A ministry of the Youth & Young Adult Ministry Office of the Church of the Brethren General Board
Daily Coverage

Thursday, July 18, 2002
Page 3

SINGING A NEW SONG

As with many great projects, the National Youth Conference theme song, "For Such a Time as This," was a collaboration of many parties.

Created by the youth group from the Bremen (Ind.) Church of the Brethren, the initiative was spearheaded by Bremen adult member Mark Laudeman. Once the idea of creating a piece for the contest came about late last summer, the process began.

A van from the Piqua (Ohio) congregation shows off the 2002 National Youth Conference theme.

The lyrics, a starting point for the song, came from a variety of sources. The first and second verses were written by the Bremen youth in a collaborative process led by Laudeman. Laudeman also wrote the music, and then the third verse was contributed by the NYC office after the song was chosen. An additional voice was added to the collective creative process as another Bremen member, David Smith, played the instruments and arranged the version heard on the NYC CD (with Emily Laudeman doing the lead vocals).

With their masterpiece complete, the youth turned their attention to rehearsal. When the time came, a group of youth — Lauren Graybill, Aaron Hostetler, Emily Laudeman, Kayla Milleman, and Jordan Walter — recorded the audition CD with the help of Smith.

When the National Youth Cabinet finally announced the results of the theme song contest, the final selection created a great deal of excitement and joy for its creators. The song has been presented in its slightly tweaked form and has been received very positively by the NYC audience.

For Hostetler, being at NYC and seeing the group's results in action has been a great reward.

As he says, "It's great to hear a song that started with five voices being sung by 4,000."