Like many middle-agers, I have felt a desire to mentor and support young people. This desire has taken shape in The Lamb Wins project. From the beginning, it was mostly about giving them a platform from which they could launch their ministries. When in 2011 I officially teamed up with two young adult artists, Delon Lawrence and Lee Givhan, to produce The Lamb Wins, my thoughts flowed in this vein: This project will give young people experience with writing, recording and producing music. It will create great, scripturally-based songs, and a few people will hear them. But then it will likely die an early death because with all these young people darting every which way like a herd of cats, getting married, going to college, finding jobs, we won’t be able to tour, and touring is the only way to promote music.
I’m happy to say I erred.
The Lamb Wins tour is a thing. It’s legit. Sure, it rattles along like an old box car, often seeming about ready to fall apart. But it holds together still, one loss making way for another gain. Producer and promoter Delon moved to California; Lee stepped up and became promoter and booking agent. Soaring tenor Matthew Resendez went off to college; soaring soprano Christa Deana Mitchell stepped in and learned his parts.i. Again and again as divine providence supplements human limitations, I must admit The Lamb Wins is God’s project, and He has plans for it.
At this stage, we have two teams:
The local touring team performs mostly in about a three-hour radius of the Philadelphia area and, at any given concert, may include Jennifer Jill, Lee Givhan, Hillary Blair, Roxanne Horrell, Giselle Satterwhite, Ranny Wenur, Jason Shiavonne and Christa Deana Mitchell.
The distance touring team handles longer tours that involve flying somewhere, and is comprised of full-time artists who are free to leave for more than a week—Alison Brook, John Millea and Lee Givhan.
Either the local or the distance touring team can perform concerts, or provide special music for evangelistic efforts, or even preach the evangelistic sermons! Here’s an example of how this has worked: Currently the distance team is assisting pastor Nathan Renner by providing music for a Revelation seminar in Sonora, California. Since the series lasted three weeks and they had some free time, TLW team booked eight additional performances in the area. Pastor Renner found hospitable church members to take in the artists, and the church paid the travel and an honorarium for the artists.
Should your church wish to book TLW to provide Revelation-themed music, we will work with your budget and try to create a win-win situation. Typically we will ask you to cover travel and provide housing and food for the team, plus a small honorarium if an extended stay is involved. If you want to explore these options, contact Lee Givhan and start dreaming- leegivhan@gmail.com
This past Sabbath, something really epic happened for the first time. The Lamb Wins local touring team and the distance touring team played possibly around the same time. Or at least the same day, within the span of a few hours. Maybe it took about three hours, anyway, for the sound waves from Christa Deana’s high notes to warble all the way across the country and resonate with Alison Brook’s. At any rate, the heavens rang in worship of the Lamb.
i. By the way, don’t feel bad for anyone; if Delon and Matthew come home, we’ll just move over and make room for them again. The beauty of an artistic collective is its flexibility.
- Jennifer Jill