I loved being responsible for the scripture readings each night last week in the Big Top, Spring Harvest Skegness. For each one we looked to appropriately engage people with the text, at the moment it was being read, instead of rushing through it to let the preacher tell us 'what...
I know we've only just finished with Christmas, but Lent starts on 22 Febuary this year, and if you want to make the most of this rich season in the Church's year it'd be best to start thinking about it now! When the period begins on Ash Wednesday, why...
We’ve recently come back from a fantastic church weekend with Haddon Hall Baptist, where we were asked to lead 3 out of 4 sessions in an All-Age format. Many pastors and worship leaders find these scenarios the most difficult to plan and lead (with good reason!) but we loved the...
You might have come across RESOUNDworship.org - a website sharing new worship songs for free, by a relatively unknown group of writers. We’ve had no major-label backing, little or no budget, and have worked on it mostly in our spare time, and yet the site has over 8.500 subscribers and...
Joel Payne is currently living Huancayo, a city high in the Peruvian Andes, with his wife Rhiannon. Having spent the previous 14 years working in UK churches as a worship pastor, he is now taking time out to help with a local Peruvian church. What follows is part of a...
The story is told of a traveller in the Middle Ages, who visited a city where many stonecutters were working. Approaching some of the men, he asked them all the same question: "What are you doing?" The first stonecutter he met replied, "I'm cutting stone. I have to do it, my...
Something was wrong, and I knew it. When I looked at what I had done, something annoyed me, and it took me some time to realise what it was. I had been working on a piece of artwork called “Secret Place” which depicts a room, perhaps a study, where someone goes...
Three bits of news have hardened my suspicions that guitar music is going to be increasingly niche. One is Paul Gambaccini’s last rites on rock. The second is that Guitar Hero has been discontinued. And the third is that Beyonce could be headlining Glastonbury. I think this shows that the...
Worship songwriters (and others who create resources for worship - video editors, visuals-creators, prayer-writers etc) are often referred to as ‘artists’. They tend to be ‘creative types’, and often model themselves on the popular artists of our day - the singer/songwriter alone in her room, searching her soul in the...
Biblefresh is an initiative we're excited to be partnering with for 2011 - joining over 100 organisations to inspire and resource thousands of churches for engaging with the Bible in fresh ways. They're encouraging churches to sign up to four pledges - the forth of which is to "Provide and...
