Every morning at NQC, the Chapel service is held right after the Bible Study.  We were there on Friday morning for the Bible Study, and were looking forward to the Chapel service that followed with Greater Vision!

Greater Vision!

Mark Trammell introduced Greater Vision as Southern Gospel Music’s most awarded trio.  They opened the service with I Could Never Praise Him Enough.  Not only was Gerald, Rodney and Chris on stage, but Stan Whitmire was playing piano for them as well that morning!  The Redeemed Medley followed.  “Well, thank you for coming in this morning,” Gerald said greeting the crowd, and then teased, “and they’re still coming in…the Baptists are still coming in to fill the back.”  LOL  After sincerely thanking the crowd for coming, Gerald was featured on a ballad called He Heard My Earnest Prayer, which was done back to back with He’d Still Been God.  Afterwards, Gerald exclaimed, “I never knew I could feel so good on so little sleep.”  Commenting on Mark Trammell’s preaching, he admitted that this year at NQC was the first time he has ever heard Mark speak live – AND, that Mark said more in 15 minutes, than most do in an hour.  Well, Gerald was in a story telling mood that morning, and his next topic was a group of kids that sang on Main Stage the previous night.  He explained that at the First Baptist of Atlanta there is a youth pastor named Matt.  When he began at the church he wanted to have a youth choir, but everyone discouraged him saying, “Teens aren’t in to that stuff anymore.”  Well, Matt started a choir, and here is what Gerald said about it, “Matthew started teaching these teens our kind of music, but didn’t tell them it was Southern Gospel, he just said that he had some new songs for them to learn.  Now, he has over 200 teens in his choir.  The point is this…kids like good music.”  (Amen!!!)  The next song that they sang was the first one that Chris sang when he came back to GV – Hallelujah Square.  (Standing ovation!)  An up-beat My Name Is Lazarus followed and kept the fans on their feet.  “That has been our most requested song since 1999,” said Gerald of that number, “and it was written by the man standing next to me.”  Well, no GV concert would be complete without a funny story about Rodney, and that was what Gerald told next – the story he tells about him being the mc at Dollywood for the awards show last year and the one about the mirror in the restaurant.  After a good laugh or two, he settled down into introducing a serious ballad with a serious message, “You were special enough, that He gave the best He had…for you.”  The song that followed was called Common Garments, and according to GV, was a re-cut by popular demand – even though it never went out to radio.  When it was over, Gerald asked how many had never heard that song before.  Many hands went up and his smile broadened.  Then, he asked how many thought they were, indeed, “common garments” and hands went up again.  Before they did anything else Gerald thanked Stan for volunteering to play for them and told about how they met at the NQC when it was still held in Nashville.

Stan plays a solo...

Gerald encouraged him to play a piano solo, and a good, common, southern gospel number at that!  Stan said something on stage and Gerald lit up, “Yeah!  That’s page 112!”  LOL  So Stan played a hymn with a “Ragtime” feel and burned it up just like Gerald said too!  After a CD pitch, their song, Like I Wish I Lived closed their set…but not without a word about the song and a prayer.  First, Gerald beckoned, “Ladies and gentlemen, Satan is a liar and God’s Word is true.  Today is fresh and new and today you have a new start.”   And within his prayer, he said, “Father, help us to realize that there is no hope for a better past…”