Hey y'all!

Kelly and I hope that your Christmas and New Years celebrations were the best ever. We had a great time with family and friends, and were able to get some rest in preparation for an incredible 2010. We pray that your year is blessed beyond measure, and that you experience God in such a way this year, that you'll not be able to contain yourself. 2010 is the year for radical revival! Take a Stand and let the world hear your voice!

The new year brings incredible challenge and change to our family and to our ministry. While we continue to work on my solo ministry and songs, several new opportunities have come into our path for 2010. Here's my new year summation!

The Branson Convention is an amazing ministry that is growing and taking on a life of its own. In the early idea stage I had no idea it would ever become what it has, or would ever put us in the position we’re now in. The doors this event has opened just boggle the mind and we’re so cautious to be sure that the focus stays on the message and the ministry. There’s a potential here of this becoming one of the largest annual evangelistic meetings in the region around Branson, and people are excited about the move of God in that area.

Kelly is the editor of SGNScoop (www.sgnscoops.com) which is an online all digital magazine about and for the Christian lifestyle. While it focuses a lot on the southern gospel/Christian country genre, it also centers around life conditions by Christians of all interests. They just launched this magazine in September, and the December issue (about 2nd chances) had nearly 20k downloads for the month alone. It too is becoming an outlet that is carrying ministry to thousands of people every week and has the potential of becoming the largest/one of the largest Christian music publications out there. It’s owned by the parent company SGM Radio (www.sgmradio.com) which is the #1 SG Internet station in the world and has roughly 750k visitors to their site each month. They have a stable of writers for monthly articles and their most read author had over 500k readers for December. That writer is Kelly. God has blessed her with some amazing talents.

YMR Music Production (www.YMRMP.com) is the parent company we’ve created to own the Branson Gospel Music Convention (www.bransonGMC.com) and several other concert promotions around the country. Our “Give the Gospel” initiative targets an area and a local charity that we can go in, hold a concert and give any profits to the charity, or in some cases lower ticket prices and collect food…giving the food to local food banks.

I’ll be announcing within weeks a new recording company and recording label that I’m starting. I’m working with one of the top session players and producers in Nashville to create a company for artists. Our target artists are those ministries that have made a presence but have not reached a top tier level yet. They’re looking for good honest people who can help them grow their ministries by helping to produce solid recording projects at reasonable prices, but also give solid advice and direction on how to take their ministries up a notch. I’ll be headed to Nashville in early February to start the process of my new recording on this label. This has the potential of taking some very well established ministries and helping them to grow their influence across the world.

Finally (for now...keep watching) is the Hinson Revival. Eric Hinson is one of the original Hinsons that took gospel music by storm and still is known for so many classics like “The Lighthouse”. Our goal is to take that sound that people across the world love and grew up on andbring it back to them with a ministry of grace and hope. There are so many that have stumbled and fallen away from their faith…and they need to hear that message of grace. Both Eric and I along with his wife April have our own solo ministries and we’ll continue that. We’ll incorporate some of our solo songs in the start of a program, then end the 1st half with a Hinson classic. After a brief intermission, we’ll come back with a full 2nd half of Hinson songs and ministry of grace and of restoration. We’re lining up concerts across the country and know this will be a great opportunity to share the word with folks.

So…God has laid out our 2010 with a lot of activity. On top of these things, we’re confident we’ll be moving. We’ve known it was coming and now feel like the time has come. It’ll likely be summer, but we’ll be looking to put the house up soon. We don’t know yet where we’re going. We know it’ll either be the Nashville or Branson areas…but it’s still an open question. Our prayer is to see His guidance and be where He would have us be.

We've been asked again lately "how can we help?" The absolute best help you can be to us is your prayers. We really are faced daily with challenges and attacks on what we feel God is leading us to. These are spiritual attacks, physical, emotional...anything that can disrupt or knock us off track. Just pray for peace, clarity and determination that we'll run this race with courage, and finish strong. There's a lot at stake here...lives hang in the balance. Pray that we keep the focus on who and where it needs to be. You can help by telling others about what we're doing. Get a group of folks and come be with us Branson June 28th - July 2nd. It's a great time of ministry and fun, and what a better place for a vacation than Branson leading right in to their big 4th of July celebration?! We have some great tour packages available, just ask! Let folks know about concert dates and come be with us. Invite us to your church or concert. Now you have 2 choices...Rod Burton, or Hinson Revival! And please call your local gospel radio and request my songs. The current one "Take A Stand" is still doing well. Also, send a note to the folks at Enlighten by clicking HERE. Let them know you appreciate all they do and ask them to play a song by Rod Burton!

The final way to help is one that we don't really talk a lot about. Rod Burton Music is a registered not for profit organization. If you feel like you'd like to help us financially, we certainly appreciate it and would honor your gift. Donations can be made online or through the mail to Rod Burton Music.

We'll be leaving home shortly with stops that include the Bahamas (never sang on a cruise before...never been on a cruise before!), Branson and Nashville. There's more exciting news that we're just putting the final touches on...but it'll involve us leaving the country to carry a message of hope. Be watching for that!

Till next time...

Take A Stand!

Rod

www.rodburtonmusic.com
http://www.twitter.com/rodburtonmusic