Brandon Gilliam

Hey guys – Hope this finds you doing well.  I just wanted to post an update on the SpiritSong Competition I entered.  Even though we were first place in the voting, we were not selected to play at SpiritSong.  Kind of a bummer, but its all good.  At this point of writing this email, Im not sure who the winner is yet.  There were good bands in the competition, and one band in particular (Mosteller) I was able to develop a cool friendship with during this process.

I really just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge Thank You.  So many of you rallied alongside us to even make this a possibility.  The fact that we had over 3800 votes in 10 days, and 1400 more than the second place person speaks volumes about the support that I’m blessed to have.  I honestly can’t say thank you enough.  I promise to you that I’ll keep making honest, real music – Music that hopefully inspires, encourages, and ministers to you.  Thanks for supporting me and allowing me to live out this calling on my life.  You guys are the best!

Here was the response from SpiritSong:  

Hi Brandon, We are sorry to say that you did not win the Spirit Song Talent Competition. You have a terrific fan base and we all liked your music a lot! Derek Mount and the Family Force 5 guys had this to say about your music: “Nice production and performance. Definitely one of the most professional-sounding artists in the submission.” (You can put that in your resume! ) We are notifying all the Top 5 Finalists now and will announce the winner tomorrow on our websites. We appreciate you entering this talent competition and hope that God will continue to bless you in your music ministry. Grace and peace

Set List

Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
Furious – Jeremy Riddle
Like a Lion – Daniel Bashta
The Stand – Hillsong United

SPIRITSONG UPDATE

Voting ends tomorrow at noon, so please get your vote in today.  As of Friday at 1PM, we were in 1st place in the voting which is so cool.

I’ve got an opportunity to play at SpiritSong 2012 with my band but the only way that is going to happen is if all of you commit to voting once per day, until May 15th. If everyone can commit to doing that, as well as helping me get the word out to Everyone you know, then we can make this happen!   If you can send out an email to your email list, do a Facebook blast, or whatever it takes..It would really mean a lot to me.  I’d love to be able to share these songs and my heart with the folks at SpiritSong.

I would love your vote!

VOTE HERE EVERYDAY AT THIS LINK: http://www.sonicbids.com/voting/Default.aspx?p=437

Kings Island is a large theme park in Cincinnati, OH. Rivers Crossing Community Church is across the street from Kings Island. Kings Island hosts an event called Spirit Song every year. Some of the folks that play at Spirit Song are: NEEDTOBREATHE, Switchfoot, TobyMac, ThirdDay, and the list goes on.   Its a really cool event, and a lot of our folks from Rivers Crossing attend every year.

I’ve got an opportunity to play at SpiritSong 2012 with my band but the only way that is going to happen is if all of you commit to voting once per day, until May 15th. If everyone can commit to doing that, as well as helping me get the word out to Everyone you know, then we can make this happen!   If you can send out an email to your email list, do a Facebook blast, or whatever it takes..It would really mean a lot to me.  I’d love to be able to share these songs and my heart with the folks at SpiritSong.

I would love your vote!

VOTE HERE EVERYDAY AT THIS LINK: http://www.sonicbids.com/voting/Default.aspx?p=437

Set List at Rivers Crossing

Freedom is Here – Hillsong United
From the Inside Out – Hillsong United
One Thing Remains – Bethel Church
I Am Not The Same – Midtown Church Version

Set List at Tribes (RC3 Students)

Glorious – Brandon Gilliam
Give Me Faith – Elevation Worship
Revelation Song – Riddle

Set List

Furious – Jeremy Riddle
Search My Heart – Hillsong United
Rooftops – Jesus Culture
All I Need is You – Hillsong United

Last week Megan and I announced that we are growing our family through the means of International Adoption.  More specifically, Uganda.  We couldn’t be more excited about this.  You can check out the adoption tab up at the top of my website here, and that will give you a little bit of information.  You can also go HERE to check out the adoption blog that Megan and I will be updating often.

Here is how you can help.

1 - PRAY.  Pray for our son.  Pray for his safety, his health, and his sweet little heart.  Pray for those taking care of him until we can.  Pray for his biological parents.  Pray for all our paperwork and legal processes to go quickly and smoothly.  Pray for us as we are waiting.

2 - SUPPORT.  While we are sacrificing and doing all we can, we know we don’t have all the financial resources needed to bring home our son alone.  We do know God has called us to adopt, and we have no doubt he is faithful and will provide the resources to do so.  We are so thankful for those God is going to bring alongside us to obey his call to care for orphans by supporting our adoption.  We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  Please email me and/or Megan if you are interested in making a Tax Deductible Donation to help us.

3 - SHARE.  Tell others about our adoption story, and tell us about others you know that are going through this same journey.  We’d love to connect and support one another.

Another great day at Rivers Crossing today.  Just really thrilled and humbled to be a part of this Church.  God really has His hand on it.

Here was our set list today:

Exalted One – Elevation Worship
You are My Passion – Jesus Culture
Search My Heart – Hillsong United
Glory to God – Fee
Time Has Come – Hillsong United

Set List

Freedom is Here – Hillsong United

I am not the Same – Midtown Worship Version

Forever Reign – Hillsong United

Awakening – Tomlin

What an amazing day we had at Rivers Crossing Community Church.  Its hard to believe the transformation that the building took in the last 4 weeks.  If you never participated in any of the construction, demoing, painting, etc…then you do not realize the amount of work that our people did to get this building ready.  Some examples include:  The theater left the building in pretty nasty shape.  There aren’t many electrical outlets in theaters, so you can imagine the amount of work it took to run power to all of the theaters we were using.   All the stages that you see had to be built from steel and then we had to use plywood that was fire treated (all part of fire code stuff).  We completely gutted the concession area and re-built everything you see now.  On Wednesday of last week, the Fire Marshall told Pastor Paul that there was about a ZERO percent chance we’d pass inspection before Easter Sunday.  So he gave us a laundry list of things that needed to be done in one day (Fire Marshall would return to do one last inspection).  We went right at it and got to work and ended up getting full occupancy.   The list could go on and on.  The fact is, we have amazing volunteers at Rivers Crossing.  Like I said in my last post, we had folks coming in at 5AM and we had people staying until midnight and later some nights.  It was inspiring to see.

Easter Sunday comes and we don’t quite know what to expect.  You see, our local schools in the district were on Spring Break.  We usually see a dip in attendance as a result of that.  Umm…yea, that didn’t happen on Sunday.  Although many of our “regulars” were in fact out of town and on Spring Break with their kids – we had over 1100 people in attendance and 50+ people accepted Christ.  Whatttt?????  The atmosphere was electric yesterday.  I walked into the lobby in between the services and could barely walk there were so many people.  Now, granted, it is a good space to be since we are brewing Starbucks Coffee and we installed a fountain drink thingy (only fitting since we moved into a theater).  Our auditorium was slam packed both services, and our video venue and cafe venue had a lot of folks as well.  Pretty amazing.  And I believe its just the beginning.

Set List

Your Cross – Elevation Worship

Like a Lion – Daniel Bashta

In Christ Alone – Townend

Mystery – Charlie Hall

I am not the Same (The Same Power Tag) – Pat Barrett (Hillsong)

This Sunday is Easter.  This Sunday we begin having services in our new building, the building most of you know as the Showcase or Rave Cinemas on Kings Island Drive.  Its going to be incredible.  We’ve spent a ton of time making sure that no matter if you’re in the main auditorium or the Video Venue, that you will have an incredible Easter experience.  This will be a GREAT day to bring your friends, neighbors, and family.  You’ll also want to come and check out all the work we’ve done around the building.  From painting to completely gutting the concession stands area and building a welcome center and coffee bar area, you won’t recognize the building.  And the crazy thing is, 95% of all the work you see done…was done by volunteers.  Its just been surreal to see all of the volunteers at this building.  We have people arriving at 5AM before they go to work, and we have people staying until midnight.  And they do it so that you can have an irresistible environment to bring your family and friends to every Sunday so they can experience the life changing message of The Gospel.

We have two Easter Services – 9:30AM and 11:15 AM.  Get your tickets HERE.  

Check out this Easter Promo Video (We got the idea for the video from our friends at Newspring Church)

Reserve Your Free Easter Tickets! from Rivers Crossing Community Church