My family spent the weekend camping in the beautiful Tennessee mountains, because it was halfway to Nashville where I was invited to speak on Monday at the GMA Week. This is the week every year where the Gospel Music Association and all the Christian broadcasters come together to have their annual convention. In the exhibit hall they have presentations on developing their business as broadcasters and get to hear new bands and old ones and generally reconnect.
So it is a lot like the big week in July of every year where the Christian publishing industry comes together. I was expecting to feel somewhat at home, even though I had never been to a GMA Convention before. But I was surprised. It was full of energy and vigor and interest, but wow, is it different from the Christian publishing industry. In the publishing world, you have lots of people in business suits and dresses and people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, who have been a presence in the publishing world for years. Directing the publishing industry are businessmen and businesswomen, as well as the authors.
In the gospel music world, however, you have a convention center that is overrun with hundreds and hundreds of people in their 20s in funky clothes and big hair. I called one of my assistants and said, “It’s big hair everywhere,” and you should see the women. The joke was, that the men in the bands in the gospel music industry are just as likely to have the big gel-slicked-up hair artfully arranged as the women are and it’s pretty fun, but a very, very different world than the conservative publishing world.
I asked a bellhop, who was helping me with my boxes, whether he enjoyed this week, since they had this every year. He said, “Yes, you know, there’s a lot of energy” and he sort of hesitated and then he said, “but it just seems like it’s so much about the image you know.” Interesting, I thought, that is probably a perception. I wondered how far we should, in the Christian world, be taking the presentation of whatever image and whatever branding we are going for. I am not criticizing, because I am sure I do the same things. I mean, I worry when I go on television, whether my hair is looking just the way I want or whether my clothes are presenting the right image. I worry how my image comes across and sometimes when I hear a comment like that bellhop’s, it makes me wonder, “isn’t the only image that we should be worried about, the image of Jesus we are presenting to the world.”
As I said in the previous blog post, I don’t have any answers exactly, but it did make me think very poignantly, this man’s comment really made me think and wonder whether we go overboard with the presentation of our image. Are we thinking too much about that and maybe obscuring the chance that people will see our Lord. Other than that reflection though, I enjoyed the time there. I was especially so grateful to have a chance to participate and join in a worship service on Sunday night led by Michael W Smith and several others in the Historic Ryman Auditorium. It was absolutely wonderful to be able to pack into an auditorium with several thousand other people and all worship the Lord together led by some of the most wonderful worship leaders in the industry. So that was definitely a highlight.
On Monday, I had my talk on For Women Only in the Workplace and actually interestingly, For Men Only in the Workplace, helping women and men understand things about each other at work, not just in relationships. I am enjoying the chance that I have to do more and more of the workplace application in addition to the relationship application. I think it’s vitally important in all arenas.