So, me and my mate Paul have put this book together. It’s a retelling of the story of the lost sheep from Luke 15. Toot the recorder get’s lost in an attempt to take a cheeky short cut back to the orchestra hall. The conductor counts his instruments, only to find Toot missing – will he find Toot before the big performance? Find out more on www.tootstories.com
So, we just spent the first week of 2012 at the Youth For Christ staff conference – fantastic teaching and a whole bunch of proper legends, YFC staff and year out students. We were treated like kings, with rooms far too romantic to share with another dude, (although Pete was a great roomy) cooked breakfasts and carvery every night! Brilliant.
A few people asked, so I thought I’d chuck up a few charts of new songs we did during the week. Feel free to share them around.
Run – This song was written after my mate Ian did a talk about the Exodus – he told us about some of the Rabbinical stories that told of how even though the Israelites through the miracle of an incredible miracle – tonnes of water, suspended in a liquid corridor of salvation! – They still complained about getting mud on their sandals. We wanted to write a song that captured that moment of transition through the miracle, looking up, breaking off the chains, running to freedom, running to Jesus. Look out for this song on the Spring Harvest album 2012.
Place my head upon a rock – This song was written off the back of a talk my may Tim did at church about Jacobs ladder. The imagery stuck with me for a couple of weeks until I found myself lying on the floor, about to lead worship at a prayer event in Manchester called prayer storm – scribbling away on a piece of paper. I stood up, strummed my guitar, opened my mouth, and out came pretty much what is now the first two sections of the song. Going back home, I played it to Tim, and he set to writing the rest. I love the process this song went through. Hearing the word in a local church context, and then giving time for the word of God to resonate while pursuing the reality of that word in times of worship and devotion. Then the creative process happening live, in the context of intercession and worship (which was slightly nerve wracking), then handed back into the context of community to find it’s fruition as song that encapsulates the journey of a family of people . My hope is that this song creates space for an encounter of heaven opened.
In the valley – So, this song came from Ezekiel 37. I’d been sitting with a phrase for a while – ‘Even in the valley, victory is my landscape as I lift my eyes to see’. God was challenging me to look up and change my perspective in times where my circumstances keep me down. It became for me a model of how to view not just my life, but the lives of those around me and the seemingly insurmountable issues in our communities. The bride of Christ has the permission to prophesy to the breath, and see life will rise up from the dust. How awesome that we can do this in the context of worship and intercession. Even the lost, the forgotten, despised and rejected will sing praises to the one who saves.
Isaiah 43:19-21
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise
We wrote ‘breathe’ after God inspired about what it meant to be urban missionaries as part of the Eden project in Manchester. If you want to know more about Eden and how you can get involved visit http://www.eden-network.org/
This is a video of images Matt Wilson put together. God love’s the inner city – get involved
‘The journey is the most important thing…’
Interview with worship leader and songwriter Andy Smith
Andy Smith is quite possibly the best worship songwriter you’ve never heard of.
Until last year, Andy lived in Harpurhey, Manchester, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the UK. There, while working with young people, as part of an incarnational mission project called Eden, Andy honed an extraordinary worship leading and songwriting gift.
It’s a gift that has brought him wider attention over the last few years, with invitations to lead worship at Spring Harvest and New Wine North and a 2007 album, Breathe, released on Kingsway.
Now Andy, wife Lucy and daughter Intimacy are based in Llanelli, South Wales, where Andy combines worship leading and songwriting with work as an illustrator.
I’ve been blessed to get to know Andy a little as we’re both involved with The Message Trust in Manchester. Spending time with him you realise that despite being enormously gifted, there’s no trace of ego or self-promotion with him. He has plenty of time for people and is attentive to see what God is doing in their lives.
How did you start out leading worship?
I was 14 when my dad bought me my first guitar. It was a really cheap electric guitar but I loved it! Around the same time, I went to Spring Harvest and saw a guy called Derek Bond leading in the youth venue. It was so fresh seeing someone leading worship credibly with an electric guitar. From that moment I just knew I’d love to be able to do that too.
So I learned the guitar, and started out playing in a few worship bands. Moving up to Manchester a few years later, I started getting opportunities to lead worship on the Eden project I was a part of, and then more widely for The Message.
What’s funny is I’ve now led worship in that same Spring Harvest venue, seven or eight years in a row. Now I’m the guy up the front – and hopefully inspiring others to lead.
What for you is being a worship leader all about?
It’s about service first of all. I think the Levites in the Old Testament give us something to aspire to: their role was about enabling people to be in God’s presence. But it was all through serving them: I love the fact that they were the last to set foot in the promised land, for example.
But I’m also aware that we often put too much emphasis on worship leaders and we‘ve personified something that belongs to the whole church body. We’re desperate to get hold of Jesus so we look to those who are carrying something of his presence and attach ourselves to them – sometimes too much.
How have you learned to grow as a worship leader?
Obedience is really important. When you stay within the safety of simply playing a song, all you do is play a song. There are times to step out, take a risk, even if it looks like it’s going to be messy or you haven’t rehearsed it.
There’s also something in the balance between ‘borrowing’ the anointing that’s on people’s songs and ‘digging your own wells’. There’s a great value in going to other songwriting cultures or traditions and taking what you can because they’ve seen something we ourselves haven’t yet seen. But you can only go so far walking in other people’s revelation – you need your own.
Has that approach informed your songwriting?
Yes, absolutely. One of the things we felt as we got involved with Eden was a real necessity for there to be new songs, chronicling what God was doing through Eden and in our church at the time, Christ Church Harpurhey.
I’m not the kind of guy who writes songs all the time – I have seasons that come off the back of prophecies and the things we know God is saying. I’ve always tried to write songs that help people voice reality and what’s really going on in their lives, whether that’s broken kids on Eden or guys in our church.
I’d love to hear an example of how that worked itself out.
Sure. ‘I Will Not Fear’ comes from Jeremiah chapter 17, verses 7 and 8 – the tree planted by the river. The image really caught me.
We had a lot of freelancers and people who own their own business in our congregation at that time – musicians, photographers, sound engineers, worship leaders! So when the recession hit, it was quite serious for a lot of people. So that song was written for them: ‘I will not fear the blazing sun – you will protect me… I will not fear the season of drought; for you will sustain me.’
It’s just a little song, but for us contains a whole context of what it means to be dependent on the Father.
I know there’s a powerful story behind the song ‘Hope’ too…
We’d been doing Eden for ten years. We arrived with this expectation that we’re going to change the world – that this whole community was going to be radically transformed. We genuinely believed that was what was going to happen.
But the reality is, hardly any of that stuff actually happened – to the extent to which we expected, anyway. In pockets, it did. But we were still walking the streets thinking, ‘Have we even made a dent here? Has something gone wrong?’
The Bible says ‘hope deferred makes the heart sick’ and the temptation is often to start building a theology out of disappointment, basing your understanding of God’s character on things not working out.
We felt that God was saying, ‘Don’t put your hope in the things that you think are going to happen – put your hope in the person of Christ’. That simple truth has been a massive revelation to us. Actually, nothing went ‘wrong’ with Eden – we just needed a shift of perspective.
The song ‘Arise, Shine’ feels like it’s coming from a similar place?
Yeah, it is. We were worshipping and it was just so clear that people were broken and disappointed – with God and with themselves. Space came during the worship, and I just started singing out, ‘For you, the winter has passed…’
As soon as I started singing it was like an intimate sledgehammer – a profoundly intimate moment but breaking away all this pain. The response was so strong, I knew that this was more than just a song for the moment.
Something else powerful with this song is this idea of names being prophetically important. The song says, ‘Stand in a new name.’
So what’s your songwriting process?
For me the integrity comes from the journey, and this idea that you’re chronicling through song what God is doing. That means noting things down that move you, and that you notice move your community. I will often find a cornerstone scripture that I will go back to again and again as I start forming phrases and ideas.
Often it’s about just being patient: sometimes songs come in three and a half minutes – sometimes it takes three and a half years.
The journey is the most important thing. If a song carries what God is saying, those are the songs that move people and hopefully move the heart of God.
So, we’ve done our pilot of the ‘visual bible reading’ – VISIBLE, using an extract from the beginning of Luke’s gospel. It was hard work, but we had so much fun. There was Ian H, Ian R, Jamie, Ed and me – four extremely handsome men, all locked in a room together for a couple of days, on a diet of red bull and pringles – trying to convey visually the wonder of the narrative where we meet Jesus, God incarnate as a tiny baby wrapped in baby clothes, hanging out with shepherds and causing awe in the sight of the prophets. Here’s a couple of stills to whet your appetite a little. We’re meeting this month to review the pilot, and decide on a way forward to create what could be an awesome resource for churches and a viral catalyst for the word of God. Let me know what you think.
Here’s a pic of me doing some character design – here’s Simeon
This is us filming the moment when the angels appear to the shepherds – The angel was cut out of the black card, and a par-can shone behind it.
I sneaked a pic on my phone – this is how the angel looked
I love capos. Having versatility with open strings is important… but I love capos. Here’s what I use – A G7th Performance and a G7th Nashville. I sometimes use them both at the same time to create a drop root in a D voicing. I use both kinds because you get great pressure control with the Performance – I use this one when I’m switching between acoustic and electric, and the Nashville spring has been engineered brilliantly so that you get enough pressure down at the bottom of the neck and not too much up at the top. What do you use?
This conference is going to be awesome. James Gregory is a fantastic worship leader who has written songs like ‘Arise’. Mike, Jeannie and Chris are quality and this will be a safe place to encounter God in a fresh way - check out the web site for more info.
www.langworthycommunitychurch.com
Here’s a PDF of the flyer for you to pass around: Naturally Supernatural Flyer
Here’s a couple of noteworthy sites for you to peruse:
For awesome photography - Smith Imaging
For the best capos around - G7th Capo
The illustrious Steve Oldham twittered the Wacom site this morning. Steve, you’re a lengthy bit of inspiration.
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Here’s a song I wrote a while ago – God was really speaking to us from Ezekiel 37 and it became a marker for the hope we have – not in the things that God might do, but hope in the person of Jesus. This track was recorded live at New Wine North. We had an awesome time connecting with people in Venue 2 who do church in the inner city. God is breathing hope into the church again – this is our song
