Ministry Goals for 2011

2010 has been a great year, and I'm eagerly looking foreword to the meetings that remain in Dec, but I'm already looking ahead to 2011. I've always kind of been a go-getter, and I have some big ideas that, if the Lord will allow them to come to pass, will bring great new things to our ministry, see more people saved and saints encouraged, and so much more! I've already begun to make these following items a matter of prayer.

In 2011, we want to:

1.Double our number of ministry dates.
We've booked about 63 concerts this year, but next year, I would like to push for over 120! This will be much easier for me in 2011, since I'll be done with college this fall and have no classes next year!

2.Host our first annual Homecoming concert.
Although we've been traveling since June 29, 2008, we have not yet hosted a big homecoming concert. I'm already planning it!

3.Release Josh's new comedy CD.
Josh has not released a new CD since his original in 2008. We had trouble finding a good way to record him live in front of an audience again. Now that I have found a way, we are currently recording him little by little in our concerts to piece together a great new CD!

4.Record my new solo CD.
I did not record a new solo album in 2010 because we had already released the DVD and instrumental CD so close together. I'm already pulling songs together and setting up studio time for this.

5.Get onto Christian radio.
Christian radio stations in various parts of the state are already playing our music, but I will be aggressively pursuing radio in a campaign to let more people know that we are on the planet!

6.Record a live CD in concert. One of our all-time favorite churches to sing for has already booked us back next year, and agreed to let us record our first live CD featuring singing, instrumentals, comedy, puppets, and more!

7.Help to build the MGMA. We recently joined the Michigan Gospel Music Association. This organization has been around since 1975. It promotes gospel music by bringing together gospel singers for fellowship, conferring for new ideas, and puts on a few concerts to promote gospel music in Michigan. We would like to help them recruit new members, book concerts, and lend our various talents and skills to them. This will help bring the MGMA to new heights, promote gospel music in Michigan, and help to build and encourage our ministry and the others represented by the MGMA.

8.Become promoters in gospel music.
I especially want to be more than a singer and musician. I want to do more to keep gospel music strong. It is a music that does much good in the lives of many people. One way that I wish to help it is through the MGMA, as mentioned above. The other way is that I want to put together concerts of my own next year, not just plead to pastors and booking people for concerts. I hope that next year I will be able to set up some concerts, promote them myself (with some help from others involved), and be responsible for how it comes together. This is perhaps the riskiest goal I have, but if it is done properly, it could be one of the most rewarding!


Finally, as a goal that I'm considering for either 2011 or 2012,


9.Begin building my recording studio. My older Mark Forester (Mark & Andrea Forester Ministries) has been running his own recording studio since around 1999, and has used it to do many great things for his ministry, ours, and in so many others. I wish to follow in his footsteps. It will cost a great deal of money, and I will be piecing it together over time. I don't know yet if I will start assembling it in 2011, or wait until 2012, but it is coming!

I hope that you who read this will join me in prayer for the Lord's direction in our lives and ministry in 2011.

-Stephen

Holidays around our house!

Well, Thanksgiving is here. This is the time of year when we all get together for food, games, movies, football, and so much more! Inevitably though, someone is going to stop in the middle of all of this and think: "What the heck are all of these people doing in my house, eating my food?"
I love Thanksgiving. I enjoy the time off from collgege to let my brain just run out of my ears and not do anything. I love the family time, and of course, the great food! Last, but not least, Thabksgiving is a gentle reminder that Christmas is in hot pursuit, not far behind!

-Stephen

Our weekend + Thanksgiving

Josh and I had an awesome weekend. we sang in Kalamo (a little town north of Lansing) for a pretty nice crowd on Saturday night, hurried home, got to bed, then got up and did the same thing all over again twice on Sunday! We sang for a pastor in Brown City who has quickly become a good friend of ours, and had a great time. We then headed out for a service at a new church that we had not yet been to. The pastor moved his evening service to 4:00pm so that he could invite people from other churches in the area. This proved to be a good idea, because we had a number of folks show up that had seen us in other places. I guess it pays to sing in multiple churches in the same area and develop a little bit of a fan club!
Thanksgiving is this week (just in case you didn't know) and Josh and I are very excited! Of course we are looking forward to the family, food and thanking God for His blessings, but we are also excited about the fact that we don't have any classes on Thursday! We normally are in college on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we basically are going to have a week off! It will probably be the best Thursday that we've had this year!

-Stephen

Fan Page!

If you haven't checked it out yet, go to Facebook.com and type into your search "The Forester Brothers" to see our new fan page. You can instantly become fans and read our posts, see our new pics, and follow what's happening in our lives and ministry!
-Stephen

Facebook Fan Page

Yay! I just got our brand new Facebook fan page up and running! Hurry and go to Facebook.com and look up "The Forester Brothers" to keep up to date with us there. I'll soon have new posts, pics, info, and so much more. Log on today to become the first of our fans for this exciting new area of our ministry!

-Stephen

Last Sunday Night & Facebook

Our concert last Sunday was a little different experience from what we've had lately. The church was literally within walking distance from our house! The only reason that we did not actually walk was because we still had to get all of our equipment over there!
Only fourteen people showed up, but it was still a great night. The pastor loved us, and sat in the back row of the church, laughing his head off at just about everything that we did, and most of the people did the same thing!
There was one lady who found all of our stuff so funny that she laughed almost constantly, even if it wasn't funny......I must say that it was a little odd to have her laughing so hard during MY GUITAR SOLO! (LOL!)
All in all, it was a great night. It was also very nice to get home so soon afterward as well. Traveling very far away for our concerts is fun, and we both love the ride, fast-food, and general experience, but sometimes it's nice to do a date at a church where we only use about 2 cents worth of gasoline.

Also, be sure to watch for an announcement for our soon-coming Facebook fan page! Soon we'll have a new page there where you can become a fan and catch all of our latest updates from the world's most popular social site.

-Stephen

What's happening this weekend!

Josh and I have both found a new love...... and no, I'm not talking about girls (though Josh is not doing to badly there either!), I'm talking about our new X-Box 360! We put our money together a couple of weeks ago and decided that, although we are college students who will soon be graduating and moving on with our lives, we wanted to make one last silly spurge on something that's maybe not-so-grown-up! We have both been having a ball with it in our spare time, and wondering why we did not do this a while ago!
We are going to have an unusual weekend. Today, Josh is off to a church in Flint to help out with a special youth day that friends of ours are hosting. Many of our college friends are also heading out to help the church, and advertise for the college. I couldn't go today because I have some other things that I have to do. Too bad, 'cause it sounds like they are really gonna have some fun together!
Tomorrow, Josh and I will be in our home church in the morning, and singing at another church in the evening. The neat thing about where we are singing is that the church is literally "around the corner". The church building is within walking distance of my house! If we did not have to carry so much heavy equipment over there, we would just walk to get a little exercise and not waste both drops of gas that would be required!
I love travelling long distances to sing, and we've done a lot of that lately. Such travels do have their advantages, but for once, it will be a relief to leave only a short time before church starts, then be the first ones home!

-Stephen

Singing this past weekend

Josh and I had two different places to sing this past weekend. On Saturday, we sang for our first Michigan Gospel Music Association concert. It went quite well, and both the MGMA members and the audience seem to be thrilled that we are now a part of their work!
The next day, we sang in Richmond, Mi. for a morning service. It was our first time there, and the people said that we were a blessing......so I guess we had a good day!
Today, we have college classes until this afternoon, then I'll probably slam my head into a brick wall after trying to understand the latest chapter of our Algebra book!

-Stephen

School & MGMA

Well, Josh and I had a unique week.
We had midterms last week, and got our results back this week. We both did well in most of our tests, and......at least passed on the rest!
We also auditioned for the Michigan Gospel Music Association on Tuesday night. We went to their meeting and sang three songs, and Josh did about four or five minutes of comedy. We then were voted in by a unanimous decision! They have already asked us to sing for them at their next concert this Saturday, and have offered us a couple more already! We are looking forward to many great times with all of these people.

-Stephen