Wednesday 13 October 2010

Interview 2 - Claire Hamilton

This is our 2nd interview at Elim worship. This one is with Claire Hamilton, - Claire is involved in worship in Ireland

Kingsway music have recently released her debut EP "Lend Me Your Heart"

How did you start getting involved in musical worship?

I first got involved in musical worship as part of a discipleship training organization called ‘Exodus’ when I was in my late teens having already been taking piano and singing lessons since the age of 6. In 1999 I got involved in Causeway Coast Vineyard Church and started playing as a second keyboard player for Kathryn Scott. This was a fantastic opportunity where I was able to learn how to lead worship. I realized that my heart was bursting to worship and continued to expand in love for God and my community as I took part in musical worship. I then began leading worship at this Vineyard Church where I remained for 5 years before moving to Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast.

Tell us about your EP, “Lend Me Your Heart” the heartbeat behind it and what you hope it will achieve?

I hope that ‘Lend Me Your Heart’ will be a collection of songs that help connect us with God and His mission for us on earth. I hope the songs offer words that help people connect in the tougher times of life and I trust that they will urge us further on in our relationship with God in terms of turning the words of Isaiah 61 into our life goals.

It’s a privilege to think that people will meet with God as a result of the things He has put on my heart.

Your song “Breathe On Me” is a beautiful song. Can you tell us how you wrote this song and the inspiration behind it?

‘Breathe on me’ was written in June 2009. I was sitting at the piano one day and praying for a friend who was very ill. A number of months later, at the age of 29, my friend lost his life. I knew the family well and grieved with them 10 years before when my friend and their other son lost his life in a car accident. My friend’s experience was traumatic but I watched the real beauty of relationship with God unfold as he came to terms with, and joyfully expected, meeting Jesus long before he imagined he would.

In journeying this and previous painful experiences I wanted to express my commitment to God. I want to be the kind of person who has His praise on my lips no matter what I face; even in writing this I sense the incredible power in those words. I’ve always wanted to write songs that help give words of worship to those who are broken. I guess I was simply asking God to come in, dig around and draw out the praise that He is worthy of

What new songs apart from your own are you using at the moment?

At the moment I have been using ‘Our God’ and ‘Awakening’ from the latest Passion Album. I’ve been using these songs mainly in personal times of worship and slowly introducing my own songs to my local church. I’ve also been listening to a song called ‘Like Incense’ from the Hillsong Live album ‘A Beautiful Exchange’.

How do you approach putting together a Song List for an event or on a sunday morning?

Normally I contact the speaker for that morning and ask them what they will be focusing their sermon on and then I just let that sit with me for a few days. I may read the particular passage of scripture the sermon is based on or just sit down to worship and see what bubbles up. Once I have a few ideas for songs then I begin to rehearse them myself and more times than not I find myself moving into different songs and a sense of direction emerges. I then take it to the rehearsal and see how it works when I have a full band.

Can you give us one piece of advice for our worship leaders within the Elim movement?

One of the most helpful things that I have done in the past few years is work out what my values are. This might sound simple and obvious but knowing who I am and what I stand for has really helped me remain aligned to what I am best at and ultimately called to do.

And if I could offer a second, it would be to remember our place in the grand scheme of things; that our call is much greater than what we do in our church services but that we live lives worthy of that title i.e. lives that spill mercy on the poor and that treat the least as the most important.

Lend Me Your Heart

On Monday 16th August we are excited to release the highly anticipated digital EP from Claire Hamilton titled ‘Lend Me You Heart’. With her pop/rock worship style you are sure to see her strong desire for intimate worship through these

exceptional songs.

Claire Hamilton has been heavily involved in music for more than 11 years, beginning her musical journey under the

tutelage of Alan and Kathryn Scott (author of the songs ‘Hungry’ and ‘At the Foot of the Cross’). Following this time Claire joined the Johnny Parks Band (where she co-wrote a number of songs including ‘All is Well’ recently recorded by Robin Mark on his album ‘Year of Grace’). While with the Johnny Parks Band, Claire toured extensively, including a tour across Canada with Starfield and speaker Will Graham (Grandson of Billy Graham). In between these musical ventures, this Queens University (Belfast) music graduate has been teaching music at Grammar school and even married her guitar player! Claire has also shared the stage with the likes of Robin Mark, Bluetree, Rend Collective Experiment, Brian Houston and so many more.

Below Claire shares the story behind the songs from her debut release. ‘Lend Me Your Heart’ will be available from iTunes on Monday 16th August.

We Will Look to the Cross

In August of 2009 I turned up at church one morning carrying a feeling that I had much too much ‘stuff’ that I wasn’t

willing to let go of in order to worship freely. I think the Holy Spirit acts as a seal, to identify us as His and to protect us; if this seal is broken we become vulnerable to all sorts of things. I felt like I had grieved the Holy Spirit and felt as though He was grieving for me. He knows and feels the cost and pain that sin can cause and how we lose out on perfect

communion with God.

God spoke to me that Sunday morning and said, “don’t let anything obscure your view of the cross!” In view of God’s mercy I needed to get some things in order. I started to pen the words of this song as a way of re-focusing my heart and head on Jesus and the cross. Jesus has completely won my heart yet there are times in life when it seems that other people and other things have too much of my heart and attention. I need to keep coming back to the cross over and over again. In sacrificing for Jesus I know the freedom, power and acceptance that He gives. That is worth sacrificing for.

Lend Me Your Heart

There are times in my life where I reflect on the words in Amos: “Away with the noise of your songs!” and I feel led to ask God for mercy as I begin again to walk the road of bringing healing to the broken, and freedom to the captive.

This was the first song I had ever used in worship that I had written on my own. I was supporting Brenton Brown one evening in N.Ireland and thought I’d give it a go. The response and the intensity of God’s presence in the room blew me away. This song continues to stir and challenge people as they sing it and I hope the result is a deeper experience of God’s mercy and a compelling desire to spill that mercy on the poor. It is a request for God to lend us His heart and so transform us.

Breathe on Me

‘Breathe on me’ was written in June 2009. I was sitting at the piano one day and praying for a friend who was very ill. A number of months later, at the age of 29, my friend lost his life. I knew the family well and grieved with them 10 years

before when my friend and their other son lost his life in a car accident. My friend’s experience was traumatic but I watched the real beauty of relationship with God unfold as he came to terms with, and joyfully expected, meeting Jesus long before he imagined he would. In journeying this and previous painful experiences I wanted to express my

commitment to God. I want to be the kind of person who has His praise on my lips no matter what I face; even in writing this I sense the incredible power in those words. I’ve always wanted to write songs that help give words of worship to those who are broken. I guess I was simply asking God to come in, dig around and draw out the praise that He is worthy of.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Interview 1: Aaron Keyes

At Elim worship we are planning various interviews with people involved in worship around the world. The first one is with Aaron Keyes. - Aaron is involved in worship in America at Grace Fellowship Church (outside Atlanta, GA). Kingsway music have recently released "Not Guilty Anymore"

How did you start getting involved in musical worship?

It was by accident! I grew up playing piano, and picked up the guitar in college, but never meant to do anything musically at all. I was serving for a summer camp in California as a counselor, river guide, and wilderness coach when halfway through the summer the worship leader at the camp left! We had nobody to lead that very night, and everybody made me do it because I happened to play piano. I didn't even sing!

I got up and struggled all the way through it; I'm sure it was just awful. But God spoke to me and led me to walk down this path. 12 years later, I'm still trying to walk it well.

Tell us about your album, “Not Guilty Anymore” the heartbeat behind it and what you hope it will achieve?

I grew up in a legalistic environment: fundamentalist family, Independent Baptist church, small Christian school, and on top of all that, a pastor's kid. I never realized it until a few years ago, but guilt and shame had become a large part of my life experience. I'd really lay on the guilt when my kids would disobey or make a mistake, and finally I thought, "What is this? Why do I do this?" It led to a season of reflection, counsel, and prayer, and I'm still growing, but the Grace of God finally broke through in my life. I finally realized that He's not only acquitted me, He's accepted me. It's more than just pardon, it's adoption. I've no reason to live in condemnation anymore, because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I hope that anyone who hears this album (and particularly the Title track) will hear the merciful voice of God speaking life, love, and freedom, and anyone living under the weight of guilt and/or shame can be freed by the grace of God.

Your song “Psalm 62” is a popular song. Can you tell us how you wrote this song and the inspiration behind it?

I had the honor of connecting with Stuart Townend a few years ago. I'd long respected him as a writer and worship leader, and he was gracious enough to have me into his home a few times while I was in the UK. We sat down in his living room one day and came up with the melody to the verse of the song, and at first all we had was a melody.

We began talking about what we wanted the melody to be about, and we'd both recently been meditating in Psalm 62. Stuart shared some of what He'd learned, and I sent him all of my notes from my journal, and then the verses were sort of formed.

The chorus came last, and I don't remember where the idea came to put the ancient hymn in as a bridge, but it just felt right, especially as it echoed the sentiment of the chorus.

We ended up sending a few different versions of the song back and forth over emails, until we finally landed on where it is to this day!

I guess the driving messages behind the song would be about resting in God alone, delighting in his presence, trusting his faithfulness, and celebrating his victory over sin and death.

What new songs apart from your own are using at the moment?

I'm loving "Forever Reign" by Reuben Morgan right now. Also "Our God" by Chris Tomlin. Love some of Rick Pino's songs like "We Prepare the Way" and "My Romance." Chris McClarney has a new song I love called "Who is this Amazing Love," also.

How do you approach putting together a Song List for an event or on a sunday morning?

My philosophy is that “the service is the message.” I want every song to contribute to what God’s doing in our midst. From the first note strummed to the closing word of the benediction, I hope to lead our congregation down a logical, conscious thought process. This can involve music, videos, communion or baptism, a sermon, an offering, prayer, etc. My hope is that the entire ‘liturgy’ would be congruent and fluid, having focus and solidarity.

The first thing I do is talk to my pastor about how he hopes to see God move in our time together and what sort of message he’s going to be teaching. If he’s teaching on Lamentations, I don’t want to plan a worship set that talks about how good God is and how great our lives are. Better to worship God through lament. Conversely, if he’s teaching on gratitude, I don’t to plan a worship set about confession or mercy. So, the first thing I try to do is get in stride with my pastor, and ultimately, the Holy Spirit.

From there I pray and brainstorm for several hours about any songs that might fit well with what the morning is going to be crafted around. I ask the Lord to guide me to the songs He’d like to hear, as well as to get me on board with how He’ll be speaking and moving in our midst. So a while ago my pastor taught on the Great Commission, so I searched through all the songs I’ve charted out and all my iTunes library for songs about the nations, salvation, or the glory of God going into all the world to get a list of 10-20 songs that could fit.

The next thing I do is consult the Church Calendar. I like to look through the Lectionary, to identify with what Christians worldwide will be using to construct their worship services as well. Oftentimes I’ll find rich direction here. So for instance, in the season of Pentecost, I’ll try to think of songs that would fit well with that, and try to connect them back to the sermon. It was easy connecting the Great Commission with Pentecost. In the worship set then, I’ll try to connect what God’s doing that given day in our local congregation to what God’s doing in congregations worldwide, to remind our congregation that while we’re just a few thousand gathered around Atlanta, there are thousands upon thousands gathered all over the world for the same reason that we are. It puts a much bigger perspective on our entire morning too, which I love.

I then begin to just worship, using these songs as a starting point. I see if any of them fit well together thematically, lyrically, or musically. I end up scrapping most of them, but I try to narrow it down to the five or six songs that fit well together, fit well with the sermon, and work well for the type of band we’re using that week.

As I arrange songs in a loose order, I try to include verses or passages of Scripture that might segue one song to the next. I place a great emphasis on things making sense in the order of worship. It should not be sporadic and arbitrary, but well thought through and cogent. When I talk with my wife, we don’t bounce from one topic to another, with no resolution of anything in between. We naturally go from this thought to the next, then on to the next. I try to structure worship services this way too, not jumpy with all sorts of elements disconnected from one another. In other words, I try to eliminate distractions. If my wife and I are out on a nice date, I don’t want to have distractions between us all night, be they over-zealous young waiters or blaring loud music or having a table located by the front door... I want to be able to just enjoy her, and enjoy our time together. In worship, we’re trying to create environments where people can enjoy God, sans distractions. There’s enough distraction in life already; when we come to worship, it’s nice to be able to just gaze on God.

Musically, there are a few very simple things we can do to help in this. Just arranging our songs in keys that flow together is a huge, but very simple, step. If you’re singing “Here I am to Worship” in E and you want “I Love You Lord” to follow in F, just transpose it down to E. This gets rid of those few moments between songs where your guitarist is moving a capo, your band is getting ready to start the next song, and you’ve got to change keys as well. Then don’t even stop between the two songs. Just make it one seamless thought: “You’re altogether wonderful to me, I love You Lord...” This is very simple, and by just removing a 4 second gap between those two songs you might really help some of us retain our focus (especially those of us who are more prone to ending up on Adirol at some point in our lives!) and remain “lost in wonder, love and praise.”

Ultimately, we do all we can, asking God to guide us, and then we give it God and ask him to take it wherever He pleases. So I hold on to my set-lists pretty loosely. Rarely does a week go by when we actually play everything exactly like I’d planned. Generally, we see how God’s moving, and we try to get in line to move with Him. If that requires tossing a song and inserting another, we’ll do it. Last week, I felt sure we needed to lead a song we’d never rehearsed, so I printed out the chart in the middle of the sermon, handed it

out to the band, and told them to follow me! It was the exact thing that needed to happen. And the band did just fine!

Can you give us one piece of advice for our worship leaders within the Elim movement?

The Word, the Word, the Word! Lead with the Word. It is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. To lead without the Word of God is to lead people into darkness. Do everything possible to speak, sing, and exhort the Scriptures over your congregation. His Word never returns void. His word washes us like water. His Word is powerful and effective--my words are not. You cannot go wrong if you simply worship as the Bible prescribes. You almost certainly will go wrong without it. Hide it in your heart, let it be on your lips, and let the Holy Spirit bring back to your remembrance (in public) what He has spoken to you (in private) for the blessing, encouragement, and edification of your people.

About Aaron Keyes

Aaron has served as the worship pastor at Grace Fellowship Church (outside Atlanta, GA) for the past seven years. His heart is to restore the Word of God to the foundation of corporate worship, and to see a shift in the next generation of worship leaders (who lead songs) to becoming more biblically empowered worship pastors (who lead people).

Four months out of the year, Aaron has younger worship pastors living in his home as part of an intensive worship discipleship course, involving daily teaching, mentoring, coaching, and community.

Aaron's band travels internationally, leading worship and coaching worship leaders as the Lord gives opportunity, and Aaron works with Kingsway Music, from the United Kingdom.

Aaron and his wife of 10 years, Megan, have four sons - Cooper, Judah, Nyle, and Linen. Aaron and Megan graduated from Furman University in Greenville, SC, where they were a part of planting CrossRoads Community Church (in Simpsonville, SC) with Aaron's parents, Steve and Becky. Aaron led worship at Crossroads for seven years before moving to Grace.

Between church life, traveling, song-writing, discipleship and parenting, Aaron and Megan are loving their lives and excited about their next season of life, love, and music.

checkout Aaron @ www.aaronkeyes.com

Wednesday 18 August 2010

The Desperate Cry

This is a recent blog for www.kingswaymusic.co.uk

The Desperate Cry (The Hope And The Glory)

Posted by Ian Yates

I have a passion to see broken lives transformed.
I have a passion to see God move in an amazing way.
My heart is to see the lost and broken getting completely transformed by the power and love of God

I have seen glimpses of what God can do and I believe there is so much more. My hearts cry is to see God move in our town, in our city and in our nation

I believe that as we worship the presence of God comes and dwells with us.

When we lift God high He comes and dwells amongst us. As we worship we can experience the manifest presence of God and when we experience the manifest presence of God peoples lives are changed.
We see healing, we see the addict getting set free, we see demons flee, we see blind eyes opening, broken lives being restored, we see lives being redeemed. Wouldn’t it be awesome to see this in our churches and on our streets?

We live in a broken and hurting world. The only answer is God. It’s Jesus.

We have seen various glimpses of God’s glory and power transforming lives. People always say there is a tangible presence of God at church.

For me there is nothing more inspiring then seeing someone whose life was a mess, having there life changed and worshiping God
At church we’ve seen God do amazing things
Alcoholics getting radically saved,
People with depression getting healed,
People who have been abused getting their life restored
Single parents finding hope and love

I’m longing to see more!

Only Jesus can save this world and only Jesus can bring the change!

I believe our worship, our Songs can change the atmosphere they can bring down the glory of God, the manifest presence of God!
As we see this we will see lives radically changed! We will see the atmosphere around us change
I believe this is what will change many lives

My prayer is that we would be desperate to see God move!

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Some history of Elim Worship

Stephen has written a great paper on Worship.

In his paper he talks a little a bit about the history of Elim worship - we thought we'd share it with you - check it out below:

Music worship has always played an important part in the life of the Elim Pentecostal Church. The music styles and the way worship has been led have changed dramatically since the first days of the movement.

The early years

Singing played a vital part in the evangelistic campaigns of George Jeffreys. From their beginnings in the 1920’s Robert Ernest Darragh was the ‘song leader’ and initially the hymns were sung a cappella. With an audience of people who were largely brought up in church, the great hymns would be familiar. There were also lots of choruses, which would sometimes be written to the melody of a contemporary song, allowing the audience to sing along easily. Later on in the campaigns Darragh was joined by Albert Edser who played the piano. The campaigns were evangelistic so there was nothing about the worship that made it distinctively ‘Pentecostal.’

1951-late 70’s

The publishing of the Redemption Hymnal by Elim in 1951 was a huge success and went through many reprints. Churches outside of Elim used it too and with new songs being published, many became known around the world. WG Hathaway and EC Bolton were the best-known Elim songwriters. Elim also printed the Elim Chorus Book, known affectionately as the Yellow Pearl, and this was widely used up until the early 80’s.

Worship in the Sunday morning services was led by the Pastor or Convenor who remained on the platform for most or all of the service. The pastor would choose the hymns and choruses and give the list to the organist/pianist on the Sunday morning. These were not usually sung as a block but at various points during the service, providing the glue to connect the prayer, communion, offering and sermon. An open time of prayer usually brought various spontaneous elements: tongues, interpretation and prophecies from several members of the congregation. Someone may also have begun a song requiring the organist/pianist to quickly find the key and play along, and at some point carefully shift the key if it had been started too low or high!

The Sunday evening services tended to be less formal and provided opportunity for chorus singing (perhaps led by a deacon) and often visiting soloists and music groups. Small music bands also developed with instruments such as banjos, guitars, accordions and brass instruments being popular.

The Elim conference provided inspiration for worship in the local church. The London Crusader Choir gained international fame under the direction of Douglas Grey and sang at conference each year. This prompted the formation of several church choirs. Grey was employed as Elim’s national music director during the 70’s. He was a gifted music arranger rather than a worship leader. The worship at conference was led by a convener who was a member of the Executive Council (National Leadership Team). These men were able singers although not always gifted musicians which could result in a stop-start effect as the musicians sought to follow their lead. The music worship during this period also featured a number of guest music ministers. P S Brewster was secretary of the World Conference of Pentecostal Churches in the 1970’s and so he invited soloists from around the world to sing at conference.

Late 70’s-mid 90’s

The growth of the Charismatic movement had a profound effect on worship in Elim churches. In particular, the Dales and Downs Bible Weeks were instrumental in the idea of the ‘worship time’ (rather than simply a time of singing), music bands (incorporating the instruments we are familiar with today), greater use of all the spiritual gifts and the role of the worship leader. Many Elim pastors returned from these events keen to start a similar change in their own churches. With these developments came an appetite for new music and several new worship leaders rose to the fore (Graham Kendrick, David Fellingham, Steve Thompson, Les Moir, Chris Bowater). New worship recordings and music books increasingly became used in Elim churches.

At Elim conference, discussions behind the scenes helped to pave the way for a block of time to be given over to worship, allowing for a greater musical flow and for the band leader to take the role of worship leader. By the 1990’s, conference worship was led by the worship leader with the convener on stage to open the meeting and be ready to connect the worship to the speaker.

Kensington Temple was seeing incredible numerical growth during the 80’s and with it the possibility that the music worship could be developed. In 1986, Ian Bilbie (Senior Pastor, Auckland Elim, New Zealand) lent Bruce McGrail, his music minister, to Wynne Lewis for 3 months. This convinced Wynne Lewis that they should have someone more permanent. This kind of role was almost unheard of in the UK at the time. In 1988, Chris Cartwright was taken on staff as the Music Director. Chris had grown up in Elim and had been a member of KT since 1985. He had to create his role and found inspiration from other people who were at the forefront of developing the UK worship scene. Chris continued in this role until 1991 and was then followed by Richard Lewis, Andy Boxall and Dave Wellington who currently serves at KT as Music Pastor. During his years as Music Director, Chris was given increasing freedom in leading worship at KT. For Sunday services, this typically involved creating a song list and submitting it to Wynne Lewis beforehand. Worship began to play a growing part in supporting times of prayer ministry. The amount of time given to worship gradually increased too and by the time Colin Dye became Senior Pastor (1991), worship and ministry were a central part of the church service programme alongside the preaching.

Mid 90’s-present

Many Elim churches have grown considerably during the last 15 years, especially those in large urban areas. Part of the growth has been the result of immigration which has brought an international flavour to church life, including the worship. Larger numbers of Africans, for instance, have influenced a developing Gospel sound in some churches. Larger churches have meant an increasing number of musicians and technicians who have been encouraged to bring their gifts to worship resulting in a higher musical and technical standard. With this increasing demand, several Elim churches have employed a worship leader or allowed a staff member to give a portion of their work time to worship. Alongside this growth, the worship ‘apparatus’ has developed considerably. Digital audio equipment, video projection and lighting have all played their part in changing the worship experience for Elim churches. The result of larger churches and more technical equipment has meant the loss of some of the spontaneous elements of worship that were common before. For example, members of the congregation giving an utterance in tongues and interpretation used to be expected each week. Nowadays, this happens much less and corporate singing in tongues is much more common. This does not mean that spontaneity has gone completely and in some churches it is being rediscovered.

The rise of prophetic ministries and ‘outpourings of the Spirit’ from around the world have also brought certain influences. The Toronto Blessing and Pensacola revival in the 1990’s through to the present day with 24/7 worship and preaching broadcast on television and online have had an effect on the way that some Elim churches worship.

Charismatic worship has become a large global industry with the growth of summer festivals, countless ‘live worship’ recordings from around the world and the Internet providing information and merchandise at the touch of a button. With such vast options, Elim churches can find resources to support their particular worship style. Elim worship leader and pastor, Andy Boxall, has voiced his desire for Elim to rediscover a “Pentecostal distinctive” to its worship.

In this time too, a number of outside worship influences have had their effect in Elim. This has resulted in a diversification or fragmentation of expression – depending on the way the change is viewed.