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Christian music does not mean that you are always dealing with Christian people. Sometimes we have to deal with Christian people who have very un-Christian business practices. And many people that deal with Royalty distribution and other aspects of the Christian music business, don't even claim to be Christians. Organizations like BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC are secular businesses that handle roylaty distribution for all styles of music. Copyright management companies like Integrated Copyright Group, and others, handle accounts for publishers from all genres of music. I'm sure that there must be some Christians who work for those companies, but these are not Christian Companies that deal exlusively with Christian Music. It is very likely that you may have to deal with someone who does not practice or appreciate Christian values. There are times that you may have to deal with someone on the phone that you have never met, in a New York, Los Angeles or the Nashville office.

All of the companies I mentioned are respectable institutions and will always try to maintain a professional business standard. But keep in mind, it will usually be a secular standard, not a Christian one.

I have three occasions when I have had to trace down unpaid money through one of these companies. All three times the problem was that my money had been sent to another writer outside the Christian music field. That other writer made life very difficult for me for a time. He was cashing checks that did not belong to him. The company representing me treated him in a legal way, and not neccessarily in Christian love.

Within the Christian community, most disputes can be resolved in a Christian manner. Not always as quickly as we would like for them to be resolved, but they usually do get resolved where all parties are satisfied.
A lot of times it is just a matter of miscomunication.

I seldom try to paint the dark side of the Southern Gospel Music business to new writers. But the reality is, that there is a dark side with very shady business dealings. The Bible instructs us that when we praise the Lord, that we are to lift up HOLY HANDS to Him. God wants clean hands to praise Him. I'm not sure how much praise He gets or will accept from hands that have been working dirty deals in business.

Make sure your hands stay clean.

But even though these times may occur, it should not stop you from your ministry of writing. Your desire to reach souls for Christ should always be the underlying factor that keeps you going.

There should always be a faithfulness in your calling to write that will not be stopped by people mistreating you or doing you wrong. If you keep your heart right through it all, God will honor it, and you will come out better for it just like He planned for you to do. No outside party can keep God's perfect will from being manifested in your life unless you allow it.

Until next time, keep on writing!

Daryl Williams
http://www.darylwilliamstrio.net

Reader Comments

Randall, if we DON'T operate our ministries like a business our future is even bleaker. We are in this world, not of this world, but we are still IN this world and have to live among the people. Do you not notice that every church is run like a business? Where we store our treasures really has little to do with how we run our ministry. We still have laws that we must abide by. Daryl has dealt with this topic expertly.

Deon Unthank
SoGospelNews.com
My Blog

Some people are like Slinkys… Not really good for anything, but they
still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs - Author Unknown

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