FROM PHADRAH: "Reflections of a Founder"

It has been many years since I was last directly involved with ACAN, but I think back fondly over the days of the organisation's inception, when a small group of musically-minded people met at a modest Melbourne eatery to discuss the vision burning within us. It was my privilege to help co-found this not-for-profit support network to assist, resource and equip the work of independent Australian Christian music artists and to serve as the organisation's National Coordinator for 4 years. For several years (beginning 1998), the ACAN National Office was run full-time from of a spare bedroom in my home on a completely voluntary basis and I felt enormously honoured to serve God and this growing community of His gifted servants on a daily basis. I also recall many, many months of intensely hard but satisfying work coordinating the Forest Edge Christian Music Festival and Muso's Breakfast Industry Showcase events over a number of years. ACAN was an organisation with a clear and vital vision, operating at a time in Australian Christian music history where a concerted effort to unify and serve artists was desperately needed. That need still exists, but new times clearly require new strategies and directions.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all of the hardworking ACAN coordinators, administrators and volunteers who served alongside me through the early years, and to those who came after me to continue the work of ACAN once my season had ended. Their efforts behind the scenes have usually gone unnoticed and unrewarded, and yet they have served wholeheartedly and must be highly commended for their tireless efforts during ACAN's season of service. I pay tribute to the myriad of artists who have supported ACAN over the years with their membership, and whose ministries have been supported in return. I exhort those who continue to serve God with their musical giftings to faithfully and humbly continue to seek to serve His will in all areas of their craft. While in many ways it is sad to see ACAN's era now come to a close, this historical turning point can only mark the beginning of exciting new things as a new era begins. My prayers are with those who now pick up the baton to run the next leg of this important race.

Phadrah Torelle
ACAN Co-Founder

FROM MARTIN: "Last ACAN News"

Was it really 10 years ago? It seems like a few weeks – or a lifetime – ago that a few of us met in a suburban café to discuss a network for musicians. Not just a way of talking with each other, but for musos to move forward individually by moving forward mutually. From memory, the first meeting was attended by Dave and Rosanna Palmer, Ashley Kiesskalt, Martin Walker, Col Saddington, Gerard Callanan, Caz Oates, subsequent meetings we were joined by Wes Jay, Claire Hazzard, Phil Logan, Ben Louise and more.

At the time there were amazing artists coming from different parts of the country, but the Brisbane scene, the Sydney scene, the Adelaide and Melbourne scenes… there wasn’t a sense of ‘national’ really. It was a time when creative people often felt isolated and the country felt huge.

My own involvement came from wanting to help people connect. Fledgling artists need to be able to talk with people more experienced, experienced artists need people to pass their experience onto, everybody needs a place where they will be treated like a human being and not as a weirdo or a stranger or even (God forbid!) some kind of rockstar. We wanted to let the air of the hot-balloon of competitiveness, to give rise to the Godly principle of cheering each other on.

So we created the Musicians Breakfast to make it easy to connect artists and industry. We researched and ran the most comprehensive gig guide ever, at its peak listing 255 upcoming gigs and arts events. With no money in the bank we started the ACAN Forest Edge Christian Music Festival and ran five of those, the memories of which I will always hold dearly. The ACAN website had a comprehensive list of hundreds – I can’t remember how many – six? – of singers and bands from around the country. Listing was open to all, members or not (members got a photo up). We didn’t quite get to the television show.

Amidst all of this Christian radio was getting its foothold around the country at the turn of the Millennium, licenses were being granted that in some cases were decades due, and Aussie artists were getting radio play.

It was an incredibly exciting time.

But we didn’t initiate the conversation. There have been people all along, doing this sort of job. Kevin and Jan Craik ran the Australian Christian Music Seminar (inc. performing arts) at Cooma NSW some twenty-one times. The Blackstump Festival (music, arts, teaching, God stuff) is legendary. Steve Grace has always talked up local musicians. On Being magazine, Peter Shurley, Steve Dix and Dave Gray with CAM/CRAM magazine, Vic Campbell. David Cook with the ACMusic website, Geoff Rankin with Brisbane Christian Chat. Christian Artists Factory/Dee Kaylock, Wes and Woodlands. Who can measure what the Hillsong Conference has done to foster undestanding, at the pastoral level, of how creative people think? Sonfest came along, AGMF/Easterfest had good governance, big crowds, a sense of place and community. The conversation continues with GMA-ANZ, the Musicians Prayer network, Aussie Christian Gigs, JoyNoise Hub and others to come. (Apologies if I didn’t mention you, you know who you are, and I will remember when the article is already sent!)

As the organization ACAN becomes discorporated, the principles behind it must remain.

Love your neighbour as yourself.

Cheer for, rather than compete with, those who get good opportunities – and you will have friends.

Be faithful, especially be faithful in the small things. Persevere. Know you are called.

Stand together. Be strong and courageous.

Love God.

Goodbye ACAN. It has been an honour to be part of a conversation that is ongoing.

Martin Fawkes
ACAN Vice-Coordinator 1999-2002
ACAN National Coordinator 2002-2004

DEVOTIONAL: Musicians Prayer Network; "Why Do We Pray?"

This was in an email I got from a muso this week: “I always have a struggle with prayer, i.e. how can it help even if you’re praying for people on the other side of the world? And predestination? And why would God answer your prayers for someone else JUST cos YOU asked Him to”? Fair questions. If God already knows all, and has it all planned, what difference can we make?

I believe our praying makes a difference because God chooses to let it make a difference. He chooses to involve us in His plans for this world and its people. He even chooses to change His plans at times, if we ask Him to.

One stark example of God “changing His mind” is in Exodus 32: 9-14. During their desert wanderings Aaron and the people got tired of waiting for God, made themselves another god, an idol, and started to worship it. In v10 God says to Moses, “Now leave me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them“. But Moses “prays” for the people, and says, “Turn from your fierce anger: relent and do not bring disaster on your people” (v12b). V14 tells us that “Then the Lord relented, and did not bring on the people the disaster He had threatened”.

It can seem complicated because He won't always change things. Often He sees flaws in our judgment, or in what we are asking for, and He always sees a bigger picture than we can, so He sometimes chooses to not respond as we would hope. He is still God, after all.

But this is not to say that God chooses to disregard us, or to treat us as His pawns. All of His dealings with us are encompassed in the truth that He loves us, and wants what is best for us. See Romans 8 :28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him”.

I think my attitude has been helped by something I heard. A prominent speaker was asked if people were always miraculously healed by God when his team prayed for healing. He answered, no, not always, but more people are healed when we do pray than when we don't. I tend to have the same attitude to praying for people for other things.

God wants to have a relationship with us, not just be our Supreme ruler. And in a relationship we have the right to say how we are feeling, to express our views, to ask for change. Can you imagine being in a relationship where the two of you never talked, or worse, when you talked to the other person, they were always inflexible and never did anything you asked? Not a good relationship, right? Communication has to be honest & meaningful, and both parties must listen and respond.

The New Testament has many references to prayer and praying. They tell us that we should pray often, and that we should pray for ourselves, and the things we need.

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Be joyful always, PRAY CONTINUALLY, give thanks in all circumstances …”.

- Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but … PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS to God”.

- James 1:5, ”If any of you lacks wisdom he should ASK GOD, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him”.

We are also told we should pray for others. Paul gives us examples at the start of most of his letters (Romans through to 2 Thessalonians) on how to pray for other people. In most of those letters he opens with a section telling them what he has been praying for, for them. Check out the opening chapters of some of those books and make some of them the subject of your prayers for each other. I’ll let you look some of them up for yourselves, but why not start with Colossians 1:9-12.

Resources For the Road Ahead

There are many options available to you to continue to connect with like-minded musos and be encouraged, challenged and part of a community. We'd like to personally invite you to be part of the JoyNoise Hub and join us on this next part of our personal musical journey. But we aren't the only option out there so we've listed a few alternatives below so you can prayerfully choose which groups you feel you want to be a part of, and follow the still small voice of God. Join one, join all, we'll leave that between you and God!
Aussie Christian Gigs - for free online gig & events listing http://www.myspace.com/aussiechristiangigs

JoyNoise Hub - an grassroots network hub for independent musos http://www.joynoise.com

GMA-ANZ - a nation wide network for Christian musicians http://www.gma-anz.org/main.cfm

Musicians Prayer Network - prayer support for musicians by musicians based on Facebook.

And to ACAN a Good Night

As ACAN winds down, and Tiff and I begin our latest Australian music project, I thought it a good time to say goodbye to a great organization. One that I've been proud to serve as National Coordinator for the last four years.

When I moved to this country in 2001, I still wanted to be a part of music and help artists particularly with working and collaborating together. This has been a passion of mine for a very long time. Met Roma Waterman, who put me onto Martin Fawkes and eventually started helping ACAN with the GigGuide mailouts. I have been proud to know many of the ACAN members. Some whom I've come to know well. And I appreciate the support I did receive from the various incarnations of the ACAN committee over the years. Sure there are people you can point to and ask why them. But the fact of the matter is that they were willing and they were there. And God can use people when they are willing. And it was through every committee members contributions that what great things happened, happened.

I don't wish to dwell on the problems ACAN had, though there were many. There is no point. I wish to remember the desire of ACAN and what it set out to do. And that we did accomplish. There are many artists that met and created music that went on to be very popular. Many went on to be very successful artists, both domestic and abroad. We managed to get a Forest Edge Christian Music Festival in 2006, which was a great venue and gave me the opportunity to meet many of you. And gave many of you a chance to examine why you share the music you do with the talent you have.

I have had great fun being a part of ACAN. And Lord knows I've learned a lot! It has been an experience that I will cherish and never forget. And I hope that all of you have fond memories as well.

I look now to the future. With the Music Industry collapsing, there is a renewed purpose and the need to come together as Christians are called to do. I have come to realize that "Networking" is just a word that non-Christians came up with to try and describe what Christians have always had through Jesus. We come together as one body. We are all linked in ways that the World can and will never understand (except for coming to Jesus, but I figure that was obvious). And with the world in the turmoil that it finds itself in currently, the need for artists to rally the called, comfort the wounded, and bring joy to the masses is all the more required.

ACAN may be done, and that is sad. But the last ten years are not in vain. The relationships built will stand. And those that come out of what ACAN leaves behind will continue and carry on the mission. What was started with people sitting on a porch talking about how to work better together will carry on in the work that we do now, just as it did during ACAN's ten years.

I will miss ACAN. It was hard to let it go. But I look forward to the new challenges that Tiff and my new organization bring. And hope that you will join us there. The ride is far from over. It's just getting started.

To those that part company here, God be with you. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for the opportunity to learn and grow.

To those that will join us at JoyNoise Hub, I look forward to continuing the journey.

God's grace to you all, and to ACAN, a good night.

Bryan Smith

Last National Coordinator

ACAN

INDUSTRY: ACMF National Children's Songwriting Competition

The The Australian Children's Music Foundation (ACMF) conducts an annual National Songwriting Competition for every Primary, Secondary and Special Needs Schools across Australia. In 2009, the competition is being held for the seventh consecutive year and is divided into several categories to provide opportunities for children of all ages.

Categories include Words & Music, Best Instrumental (No Lyrics), and Australian Theme (Words & Music). A selection of winners and highly commended entries from this year’s competition will also be invited to perform at the Sydney Festival in January 2010.

The competition closes on Friday September 25th. For more information go to http://www.acmf.com.au/default.htm

INDUSTRY: 2009 APRA Professional Development Awards are now open

The APRA Professional Development Awards are presented by APRA in conjunction with music organisations and institutions involved in the representation or education of Australian music writers. The Awards offer cash, travel and recognition to music writers in the early stages of their careers.

The APRA Professional Development Awards (PDAs) were first awarded in 2001 to mark APRA's 75th Anniversary. The awards were received so enthusiastically by the music industry that the APRA board decided to make the PDAs a permanent fixture on the APRA cultural calendar. As a result, APRA now offers eleven PDAs in Australia and New Zealand to promising young music writers in the early stages of their careers. Eight young Australian songwriters and composers will win cash and prizes to the value of $16,000 as part of the 2009 APRA Professional Development Awards.

Entries close 1 December 2008. Winners announced March 2009.

For more details click here.

Source: APRA Bytes