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Last night I had the opportunity to go and visit Grange Farm Studio. They hold a 'hang out' evening for local musicians once a month. I didn't have a band practise this week, so was able to go along. It was surprisingly close to where I live (less than 5 miles!) - I am so used to travelling forever to get to a studio. Facilities are extremely good quality and the converted barn created a very comfortable atmosphere. They are also very reasonably priced in comparison to other studios around. So I am suitably impressed and am considering future possibilities of working with them on the various projects I have in mind - - - watch this space!
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Last week I took a day trip to Oxford with my family. Part of our time there was spent in the Ashmolean Museum. It is packed full of history (as you would expect) that ranged from Renaissance art, Chineese ceramics, Japanese samurai armour to giant statues of Juleus Cesar. One particular exhibit caught my attention - musical instruments.
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A good friend of mine from Zimbabwe, Henry Olonga, has recently released an autobiography called 'Blood, Sweat and Treason'. If you know of Henry's stand against the injustice and abuses of power in Zimbabwe during the World Cup cricket tournament in 1998 that ended his International Test Cricket career, and put a price on his head, this book explains the thoughts, motivations and trials that came with making that decision. It also contains Henry's life story as all autobiographies do. But more that this, interwoven into his life-story is his faith!
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I've just upgraded my mobile phone contract and got a cool BlackBerry Curve Smartphone. It's great fun with some really useful apps for musicians - I've even found a Bible app.
I was playing around with it last night and discovered how easy it was to log on to mattmcchlery.com and to play and listen to the demo mp3s on the 'Songs' page. So if you have a Smartphone, you too can get instant access to the free songs and listen to them on the go, save them on your phone and share them with your firends!
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Last night I held my long awaited Citizenship Celebration party. AS you may know, I am originally from Zimbabwe but have emigrated to the UK and have been on a journey to obtain my British citizenship for about 7 years now. SO I had a big party with all my family and friends to celebrate. It was a great night with lots of fun and laughs. However, being recently stirred by the STOP THE TRAFFIK campaign I wanted to do something to support them. I am one of the lucky ones - leaving my home country and finding a better life for myself aborad. Others are not so fortunate - being tricked into trafficking rings, treated as objects, often being sexually and violently abused - being made a slave! So in my small way, this is what I did . . .
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I love writing songs and this is especially true when they are used to add to the sung worship of my local church! Songwriting is often secluded to a back-room workshop at many worship conferences, even though it is such a large topic to be explored. In America there are quite a few Christian songwriting conferences that aim to develop and equip christian songwriters in their calling and gifting. However, despite many hours searching the net finding a similar conference dedicated to Christian songwriting in the UK has not yeilded much fruit. So, seeing as I am a songwriter, and a teacher, and have written a book about songwriting for the church I have decided (with much prayer and prompting) to run a Christian songwriting conference of my own! Hence, 'Songcraft' has been born.
I have just launched the website and am in the process of inviting a few guest speakers. Please check out the website and sign up to the mailing list as my church has requested that I restrict the space to about 20 people for the first few times of running the conference - so the mailing list will tell you exactly when tickets are available so you can be in the front of the queue! www.songcraft.org.uk
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I have just got back from a very fulfilling and spiritually refreshing time at Spring Harvest (Skegness). There was lots to think about - as we were being challenged to see the world through different eyes - God's eyes - and to live lifestyles of worship that include clear Biblical ethics. With Spring Harvest being held at the Butlins holidays venue, there was plenty to do apart from the seminars and church services on offer.
I guess one thing that had the biggest impact on me was re-discovering an organisation called Stop The Traffik . . .
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Yesterday was Easter Sunday - I was hoping for a great time at church and I wasn't disappointed! There were so many people I could hardly believe it, but it was great. I had also prayerd about my song list choices. I really wanted to capture the essence of Christ's resurrection and the joy we have in that truth as well as reflecting something of the church's (as in the global church) depth of history as well as its fresh vitalily we experirnce in sung worship today. So I gathered together a range of songs that span the ages - and they worked together really well . . .
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Lots of guest speakers and lots to digest.Chris Bowater and Ian Nairn (from Canada) gave us all a beautiful example of an open mentoring accountable relationship. There was such as sense of honesty and truth between them, along with some very hard and personal questions that really exposed each other, yet in an open and secure and loving way. This lead to Chris encouraging us to form relationship with our bands / our congregations and not simply to have a functional relationship’ but a real and meaningful one that we must invest in. He also encouraged us to find a mentor who will help us in our ministry role as well as be a place of honesty, openness and accountability.
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Yet another great weekend at Cliff College. I’m starting to get to know the others in the group a lot better, and I spent most of the time trying to learn everyone’s names – I think I’ve done pretty well. We also started our group work, looking at some songs to perform at the ‘Open Day’ in June. Phil Wickham’s songs ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Cannons’ are great – I’m going to buy the CD.
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Well, I have just enjoyed 'hanging out' with the visiting bands at our most recent 'Live Bands' gig in Wisbech. Apart form being super tired after organising things, I am also very happy as yet again the bands did an amazing job, even my band did very well (see videos on the video page) and above all, God was glorified! Over the next couple of weeks . . . .
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I have just returned from a good time at the NCM weekend - an opportunity for Christian music to be heard and promoted a little bit. I met some good guys there (although country music is not really my scene). I will hopefully be posting a photo soon of my set as well as George Hamilton IV giving me my certificate. I have also been using technology to help with a bit of songwriting . . . .
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I was very excited to get back to Academy. It was also an exciting time because we were combining with Academy 7 for the weekend, so lots more friendships to me made.
As you would expect from a seond meeting, we were all feeling more at ease as we already know each other and we were more willing to open up. The highlight of this weekend for me was the practical work! We got to split up and go to different workshops - I chose the guitar workshop which I found interesting for a number of reasons:
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Well, it has been snowing here in the UK for the past few days. I shouldn't complain really but it did mean that I cancelled the band practise on Thursday which was unfortunate because I do like getting things right for Sunday. Anyway, as it happened we were able to squeeze about 30min of practise in before the service on Sunday.
On Sunday morning I was woken up with inspiration - I really wanted to re-work a Christmas carol. So I spent a couple of hours working on it and thought I had come up with something pretty good - so printed out the chords etc. However, when it came to the actual service we ran out of time to sing it. Oh well, it gives me more time to craft it further to get it right for next year. It's a re working of 'As With Gladness Men Of Old' - just in case you were wondering.
So what songs did we sing then? Here is the list . . . .
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The song 'Ten Thousand, Thousand' took about 2 years to write. It started off with the idea of Revelation 5:11-14
I wanted to try to capture the awesome experience of worship as depicted here, where the earth has the honour of joining with heaven in worship of God eternal. So it involved trying to paint a picture of heaven, using this verse as a base, and then echoing our response to it.
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It is always at this time of year when I start searching for good Christmas songs. I don't mind some of the more traditional hymns but I do like to mix in some contempory worship that is fitting to the season as well, or even a re-done hymn in a modern worship style. This is what I have found so far (my list is still in progress so any suggestions are welsom - comment below).
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Today was always going to be an interesting one. We had 2 new people playing with the band, so a few nerves on their part, and when my guitar cable started buzzing and doing strange things through the sound system it was all too easy to think things wre going to go from bad to worse! However, God is good and I was very wrong! The congregation responded very well and the new electric guitar playing the riff on 'Our God Saves' really lifted the sound and added the intensity I've been looking for. Also the keys did great in 'King of Glory (Glorious)' playing a Coldplay-type keys section on the bridge 'I can't turn my eyes away'.
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Life seems to happen like this - doesn't it? It was only yesterday that I was thinking how great is was going to be, having a 1/2 term week (as I work at a school) to gather my thoughts together, do a bit of songwriting, pull up some weeds in the garden and generally have a nice relaxing time. However, today it rained! A typical long grey English rain that just persists without end. So everything is damp and gloomy and cold. I get home to discover that in the corner of my bedroom, there is water trickling down the wall!
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I have been reading John Maxwell's book entitled 'The 4 Pillars of Leadership'. In it he talks about the four major things good leaders need to do well in order to be successful: Relationships; Equipping; Leadership and Attitude. As I have been reading, it occurred to me that as a church band (of which I am the leader) not much equipping (teaching, growing, sharing) goes on. We are very good at rehearsing and making music together, but we don't really take time to discuss things that are of importance to our lives and role within the ministry. So I have created an 'Equip' evening where we get together to talk and learn instead of a practise about once avary two months or so. This is what happened on our first such evening . . .
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Thank God for satnavs! If it wasn't for the satnav that I had borrowed from my Dad, I don't think I would have found my way to the beautiful Derbeshire Dales for the first weekend of my Worship Academy journey quite so easily. As soon as I arrived I could hear my spiritual satnav saying 'you have reached your destination' - or more accurately 'this is where I need you to be, seeking me, learning from me - for this season'.
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