Q. & A.

qanda

youareherebrwn

 

Click on a category above to open it. Once the category is open, many questions will appear.

To view the answer for a question, click on the question or   down

To close the answer, click on the question or   up

 

 

 

A.] How do you receive Postal mail?

a Our mail is sent to a Post Office Box and then forward to us wherever we are on the road.

 

Q.] How many concerts are performed each week?

aOn average around four times a week. In the past we have ministered as many as nine times in one week and well over 365 times in a year.  We are currently dealing with the cost of fuel, which is keeping are schedule some what relaxed.

Q.] Have you ministered in any foreign countries?

a We have had many request to minister in foreign countries, but with our US schedule and strict custom measures, it has made crossing the border of our country [with our bus and equipment] very difficult. We look forward to the possibilty of overcoming this dilemma in the near future. With that said, we have a burden for the US and believe that God has us here for a reason.

 

Q.] How many siblings are there in your family?

a  In our immediate family, there are seven of us, four boys and three girls.

 

Q.] What do you do for the holidays?

a We try to take a week or so off around Christmas and Thanksgiving. A lot of our family lives in Florida and the Carolina's, so we try to use this time to be with them.

 

Q.] What states have you been to?

a We have been to each and every state, except for Alaska and Hawaii.

 

Q.] It is said that your converted buses are your home?

aIn 1987 we gave up our house in order to be able to continue our full time faith ministry. Because of finances, we were unable to continue making house payments while living on the love offerings that we receive from the places we minister. We have never required fees to minister and in order to continue with the purchase of a home, it would have been necessary to start charging a fee for ministry. Feeling that God wanted us to continue in full time ministry by faith alone, we decided to give up our house.

Update: When our parents retired from the road to help care for our grandparents, they all moved to South Carolina to be near Mom's doctor. They now share a home there and we base out of there when we are in the area.

 

Q.] Who is married in the group?

a None of the current group members are married. Our oldest brother and our middle sister (who no longer travel with us) are married.

 

Q.] Who writes your music?

a Debra, John, and Joy write the majority of the music that we sing.

 

Q.] How long is your concert?

a Depending on the time frame we are given and the leading of the Holy Spirit, our services are anywhere from around an hour to an hour and a half long (give or take a few minutes).

 

Q.] How much does it cost to attend?

a
We are a faith based evangelistic ministry, which means that we are supported only by the donations we receive from the people we minster to. Typically, a free-will love offering is taken at the end of a concert and you may give as much or as little as you feel like. We are also financially supported by the sales of our recordings, which are normally available following the service. If you attend one of our concerts, we will not pressure you to give or purchase anything. In fact, there will not even be a recordings sales pitch, before, during or after our service.

 

Q.] If I follow you around, will I hear the same concert?

a
It is very likely that you will hear many of the same songs and a similiar program flow if you follow us around from concert to concert in a short period of time. Most evangelists and professional concert groups conduct similiar programs from venue to venue; and we are not any different. The message that we have is just as relevant for one person as it is for another who has not heard it. The message of the gospel has not and will not ever change. We are careful to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our services and make changes to the flow of our program at any given time. As we write new songs and as God leads, it is not uncommon for us to completely change the flow of our program from year to year.

 

Q.] Is dress formal or casual?

a
We typically dress more formal, but it is not uncommon at all to find formal and casual dress at any many of our concerts.

 

Q.] Is there any audience participation?

a
You may participate as much as you like. You may sing along, clap your hands, stomp your feet, etc. We love audiences that give us feedback. We do not have any audience participation where an audience member is singled out. We do sometimes ask the entire congregation to sing along on a particular song or two.

 

Q.] Is there preaching in your service?

a There is no traditional preaching. We do share testimonies and biblical truths when introducing songs, and many consider our services a one night revivial, but as far as traditional preaching, no.

 

Q.] What are your volume levels?

a We are very careful to keep our volume levels at a comfortable sound level for people of all ages. We bring all of our own instruments, so unlike church acoustic instruments, we are able to control the volume of each of the individual instruments that we use. We are one of the few groups who do not use any floor monitors and this helps us to have better control over the way the sound is for our audience. We always receive compliments about the quality and clarity of our sound. We are told that many groups that proceed us are too loud and can not be understood. If we ran our sound that way, what would the point be of having you attend our concert in the first place? If you can't properly hear, then we are defeating our purpose!

 

Q.] What style of music do you do?

a The simplest answer is middle of the road, which means not extremely southern and not extremely contemporary, but somewhere in between. Our music style is received well by a broad audience, from young to old. To read what critics say about our style of music, click here. To hear a demo of the styles of music you may hear in one of our concerts, please see our media page.

 

Q.] Will children and/or teens relate to your music?

a Each child and teenager is of course different, but on average, children and teens respond well to our music. We feel that we are pretty diverse in music styles, so we encourage parents to bring their children and teens to our services to hear the heart impacting messages in our songs.

 

Q.] Do you use sound tracks or is everything performed live?

a All of the music and singing that you will hear is performed live. We do not use any sound tracks or track backup vocals of any kind.

 

Q.] Fees, contracts, or any requirements?

You state that you have no fees, contracts or requirements for your ministry. You also state that you have no backing or financial support and yet this ministry is what you do full time. Are you independently wealthy? What do you really require to bring your ministry to a church?

aYes, we are wealthy, but not independently. Our Father has wealth untold, but it doesn't seem to be in His plan to bless us with large sums of money at this time. Oh, you can relate, can you? :-) More importantly, He has and does supply each and everyone one of our needs, which is more than we deserve.

Some people are blessed with independent wealth and can use their financial resources to build the kingdom of Christ without the financial aid of anyone. We on the other hand, are more like Jesus' disciples. Jesus called us to give up our "normal" lives and go into full time ministry, and we have. We have given up jobs, which provided a secure income and a home, which provided a secure safe haven, in order to follow the call of Christ. We are now depending on Him to provide for us by means of His choosing. To some it sounds crazy, to others, courageous, but it is neither. It is simply obedience. We've lost nothing worth keeping in the long run.

Jesus supplied food for thousands with a mere loaf of bread and a few fish. He supplied money for taxes from the mouth of a fish. It's not hard to put our complete faith in Him, that He will supply our financial needs through any means of His choosing.

Do we require money from people in order to minister to them? The answer is NO! That is not to say that God does not choose to use people to provide for the financial needs of this ministry, because He does. However, when we state that we will come to minister for nothing in return, we mean it. If it will burden your church to take up a free-will love offering, then don't - that will not keep us from coming. Nor will we pressure you in any financial way when we leave. Often, love offerings from smaller churches make up for love offerings from larger churches and vice versa. God has and will continue to supply all of our needs.

Since we live on our bus, we do not require food or lodging either, but we do sometimes ask to connect our buses to the church power and stay overnight on the church property. If this is not possible or if it will be a burden to your church, again, this will not keep us from coming to your church to minister.

So, what do we really require to come and minister? Nothing!

Q.] How much time will you need to setup?

aIf we are scheduled on a weekday, then we will try to arrive in the afternoon, from 3:00 - 4:00 PM at the latest. We like to have about 3 hours from the time we arrive until starting time. If a problem arises in our coming to your church and we are late, please do not be concerned. We've had to set-up in as little as 40 minutes and although it's not fun, it can be done. :-).

It is very helpful to us if you will make arrangements so that we can gain access to your building around our arrival time, as well as temporary parking near the building for unloading equipment.

Q.] Is our church to small for you?

Our church is small and does not have good turn-outs for special groups; you should minister at the largest church in our community.

aIf you feel that we should minister at the largest church in your community rather than yours, and you can help to open that door of ministry, we would not be opposed to that at all. The larger the indoor seating capacity, the larger the opportunity for community outreach. You could plan to bring your entire church over to the largest church, and it could be a wonderful time of ministry for both churches and the community.

At least the plan sounds wonderful, but the fact is, this statement came from a pastor who was unable to open the door of another church to our ministry. This pastor was concerned in meeting the needs of our ministry. While that is a Christ-like attitude, we would ask that if you are thinking this way because of these concerns, that you not let your concern get in the way of prayerfully seeking God about opening the door to your church to us. Just because you do not have a large church does not mean that God can't bless you through our ministry. We believe that if the door is opened to our ministry, and you do your best to advertise, invite your people to come and invite others to come, that God will have the right people there.

Q.] Snack, Meal, Food?

We understand that you do not require food, but we would like to prepare a meal or take you out for dinner, what do you like to eat?

aYou are correct in that we do not require any food, but we certainly appreciate your thoughtfulness.

We are not picky eaters; we eat anything! With the exception of raw seafood, things still alive, and organs, we enjoy just about everything else. Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Southern, did I mention pizza?

We normally do not eat before a service. We have found that it's hard on us and our audience. :-)

Normally, we prepare our own meals on our bus, and we truly do not expect churches to provide food for us.

Q.] What type of parking might you need for your buses?

aWe are currently traveling in only one tour bus and tow trailer, which is approximately 60 feet (total) length. It would be helpful to have a temporary place to park the bus (as close to the building as possible) in order to unload our equipment. We do not need any sound personnel to be on call since we unload, setup and run all of our own sound equipment.

We may ask to stay the night in our bus on your property if possible, so it would be helpful to have a place large enough to put our bus and trailer, as close as possible to an AC 220V/240V or 208V circuit breaker power panel and water hose connection. This is not a requirement.

Please see: What type of RV connection might you need for more information.

Q.] What type of RV connection might you need?

a[This only applies if we are staying overnight in our bus on your property.]

We use non-standard plugs for our bus electric hook-ups, so your building will not have a plug that we can plug directly into. However, if your building  has a 50 AMP RV type hook-up, then we can use an adapter to connect into that type of power connection.

Most buildings do not have any type of RV electric connections and this is normally not a problem for us at all. We have a capable electrician in the family who can get power from nearly any circuit breaker box that the church has. Many times there are power disconnects on air units outside of your building that would work perfectly. Other times, there are circuit breaker panels near a window inside your building.


If this has you concerned, please don't be. We do this nearly everyday and guarantee that we will leave your circuit breaker box in as good condition or possibly better than we find it. I say possibly better because we have prevented several potential electrical fires due to alerting the churches of problems found in electrical boxes. Many churches were not wired by electricians and though well meaning, if not done correctly, it can be a fire hazzard.

If the church has electricians, please do not call on them to assist us. Like setting up and running our own sound, we have found that by doing the electrical wiring ourselves, we can save time, energy and concern for all parties involved.


We will not let this issue be a henderance, so if you are uncomftorable with us wiring into an electrical box, please let us know in advance of our coming and we won't even ask. If you can provide an electrical hook up for us, great, if not, we can run our generator.

Q.] Would your ministry be effective in a non traditional church?

aWe have ministered in every major church denominations across our nation. We have performed concerts at fairs, schools, civic auditoriums, etc. We have also ministered to the un-churched in resorts all across the West Coast.

We have ministered to churches that range from traditional to extreme contemporary. Although the entertainment value of our ministry is subjective to personal taste, the effectiveness of our ministry has remained consistent no matter where we minister. Our music style is broad and generally accepted very well, but music style is not the main focus of our ministry. If it was, it would be impossible to please every person's musical taste. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit blends our music and message in a way that displaces music style and replaces it with Christ-centered ministry.

I had a teenage boy come up to me recently and tell me how our music was not something he would normally listen to. He said it wasn't his style at all. But he said, "You know, there is just something about it that made it real to me." This teenager found help at the altar that night, not because of our musical style, (maybe even in spite of it), but simply because God uses willing and obedient servants that proclaim His truth and seek to do His will.

Please see our Critics Say page for letters from many different churches with traditional and non-traditional styles of worship.