NEWS

A NOTE FROM THE RAISE STAFF

October 2011 represents the 26th year that Raise has offered its music ministry and services to the community.  We would like to thank all of you who have faithfully supported and prayed for our ministry over the years.  We also applaud all of our students who have gone on to develop successful music ministries and career.  We are proud of you and Praise God for your success. 

For the past 26 years Raise has developed specialized curriculums and offered classes in the Gospel Arts with the intent of some day establishing an accredited school and center for the gospel arts. In order to more effectively pursue our vision, Raise decided to take a sabbatical from teaching in 2007.  This temporary leave enabled Raise to focus upon the establishment of its long-term vision to establish an accredited gospel arts program and build a Gospel Arts facility.  This sabbatical also allowed our teaching staff to pursue additional degrees and credentials. 

We are excited to announce that during this period our teaching staff has indeed obtained Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Music Education, Piano Pedagogy, Sacred Music, Voice, Composition and Orchestration.  Now equipped with additional skills and credentials the Raise Teaching Staff is excited as we prepare to resume offering our classes to the community.  We are also excited to have established partnerships with educators across the nation who will also be available to sown into our students.

Since 1999 Dr. Wise has developed and implemented 9 gospel music courses at the Ohio State University, Denison University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary.  In addition he began offering courses at the Ashland Seminary Bethlehem House of Bread satellite program in Akron, Ohio.  We are partnering with various academic institutions to establish an accredited Lay Certificate Program and Master’s program to train musicians in African American Gospel and Sacred Music.  We hope to develop a consortium through which we can help in the training of musicians from various colleges and seminaries.  We hope to announce the beginning of these new programs along with our community Gospel Arts Classes in the coming months.

Initially the various courses in our program will be offered at the different universities and seminaries in our consortium, however, it is our hope to bring them all together under one roof.  Raise is partnering with a team of developers to build an Educational and Performing Arts facility for the gospel arts.  We have identified land and are actively working to set forth our building project.  We ask that you be prayerful that we can announce our progress toward this end in the coming months. Be sure to check the Raise website periodically to learn more about our progress toward the vision and ways that you can help.

Throughout the years Raise has produced teaching resources to help in the instruction the Gospel Arts.  We are excited and hopeful about pending partnerships with various national companies who can assist Raise in upgrading the quality of our products and making them available to a wider audience.
Until Raise resumes its regular weekly classes and implements its lay certificate program, Dr. Wise and the other Raise Instructors will continue to offer workshops, seminars, and concerts for other sponsoring organizations locally, nationally and abroad. Be sure to check our web-site itinerary for the schedule of workshops, concerts, and other performance or learning opportunities in which you may participate.

Raise also plans to offer intensive weekend training courses to serve those members of the local and national community who are in need of immediate gospel musical and ministry skills but cannot participate in our ongoing programming.  We hope to collaborate with various accredited universities to offer academic credit for some of these courses as well.  Listen out and check the website regularly for further details.

We plan to initiate a teacher training certification program to train persons to instruct the specialized gospel arts curriculums that we have developed over the past 26 years.  This program will probably be offered during a Summer Training Institute.  By training and developing teachers we will be able to serve our local community as well as expand our teaching staff to instruct and mentor musicians all across the nation and globe.
We plan to launch our online academy and training center through which many of our gospel arts courses and lectures can be made available on demand through a variety of electronic and computer based methods.  Look for the online gospel piano course and series of 1-2 hour lectures on various topics related to music ministry.

Dr. Wise is often requested to develop community choirs for religious and civic events throughout Franklin and Licking counties. Raise will initiate some new programs as means of continuing to provide gospel music performance opportunities for the community.

One such program “So You Want To Sing Gospel” will enable us to develop interfaith, interracial, and intergenerational community based gospel choirs for special events throughout the Franklin and Licking County areas. Be sure to check the website to see the events for which choirs will be formed and to sign up to participate.

Another program “So You Want To Play Gospel” will allow Raise to collaborate with an existing community orchestra or to develop a community orchestra to perform a concert of gospel music with orchestra. If you play and orchestral instrument, read music, and would like to play gospel music we invite you to sign up to participate in our community orchestra.

As you can see, the task before us is great, but we serve a great God who is able to do great things.  In fact, He has already done great things!!  We have been in ministry for 26 years!! That’s A Great Thing!!  We are on our way!!  We have dreamed this dream and sown seed toward its development for 26 years. It is now time to make it a reality. We solicit your prayers and support as we move toward the fulfillment of this vision and our dream. Pray that God will give us direction and lead us to open doors as we prepare to lift up His body in a greater more effective way. We are confident that as we resume our ongoing Gospel Arts Programming we will be more prepared and equipped to train minstrels and psalmists to work in the service of the Lord. To God Be The Glory!!

Sincerely,
Dr. Raymond Wise, President
Rev. Frank Lane, Vice President
Raise Staff
P.S. If you feel the lord leading you to help us realize this vision in any way, feel free to contact us at raiserecords@aol.com