Two weeks until the Summer Academy!

So it seems to be the season we are in that it is two weeks until everything is going on at the moment. Two weeks ago I was at New Wine helping lead 600 8-9 year olds into worship - it was really knackering but a superb week. The highlight for me was seeing over 200 of them line up around the venue to share what God was saying to them - I was quite blown away by what God was doing in them.

The band did great as well and it was a pleasure to hang out during the rest of the time with them. God was working in us to and it was great to be able to use something God given to benefit these young people.

Then I went on holiday to Wales with my family which was cool but was feeling a bit unwell during the week which culminated when I got back with me needing to stay in bed for a day or two. Still, fighting fit now and back in the game.

And so two weeks (well less now!) until the Summer Academy starts. This is a week long academy I am running as part of my music mentoring that is going to see nearly 40 young people doing creative things dance, singing, band stuff, video, graphics, DJ'ing and techy stuff culminating in a big gig at the end of the week for parents and friends to see what they've been up to.

Still much to do, but I can't wait. It is gonna be awesome to be able to see these young people be encouraged to use what God has given them - even if they don't realise it was God who gave it to them in the first place!

New Wine in two weeks...

This year myself and a team of 4 others are leading some of the worship at the Rock Solid venue at the New Wine summer conference. It is going to be a superb time and I feel privileged to be part of it. Today we had a training day in preparation for it and it reminded me of what an important thing it is to minister to kids and to teach them about Jesus.

I have spoken to people before who can be a bit derogatory about being involved in 'kids' ministry - as surely 'it doesn't really matter' and 'unless you are not doing something in the main venues then it doesn't really count'. I was reminded today just much I disagree with that! In a world that says that if you do anything on a small scale you are not a success, or if you are working with people who have no influence or power then it is not worth doing I am convinced that God works in the complete opposite way.

I personally think that kids need teaching and worship that is as excellent as it can be - perhaps even better than what you find in one of the main venues at an event like New Wine! I think the local church needs to be raising the bar in terms of what it does and how it does it, not just with worship, but all aspects because the people who it ministers to matter. It is certainly my heart to be leading really excellent, spirit filled times of corporate worship not because one day I'll lead worship in 'somewhere that matters' in an earthly sense - but because every time I lead worship I am already leading in a place that matters dearly to God and His Kingdom.

So less than two weeks to go - still so much to do! Better stop writing posts and crack on.... :)

Some Things Are Never Simple

We live in an area of Portsmouth which has quite a close-nit community - lots of people know each other and hang out together and I think that has both positive and negative effects on the community as a whole. The other day a neighbour of ours asked to borrow something of ours and we naturally said yes but when it was returned to us we noticed that it was completely broken.

Typical - you try and do a nice thing, yet something like this happens and it plops you into a sticky predicament. The mentality of a lot of people in Portsmouth would be to handle this situation by going round and starting an argument about it - probably demanding some money for a replacement. Now I don't believe that is the way God would handle the situation where He here with me but at the same time I don't think that God calls Christians to simply be a walk-over and ignore things that matter to us. Yet the passage where Jesus tells us to 'turn the other cheek' does also make me wonder where the right path lies (although that same passage also says to not refuse people who want to borrow from you!)

It is a common battle I find myself in - I want to stand up for God and be different in my thinking and in my actions - but yet it seems difficult to find the narrow path of what is going to demonstrate that Christians are not afraid to stand up and talk about things but at the same time talk about things in a productive way that enhances a relationship rather than destroy it.

So I did go back round to have a chat - I figured I'd take the approach of 'just wondered if you had noticed that it doesn't work any more and if you knew what had happened to it'. Sadly they weren't in - so i'll have to go back another time. At the end of the day, our relationships with our neighbours is more important than the broken utensil and so I won't demand any money off of them. But I still find it hard to talk about things like this without coming off as being confrontational and shirty.

Learning to Fly on iTunes!

Just in case you were interested...

I recorded a couple of CD's back in 2003 and 2005 and the latest of which is now available on iTunes to download. This is quite cool - as this is something that is normally quite difficult to achieve if you are an independent artist as I am. However, the nice folks over at TuneCore which certainly help you out there.

I think I was kinda bullied into putting them up there by my good friend Rob :). But I figure that whilst I feel they have served the purpose of writing and recording them here at Kings in Portsmouth it doesn't harm anyone to put them out there for anyone who stumbles across them!

So, if you want to get it on iTunes you can do so by searching for 'Gareth Matthews' or by clicking this link here.

A 268 Generation

Last Thursday I travelled up to London to go to the first Passion event in London. If you have never heard of it this is a movement in the USA that seeks to inspire students to live after God and encourage them in that. Now technically (well, actually entirely) I am not a student, but I can drive a minibus and so I was roped in to go - and I'm glad I did.

So the event kicks off in the Hammersmith Apollo with Chris Tomlin and his band pumping out some worship, Matt Redman leads a few songs a bit later, the David Crowder Band pumped out some tunes and Louie Giglio spoke. It was extremely well put together and I really enjoyed everything they did - and you could really sense the heart behind it. Sometimes the worship felt quite showy - especially from Mr Tomlin as I feel strongly that worship is not simply a performance. However, in a sense, the entire crowd was really up for worship - so perhaps not much leading was really needed!

The highlight for me (which is kind of odd as a musician and worship leader) was Louie's talk. Blymey, that man has a stunning way of communicating the Gospel and inspiring people to hunt after that. The Passion movement is based on Isaiah 26:8 - which talks about God's name and His renown being the desires of our hearts, or as he put it 'wanting to make God famous'. This is something that has been really on my heart as late as I really desire to be someone who shines Jesus through everything I do.

I think my problem is that sometimes I get so caught up in being normal and relevant - all good things that Christians should be - that I forgot that we actually need to stick out and be different. To be 'in the world and not of the world'. I was very inspired to turn this around and start making an effort to stick out in the things I do, the things I say and the way I live. That doesn't mean that I am going to go completely into wierdo mode - but perhaps I may not be afraid to talk about Jesus and allow Him to shine through what I do and the way I live.

I have an excellent CD from the Revelation Warehouse that was released back in 2001 called Biography that was recorded at a time when things in the 247 prayer movement were really kicking off. There is an amazing part of that CD which never fails to move me when someone prays 'God we are so sorry when we don't look any different from the world'. That is my prayer today and something I want to change!

O or Oh?

Man it has been a long time - I nearly forgot the password to this blog. Shocking. Consider my knuckles rapped and back in the game...

So I was going through my normal routine of choosing some songs for this coming Sunday at Kings and as I was perusing a list of songs something jumped out at me. There are quite a few songs that start with the word 'Oh' - Oh Happy Day or Oh Lord I am devoted to you for example, but then there are also quite a few songs that start with the word 'O'. Hmmm I thought, perhaps the 'O' should be an 'Oh' and I just typed the song title in wrongly. But no, if you google for example Matt Redman's O Sacred King or the traditional O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder (How great thou art), you'll see it is definitely an 'O'.

Now I am no English scholar, I think the apostrophe looks pretty and should be used wherever possible. But what is the difference between 'O' and 'Oh'? Is this some deep dark secret about the English language that I've missed?? More to the point should I be using more 'O'ing in my songs? Deep theological questions...

Perhaps I should email Redman and ask him why he used an 'O' instead of an 'Oh'. To be honest, when I look at the lyrics of songs that use either I have to wonder why the word is there at all - I mean, it doesn't really mean much or add much to the line - apart from make it fall under the meter a little better. Anyhow - it is all good - but if anyone out there has any hard and fast rules about when to use 'O' and when to use 'Oh' I'd certainly like to hear it :)

Anyway, this brings me on to my next topic of my new song: 'Oooooooooooooo Lord you are a legend'. What a catchy title. More about this soon.....

Mercy me

If you have never heard any music by the band Mercy Me then you should make a special effort to check them out. They are an American Christian band who have been around for many years and every time I hear their music it blows me away a little. They are a bunch of pretty down to earth guys who are talented musicians - but what I love is the way they express what they are trying to say in a song. They sing about things in ways that I'd never think of - and it takes me aback when I hear a new song they have written. They are a worship band primarily, but not the type of worship you'd sing in church (although they did write I can only imagine - which is sang a lot these days).

Such an occasion happened yesterday when I googled them and spotted one of their videos on YouTube. Fantastic song and quite a cool video too. And once again, the lyrics blew me away. Check it out...

Christian Success

I was really encouraged by a quality blog and preach I heard on WorshipMatters.com. The post was talking about whose glory we make music for. So often it can be really easy to get bogged down with the feeling that what we do has little significance when it comes to the bigger picture - yet we look around and can find a hundred Christians, especially worship leaders who seem to be blessing thousands with their ministries.

Yet this post reminded me that we cannot measure success in the way the world measures success. As Christians we should use God's measuring 'rod' as our measure - and actually that is all the counts. It also reminded me that perhaps when I feel that I am unsuccessful, perhaps I am being a glory-hunter rather than a glory-projector.

I am often reminded that while it is awesome that we have stacks of inspirational worship leaders and song-writers out there, the place they are greatly needed is in the local church. It may seem that we are leading worship week after week to a handful of people, but yet our local churches need quality, God-fearing worship leaders. It may seem that any songs we write only get heard by the small number of people in our church, but our local churches need quality, God-inspired songs to help express where the church is at in that time.

I have an incling that if we even remotely understood this stuff - wait, scratch that, if I remotely understood and grasped this stuff it would put into perspective what I do and why I do it so much more. My heart deep down is to be a glory-proector - why do I forget this so easily? Lord, give me Your understanding on this!

New Generation Music

I am currently starting up a project which I loosely call 'music mentoring'. In the area of Portsmouth where I live and work, there is a great need for positive role models, self-esteem and a sense of purpose. I believe I have this through knowing the greatest role model that ever lived (Jesus Christ) and part of the reason I am made like I am is to pass some of that on to others.

So music mentoring is taking music and using that as a tool to instil a sense of vision and purpose into the lives of local young people. I am just starting out - and while I'm struggling with limited resources I see real potential in the idea and believe God is calling me to invest more of my time into it.

So I was really encouraged today when I looked at the website of NGM based in Bristol. Run by Ray and Nancy Goudie they have a similar vision and passion but are much further down the line than I am. Man it is inspiring to actually see a vision I have already in action somewhere else. It encourages me to think that perhaps one day, the teeny music mentoring project we have down here could be impacting as many young people as they do. What a transformation it could bring to this run down area of Portsmouth.