVIN BOND: The academic department we have over 70-75 educators, seminary trained who are all degreed. And we offer over 50 different courses. Every convention and those courses are [00:07:00] based on, the needs that our delegates may have. And that's everything from learning how to play or learning how to write songs or directing. It's liturgical dancing. It is the business of gospel music. It is bridging the gap between the pastor and the musician. It is all of the things that are going on in our churches today. It's even some things about the post pandemic. How do we minister in this post pandemic era? So all of those courses, students, delegates will be able to partake in . We have three different times of classes, seven 30. I believe nine and then one at noon or so. And then in addition to that, we also have. Daily bread, which is something that Bishop Jamison has instituted. At the G M W. A. That have a message that can minister to God's people. So many people that are working at the GMWA who [00:08:00] come to GMWA, they're burnt out from their churches. They're burnt out from, life is happening for all of us. So we come to GMWA and that's what we get.
DR. KEVIN BOND: Revive renewed, restored, replenished, and we try to have a Bishop Jameson is. really uses him with who to bring, who to minister and who to bless the people. And every year people leave saying it was good for us to be here.
BISHOP WILLIS: Education is one of the essential themes of the GMWA. We've seen it throughout the life of GMWA through the academic division, and not just the academic division, you can receive training on all levels of ministry in the GMWA. One of the most beautiful things is you will meet some of the most greatest musicians, greatest master workshop choir masters, all of these things, you can receive that wealth of knowledge, one through what Bishop said, and that is the the moment where [00:09:00] we're networking with one another. But then there's strategic courses throughout the ministry, and where you can find them all day, every day, through our evangelism, through quartet division, through the mass choir. It's information upon information. Those who like the younger music through CAD, our Contemporary Adult Division. Through every part of our ministry, there is influential people who can make sure they train you, set you on a path towards where your ministry can be highly effective in your church and your hometown. GMWA is full of training and it's full of training, full of education and academic division is one part, but then there are major parts throughout the entire meeting where you can continue to be strengthened, where you can leave refueled.
BISHOP WILLIS: Bishop Bond, you can. You can burn out, but when you come, you can receive so much new information until you can be refueled, that you can take it back to your hometown, your church, and then you [00:10:00] can grow. And so training is a great part of our our body. And it will continue to be through deans and all of these great things that GMWA has going on.
BISHOP JAMISON: Reset, recharge, and replenish. Those three things.