Gary Venden
1955
-
Gary Venden,
a singer, pianist and string player, is both a pastor and musician in the
Seventh-day Adventist Church. He and his wife Marilynn (Jones), a singer,
perform often as part of their ministry in music.
Gary was born in Saginaw,
Michigan, the younger of two children born to Leonard and Shirley Huenergardt Venden. His father
was a pastor and music teacher and his mother, a talented mallet keyboard
performer who also held a degree in home economics. Both parents were musical,
and Gary as well as his sister, Lenette, started
piano lessons at age three with their father and then studied mallet keyboard
instruments with their mother.
Starting in the early 1960s
and continuing into the 1970s, the Vendens and their
two children performed as the Venden Family Keyboard
Quartet, with Leonard playing organ, Shirley playing vibraharp
and marimba, Lenette playing piano and marimba, and
Gary playing piano. Both of the children sang, and the family also played as a handbell choir. They released two records, The Green
Cathedral in 1968 and Christmas Bells in 1969, through Chapel
Records, and provided special music during the 1970 General Conference Session
held in Atlantic City.
The Vendens
moved frequently with the result that Gary attended Auburn, Sandia View, and
Orangewood academies before graduating from the latter in 1974. He attended Pacific Union College, where he completed a theology degree with a
minor in piano in 1979. In March of that year, he married Marilynn Jones,
an alto singer whose parents were well known music evangelists in the Adventist
church who had made several Chapel Records in the 1960s and 1970s.
After serving as an intern
pastor at Newbury Park Academy in California, for a year, the Vendens spent the next nine years in evangelism, working
with the Kenneth Cox Team for a year-and-a-half; Lyle Pollett
for two years in the Carolina Conference; and then in the Northern California
Conference for six years, first with Pollett and then
on their own. For the next seven years, Gary pastored the Ross Valley SDA
Church in Fairfax, California, and in 1997 became pastor of the Glendale SDA
Church in Phoenix, Arizona, a position he presently holds.
While still in college, Venden spent a year traveling as a pianist for Sound of
Care, a youth evangelism group in the Pacific Union Conference. While on the
campus, he played string bass in the Howell Mountain Boys blue grass group for
three years and also played piano for two years for a singing group led by
William Truby, III.
Beginning in 1980, he served
as a keyboardist, guitarist, and bandleader of the worship band for the Adults
II program at the Redwood Camp Meeting in the Northern California SDA
Conference. In 1997 he started doing the same at the Arizona camp meeting in
Prescott while also continuing at Redwood. He still provides that service at
both camp meetings.
In 1997, when he became
pastor at Glendale, he also started a resident group called the Mosaic Worship
Band. More recently, the Vendens and musicians drawn
from their local worship band and others who have participated in the Arizona
and California camp meeting bands jointly produced CDs in 2006 and 2008, titled
Mosaic and Mosaic 2. Both feature Contemporary Christian music,
with Marilynn as lead singer, and a creative mix of a variety of instruments.
Since their marriage in 1979,
Marilynn has worked with Gary in evangelism as well as assisting him in his
ministry in the churches he has served. She presently is chaplain with Hospice
of the Valley, a position she has held since 2003.
ds/2011
Sources:
Information provided by Gary Venden, May 2011; Lake
Union Herald, 4 April 1967, 9; North Pacific Union Gleaner, 18 May
1970, 3;The Review and Herald, 16 June 1970, 9 and 18 June 1970, 12; Pacific
Union Recorder, 16 July 1970, 5; The Modesto Bee, 31 July 1970, B-3;
Mosaic CD liner, 2006; personal knowledge.
Discography
Record Albums
The Green Cathedral Leonard Venden Family Keyboard Quartet, Chapel Records #S-146
(1968)
Christmas Bells Leonard Venden Family, handbells with
other instruments (1969)
That’s Worth Everything Sound of Care Gospel
Singing Group, Gary Venden, pianist, Chapel Records
#S5274 (1975)
The Ultimate Show and other Parables,
Keith Knoche, Gary Venden,
Piano, Guitar, and Bass, Chapel/Bridge Records #2284 (1976)
Stained Glass Contemporary
Christian, Gary & Marilynn Venden and Greg Jones,
Chapel/Bridge Records #S2300 (1981) Recorded at Heavenly Studio, Sacramento, CA
Quiet Galilean Nights Contemporary
Christian, Gary & Marilynn Venden, Chapel/Bridge
Records #S2313 (1983) Recorded at Sundown Sound, Greenville, SC
Into the Woods Hymn arrangements,
Gary Venden, piano, Chapel Records #S5462 (1983)
Recorded at Sundown Sound, Greenville, SC
CDs
Quiet Time Contemporary
Christian, Gary & Marilynn Venden, Chapel Records
#5545 (1988) Self-recorded at Lodi, CA
Northstar Parable Songs
Contemporary Christian, Gary Venden, Chapel/Bridge
Records #2351 (1988) Self-recorded at Lodi, CA
Mosaic Contemporary
Christian, Gary & Marilynn Venden with Mosaic
Worship Band, Distributed by Chapel/Bridge Records (2006) Recorded at Full-Clip
Audio, Phoenix, AZ
Mosaic 2 Contemporary
Christian, Gary & Marilynn Venden with Mosaic
Worship Band, Distributed by Chapel/Bridge Records (2008) Recorded at Full-Clip
Audio, Phoenix, AZ