I’ve caved and downloaded Instagram (Taken with instagram)
It's Mine
My thoughts, my pics, my life.
This is my place for it all.
This is my Facebook
This is my Flickr
This is my Church
This is my other website
What Value?
Ok, so this latest attempt of a blog is my first since I got sucked into Facebook and Twitter, and I have to wonder, what’s the point?
I mean, since I broadcast anything noteworthy in my life in 140 characters or less on Twitter or 140 characters of more on Facebook, I find everything I want to stick on my blog has already been put on Twitter and Facebook and I’m just duplicating myself.
Is this because I’m shallow and don’t have any deep thoughts that require an entire blog entry to explain?
Worship Confessional
This blog post is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist.
Today at i61 we had our first wedding! From church in a pub to wedding in a pub :)
First off, can I just say everyone who came in early to set up is a superstar, it’s not easy making a pub look weddingy, but you managed it with aplomb!
Leading worship at a wedding is so different to a regular Sunday. Our stage is very low, and the front row is very close to the stage. The front few rows were family, and mainly non-Christian, let’s just say they were a bit frosty :) Anyway, despite the looks that said to me ‘I dare you to make me try and sing’ I had a blast and I’m pretty sure the whole team enjoyed it. We were packed out and there was a bunch of people stood up at the back, so the extra energy that brought helped things.
Todays songs were mostly picked by the Bride & Groom and they worked very well.
We began with Because of Your Love by Al Gordon and followed it up with Beautiful One by Tim Hughes - both great wedding choices.
Unusual for a wedding maybe, but we then had our weekly sketch, which this week was Myfanwy singing Praise You by Fat Boy Slim, ably assisted by Sock. That guy may have no arms or legs, but he sure can sing!
We then sang Highest & The Greatest, followed by Mighty to Save. By this time the presence of God was making this a day to remember :)
The ceremony itself was great, very emotional. Congratulations Will & Nat! Pastor SteveO looked like he’s been doing weddings for years, you couldn’t tell it was his first time at all. Every wedding has to have a funny moment and this was duly provided by Nat when she forgot Will’s name at the key moment. Thankfully it came back to her just in time :)
Sarah sang a solo of A Little Longer by Brian & Jenn Johnson which I personally thought was teriffic! Although I do admit to being a little biased, but it seems lots of you agreed with me :)
We wrapped up with Sing Sing Sing by Chris Tomlin, after which the bouncy castles came out and we all stuffed ourselves with food and partied the afternoon away.
Again, I was hugely impressed by the team who turned the church back into the ub in the blink of an eye after the ceremony, thank you for all your help guys!
And a big congratulations to Will & Natalie, may God bless the rest of your lives together.
Worship Confessional
This blog post is a part of Sunday Setlists.
Today was a bank holiday. Bank holidays are weird because there’s a party atmosphere but numbers are usually low because people are away.
As far as worship goes, today was a bit of an experiment. I finally admitted defeat in my attempt to get the team using in-ear monitors and at practice we switched back to using floor monitors. But it was agreed to ditch the amps and put everything through the monitors. This was worth the sacrifice of the in-ears (which I loved, but no one else did) because the amount of noise bleed (is that even a phrase?) from the stage is rotten. Don’t get me wrong, I love Phil’s bass and Derek or Darcy’s electric, but they were dominating the front of the room. Our new setup gave full control to our sound desk so, hopefully, we managed to get a good sound all over the room today, and not just further back.
I brought a few older songs back today, we’ve done a lot of new stuff lately and felt it was a good time to go with some well known, well loved classics. So, to that effect, we opened up with:
One Way by Hillsong United. The hand clapping may be a bit cheesy to some, but there’s no denying it’s catchy!
Sarah then led Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman, ending with a great quiet, almost acapella bridge and chorus. With the harmonies it was a really sweet moment.
Jeff had me very worried during the sketch today, but thankfully he stopped removing clothes while he still had clothes on. I hoped he would, but having seen all of J&C’s sketches since i61 began, you can never be too sure where it’s going to go!
We then sang Almighty God by Tim Hughes. This is a fave of mine, so I enjoyed it and I hope everyone else did too!
This transitioned into King of Wonders by Matt Redman. It’s only the second time for this song, but it’s already firmly established. When people really get to know the song it’s going to be a firm favourite, I’m sure.
SteveO then preached from Isaiah 61. Considering our church is founded on this passage it’s no surprise it was a passionate message :) and it followed on well from my message last week.
We finished with R U Ready by Godfrey Birtill, I know certain members of our team hate this song, but it works, people dance before their Maker and it was a fun way to begin the fayre that followed church.
On this note, I just want to say I am very proud of Sarah, my wife, for selling her artwork for the first time. It all sold, which I knew it would!
And a big CONGRATULATIONS to Lorraine for winning the 2 tickets to see Coldplay. There’s nothing like a Coldplay raffle to bring people into a church event ;)
I already have a ticket, so I don’t need to be jealous in the slightest!
Lots of money was raised for our missions trip to Uganda. I have no idea how much, but I’m sure it was lots.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
I spoke at i61 this weekend, this is my message.
Worship Confessional
This blog entry is part of Sunday Setlist.
Today I preached so I was able to enjoy and worship wholeheartedly from the front today. A rare treat for me, daughter#1 was in a daddy mood so I held her while we worshipped together. It was a great moment, she snuggled into my neck and stroked my hair (her sugar, as she likes to call it) while we danced together. At one point she even put her hand up in the air while we sang Happy Day. She usually loves her friends so much at church, and that combined with me being up on stage, mean I don’t get to spent a lot of time with her at church, but that just makes moments like today all the sweeter.
Anyway, enough of me, on to the set for today.
Kirsty (vox) led, ably assisted by Sarah (vox), Jordan (drums), Phil (bass), Ji (keys), Darcy (electric guitar & vox) & Celso (acoustic guitar & vox).
She opened with Happy Day by Tim Hughes, we dropped this song for a few months but it’s enjoying it’s revival. Everyone loves it and it’s a great way to get the meeting started.
Next up was Yesterday, Today & Forever by Vicky Beeching. We’ve only done this one a handful of times so far, Kirsty was the one who introduced it. It’s fast becoming a favourite as people really start to learn it.
Today’s sketch by Jeff & Christine was hilarious, they gave a *different* view on what the Kingdom of God was and ended up beating seven bells out of each other. Christine (fake) kneed Jeff in his family jewels (what’s an appropriate term for that area when you’re writing a worship confessional?? - I tried, and deleted 3 others before settling on this one) and Jeff flew across the stage narrowly missing the drum kit, but I’m sure that was planned.
Our third song was Give Us Your Courage by Tim Hughes, Sarah and Kirsty had a fantastic blend of voices on this song, the harmonies were wonderful to hear.
This transitioned nicely into Love Came Down by Ben Cantelon, a song I never have any trouble getting lost in. Altogether it was a really good set today, it flowed well and the team worked great together. Good job everyone!
I spoke on the Kingdom of God, it was well received and I had a lot of great feedback after the meeting. I ended by posing the question, ‘are you prepared to let Jesus be your King?’
Which transitioned nicely into our closing song, King by Tree63, which allowed people to make the declaration that yes, ‘Jesus You are our King!’
There was something special about the meeting today, we were packed out (with lots of new people!) which always helps, but there was an extra special sense of the presence of God today, maybe it was just that I was able to appreciate it a little more by having a different role today.
