NEW SONG: 'Halfway Empty' by Matt Redman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSKm4I0OYfk Scraping ice from the car windscreen yesterday morning, I turned on the ignition and saw the temperature gauge flash icy blue, revealing a seasonal affective disorder inducing -4.5C. The cold, dark days of January are upon us. It was only 8am and…
Before, during and what about AFTER? Crossing the finish line with a euphoric Gsus4, you dream of handing your instrument to a roadie to dutifully pack up for you, but the reality is very different. Once a church musician plays their last note, that is just the beginning. Whilst you…
Last time we looked at BEFORE, this week DURING, or what I like to call: ‘the privileged, joy-filled, sweat fest of musical averageness, singing with church family, who love me and love Jesus even more’ Me, leading at the Bristol Men's Convention on Saturday - very averagely! ——————————————————————— When you…
Some of this material comes from a recent conference in Bristol, so apologies if you heard it there, but over the next few weeks we are going to examine some general principles when leading the music at your church. Whether you are the main ‘leader’, or play an instrument, or…
If there's one book on gathering, worship and singing that I could give to everyone on our music team, it's Corporate Worship by Matt Merker. In fact, I will be as we relaunch into the new normal following the lifting of restrictions, and I'd love to see my whole congregation reading it,…
How to improve your congregational singing while we can't sing When trying to encourage our congregations to sing, we will sometimes reach for illustrations and examples from the few other places where people are comfortable singing nice and loudly in a crowd of people. These normally include watching your favourite…
It looks like many UK churches are going to be able to put on something in person over Christmas. But there’s a key question we need to be asking. Who will come? Back in August, cinemas hosted the new Christopher Nolan blockbuster Tenet. It was well trailed and heavily marketed.…
Simply put, this album is fun and faithful! OVERVIEW: Michael J Tinker has been doing a fantastic job of creating great musical resources for families and for churches with his previous albums and The King Has Arrived is another hit. Aimed at children, this album tells both the narrative of…
I was invited to take part in a webinar for church leaders organised by the FIEC, where we discussed the challenges of singing together when we can't sing together as churches. You can watch the whole video below: https://youtu.be/f-iTr7xdvdQ My short section (18:45 onwards) attempted to answer the question of…
This past Sunday our church had live singers singing in front of a congregation for the first time in over 5 months. A good number of churches in the UK are now able to meet for in-person services. Some are preparing to do so soon, and others are having to…
Here you will find a few songs that you may find helpful to listen to alongside the talks. A full Spotify Playlist can be found here, or click the songs below for individual lyrics and recordings Nigel Styles on James 2:14-26 O how good it is Immortal honours Love divine…