Ethos by Randy Elrod - How To Create Culture

Press Coverage - Randy Elrod

Landmark Booksellers Host Book Tasting Williamson Herald Published January 22, 2009

From Palate to Palette Nashville Wine Press Published June 2008

Historic Neighborhood Nourishes Artistic Muse The Tennessean Published June 1, 2007

Worship Music Gets A Modern Twist  ASSOCIATED PRESS Published April 8, 2006

The Art of Ministry The Tennessean COMMUNITY PROFILES Published August 1, 2004

Landmark Booksellers Host 'Book-Tasting'

 

By Courtney Underwood, Williamson Herald

news@williamsonherald.com

Randy Elrod will be signing books, telling stories and sharing wine and cheese with patrons at Landmark this Friday, Jan. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. 

Although available in bookstores worldwide, such as Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and even online at Amazon.com, Elrod chose to have his first book signing at Landmark.

“Anytime I can, I want to help local businesses in downtown Franklin,” Elrod said.  “I love it here, obviously, since I moved here and I really believe in downtown Franklin, it’s a beautiful place.”

All proceeds from the book will go to Kalein; Elrod’s own non-profit Center for Creative Studies, and the inspiration for making the book.  Through this and several other fundraisers, Elrod hopes to make his dream of building a permanent lodge for Kalein, where visual and performing artists can work together and learn their craft, a reality. 

“Kalein is a center for every kind of genre of art – from painting to song writing, fashion design, even the culinary arts,” Elrod said.  A 124-acre plot has been secured for Kalein in Woodbury, awaiting a lodge that has yet to be built.  But Elrod has a clear view of how he wants it to be.

“There’s going to be a lodge for people to meet, with a full culinary kitchen and open areas,” according to Elrod.  “But there will also be small cabins surrounding the area, secluded from each other, where the artists can feel totally alone and, at the same time, know that in ten minutes they can be in a community at the lodge.”

Elrod’s dream of Kalein sprung from his own experience as a self-taught artist.  At the age of 42, his love of sketching led his wife, Chris, to give him his first set of watercolors. It was then that he began creating the work that makes up Beauty is Calling, all on his own.

“I want these artists at Kalein to have a mentor that is a trained master in their genre of art,” Elrod said.  “I know I always felt that I would have benefited from a mentor.”  And Elrod believes that other artists feel the same way.

“I asked some successful artists, like Billy Ray Cyrus, for example, if he had a mentor growing up and he didn’t, either.  He felt like if he had, he would have maybe made some different choices in his career.”

To give aspiring artists the chances he never had, Elrod has already begun work with Kalein through workshops such as a Songwriting Retreat and Master Class, led by Mark Lee of Third Day and country music recording artist Bryan White. 

“Between the two of them, they have 5 Grammies and over 7 million in album sales, so they’re very successful, trained artists,” said Elrod of the master teachers.

Six songwriters were chosen by judges, who then led a master songwriting class to further develop the group’s techniques and songwriting skills.  They were then sent out to write a new, original song to be judged that would eventually be produced.

Fundraisers such as wine tasting parties in Elrod’s home, including one on New Years’ Eve called “A Toast to 2009,” as well as silent auctions of his artwork, are creating the opportunities for Elrod to help other young artists, like those at the songwriter’s retreat, achieve their dreams.

Posted on: 1/22/2009

Historic neighborhood nourishes artistic muse
CATHI AYCOCK
FREELANCE
June 1, 2007

For Williamson A.M.

"You never know what you will find inside one of these homes," Nancy Williams, director of the Main Street Project for the Heritage Foundation, says about this weekend's Town and Country Tour of Homes. But is she talking about the homes or the people who live in them?

Honestly, the answer could be either, especially when talking about La Maison du Reve and its owners, Randy and Chris Elrod. The couple bought their New Orleans-style home at 808 West Main St. eight months ago.

The home built in 1986 is not historic; instead, it's deemed an infill home. "An infill home is a home built in a historic area that matches the other homes in style and period. This year the tour is all about downtown Franklin, so we have examples of newer homes that work with the spirit of the area, historic houses, historic cottages, all located in downtown," Williams said.

"We always had a dream about living in a historic area. But honestly? It is serendipitous that this home directed us toward a much bigger dream," Randy Elrod said.

The Elrods lived in a subdivision for seven years while Randy served as arts pastor at The People's Church in Franklin. In June 2006 he left the ministry, not to retire, but to retool. "I read a book about changing careers and allowing you to live out your passion. I took a sabbatical from work and decided to move in another direction. I have always been an entrepreneur as well as an arts pastor, so I wanted to explore other areas," he said.

Elrod had created a search engine for arts leaders and teachers in mid-'90s, "before search engines became cool." He sold that business, left the arts ministry position and began to work from home. "I built this beautiful, dream office in our house in the suburbs. I was ready to go. Come on creativity. And then. Well, I was stuck," Elrod said, laughing.

Elrod says that most people in his neighborhood would drive off to work in the morning, drive in the garage at night and go sit on the backyard deck in the evening. "I really thought I would thrive with all the quiet time to create, but I started just drying up.

Then one day Chris called me about a house." Chris Elrod, an agent with Bob Parks Realty in Franklin, happened on a house built in the historic area of downtown Franklin. "We never make decisions quickly. If we bought a baby stroller we would research it, sleep on it, discuss it. We literally walked in the house and said, 'Let's buy it.' We called our banker and bought it that day.

Moving to the historic area was a dream for the couple, but it awakened another, bigger dream. "Right after we moved in, some neighbors, Marty and Ron Ligon, invited us over for dinner. It was mostly neighbors, but the group was just amazing. Robin Hood, who has won a Pulitzer Prize, artists, songwriters.

And something just clicked," he recalled. The something was the idea that artists feed off each other. And the Elrods landed in what Randy calls creative paradise. "I can literally stand on my porch and see so much going on. And I can walk less than half a mile and have breakfast, lunch and coffee with neighbors who are also phenomenal artists. TobyMac is a neighbor, a member of Audio Adrenaline lives close by, writers, painters. I am surrounded, and we all interact," Elrod said.

The interaction started the creative process for Elrod, who has never been short on ideas that feed the arts. "I incubate businesses for artists. That is, I start a business, then turn it over to young music artists and let them run it, and I keep a percentage. The starving artist is alive and well, and I am living proof that an artist can be a business person, too.

"I run a think tank every year and artists from South America, Egypt and all over come to collaborate. Last year, a vice president for Disney and the executive producer for That '70's Show came.

Artists tend to end up the Lone Ranger, so I am trying to encourage collaboration," he said. Indeed, the biggest gift he received by moving to Franklin's historic district is a sense of community.

"I know how important it is for artists to have a community," he said. "That is the motivation behind Kalein." Kalein, which means beauty in Greek, is a nonprofit artist development center that Elrod is developing. "I bought 124 acres outside of Woodbury. I want to have a place where artists of every genre, painters, musicians, screenwriters, can come together and learn and share.

Having this creative community around me gives me so much," he explained. "Other artists need that, too." So aside from the unseen gift that the move to historic downtown Franklin offers, what will visitors of the upcoming Town and Country Tour see?

"Well, we added a studio for my paintings. It looks right over Main Street. And we will have lots of my work showcased, too," he said. Yes, in addition to think tanks, artist retreats and new businesses, Elrod has gained a following as an up-and-coming artist — with a bit of a twist. "I sell my work, but all the money goes to Third World countries. I have visited Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan to teach artist development. I know that the money can really do something in those countries. So far, I have probably sent $15,000 in the last couple of years," he said.

Touring the homes on the Town and Country Tour will certainly offer surprises. But no surprise as big as the one Randy and Chris Elrod discovered. "This community is so rich. Living in historic downtown is like living in Florence during the Renaissance. It just brings creativity to your life to live in the middle of so much richness," he said. "And we really thought we were just buying a great house."

IF YOU GO Heritage Foundation Town and Country Tour of Homes, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Tour eight unique homes in downtown Franklin. Tickets are $20 today, $25 during tour. For advance tickets, call the Heritage Foundation at 591-8500, ext. 18. Tickets will be available at all tour homes, which can be visited in any order.

Copyright (c) The Tennessean. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.

 

 

Worship music gets a modern twist

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 8, 2006

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FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Sunday mornings at the People's Church look more like a rock concerts than traditional worship services.

A couple on stage leads about 3,700 people - many of them teenagers in blue jeans - in contemporary worship songs, accompanied by guitars and drums. Lyrics roll across a large video screen.

"Music is a big deal in our church," said Randy Elrod, creative arts pastor for the church. "We have a band. We're very contemporary in style. I'm influenced more by what is culturally relevant."

Thousands of churches like this one in suburban Nashville have moved away from singing hymns to "participatory music" - and that's meant a change in music publishing, too.

Christian Copyright Licensing International Inc., the world's largest provider of Christian music licensing, makes it possible for churches to legally copy and distribute praise-and-worship music to their congregations. Based in Portland, Ore., CCLI works with about 200,000 churches around the world and tracks the most popular songs used in contemporary church services.

Churches can't legally project the lyrics on a video screen or reprint them in a bulletin without permission. But instead of negotiating with music publishers individually, churches can pay a blanket license fee to CCLI, which funnels royalties to the songwriters.

In the past decade, the group has nearly doubled the number of U.S. churches it licenses to 140,000, said EMI CMG Publishing President Eddie DeGarmo, who's on the licensing company's advisory council.

"This growth reflects the acceptance of the songs," DeGarmo said. "Modern worship songs are exploding on a global basis. They're in a style that relates to a younger audience. They're easy to sing and sound like something you'd hear on the radio."

Many Protestant churches began to phase out hymnals and put song lyrics on overhead projection screens in the 1980s. The old-fashioned music was replaced by pop-influenced singalongs known as praise-and-worship music.

But "there was really no way for the songwriters to be paid for their works," DeGarmo said. "So there was a need that arose to help churches work within the copyright law. (The licensing company) was formed as a way for them to operate legally."

Praise-and-worship songs are "congregational, not necessarily performance-based, someone performing on stage," he said. "In other words they're participatory. Modern worship has really struck a nerve in that way. It's still growing. The churches are the avenue for these artists to get played."

Founded in 1984, CCLI now makes upward of $20 million a year in revenue - the majority of which is a percentage of the licensing fees, which are determined based on the size of the church. Annual fees range from about $100 to $1,000. CCLI surveys which songs are being sung in churches and ranks the top tunes, creating what DeGarmo describes as a kind of Billboard for Christian music.

One of the leaders in praise-and-worship music, Chris Tomlin, garnered the most nominations for this year's Dove Awards, the gospel music industry's equivalent of the Grammys. Tomlin, 33, said he believes his music is popular with listeners who want to communicate with God.

"Music connects with the soul," Tomlin said. "I think it's the quickest art form to the soul.

"What bigger music scene is there in the world than the church? It's vital to the world and to culture."

James Byrd, assistant dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, said the licensing group's growth reflects the increasing importance music plays in church services.

"When we talk about denominations today, they're not the primary identity markers for people who are Christians," Byrd said.

"More and more Christians don't think of themselves tied to a denomination.

"I think music is one of the things contributing to this," he said. "The music is trans-denominational, something uniting these people ... There's less to disagree with in the music than with sermons, where you can get into theological arguments."

Elrod said that, several years ago, the People's Church only dedicated about a third of its hour-long services to music. Now it accounts for half the time.

"It gives most everyone a chance to participate," Elrod said. "If you're given a sermon or message, you're listening and really a spectator. But if you're singing, you're more of a participant. Churches want to engage people more in participation."

© 2007 · All Rights Reserved · St. Petersburg Times
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COMMUNITY PROFILES
KATHRIN CHAVEZ
STAFF
August 1, 2004

THE ART OF MINISTRY

Pastor of creative arts sells his paintings to raise mission funds for former Soviet country

By KATHRIN CHAVEZ
Staff Writer

FRANKLIN - Randy Elrod has been pastor of arts ministries for several years at churches in Tennessee and Florida. He leads programs in music, drama and dance, but there was one art form he had never tried, and that was art itself - the actual act of putting a paintbrush to paper.

A Christmas gift of an easel from his wife, Chris, three years ago not only gave him a relaxing hobby, but it also provided a means to make a difference in the lives of people on the other side of the world.

The pastor of creative arts at The People's Church has become accomplished enough at doing watercolors that he is able to sell his art. And, the proceeds go to mission projects in Kyrgyzstan, a small impoverished country that was once part of the Soviet Union.

Going public with his achievement is not too shabby for a man whose previous painting experience was painting names on boats to pay for college expenses.

His background was in music. He studied with Larry Brown, director of the Broadway productions The King and I and Man of La Mancha. He sang for the Kennedys and other dignitaries. He sang at the national gathering of the Southern Baptist Convention. He and his choirs won national awards.

The Chattanooga native worked for Florida churches for 20 years before getting a phone call from senior pastor Rick White offering a job at The People's Church. He has been in Franklin for four years and heads the church's drama, dance and music programs. As a leader as well as a performer, he has discovered something about himself. "One thing I've found is I am gifted in building teams, encouraging people in their gifts. I've had greater fulfillment when other people are out there using their gifts," he said.

An admitted workaholic, he says painting watercolors slows him down. "When I do watercolor, I find that it's like I'm in the flow. If I spend four hours painting, it seems like two minutes. It's brought a lot of peace and joy to me," he said. "In essence, at church I'm in a very exposed environment. I always up for display, in a glass house. I wanted my painting to be private," he said.

But a party at his home for fellow members changed his plan. A woman saw one of his watercolors hanging on the wall and asked about it. When she discovered he had created the piece, she asked to buy it.

The request gave him pause. He and his wife discussed it and began to realize potential sales of his work could be a blessing for a people whose very survival was in question. The first art show was in his home, and he took bids for the watercolors. He had another at the Henpeck Market earlier this year.

His art runs the gamut from sights in London and Paris to the seasonal banners hung on Franklin lampposts.

His third show will be from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 21 at 343 Springhouse Circle. The public is invited. His artwork can be seen on his Web site, www.randyelrod.com.

A heart for Karakol Elrod first went to Kyrgyzstan in September 2002 to speak to university students in the country's capital, Bishkek, about art and free enterprise. He was worried about the trip. He didn't like flying, and this would entail a 17-hour flight exactly a year after the Sept. 11 attacks. "I had a heart for the country after hearing about it, and that helped me have the courage to go. (Church pastor) Rick (White) said, 'I think it will be something that will change your life,' " Elrod said. White was right. The last couple of days of the trip, he went on a grueling, eight-hour ride to the small town of Karakol on the edge of the Tian Shan mountains, one of the highest ranges in the world. He spent the time teaching and talking to the residents. "I fell in love with the town, not because of its beauty, but with the people, especially the young people. They are the only ones you see with any hope in their eyes. Anyone 40 and over, the hope is dead in their eyes. They've been so oppressed all their lives," he said.

As his artwork sold, he was able to ensure money was sent to Karakol, and he has returned there himself to teach. The proceeds were invaluable in helping one couple there. The husband was the top engineering student in the country, and he gave up a promising career to teach English and the arts with his wife in Karakol. Medical care is nearly nonexistent there, and they lost two babies six months into pregnancy. Elrod arranged for the couple to travel to Turkey to meet doctor friends of his for treatment. The wife is now past the six-month mark, he said.

His dreams for Karakol include building and staffing a hospital and a center for the arts. The average monthly income is $13 month, and American money goes a long way there, he said. Each American dollar is worth 30 times its value. The small community stole its way into Elrod's heart. "Bishkek has more potential to have other people helping. I don't know why - maybe because Karakol is out so far - it's always been that so many other towns receive aid before they do. There are a couple of teachers who are incredibly gifted who gave up careers to teach there. So many people have given so much to help that I feel obligated to do so as well."

PHOTO BY MANDY LUNN / STAFF: Arts ministries pastor Randy Elrod stands with his paintings at The People's Church in Franklin. Elrod sells his work and donates the money to missions.

Copyright (c) The Tennessean. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.