Beginnings
Mission
First Steps
Tour Year 1973
Rebirth
Reunion
In the summer of 1971 a group of Owatonna High School and Marian High School students and recent graduates, bereft of existing opportunities to make music, met to organize one last musical fling before taking our respective life paths. In the spirit of democracy (that spirit became an enduring legacy in our group process) we compiled a repertoire which reflected the diverse musical sensibilities of the group. What to call ourselves presented an interesting challenge. We threw open the dictionary to somewhere in the middle, and after a short search arrived at Nomenclature: "The system of names used in a branch of learning or activity, for the parts of a mechanism or devise or by some person or group." Here was a word that sounded groovy and seemed to be just the right moniker with which to define our eclectic group. We practiced and practiced some more and gave a concert at the Methodist church in Owatonna. That was that. We said goodbye and went our separate ways.
The Lord, who we suspect had his hand all along in what had heretofore been a secular group of kids doing what they liked, called up back together for a more important mission than just our own recreation. The music ministry called "Nomenclature" was about to begin.
Our correspondence during the school year (this was before e-mail) enabled us to make plans. Weekend tours were organized for summer weekends while we all held down jobs during the week. So much enthusiasm was generated from that experience that we prayed to find a way to continue in some fashion.
With the help of Jerry Porath, a seminary student from Waseca, we pursued the dream of a national tour for the following summer. We drained our coffers to buy an old school bus for $500. Lots of sweat, particularly Eddie's, Julie M's and Rick's put a fresh face on that bus we lovingly called "Norman" and, after a school year of warm-up concerts at our respective colleges, we hit the road! That tour took us from Owatonna to West Virginia, back to North Dakota, down to Houston to sing in the Astrodome at the Lutheran Youth Convention, west to Colorado for a concert in the Air Force Academy Chapel, and back home.
The real journey, however, could not be drawn on a map. This was a journey to encounter the face of Christ in people throughout our country and for them to witness his reflection in us. Ten weeks, ten thousand prayers, ten quarts of axle grease, and ten square yards of crocheted afghan - we were full after that adventure. We said goodbye and, again, went our separate ways, for all good things must come to an end...
But, the Lord still had work for Nomenclature. In 1974 a fresh group of Nomens, among them Debbie Bjorkman, Pat Wolesky, and Colleen Kingrey, approached some of the Nomenclature alumni and asked the to help with organizing a new Nomenclature generation. That group performed several times that summer. In August of that year, Rick Dove approached Dave Woker to propose that Nomenclature organize another national tour. With the addition of six members from the 1973 tour group, the fourth incarnation of Nomenclature was born. This tour, managed by Dave Woker, covered similar geographical, emotional and spiritual territory to the 1973 tour. The tour over, the group disbanded for the last time.
In all, the ministry called Nomenclature involved 39 different people in its 4+ years of existence. Of the 37 still living, 31 of us gathered on August 23, 1998 to celebrate a joyous reunion and recall all that God did in and through Nomenclature. The Lord brought us here...and, who knows, the Lord may still have something in store for a group called Nomenclature.