This Weekend's line-up...

Hi folks, as you have probably already seen, the new rota for this quarter has now been amended and e-mailed out to the wider team.

This coming Sunday is the A-Team (I like that name):

Max Redknap - Leading

Simon Thurston - Drums

Nick Clark - Bass

Jacky Haas - Keys

Martin Clarke - Sax/Flute

Emma Thurston - BV's

Becki Andrews - BV's

Jan Cousins - AV

Dan Sparks - PA

Please let Max Redknap and myself know ASAP if you shall have difficulty in playing this coming weekend as we adjust to the new rota. Many thanks.

Aled

Line-up for this weekend.

Hi guys, line-up for this weekend is:

Aled Cousins & Caner Mutu
Dan Sparks
Graham Delves
Kevin Burford

Simon Dipple

See you Saturday, I'll think about songs over the next couple of days and let you know in due course.

Aled

Shhh...Quiet Please!

Hey Everyone, I've been thinking a lot these last couple of weeks about how God speaks to us. Do we recognise Him? How do we know it's God? I'm convinced that God speaks to us far more than we think - we just don't realise it's Him! Perhaps we're not familiar enough with knowing His voice...perhaps we're too busy to take a moment to listen! There are a large number of scriptures that talk about 'being still in God's presence'.

This is important in the context of our worship on a Sunday morning too. When we meet together as a church family, there is an expectation that we will encounter God - so do we create sufficient opportunities for people to actually hear Him when He speaks? This has got me thinking about how our whole meeting is set out, and in particular how we, as a worship team can create these opportunities for 'space to listen'. Does 'space' mean 'silence'? Do we stop playing completely? I think the answers to these to questions is usually 'no' - more often than not, having a flow of music allows people to remain in an attitude of worship and helps them to keep their focus on God. I do think, though, that we need to work at 'lingering' more - going around chord riffs and simply waiting to see what happens before we move on to the next song on the list.

Another part of this that has got me thinking is more about us - the musicians and singers... How good are we at creating space for ourselves within our worship? Do we hold back and make space to 'listen to God' as individuals, or do we jump straight into playing or singing our parts? Obviously, this is not always as straightforward as it is for people in the congregation! We often rely on eachother to play intros, come in at certain points to add emphasis or change the dynamic within our arrangements and so on. However, I wonder if we looked out for 'listening space' more consciously within our songlists, would we find that not only do we hear or sense God personally, but also discover a greater sense of God's presence within the meeting generally? In order to do this, we need to work on our arrangements; listen more closely to what eachother is playing; trust eathother more to fill the gaps and not try to fill all of them ourselves!

I read another worship blog recently where the writer was explaining how he does something similar with his musicians. He has got his team to imagine that what ever their band line -up is, it always needs to add up to 1. For example, if there were two musicians leading worship at a prayer meeting, they both need to make up 1/2 of what is being played in order to get to 1. On the other hand, if there is a large line-up of, say 8 musicians and singers for a bigger meeting, each person needs to be thinking about playing/singing 1/8 of the overall sound in order to get to 1. I know things are not as evenly organised as this within a band dynamic - but I thought it was a really good little idea to think about. It has certainly made me think about how I need to play less and listen more!

Did you know that the words 'SILENT' and 'LISTEN' share the same letters?

Tell me what you think...

Simon

Amazing Drummer

Think I need to practice a bit more...!!! Simon

Song list and line up for this weekend.

Hi Guys, line up is:

Aled - Acoustic/Electric/Lead Vox

Caner - Acoustic/Lead Vox

Dan S - Drums

Steve B - Bass

Paul R - Lead

Becki A - Backing Vox

Songs provisionally are:

Strength will rise (B)

Wake every heart (B)

All Glory (B)

Children out

There's no lack in all you've given (A)

You led me to the cross (A)

Your blood (A)

Even though I walk (A)

You chose the cross (A)

Worthy, You are worthy (A)

You are over everything (refrain) (A)

Sunday 7th August

Hi everyone,

Band line-up for the weekend is:

Nick Clark - vocals, acoustic guitar and electric rhythm guitar

Simon T - drums

Graham - Bass

Max - lead guitar & backing vocals

Martin - saxophone and flute

Songs are:

Praises to the Holy One (A)

Let God arise (E)

You lifted me (Psalm 40) (E)

See His love (Bm)

Open the eyes of my heart Lord (E)

Indescribable (E)

Be lifted up (E)

When the music fades (E)

Draw me close to You (A)

See you all on Saturday @6pm.

Nick