For the doubters ;-)

[Preacherman777]

What I meant was that there always seems to be someone who no matter what evidence is offered, seems to feel the need to spin what's happening in a less than positive light. It's not always the same person, but it seems to happen without fail. This time it seems to be, ok, it's happening, but I'm sure it won't be music penned by Bob, so once again the thought that we're probably going to get something less than what we hope to see. Sorry I've offended so many people by trying to challenge the negative thoughts about this. I'll quit posting.

[onyx]

Preacherman, I got the same vibe from that other post. I *guess* we both misunderstood. I hope you don't quit posting.

[executioner]

What I meant was that there always seems to be someone who no matter what evidence is offered, seems to feel the need to spin what's happening in a less than positive light. ItU's not always the same person, but it seems to happen without fail. This time it seems to be, ok, it's happening, but I'm sure it won't be music penned by Bob, so once again the thought that we're probably going to get something less than what we hope to see. Sorry I've offended so many people by trying to challenge the negative thoughts about this. I'll quit posting.

I didn't say or mean anything negative in my post; Greg is actually a very strong song writer.
Your the one that took something I said and meant in a positive light and made a negative out of it. It gets old when someone assumes one thing without looking at the whole picture.

[executioner]

Preacherman, I got the same vibe from that other post. I *guess* we both misunderstood. I hope you don't quit posting.

I guess vibe and assuming means the same thing in this context.
Remember what they say about assumptions?

[Shell]

Look, preacherman, before you just throw in the towel on all us negative people, take a look at your own negativity in how you are reading more there than is meant and making every post you don't happen to agree with an anti-Classic Petra post. How on earth does someone's opinion about songwriting make this a "less positive light" for Heaven's sake? You are the one who is being negative here my friend. Second guessing what someone might mean and making accusations is as wrong as anything anyone else might be doing.

Whatever the case, as I've said before it's what God wants that matters here. Maybe we should just give this a rest now and let Him do His work.

[onyx]

Shell, about your puzzlement.

I'm certainly not an expert on this board, but I've dropped by on and off again as a 'guest' for a long time. Only recently started posting because I'm very excited about the Classic Petra reunion. Anyway, it seems to me most of the fans here are center of the road. They like Petra in all it's forms even though there may be an era they prefer a little more. Then there are the fans who definitely prefer one Petra configuation over another. In all honesty, I'm in this camp. I do like some songs from the John years, but I definitely prefer Classic Petra with Greg as the singer. (Please don't get me wrong, I think John is a lovely person, I appreciate his time with Petra, and think he' done awesome ministry, etc. And I would never say or imply anything bad about him.) Some fans, however, prefer John and the later era of Petra. I could certainly be wrong, but there seems to be an underlying resent toward Greg for whatever reason, like if Greg is brought back, he's somehow misplacing John or they consider Classic Petra a disloyalty to John. To those of us who like Classic Petra or who are just happy to see Petra back together in any form, it occassionally seems there are posts that try to take away some of the shine from the Greg era and the new CP project. I doubt they mean to do that or they're just stating their opinon. I don't know, it's just my perception over the last few months. And that could very well be because I'm so excited about the Classic version. I've wanted them back together for years. Now that it's finally happening, I just don't understand why everyone isn't thrilled! LOL Anyway, there might be more reasons, but that's my understanding of why there are tiffs surrounding this subject now again on this board.

[onyx]

Executioner, I don't want to start a disagreement with you, but it looks like you've been posting here for a while, so you must know *everyone*, regardless of which era of Petra someone may perfer, considers Bob the songwriter and human cornerstone of Petra. I'm sure you're also aware of the divided camps on what singer is preferred. I'm sorry, but you're comment about CP being Greg driven had a definite undertone of negitivity because it suggests that it's somehow not as 'legitimate' if Bob's not the driving force and main songwriter this time around. Now that the board seems to behind you, you're coming back and adding things to make it seem you were 'misunderstood', but given the climate on this board and looking at "the whole picture", I think you knew exactly what you were doing. You're meaning came through loud and clear.

[Preacherman777]

All I will say is that everyone knows that Bob's songwriting is the heart of Petra. In the past when a Petra project has been done without any new songs penned by Bob, there is always a fair bit of disappointment and I think everyone knows that as well. Having said that, I really am tired of being blasted as the villain for expressing my opinion about what has appeared to me to be an ongoing sense of negativity toward classic Petra. If I'm wrong and there honestly has not being any negativity and I'm really just misreading everything, then I apologize. But I can't help what I feel when I come here and read the things I read and since I can't express that without getting blasted, I'm done.

[SCJ-7]

Just one word: Awesome.

[petraman]

New pic added with Bob.

[Dan]

New pic added with Bob.

Yeah they read the zone.

[Shell]

Look, nobody is disputing your right to express your opinion, but if you want that for yourself you should be willing to allow that for others too. You shouldn't expect people to just blindly accept what you say and not respond to it. Bob may be the main songwriter, but that doesn't mean others haven't made meaningful contributions. Personally, it doesn't matter to me whose idea it was to plan the concerts or who does the songwriting, I'm planning on enjoying whatever concerts I can make it to and planning on enjoying the CD.

None of us is the leading expert on putting something like this together; maybe we should just let them go about their business now.

[Dan]

Greg is the driving force for this and that is OK.

Greg left Petra in 85' now he is the driving force to get this era to continue.

I am saying this with a positive tone, cause for those who never got to see them live, this is a fantastic opportunity.

As for which singer was the best, it's like comparing apples to pears. Greg has a classic type voice, and John has a more of a rock voice. Both are good, but very different.

[executioner]

All I will say is that everyone knows that Bob's songwriting is the heart of Petra. In the past when a Petra project has been done without any new songs penned by Bob, there is always a fair bit of disappointment and I think everyone knows that as well. Having said that, I really am tired of being blasted as the villain for expressing my opinion about what has appeared to me to be an ongoing sense of negativity toward classic Petra. If I'm wrong and there honestly has not being any negativity and I'm really just misreading everything, then I apologize. But I can't help what I feel when I come here and read the things I read and since I can't express that without getting blasted, I'm done.

This is exactly how you made me feel. If you took what I said in the post as negative then you read something that was not there.

[executioner]

Executioner, I don't want to start a disagreement with you, but it looks like you've been posting here for a while, so you must know *everyone*, regardless of which era of Petra someone may perfer, considers Bob the songwriter and human cornerstone of Petra. I'm sure you're also aware of the divided camps on what singer is preferred. I'm sorry, but you're comment about CP being Greg driven had a definite undertone of negitivity because it suggests that it's somehow not as 'legitimate' if Bob's not the driving force and main songwriter this time around. Now that the board seems to behind you, you're coming back and adding things to make it seem you were 'misunderstood', but given the climate on this board and looking at "the whole picture", I think you knew exactly what you were doing. You're meaning came through loud and clear.

Well obviously you had ear plugs in at the time because you are totally off base on you assumptions. I dislike when someone either puts words in my mouth or twist my words around to mean something that I did not intead for them to mean, and that is exactly what you and Preacherman did.
Greg has written some good quaility songs during his solo career and I would like to hear some new things from him on these CP projects.
There are quite of few songs that Petra has recorded that are good songs that Bob did not write himself. Not By Sight & Occupy are my 2 favorites off of NOTW that were written by someone else. Just Reach Out, The Coloring Song, Road To Zion, Shakin' The House, and Thankful Heart are a few others. All these songs are strong songs that most Petra fans like or love.