My Visit at Abundant Life Cathedral

Last month I had a very interesting visit at Abundant Life Cathedral. The Cathedral is situated in the Clear Lake City area of Houston. The great generality of the occupants are middle-class to upper ”“middle-class professionals. According to them there is ever something actual and new taking place at the Cathedral. Abundant Life introduces itself as a contemporary cathedral that meets those who can’t be satisfied in more traditional religious conditions. I noticed that this church can’t be predominately black church. This is out of question that there are a lot of people of different ethnic groups. And I didn’t see something invalid in people’s behavior. The worship was certainly contemporary: three glorified songs, the gospel, the solo and some blessings. The meeting extensively took place in the singing. And singing “Every Move I Make was a preferred glorified song, as I could consider, because everybody was enthusiastically involved in singing and was clapping with a great spirit.

During my visiting I had a question. Who can motivate the residents’ thoughts with the new way to living everyday mind with trust in God? Who can power their lives; release their thoughts, their emotions and their human spirits? And here the answer came to my mind. The Pastor Ed Montgomery can do all these actions. Ed Montgomery is not only an exuberant and inspiring author he is also an experienced musician and songwriter. Moreover, I have known that as a promoter of Ablife Multimedia Records he has produced a number of albums.

And of course, I have listened to some of his songs. “The Lord is Blessing Me” and “Have a Little Talk with Jesus” made a great impression on me.
On the one hand the music which was played in the church was a gospel, but on the other hand it wasn’t a traditional gospel. The music was melodiously played between the worships and it was like some bagpipe tunes. It was a contemporary worship with the music group and the choir. It was very interesting that the band used a lot of modern musical instruments: keyboard, drums, congas, electric bass, electric violin, flute, trombone and tenor saxophone. So all instruments were welcome. The music was sounded like any kind of blues and sometimes any kind of jazz. This music didn’t have much in common with a traditional gospel.

In addition, I have known that there are some well known singers who sing or used to sing in the band of Abundant Life Cathedral. For example, Rick Marcel is well known not only as a great musician and vocalist but also as a member of the band of Abundant Life Cathedral. And Bridgjette Monique Taylor or simply Bridgjette is a Christian singer and songwriter. She sings Rhythm and Blues. But this kind of music could help her to combine with Sony Red, Abundant Life Cathedral and Ed Montgomery and released her debut album. And of course, LaKisha Jones used to sing in the choir of ALC. And now she is a well known singer and her genres are R&B, soul, but at the same time she continues to sing the gospels.

From my point of view the style of music in Abundant Life Cathedral is a contemporary gospel, the band of the church uses different types of musical instruments. The musicians of ALC reproduce the tunes which I would like to listen to them again and again.

References
Strategies for Successful Writing; Prentice Hall, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey 07632. ( Fourth Edition)



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