Friday 28 September 2012

Michael Card

On Wednesday evening we were privileged to be able to host Michael Card and his team at Christ Church, Burney Lane.  18 months ago Michael came at quite short notice when he needed a venue quickly in the West Midlands.  The concert was such a blessing that we were delighted when his tour operator in the UK, Gordon, approached us again.

This time Michael brought with him a long-standing friend, Scott, who also is a singer-songwriter.  The two of them worked together beautifully and shared with us some thought-provoking and inspiring songs and testimony.  Michael is quite a Bible scholar, and has really dug deep into the scriptures, from which all of his songs flow.  It was great to hear him talking about the different Bible books that had influenced his lyrics, including Blind Bartimaeus in Mark, and his plans to move on to John's Gospel in future for study and more song inspiration.


Tickets had been moving very slowly in early September, but a late rush meant that the church was comfortably full.  Pat was an amazing star, spending most of the day in the kitchen preparing to feed the whole team.  Peter was also a huge help shifting furniture and chatting to audience members.  Thanks also go to Alan, Sue and Mary for helping on the doors.  A wonderful evening was had by all.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Worship Workshop in Whitby

After staying overnight in Bridlington, Roger and Jonathan travelled to Whitby United Reformed Church where they were fed beautiful fish and chips for lunch and were joined by Barrie, Fran and Amy.  The reason for the visit was an afternoon of worship teaching at the church.  The minister, Helen Drummond, we have met many times before on our visits to Moorlands Hotel for music weeks - the hotel is now sadly closed, but it was great to see Helen again and to spend some time in her church.

Roger spent time teaching about being a worshipper and about having a balance between psalms, hymns and songs in our worship services.  It was one of Fran's first gigs with CMM, and she did a brilliant job.  Amy also dusted off her violin - it has been a while since Amy has been able to be on team since she is now a Methodist Minister and also got married this summer.

It is always such a joy to spend time teaching on music in worship in the churches.  If anyone else wants us to come, let us know!






Tuesday 25 September 2012

Rock Rehearsal

On Friday morning Jonathan came to CMM to collect Roger, and together they drove to Bridlington.  A few months ago we had a large order for some Rock scores, and when we found out a bit more we discovered that this was a large choir learning the musical to perform in the Spa Centre.  The plans are to perform the musical as an outreach event with full drama and costume.

When Roger discovered he would be in that area anyway, he approached the choir organiser to see if he could pay them a visit.  A visit to the choir rehearsal quickly extended into a meeting with local church leaders and also a workshop on the musical.

Roger and Jonathan had a brilliant evening meeting with the choir.  They had a full complement of soloists, and Roger encouraged them to have a go at the prophetic section at the end of 'In Caesarea beside the sea (reprise)'.  Apparently they all had a go and did a wonderful job.

We continue to pray for the choir, that God would bless their rehearsals and move in a powerful way in the performances next year.  We will be taking Rock to Israel in March, and we are delighted that one of the Bridlington choir, Liz, will be joining us.

Thursday 20 September 2012

Your performances

September seems to be the month where a number of churches are planning their Christmas events and are thinking about putting on a musical.  Do let us know if you'll be performing one of Roger's musicals - we'd love to pray for you, and put the dates up here on the CMM blog!

A group in the Stokesley/Middlesbrough area are putting on While Shepherds Watched on Saturday November 26th.  Helen, the local choir organiser, realised that it was 25 years since the choir originally met together to perform While Shepherds Watched as part of the original tour at Middlesbrough town hall.  At that event there were 147 in the choir, and Roger visited with his team of soloists including Tim, who is now working in the office here!  Tim took the role of Shem the shepherd boy.  Helen is trying to get many of the original choir together for a special reunion.  We pray for them as they enjoy singing the music and being in fellowship again.  We also pray that God's message of salvation through the incarnation of Jesus will come across loud and clear to all those watching and participating.

We also know that some other groups are putting on this musical in the next few months - a group in Oxfordshire, as well as our own CMM choir here in Birmingham.

Also, on December 1st we are having a special day where we learn the musical from scratch - singers and instrumentalists welcome of all abilities.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

A joint birthday meal

The birthday girls

A couple of weeks ago we went out to celebrate both Nicky and Mary's birthdays.  Mary had her birthday while she was at Lee Abbey, but for Nicky we were actually on the day!  We were joined also by Emma Jones, and we went to a little cafe in Bromsgrove called Langtry's.  It's always nice to have a break together.
Roger enjoying a milkshake

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Renewal Evening

On Sunday evening we had the latest in our series of renewal evenings at Christ Church, where CMM provides the music team, and Peter Smith and Christ Church provide the ministry team.

This time the CMM team were Roger, Helen, Dave, Amy and Miriam, as well as Rosey on one of her first gigs for us, and Harry who was a late stand-in drummer on his first ever gig for us.  Rosey and Harry both did an amazing job and it was great to have them.  Roger led the worship, which was great fun, and the Spirit really seemed to be moving in the congregation during it.

The speaker for the evening was Rev Andrew Attwood from Kenilworth.  He was absolutely excellent, and had a lot of exciting stories to share.  One of his main texts was Ephesians 4:11, "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers."  He believes that in the church today we have lots of pastors and teachers, making us a 'holding and keeping' church.  So therefore we need to encourage and use the apostles (visionaries, innovators), prophets and evangelists.  He majored on prophets as people who 'See Jesus clearly, hear from heaven, see an alternative future, imagine new possibilities, and provoke grief and amazement.'

He then divided us all into pairs and got us to listen to God for one another.  It was a wonderful evening and we continue to ask God for more of his gift of prophecy in our lives.

Monday 17 September 2012

Wildfire on the Island

Roger, Annie and Mary have just got back from a weekend on the Isle of Wight at St Rhadagund's Christian Endeavour hotel.  This is Roger's report that he sent part way through the week:

Our Wildfire week at St Rhadagunds Isle of Wight is going really well.  Annie has done well in preparing the choir, and the group have responded well to Roger's Bible talks.  We are looking forward to tomorrow night's performance in St Lawrence Church at 1930.
Some folks seem to be carrying great burdens and bondages, but the Spirit is at work.  We have prayed with quite a few folk already.
Wildfire is especially poignant for us, as it is the last musical our Peter played drums in, and we have been singing to his accompaniment.
The team (Roger, Mary, Annie, Kathleen, Tim, Lydia) work very well together, and we are also having a lot of fun.  The group of guests are Spiritually-minded, and we have had great worship times!

Speaking after the finish of the week, the team were delighted.  Annie felt it to be a mixture of great fun and deep ministry and worship.  She said that it was lovely how the depth of worship and ministry was offset by the lightness and silliness at other times.  That's the Holy Spirit at work!

The performance went well, with the choir singing brilliantly, and Annie conducting with Roger on piano along with three players from a local church.  The soloists did a wonderful job too.

We look forward to revisiting the Island later in the year for a Two Sisters and a Funeral weekend.