OFC releasing CD

Officials at Odessa Christian Faith Center want a biblical message heard somewhere besides Sunday morning sermons. In fact, they wouldn’t mind if people were to tune in on a daily basis.
   OCFC has its own audio editing equipment, and music minister Lowell Hohstadt has put it in overtime use during the past year as the church compiled a CD of its own worship music.
   “We thought it would be great to carry on the messages from church to real life,” Hohstadt said.
   He wrote the lyrics to all the songs on the CD, and 90 percent of the songs were built from ideas he had listening to a sermon. While the project largely came to fruition over the past year or so, the recordings were all made over a three-year time span.
   Live recordings of the praise team’s songs make up the album, including a variety of styles like classical, rock and even hip-hop. After initial mixing at the church, the CD was sent to Dallas for final mastering. The CD is available for purchase for all people in the community, and Hohstadt said music can have a major impact in helping members grow in their faith.
   “If they take the music with them during the day, they take the principles with them and the meanings get embedded deeper inside,” he said.
   This is an idea Hohstadt said he wanted to do for some time, but many in the church suggested producing a music record as well.
   “A number of churches produce their own music, and people have been asking me when we would make a CD. It just took some time,” he said.
   He’s served as the music minister at Odessa Christian Faith Center since 1988, just celebrating his 21st anniversary at the church.
   Hohstadt trained at Juilliard music school for three years of high school and four years of college and then headed to Eastman School of Music to get his master’s. After graduating, he headed back to Odessa and accepted a call to OCFC.
   “I’ve learned an equal amount through the process of working here as I did in music schools. I have learned technical things and different styles like rock ’n’ roll,” he said.
   Pastor Don Caywood said he’s wanted to put together a church CD for about five years because he thinks the original music is worthy of a production.
   “The music gives the flavor of our particular congregation,” he said.
   He even hopes to release another CD in the next year or two. While the CD is geared toward the local congregation, he said it also serves a dual purpose of outreach, particularly in an age of technology.
   “We live in an Internet society, and it will be on iTunes for outreach to people all over the world,” Caywood said.
   Caywood said people have contacted him about his sermons from all sorts of countries like India and South Africa.
   “This is really a wonderful thing for us,” he said.

CD Info
   >> Odessa Christian Faith Center’s first music CD, “Free Eternally,” is scheduled for release Sunday. The album will cost $11.99 and will be available at the church bookstore and online at www.ocfc.org.
   >> The album combined vocals with a variety of instruments such as drums, a string quartet and keyboard. Music styles range from classical to rock and hip-hop.