Good Morning.

I'm sending this a bit early because I am away all day Monday, March 30 at a Church Music Publishers Association event. Thanks for understanding. I'm taking this opportunity to send along our semi-regular announcement, so...

If you are a "regular" MME reader, you may want to skip the next 9 or 10 paragraphs to go directly to this week's Monday Morning Email, or read along with our periodic reminder of all the great things available to our Creator Leadership Network members (that's you if you are reading this email) at Creator's website)...

The post Easter ministry transition season is just about here, and if you are being lead to explore other opportunities to minister, you'll want to check our extensive list of links to position listings, which you can find by clicking here.

For those of you who are involved in choir ministry, check out our growing collection of our Select 20 anthem reviews since 2004, with more being added on a regular basis. You will need to log in to see these, so log in and go here.

We still have some of our latest HONORED 10 ANTHEMS from 2007 Enhanced CDs available, and we are offering them free, while they last, to any NEW paid subscriber. To subscribe, and get your H10 CD, just click here. But... If you log in at the site, as a CLN member you'll get our best subscription or renewal rate. Again, you must log in to get this rate, which can be found here, in the left hand column.

You'll want to bookmark our articles page. We are adding all of the more than 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. Click here to purchase these and other articles.

And check out our Forms Library, which is a useful set of forms to streamline some of the repetitive tasks of ministry.

We have other weekly features in addition to Monday Morning Email. On Tuesdays, as soon as it is available, we have Carl Stam's Worship Quote of the Week. Don't miss Randy Vader's periodic musings: Thinking on These Things.

Early in the week we add the Robert Webber Worship Quote of the Week from the Institute for Worship Studies. Look for the link on our home page.  (All of this is a not-so-subtle way of saying we'd like you to visit our site on days besides Monday!) While you are at our home page, if you haven't taken the survey, please help us help you by doing so. Just click here.

Don't forget to check out Doug Lawrence's weekly tips for singers. Clicking here will lead you to a link to the tips on Doug's Find Your Voice page on our site.

We also recommend Tom Kraeuter's weekly Worship Devotions, which is available at a reduced price to those of you in the Creator Leadership Network. I use these every week with my choir. If you are interested in getting this weekly worship devotional emailed to (you can also get it in podcast form), just click here. To get 30% off, use the code "cmag."

OK...new information here...

A couple of shameless plugs.

● I was honored to be asked to contribute a chapter to the book on leadership development: Transforming Power: Stories from Transformational Leaders for Inspriation and Encouragement, which is published by Discipleship Resources. Some of the other contributors that you might know are Hugh Ballou, Dean McIntyre, John Savage, Daniel Sharp, Thomas Troeger, and William Willimon. Transformation Leadership is a shift to leading with a vision and about building leaders in your team, and Transforming Power is full of short, relevant leadership stories from of today’s most successful leaders and are easy to read and which are helpful …immediately! If you have a sincere desire to help transform the organization you lead (or if you just have to read my chapter :) ), just click here.

● I'm now on facebook, and you'll want to connect in two ways: Find me and I'll be your facebook friend. Also, the Creator Leadership Network facebook group has over 90 members. It is a great way to be connected, because it is growing the peer-to-peer helping aspect of CLN that we planned for all along. Got a ministry, musical, or leadership question? Join the group and let us know what you need.
I'm on facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1346237945
You can find the CLN group at
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=56627023585

And (ta da!)

● I have launched a blog, which you can find at http://dotdotdotblog.com The blog ismostly about church music and leadership, but you might find that I've sneaked a post in about family, friends, and other things from time to time. Check it out, and I'd be honored if you would subscribe to it. It's easy to do--you'll need a blog reader like bloglines--just look for the big orange "button" with the stripes near the top of the page. Click on the button and follow the directions...
One other thing...if you have a website, or a blog, I would appreciate it if you would put a link to mine. Thanks.

OK...a few more things before it is Monday Morning Email time...

● NEW INFORMATION about Creator's track of classes at the MusiCalifornia conference this year, in particular a series of classes on Monday, April 13 which will center on The Choir in Modern Worship. We're pleased to announce that JAY ROUSE has agreed to join our presenters Doug Lawrence, Paul Plew, and Glenn Pickett. They all will be joining me as part of our panel discussions covering everything from how to teach your traditional choir to sing appropriately with a worship band, how to deal with the musical demands of a transitional worship pattern, the benefits of getting your choir out of the loft (and out of the sanctuary) and much more. I urge you to register for this wonderful conference (and mention the code "Creator10" to get 10% off your registration fee. "Early bird" registration rates have been extended, so get the best rate by registering now....to do so, just click here. Don't forget: I'll be teaching a session on The Four Models of Music Ministry as well as leading an Honored 10 Anthems reading session.  

● And, another reminder that I'll be doing an Honored 10 reading session and teaching at the National Church Music Conference in the Indianapolis area, on Thursday, April 23. I'm doing one of my favorite sessions: How to improve your choir in just 30 minutes. Intrigued? I can help your choir sound remarkably better by playing two games. You have to hear the difference to believe it. Added attractions (he said modestly) are Rory Noland, Tom Fettke, and the Annie Moses Band. To register for this conference, just click here.

● This week in MME, building upon the blog theme, we feature some great information from the blogosphere, including the concept of a Chief Conversation Officer, help for your church website, and, from Michael Smith, helps for planning worship. Good stuff! Just click here to read this week's MME.

This week, pray for your colleagues and your community, in particular for those who will be attending Easter programs and special services, that they will be blessed by your efforts...and please tell your friends and colleagues about Creator and MME (and my blog!) too.

Blessings,

Vern Sanders
Publisher
Creator Magazine