Muster Weekend

A few weeks into 1973 the staff of the JH decided we wanted to organize a "revival!"
Lots of churches used to have fall and spring revivals, but we knew, since it was the Jesus House, it had to be something different. First we needed a name.
That was because everything at the Jesus House had a name or a nickname.
Kent, Chris and I spent an afternoon at the CBS library researching names.
Kent found it: Muster! (It had an exclamation point the first year)
We created a logo.
We created t-shirts.
We created posters.
We scheduled a speaker (Tom Smith the first year. Excellent choice.)
We scheduled a band. (An unknown group from Michigan named Rising Hope.)
In addition, we scheduled as guest soloists some of the JH favorites. (John Gould, Randy Moody, & Rich Davis)

The results?
An incredible weekend of evangelism around Cincinnati, including Sunday afternoon at Eden Park, three evenings of meetings at Highview Christian Church with a 150-200 people each night, and great number of people becoming Christians or renewing faith in God.

The long-term results were several. First, we decided to host Muster annually, which we did for six years. Second, as a result of meeting at Muster, Tom Smith invited Rising Hope (specifically Mike Goldberg) to become Campus Minister at Miami University. Mike & Susan Goldberg, Ross Johnson & Mikal Keefer moved to the Cincinnati area and became an important part of the Christian music community.

After two years of Muster at the Highview building, we moved it to the Jesus House. The following is the guest line-up for each year.

April 25-27, 1973 (Highview Christian Church)
Speaker: Tom Smith
Music: Rising Hope
Featured Soloists: John Gould, Randy Moody, Rich Davis

April 26-28, 1974 (Highview Christian Church)
Speaker: Gene Hardaway
Music: Rising Hope, Latter Reign, adamsfishyodor
Featured Soloist: John Gould
Mixed-Media Presentations: Mikal Keefer

April 11 & 12, 1975 (Moved to the Jesus House building.)
Speaker: Grant Edwards
Music: Rising Hope, Brothers of the Son (another Michigan group this one including Kent Odor's brother Kevin)

April 9 & 10, 1976
Speakers: Lewis Foster, Grant Edwards, Mikal Keefer
Music: One Lane Road

April 15 & 16, 1977
Speaker: Mike Reinus
Music: One Lane Road, Prodigal

This Week in History: Artists Who Performed the Third Week of April

1972 - Dave Ooten, Jerry & Lynn, Girls from Bowling Green (Not sure who the girls from Bowling Green were. Were they from Bowling Green, Kentucky or Bowling Green, Ohio? I have no idea.)
1973 - Marc O'Hara
1974 - No artist listed on the calendar. It was the week before the second year of Muster. I must have been too busy to record the artist. The following day I played at Mt. Washington Church of Christ and the week before afo played at Charlie Pater's Church(?)
1975 - Rick & Hodgy (Yes, they have two cuts on the Jesus House Recording Project!)
1976 - Tony, Sharon & Anita (Probably Tony Ross, Sharon Wilson and Anita Workman before she was Anita Workman.)
1977 - The Final Muster Weekend
1978 - Randy Matthews (We substituted an annual concert from founder Randy Matthews instead of doing Muster Weekend)
1979 - Rick Fields (Where was the band?)
1980 - One of the Flocks (a small group) from Fellowship Christian Church. Must have been a musical Flock!
1981 - The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe
1982 - Minstrial
1983 - Willoughby-Wilson Band This was University of Cincinnati night at the Jesus House. Some of the Campus Fellowships brought groups of people to the House for the evening. We had almost 200 hundred people packed into the place!

Where Are They Now?

I mentioned Rising Hope in the description of Muster because that brought them to the Cincinnati area for the first time. You might be interested to know where the members of that group are residing and what they are doing. Michael Goldburg lives in Cincinnati and can be heard Monday - Friday in the mornings on WNKU playing an incredible selection of music. Susan is now a pastor, just finished up an Interim position in France and is ministering in Tailand. Ross Johnson lives in the Cincinnati area, leads worship at his church and will be appearing at the Jesus House Reunion. Mikal Keefer lives in Colorado Springs and applies his considerable creativity to his position at Group Publishing.