bands were customers of mine buying guitars and drums from me . Then later when I moved to Seattle I started helping my church produce concerts in the later 90 ’ s . In 1997 I partnered up with Creation Concerts and co-promoted scores of concerts in WA and OR for the next 10 years . I also helped launch the Creation West festival at the Gorge Amplitheater in WA state . I would travel to the Creation East festival ( the largest Christian festival in the country then ) and help them there as well .
I was actually on the side of the stage when Delirious walked out to play in the U . S . for the first time before the crowd of 50,000 . It was amazing to see the crowd start to get the fact that they weren ’ t about performance but were all about worship ! I kept promoting concerts until 2008 but in 2003 our Christian Musician Summit conferences had taken off in a big way and I would rather spend my time in these live training events for worship leaders , worship band mates and tech teams . I found them very rewarding and with a shift towards modern worship there arose a need for solid teaching and training .
[ Eight ] In 1998 you started Christian Musician Magazine and in 2003 launched [ WM ] Worship Musician . That ’ s over 20 years of impact in this space . How did you come to enter print publication and what inspired you to found these specific magazines ?
inspire talent in a Godly way . The Lord gave me favor there , I found four advertisers to help fund it and the magazine was born ! In 2003 the Lord gave me two more ideas that I am so grateful I listened to Him for ( I wonder how many times I have not heard His kind voice and missed things He had for me ?). One was starting the Christian Musician Conferences and the other was seeing the need to start Worship Musician magazine as churches needed help navigating the change from church organs to full worship bands with silent stages , video presentation and everything that was burgeoning in the wake of modern worship . I partnered with my friend Matt Kees then , and now 20 years later we have presented 35 conferences in 5 states and Matt has also been the graphic designer for [ WM ] Worship Musician magazine too .
[ Eight ] Could you tell me a bit about your personal story ?
[ Bruce ] OK , I ’ ll need to condense this one a bit . I grew up in Los Angeles . My mother and father were divorced when I was 6 years old . As I grew older , I would spend the summers with my father who was a pilot . In the late 60 ’ s during the Vietnam war my father started flying for a CIA funded mercenary company in Laos .
I would spend the summers in Laos and even went to school there for a bit . Then when the war was over , I was out of high school in the U . S . and I went to live with my father in Singapore . Seeing how many others in the world live , made me appreciate what opportunities we have been given as U . S . citizens .
It ’ s funny as I traveled the world looking for God and found Jesus back home in the U . S . I grew up as a young hippie ( you could never tell by looking at me – Ha !) but I wasn ’ t doing drugs to escape things like a bad home or anything . I was doing them often to find God . Jesus in His kindness found me when I was around 20 years old , and I was baptized a few weeks before I was married .
Being baptized was pivotal . Then learning to trust the Lord when our two sons were born . Later my first wife Teri would be diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer at just 40 years old . That was a very challenging time , but it was an honor to usher her into Jesus arms after 20 years of marriage . My sons were 15 and 17 then . I left the large church where I was attending and just wanted to go to a small church were no one knew who I was , or what I did in the Christian music community . I just
[ Bruce ] A pastor friend of mine was visiting my home church in Tacoma , WA and stated , “ What dream do you have inside you ? What has the Lord put on your heart to do ? If you don ’ t take the first step towards that , you may die one day with that dream still inside you .” I took that comment and made an 8-page newsletter and went to the NAMM convention ( a mainstream convention of music equipment manufacturers ) to present my vison for a hip magazine designed with Christian musicians in mind . There were enough mainstream guitar magazines trying to teach you how to play “ Highway to Hell ” by AC / DC . I wanted something that would help improve skill and Matt Kees & Bruce at Christian Musician Summit 2023
January 2024 Subscribe for Free ... 21