Christ calls Life Vision's tune

Catholic artists work to evangelize our weary world

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Radway

The building, a triplex leased from the Emmaus Place Foundation, houses a somewhat sophisticated media centre filled with computers and recording equipment. It also houses a graphics studio and a recording studio where several Catholic artists have started their careers.

Welcome to Life Vision Communications, a Catholic organization that sees as its mission to communicate God's truth and love through quality media resources, music and programs and services for adults, youth and children around the world.

"It's a non-profit organization dedicated to using the arts, as well as the multi-media, to proclaim the Gospel within the Catholic Church and the secular (world)," explains Jason Reinhart, 28, the group's director of operations.

"We desire to inspire all people with a deeper understanding of God's vision and mission for their lives," adds Gerald Montpetit, director of recording and studio production.

Connelly inspired

"He had the original vision," noted Montpetit. Connelly, who lives in a wing of the building with his family, currently serves as the group's director of ministry, although Reinhart says his group has no other connection to the Bible school.

The organization operated on a part-time basis, largely evenings and weekends, for the first three years until 2000, when they decided to go full steam. Staying in Radway was an easy decision: It's a lot cheaper to start a business there than it would be in a larger centre.

Where else would you pay $500 a month rent for a large house? Where else would you buy a piece of land for under $1,000 to build your own house as Reinhart did?

Apart from that, they all enjoy small town life, saying it is ideal to raise kids.

From its humble origins, Life Vision has grown into a large multimedia centre with 14 people on staff, 10 full time, involved in conferences, youth ministry, music, publications, media production, parish missions and retreats.

They are even offering Christian hip-hop dance classes, and other types of dances, in Edmonton, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove and other parts of Alberta.

"Our focus is to produce materials to help the Catholic Christians grow in their faith." - Jason Reinhart

Most staff members, five of whom were added just this year, are Bible school graduates and nearly all chose to live in Radway. James Riley, a multimedia technician, moved to town last June with his wife Heidi.

The couple had met at the Bible school a few years earlier. "I like it here a lot," he says. "The Catholic atmosphere here is phenomenal."

Montpetit, 33, and his wife Denise, a Catholic teacher now working for Life Vision, moved to Radway from Legal in 2000. "It's a blessing to be able to do this full time," she says. "We are very happy here. The only thing we gave up to be here is the good wages," her husband laughs.

Life Vision is technically up-to-date, although some of the equipment is second-hand. "Other studios may have a bit more of what we call bells and whistles because of their budget but the studio we have is compatible with other studios," notes Montpetit.

"We can tape a CD here and bring it to other studios so they can make the final mixing on it and make it sound a lot better than what we can do here." They can do the whole process there but it would take a lot longer.

Total package

"We have a great amount of different outreaches that people aren't even aware of, they think we just provide music.

"We also do speaking retreats for adults and youth and even children's summer camps. We have done every kind of retreat you can imagine."

Life Vision teams have been all over Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Rome and other parts of the world. Recently they received a request to do parish missions in Brazil.

Catholic singer Janelle Reinhart, Jason's wife, is a big part of the organization and has toured Canada, the U.S., Rome and Haiti. She sang for the pope at World Youth Day in Toronto.

The organization also works with Child Care International and is currently producing a music CD to benefit needy children in the developing world.

One of the group's most recent projects is Cat.Chat, a Catholic audio show for kids produced by Montpetit and his wife Denise. The first volume of the five part series, Mary Leads Me Close to Jesus, is a 30-minute audio show designed to captivate and educate kids on the theme of Mary, the Mother of God.

The CD is filled with dramatic stories, inspiring conversations, great songs and prayer, notes Denise. "The idea is to educate children on the basics of the Catholic faith." The second CD is on Jesus and will be released in the spring.

The series are also available in book form as a guide for parents and teachers. More than 1,500 Cat.Chat CDs and cassettes have been sold since last July.

Reinhart and Montpetit are reluctant to talk about the organization's annual budget because they say it keeps on changing and it's difficult to figure it out.

Donors needed

What makes the enterprise different from other mainstream studios and media centres "is that we are distinctly Catholic," Reinhart adds. "We are open to all Christian denominations, but we are distinctly Catholic. Our focus is to produce materials to help the Catholic Christians grow in their faith."

To make sure that distinction remains, Reinhart consults regularly with the bishops of the area.

"Every three or four months I meet with Archbishop (Thomas) Collins to share what we are doing and what's happened just to make sure that everything is okay and is under his approval and blessing."

For more information on Life Vision check the organization's websites: www.lifevision.ca - www.yrush.ca - www.janelle.ca or www.catchat.ca.

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