Our Finest Hour

This morning, before leaving for work I watched a television program called “Blitz Street.” The idea is simple – to show us what it would have been like to have experienced, first-hand, Germany’s attacks on London seventy years ago this year.

I recorded the episode simply because I was interested in seeing a house blown up. World War II isn’t something I’ve been particularly interested in up to now; I certainly wasn’t prepared for what I saw. I was shocked to see the devastation caused by one of the smaller bombs dropped by the Germans – the SC-50 (below). On its own, it destroyed the side wall of the purpose built house…the Germans dropped thousands of these each night. The larger bombs were sometimes more than ten times the size of the SC-50.

However, what really got to me were the stories of the people who were forced to endure it. Death and destruction on an unimaginable scale left the heart of England in tatters. London was in pieces, but not broken.

If we can stand up to him [Hitler], all Europe may be liberated, and the life of the world may move forward into broad and sunlit uplands ... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’

This quote from one of Winston Churchill’s speeches is so inspiring. My generation have the unique privilege of being young enough to have avoided the direct consequences of World War II and the blitz, but old enough to have grandparents and sometimes parents that, if not involved in the war effort, experienced the fallout from it. It’s a privilege because I can read Churchill’s speeches fully aware of the outcome of that vicious war. I know that for Britain, there is no doubt that it was our country’s finest hour.

To have carried on, seeing lives obliterated, buildings annihilated and morale almost shattered shows a spirit that I want to have in my life. If that’s what it meant to be British then, I want that to be what it means to be British now. To have a spirit that, despite fear, suffering and horrendous odds against success. I want to fight for the lives we’ve been given and risk everything for a triumphant victory over evil. For the British Empire in 1940, the defence of our nation was an imperative for the liberation of others from evil. But we’re a global community now – how does the past influence the here-and-now?

In our global neighbourhood, many of our neighbours are being ruthlessly slaughtered; be it lack of sanitation, HIV and AIDs or starvation. Militia groups are ruling over their respective regions with selfishness and greed. Many areas are suffering from the horrific consequences of natural disasters. If we saw such devastation on our doorstep, we’d do something about it.

But it is on our doorstep.

Take Churchill’s speech, and alter a few words:

“if we can stand up to starvation, suffering, pain, unnecessary death, all the world may be liberated, and the life of the world may move forward into broad and sunlit uplands ... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that if the nation lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’

That’s the world I want to live in. In memory of the people who died for my freedom in the early 1940s, and because Jesus sacrificed far more so that we would love God and love our neighbours - the people in all the corners of the earth.

This will be my finest hour. I want to make sure of it. I hope it’ll be yours as well.

This Is Impossible.

I've just got home from watching Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland at the cinema. I was absolutely blown away - I loved everything from the special effects, to the portrayal of the characters, to Danny Elfman's score for it (he's one of my favourite film composers so I was a bit biased!), but what really surprised me was how inspired I felt as I left.

The quote that got me was "This is impossible."..."Only if you believe it is."

To be honest, whilst the rest of the film was fantastic, I was a little fixated on this idea towards the end. It makes me think about my own life; suddenly all the possibilities in my future metamorphose into inevitabilities...purely because I believe with all I have that I will accomplish them. I'm no longer a child reaching in vain for an object that I will never reach, but a giant looking down - where the only challenge is grabbing it before it disappears.

I didn't have to look in the Bible for long to find that actually, this is what God intended for us all along. In Luke 1:37 an angel says to Mary "For nothing is impossible with God." In Luke 18:27 Jesus says "What is impossible with men is possible with God." Matthew 17:20: "He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

And if you still don't believe that Jesus wanted the impossible for us, take a look at this:

Matthew 19:26

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Mark 10:27

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

Both Matthew and Mark recorded the same message in their gospels; this is clearly something that Jesus wanted to emphasise!

So if Alice in Wonderland tells me that "nothing is possible if I believe" then I've stumbled onto an unbelievable conclusion. The Bible actually says the same thing!

On the way home, I came up with a phrase that summed up my thoughts:

"A life's only limitation is it's owner's imagination."

However, in light of this, I suppose it needs to be changed:

"With God, a life's only limitation is it's Saviour's imagination."

Communicational Worship

Just over a week ago Revolution lead spectacularly in front of around 250 people at LIFE, our weekly youth event. In light of the fact that at 14 (the age of the vast majority of Revolution), I was battling through fairly atrocious cover songs, struggling to find any semblance of songwriting ability and severely lacking in any kind of stage presence, I'm simply in awe of these guys. They played worship songs to a standard that would be considered extremely high in many churches today, and wouldn't look out of place on a Sunday at Kerith, but it was far more than that. It was seeing other members of Revolution at the front supporting their friends, and seeing each member of the band really meaning the words they were singing - really understanding what it means to worship. Feeling like a proud parent as I left the Kerith Centre, I couldn't help but switch to planning mode. And that got me thinking.

One of my 'go-to' passages in the Bible for worship is John 4:23 - "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshiper will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." I'm often drawn to the 'in spirit and truth' part; I want to be a worshiper who offers everything to God. Someone who gives all that I am to worship him. But whilst this is a particularly important part of the passage, I have begun to realise that I've let another part of that go undetected - 'they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.' When we truly worship God, he connects with us. He communicates with us. For me personally, many of the times I connect with God the most is during a particularly powerful time of worship where we are led completely by the Spirit of God. This is 'communicational worship'. And I believe there are 3 different levels of communicational worship in the 21st century church today:

Level 1 - Impersonal worship

I believe the first aim for a worship team should be to be able to play songs from start to finish competently enough that it enables a congregation to engage in genuine worship. However, this should only be a starting block. I liken this to writing a letter - you can say (and mean) all the right things and plan meticulously, but it will only reveal a moderate proportion of your true personality. If you can play a song from start to finish but can't respond to a prompting from the Holy Spirit, you might see God move, but will be limited in worship. I find letters lack originality unless you really know who you're communicating with, and the same can be said of a worship team who puts on a worship show rather than lead people in worship. However, it is important to note that if God wants to move, he will, irrespective of this!

Level 2 - Interactive Worship

The word 'impersonal' has many negative connotations associated with it, but I'm keen to highlight the restrictive nature of not being able to respond to the Holy Spirit. I need to also stress that in order to gain the most from an interactive worship of God, there needs to be a firm grasp of the impersonal. Words on their own have limited meaning, but using them in particular circumstances can evoke powerful emotional responses. It is like that with a song; if you know a song well musically (or impersonally), it can be structurally altered at points in response to what God is doing in a congregation for optimum impact and connection with the Holy Spirit - an interactive time of worship. Suddenly, worship can have a far greater impact. For me, this is like instant messaging and the social networking phenomenon. You learn far more about someone than you would had they written you a letter, but it still doesn't convey their full personality.

Level 3 - Personal Worship

Worship is most powerful when it is a truly personal experience. You learn most about the people you love (and even the ones you don't!) in face to face conversations. We all have unique identities and particular attributes that remain hidden in letters, and on the web. I believe that we can only really experience personal worship with God when there is a unique personality to a church or worship team. There is something special in singing a song that was born out of a preach by your own pastor or by experiences that the church has shared. When you worship God collectively as a community with a unique identity, responding to the Holy Spirit with lyrically and musically strong songs, you begin to enter a personal worship time with God.

All these things assume that the worship team has a true heart for worship, but I really believe that this is where we need to be heading as worship teams around the world. I'm in no way undermining the fantastic songwriters of today; I can only dream of writing songs that speak to people as much as theirs do. I am simply passionate about seeing people become followers of Jesus...and I think that will happen when we find a voice of worship for this generation - a personal, intimate voice of worship will be the change in this world.

Writer's Block.

Urgh.

Songwriting in a church context is definitely rewarding. The feeling of hearing our church singing a song that I've either written, or had a hand in writing is one of the most rewarding feelings I've ever known - In fact, the point that I was probably most close to God in all of 2009 was at a conference we led in Albania, singing a song I helped write called "Jesus Reigns". It was almost as if God had rewarded the hours of pouring over and reworking that song by transcending both language barriers and cultural differences, as everyone in the room worshipped passionately in the knowledge of who God is. I am so grateful that people could worship to that song with such exuberance! That's what it's all about.

Songwriting in a church context, however, is definitely not easy. Looking at some of the lyrics I take most comfort from in times of worship, you'd think it would be an easy thing to do:

"Thank you,

Thank you for the cross,

For the cross"

"You are my strength,

Strength like no other,

Strength like no other,

Reaches to me"

"Jesus, be glorified in the earth,

Be glorified in the earth,

Jesus your name be glorified"

It amazes how such simplicity can be so profound. Yet it's so difficult to achieve. Musicians don't 'do' simple. It's almost as if we're programmed to try and make things as difficult as possible and consequently, we have to train ourselves to keep things simple. I remember my old music teacher always saying "KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid" and it always stuck with me; only I never fully understood how difficult that really is.

Today, my head and my heart aren't matching up. I've spent the last week researching pick-up replacements for my new Fender Strat, experimenting with pedal board set-ups and amp settings to get the best settings for our ministry times - do I harmonize an octave up with the whammy pedal or pitch shift the whole thing? Do I sacrifice the amazing clean tones of my single coils for humbuckers to get a better distorted sound? Dotted eighth note delay or crotchets? Digital or analogue?

This is all stuff I need to work through, but is it any wonder I've got writer's block? I'm putting my focus in the wrong place. I'm not writing songs about material possessions, I'm writing songs about the Creator of the universe. It really isn't a complicated truth. I don't seem to be coming up with any ideas, but maybe if I clear my head and focus on "the one thing" (in the words of Joel Houston), I can smash through this brick wall complete with a simple, yet catchy, lyrically interesting but theologically accurate, musically inspired yet easy to play worship song at the end of it. After all, I can manage simple. After all, it took three of us to write the follow lyrics:

"Jesus reigns, Jesus reigns,

Jesus reigns forever"

Yep. Can definitely manage simple...

The Beginning

So...this is the beginning.

My blogging experience is minimal; I blogged a little for Ethos last year but, as passionate as I am about what Ethos is doing, it is no longer the sole focus of my role as Musical Director at Kerith Community Church, and it became apparent that a lot of what I wanted to talk about was being left at the wayside. I'm hoping that this blog will be an outlet to broadcast the passion I have for what I'm doing, as well as any other things I feel is necessary!

Simon Benham, the Senior Pastor at Kerith Community Church talked excellently about having big dreams last week in our Sunday meetings. According to a 'Strengthfinder' test I took when I first joined the staff at Kerith in 2008, my primary strength is that I'm futuristic - so naturally this spoke to me. This blog is intended for those that know me so, with that said, my intention is to express my current ambitions (which, depending on circumstances are subject to change!):

Ethos

Ethos had an amazing year last year. As well as releasing our first CD in July, highlights included leading conferences in Butlins, Lithuania and Albania and playing on the main stage of Abundant Life's 'Rocknations' conference. I want that to be just the beginning. My ambition is to coordinate a team that writes songs that people worship to all over the world, and sees people saved regularly - ultimately, to be a band that people look to when learning about leading worship and a source of inspiration for everyone that we encounter.

Kerith Worship Academy

I am currently trialling the level 1 guitar course for Kerith Worship Academy. The intention behind the fledgling academy is not only to train musicians, but to train worshippers. In September 2010, Kerith Community Church will officially open the Kerith Worship Academy, aimed initially at children between the ages of around 8 to 11, with courses in guitar, drums, keyboard and vocals. It has taken me nearly a year to get to this point, but I am incredibly excited about it. My ambition is to run an academy for all ages in multiple locations teaching many different streams at varying levels. I think it's something that, if done well and given enough time, can be of national significance.

Revolution:

Revolution is the 11-16s worship band. The team has made some real steps forward in the last year. Thanks to the commitment and support of its members, we're rapidly learning how to run a worship team for young teens, where the focus is more on learning to worship whilst improving musicianship rather than the high pressure that accompanies the responsibility of playing regularly. Once the Kerith Worship Academy grows, my vision for Revolution is that one day we have enough members to have multiple bands, perhaps practicing at multiple rooms at the same time. It would be so exciting if we had too many members for one band! Revolution are also the future of the Kerith Worship Team, so it would be great to look back in quite a few years time and see newer members of Ethos having been through both the Kerith Worship Academy and Revolution!

I'm fully aware that these are some of the biggest of big dreams, and I make no apology for that. I'm also fully aware that I will never achieve these things on my own. Yes, I need the support and help of the people around me, but more importantly, these things can only be achieved with God. With faith in God, all things are possible.

The Bible says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1). I'm sure of what I hope for...in that respect, I've definitely got the first part right. I just need to work on the second part. I am passionate about God, but is anyone truly certain of him? In a year and a half, I've come a long way towards finding my certainty in Him, but I've got a long, almost unfathomable way to go.

I'm willing to devote my life to trying to get there.