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Monday started for us with a roundtable discussion featuring Bill Gaither, Joyce Martin McCollough (The Martins) and Paul Emery (Clear Channel). The title for the discussion was The Gaither Homecoming Phenomena. If you think that only Southern Gospel industry was interested in this you are wrong. This was attended by all genres of music. Of course, if you think you were going to find the real answer to how this came about you were wrong, because even Bill Gaither cannot explain it. However, after listening to this discussion it was easy to see that the biggest thing Mr. Gaither did was to put his business/ministry into his own hands. Early on he discovered that his success was never going to be accomplished by relying on other people to promote his music. This is great advice. Another great piece of advice he gave was to have a plan and work it, "He who has no plans becomes a victim of other people's plans."

Bill spent some time explaining how the Bill Gaither Trio came about. Bill's start in southern gospel came about in songwriting. After his songs became a hit people started asking about the songwriters. This is when he decided to travel with his wife, Gloria and brother, Danny as the Bill Gaither Trio. It was during this tenure that he adopted what has become a great method of success. Bill discovered early on that he was always at the mercy of another promoter. After arriving at many concerts where there had been little advertising and even smaller ticket sales, he realized he would need to do something else. Bill opened his own promotion and booking company for just The Bill Gaither Trio and this was a major plus in his success.

Bill attributes his homecoming video succes to being a "God thing." Much of what happened with the original video was simply an outcome of his love for the history of southern gospel music and his love for the people involved. Sounds like a "God thing" to me.

Bill talked often about the need to be sensitive in programming. The videos and concerts are primarily entertaining but he knows that there are always people in audience night after night that are hurting. He encourages all of his artists to always be aware of that and to plug into it.

Joyce Martin McCollough, vocalist of the popular group The Martins, can attest to the fact that the Gaither videos and concerts have been instrumental in the success of her group. Joyce stated that she feels that appearing so often in the Gaither videos helped place a "stamp of approval" on her group. She attributes Bill for teaching The Martins many things, especially the importance of investing in other peoples lives. Another important thing she learned is working together and not in competition with each other is beneficial.

Paul Emery of Clear Channel stated that Bill Gaither is just as interested in the "little guy" as he is the "big guy." Often times Bill has cancelled, re-arranged and gone to great lengths to not compete with others in this industry.

When asked about competition Bill laughed and said that at one time he was tempted by that green monster of envy when told that he had just packed an arena with 8000 concert goes, but learned that Elvis Presley had packed it at 16,000 attendees for 3 nights. He learned a valuable lesson that ego can rob you of your blessings. He almost forgot about those 8000 people as if they had been nothing. Never again, would he let competition ruin his blessing. He said that the only person he competes against is himself. He explained it much like a golfer is always trying to get a better score than the last time. Bill said he is always looking for a way to present a better concert, to reach more people. It is this last goal that prompted him to hire Clear Channel to promote his concerts.

This was a wonderful way to spend the morning and we all came away loving Mr. Gaither just a little bit more. One of the last questions posed to him that day was perhaps the most profound. What do you see as the future of Southern Gospel Music? To which he replied, "If you want to describe southern gospel as narrowly as some want to describe it - it has no future!"

To which I silently uttered, "Amen!"

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Immediately after this discussion we were privileged to attend a reception in honor of those in southern gospel music hosted by John Styll, president of the GMA. He emphasized adamantly how much the GMA wants those genres who have felt slighted in the past by the GMA to know that they are very much wanted and a vital part of the Christian Music industry. This statement was met with much applause by those attending. I encourage everyone to get involed in the GMA and give more voice to our industry. Let's remember that the music is the vehicle but the message is the same.

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