Hey Everyone:

What an absolute ear busting blast we have had at WITW with this theme song contest. We had no idea how talented you all are and how many amazing entries we would get. In fact the voting was so close and contested that it caused some major dissension in the ministry, staff taking up sides, threatening to resign etc. ha ha.

And Yes, I James MacDonald listened to every entry personally. Some were incredible, others were incredible in a different sort of a way. :) Some made our hearts glad and some made us glad we had heart. Some were reflective of real musical giftedness and some were reflective of a gift we couldn’t quite put our finger on. Narrowing it down to 10 entries was hard and down to three winners was even harder. But in the end your voting confirmed what we had felt all along, that there were three that really stood out.

Kathy and me, our executive director Janine Nelson and David Crowder, who wonderfully agreed to hear them all too, agreed on the top three. Luke and Kristen, Landon and Lindsay and Lynda, and Abby and Tony all agreed on the top three, what we just couldn’t get together on was which should be number one. Yesterday we were still arguing and today when David Crowder’s votes came in we argued some more. All good natured of course, though I will say that some of the girls have very sharp nails. :)

Here is what I decided, we are going to have three winners, all of which will get the Kindle loaded with all my books. In addition all will be used as theme music on the broadcast multiple times between now and the end of the year and we will let them know specifically when. We would never replace David, never ever. But it will be fun to feature these gifted and creative musicians on all 1100 Walk in the Word stations for a little fun and variety.

Below are our thoughts on the strengths of each one.

Tokyo: This was my favorite of the top three. I found it catchy, creative and knew it was a winner when I could remember and sing it the next day. David Crowder did not choose this as his first but felt it was the most radio worthy and would do well. Janine had it in second and so it was never really out of the top two.

Becky: My old friend Matt Westerholm was a champion for Becky from the beginning, and this is the one David Crowder also liked best. I thought it was cool the way her family did backup vocals and this too was a very creative rendering of our theme.

Andre: It’s hard to explain why we all liked this one so much. It’s not as creative or unusual, but his vocals are so strong, we just loved it from the very beginning. This was Janine’s favorite and whenever we played the top choices for friends Andre’s rendering really stood out to people as clear and powerful. We also liked that he added some lyrics.

So there you have it. Three front runners, no need to pick a #1 when we have the ability to recognize and bless them all. I am so happy we have not divided the ministry over this and that all relationships are still strong if somewhat strained in the process of choosing this result. LOL. Thanks to everyone who entered and look for another fun contest at Walk in the Word next March. Listen regularly to hear these new themes worked in and above all keep feeding with us on the life changing message of God’s word.

Warmly, :)

James MacDonald