Also disadvantageous was the time difference. The live stream was an hour later in our time zone. That meant that the concerts ran until midnight every night. It’s not as easy to do a week of midnights as it used to be!
While the live feed is a good second-best, there is no real substitute for being at live concerts. Seeing them on the screen is great, but it is just not as engaging as the real thing. Though songs and testimonies may move you, a couple of people sitting in a living room does not give the same atmosphere as thousands of Christians united in one purpose. You are not as fully immersed in the experience and the Spirit is just not the same as when worshiping with so many other believers.
Then there is the obvious big disadvantage for a gospel song writer—you can’t visit the exhibit areas and meet with the artists. This is perhaps the biggest loss of all to me. In the “business” or “industry” (and, yes, there is that side to gospel music), songs are often taken because the song writer is known to the artist and because relationships have been forged. I know this to be true because I met Sandy Glass who produced our cantata, “Follow the Star to Calvary,” in 2015 at NQC in 2011. I had pitched her songs for three years before that, but actually meeting made it a relationship, instead of just a correspondence. The same can be said of the recording of our song, “Morning Prayer” (released in July, 2016 on “Seven”) by Canaan’s Crossing. I pitched to them for a year before I met Tina Miller of the group in 2009 at NQC and we became friends. When actually in attendance at the NQC, as a gospel song writer, I do have to sacrifice concert time to spend time in the exhibit areas meeting artists, but there is no substitute for meeting face to face.
One con of “attending” via the live feed is that when so many people are logged onto the same server at once the feed can occasionally be “jumpy” or you can get booted off-line altogether. This is most annoying as it always seems to happen right in the middle of a favorite or new song you want to hear or when someone is giving a particularly moving testimony. When the feed “jumps” or breaks up, a little is missed, but when you are disconnected, you have to go to the computer and log on all over again. Usually, the group has moved on to another song or the testimony is over by the time you are logged on again. This is unfortunate but I don’t see how it can be avoided.
One thing I have found that both the experiences of actually attending the NQC and viewing the live feed at home have in common is the following. I have always found what I call the “Wednesday Night Hump.” When actually at the convention, I found myself feeling a little sad toward the end of Wednesday evening because I realized the week was half over and before I knew it, I would be returning to the real world again and leaving this environment where I was able to focus just on the Lord and what I was trying to do for and through Him. Sitting in front of the TV screen, I found myself feeling exactly the same way. At NQC I always feel cloistered, away from my cares and every crazy thing that is going on in the world. I found I felt exactly the same way viewing it all on-line, even though we went about our routines during the day. Perhaps this was because in the evening we focused on the Lord’s music and didn’t bother with the latest horror on the news channels. It was a wonderful hiatus from it all.
We all know there is nothing like the real thing, especially when it comes to the National Quartet Convention. It is a blessing and a joy to attend. However, if that is not possible, the live stream over the Internet will also bless your socks off, if you happen to be wearing any at the time! |
