blogs

Tonight, the young people at KMC led our worship, on the theme "Worship". With new and old (nearly 13 years old!) songs, video, drama and discussion, they really led us in worship!

As a worship leader, I, of course, had to make lots of notes to get pointers on what I should be doing... But Alistair's talk on the women with the alabaster jar was inspirational, straightforward and challenging.

I have been back at work for a week or so since taking a break to work on the songbook. While following up some leads on worship group resources, I found two Word documents published on the St Aldgate's website:

1. Lead Worship Toolkit - written especially for supporting singers in a worship group. Excellent advice on conduct and preparation

2. The Power of Song - a brilliant essay on why we use music in worship.

The band "Funky revolution" were playing, so Pete and Sal had booked a table for MLC & spouses. I cannot imagine anything so culturally different from the Fresh Worship event the night before (though Cris Asher could probably relate to this more). The place was heaving, and even before the band started you had to shout to be heard. It was a good job we had a table, as the evening temperature was in the 20s and humidity in the 90s, so standing with the crowd would have been unbearable. The crowd at the bar were the stylish people of Knutsford, and of all ages, drinking, socialising and shouting in a friendly manner at each other. As the night went on and the band played, the crowd spilled out into the street. The band - a five piece in their 20s - played a wide range of covers, from Michael Jackson to Kaiser Chiefs, from Queen to Lionel Richie. Almost without stop! Sometimes they would only play a minute of a song and segue it into another or mix them around. At one point they were doing two Oasis songs simultaneously. Technically they were excellent, and as barroom entertainment, top notch. The singer was very good and effortless, while the musicians were very slick and musically tight. An excellent evening.

Sue and I went to this event, which attracted about 30 people from the Methodist District. The focus was "Fresh Expressions of Worship" hosted by Dave martin and Irene Cooper, and consisted of sets showing different alternative worship approaches. Cris Asher had a video of Nexus showing, while Debbie and Richard had a slide show of The Welcome. There was a room showing various prayer station (touchy feely) and the sanctuary was given over to technical demos of video making. Irene Cooper had also set up a stand of statues, candles, stones and stuff...