Summer Academy 2009

I can't feel my legs, I've had a toy car thrown at my head, I've been street dancing and taken some serious beatings on my stomach from a wooden spatula. Have I been incarcerated? No - just doing this years summer academy :)

It has been an excellent week so far and the best is yet to come I am sure. We have one final day of rehearsals before our final gig on Saturday night. It promises to be amazing and if you find yourself in Portsmouth on that night, pop in and see loads of young people showcasing how incredible they are!

I love just hanging out with the young people for an extended period of time. While the point of the HOPE academy is to encourage and build up the young people sometimes I worry that I am not 'teaching' the young people enough stuff. I.e. they will not be professional DJ's or sound engineers when they have finished. However one thing I realised today was that actually young people learn a lot and get a lot of value from just being given the chance to have a go at something. The opportunity to play on a big stage, have a go at being a lighting engineer, get the chance to mix some vinyl. Encouraging them in that way is something that cannot be matched.

So Saturday is going to be a brilliant night. I just hope I'm going to be able to stay awake long enough to enjoy it!

The Dizzying Heights

I am having a great time leading kids into worship at New Wine this week. In Rock Solid we always start and end each meeting together singing our 'Anthem'. In previous years this has been that great song 'Shackles' by Mary, Mary. However this year, the team decided that we needed something different (as that had been used for the past three years) and they asked me to come up with something. Something 'worshipful', 'fun' and fits in with the theme this year of High School Musical.

Hmmmm.

Well, I had a go and so far the kids seem to really enjoy singing it. It has also just been aired on New Wine FM. Oh the dizzying heights... I'm not actually sure if anyone listens to New Wine FM being that it only broadcasts to the conference but a good thing none the less!

For those who are really interested you can catch a listen to this rocking tune by clicking here!

Silence

Here at New Wine it is pretty darn noisey. There are roughly ten venues, all equipped with enough PA to do some serious damage and there is rarely a time when they are not pumping something out. I'm someone who gets very easily distracted by anything of a musical nature and so having all this noise around can be quite unhelpful!

Today however is the 'day off'. No morning meetings - but a chance to get out of the site and find some space. I went and ran a few errands and then had lunch in the quietest country pub the west country has ever seen. It was excellent.

I've been thinking recently how much I need to get some silence back into my life. To get some time to hear God clearly without distractions of the world clouding in. It has certainly helped today!

New Wine Day 2

Day 2 of New Wine... I and a small team area leading worship in Rock Solid which is for 8-9 year olds and it is incredible fun. Kids of this age are so much fun and they show so much genuine, un-filtered passion for God and it is a pleasure to lead them into worship.

I also got the chance today to meet up with lots of other worship leaders and musicians in the FUSE networking session. I was reminded just how difficult it can be sometimes to lead worship in local church and it was great to be able to encourage others to keep going and that they are doing something incredibly powerful each time they step out and serve by leading others into God's presence with music.

At large conferences you can often get the impression that you are only a good worship leader / church leader / any kind of leader if you are leading thousands or doing something on a big platform worldwide. But I feel that God really needs excellent leaders to be committed to being local leaders. Our churches would wither and die if we were all jetting off around the world speaking at this conference or that. Our church really need amazing leaders who are not simply doing it in the hope of a 'big break'. It is a really tough thing to do - as it seems so appealing to be able to lead a large number of people.

Our eyes have to be fixed on God however. It is for His approval and recognition we must strive for rather than the so-called recognition of the world and it's people.

New Wine 2009

I've been going to New Wine for three years now and this year will be the 2nd year where I'll be leading some worship at the Rock Solid venue for the 8-9 year olds. It is always great fun and I feel really privileged to be a part of it. This year I want to try and build on the stuff God is teaching me at the moment - like aiming to be the least and serving with everything I am.

I am wife and child-less this year - so I intend to get to as many seminars as I can and keep up the good blogging action. It is starting to seem that when I am doing some blogging it is when I am making time for God to speak into me. So I will try and keep it up.

I have a large list of things to arrange before I go - so I'd better get on it really!

Being the least

Our pastor got my thinking about an interesting point the other day. He was focussing on our destiny and our purpose and drew into his thinking the story of John the Baptist. Anyhow, it got me looking at it in a bit more detail and some stuff really hit me that I had never fully appreciated before.

After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."

To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.

So firstly John the Baptist suffered from what most church leaders perhaps suffer from at some point. The "look at that church over there" syndrome. John's followers were basically saying that Jesus' church was doing much better than their church and that John should think of a strategy to win back some of his followers.

John's response is staggering. "He must become greater; I must become less". He is basically saying that he was put on this earth to become less. I don't know about you but when I think about the things I do I dream about them becoming big. I dream about them becoming more influential, more productive, more connected, more respected. I don't for one minute hope and pray that God would make the things I do 'less' - even if it is for the gain of someone else. But as John so astutely puts it "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven". Well said.

This really challenges me therefore - because while my desire to see the things I do have some success and prosperity, am I doing that so that people won't think I'm a worthless idiot? Am I doing it simply to feel good in myself? Or am I really doing it because that is what God is saying?

I've thought for a long time that, with particular reference to my worship leading / song-writing that God was in fact calling me to be small in it - i.e. not to have ambition for platinum selling albums or Christian fame and respect. But to be the best worship leader I could be for the sake of the tens / hundreds of people in the area I live and the people in our church. And to not only do that but to do that with everything I have, being satisfied with the fact that I am doing God's will - not selling loads of albums. I believe I am a good worship leader - whatever that means - and God needs those in the small churches and areas just He does in the big ones.

God help me to treat your opinion higher than my opinion, or others opinion of me. That way, surely I'll just get on doing what you want me to do.

I want to blog more!

I like blogging. I like reading blogs too - but for some reason I just haven't found the time or the energy over the past year. I have no idea really why - except to say that I find it really helpful sometimes to get some thoughts down. A blog is a great outlet for this - and quite fun to read back too.

So, I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things here. One a week say. How hard can that be??