And the very next day...

A very late night and a few hours sleep later, Roger was on the go again. And this time his Wildfire shirt came back out. We had a pre-Cumbria Wildfire Tour practice performance at Christ Church, Burney Lane. The team for the tour got together:

Stephen - Jonathan Chappell
Paul - Bill Carpenter
Paul's Pharisee sidekick - Mike Bailey
Rhoda - Ann Steer
Lydia - Sharon Collins
Anna - Helen Pollard
Bookstall - Keith Grimshaw

It was strange performing Wildfire again, particularly for Ann and Helen reprising their old roles. Jonathan has recently played Stephen in the CMM Choir's performance of Wildfire, and we had quite a number from the choir supporting us in the performance.

It was also great to have Sharon Collins and Mike Bailey with us from Barrow in Furness. Mike is Mary Jones' brother.

The Big Day!

It's been nearly 27 years coming, but at last it came - the wedding day of Sally Jones.


It was a wonderful day that even the bad weather and the bride being an hour late couldn't spoil! Karl was remarkably calm in all the waiting - he knew that despite only being a 5 minute journey away, there was no way Sally with her bridesmaids Carolyn, Gemma and Emma would make it on time. Thankfully Roger kept us up to date with texts on how they were doing - according to Sally the lateness was his fault for spending so long in the bathroom...


The service was a wonderful mixture of music and dance. CMM provided the music group, and there was also loads of dance - Anna and Felicity leading the bridal party up the aisle, and Springs dancing in the service. Anna also danced to 'I see you hanging there' by Phatfish - a dance that we have often seen Sally dance. Simon Gudger preached, Peter Smith led the service, and Devon sang 'God cares for you'. All Roger had to do was give Sally away, although he had been faffing about the powerpoint all morning.


After the service the reception was at the local Beaufort Social club. They fed us great food, and looked after us very well. After the meal and speeches, Martin compered us through an evening of entertainment provided by family and friends (with lots and lots of dance of course!), and then a disco.


So congratulations to Karl and Sally Taylor, and may God bless you in your future together.

Catshill Worship Weekend

After the mad rush of the Rock Roadshow, the Renewal evening, and the Rhos on Sea week, the pace didn't let up and we were straight off to Catshill for a worship weekend. Not a long journey though, as Catshill is on the A38 just outside Birmingham.

We had been invited by Elizabeth Hidderley, who has long been known to CMM through various musicals and trips to Israel. It was wonderful to work alongside her and Helen, an oboeist from the church.

We had a wonderful team for the day, as so many associates live locally - Kathleen Owen, Martin Fisher, Simon Cooper and Sarah Harley were the team for the event alongside Roger and Helen (and Mary on the Sunday).

Roger began with his Ways to Praise teaching, looking at psalms, hymns and songs, and then some more creative worship. After lunch Helen led a new songs workshop and then the Saturday culminated in 'Being a worshipper' - looking at David.

We also took the Sunday morning service which was themed around psalm 23, as it was the lectionary for the day.

It was an interesting event, as the theology of worship among the group was very broad leading to some exciting discussion. We're sure God was moving and that people enjoyed the weekend, which evoked memories for some people of the 'Mission Praise services' they used to hold in the past.

Please pray for Elizabeth and the minster Andy, and others at the church as they continue to explore worship together.

Rhos on Sea Week

So we'd just had an incredibly busy weekend with the Rock Roadshow in Bridport (see Rock Blog) and the renewal evening, but there was no let up - we were straight off to Rhos on Sea for a Jairus' Daughter music week. This was our third successive year at St. Winifred's Christian Endeavour hotel, and it was great to be back. This year the team was Roger, Helen, Tim and Lydia Dock, and Helen's sister Deb, who brought her 7 month old baby Bethan. We were also joined by Keith, a local drummer, and part of the church where we hold our performances.

During the week as we learned Jairus, Helen did all the choir training and conducting, so that Roger was left free to play the piano. For those of you that have been to one of our music weeks, you'll be amazed to hear that Roger came to every choir rehearsal... mostly because he'd forgotten how his own musical went...

The teaching throughout the week should really have been around the themes of the first song - Seek, Serve and Follow, but there were some other themes in the musical that Roger felt it right to talk about that didn't quite fall within those three areas. So instead, we used the titles Faith, Hope and Love. Helen spoke the first morning on faith, and then Roger took the other two sessions, using the hope topic to bring in themes of grief and bereavement and the love topic to look at worship.

The evenings were good fun, including 'An evening with Roger Jones', and then after the evening session Tim and Lydia led games with the guests, including a 'Ready Steady Cook' board game and the world famous After Eight game.

The performance went really well - we were at Rhos URC where the minister is Kate Gartside. We had four excellent narrators and four soloists - Mavis, Margaret, Clyde and Barrie. We also had five girls from the sunday school at the church come and sing Jesus, friend of little children. They were absolutely brilliant - they started off shy earlier in the week but had come into their own by the end. Another highlight of the performance was seeing a full row in the audience of staff from St. Winifred's. I think they enjoyed it.

Sadly we can't fit Rhos into our schedule next year, but we are booked for 2012.

Renewal Evening #3

On Sunday 18th April we held the third in our series of Renewal Evenings jointly with Christ Church, Burney Lane. This time the speaker at the service was Heather Butler. Heather used to be in Roger and Mary's youth group, but has since moved away from Birmingham and lives in Anglesea with her family. She has a wonderful prophetic ministry, singing over people and praying for healing. She also has links with Israel and Palestine.

CMM provided a music group for the occasion - Roger, Annie, Helen, Tim, Paul and Ann Steer, as well as supplementing the Christ Church prayer team. It's always wonderful to play together with a big band which includes drums.

During the evening Heather spoke and shared a bit about her life. She also prophecied over the whole congregation - Roger and the musicians had a chord sequence going, and Heather simply walked from row to row and sang out what she felt God was saying. It was a wonderful experience.

After Heather had spoken and we'd spent some time in worship we had a wonderful long ministry time led by Peter Smith. God was moving really powerfully, and it was great so many had come back from previous renewal meetings.

Jerusalem Joy in a day

On Saturday 27th March, Annie led Jerusalem Joy in a day in Warwick. This is our second visit in the last two years to this group of churches, and it was great to be back.

Annie's team for the day was Eddie and Jenny Smith, Amy Carter and Martin Fisher. Eddie played the part of Jesus, and the others filled in the rest.

Annie reports that the day went really well except that she forgot to take a backing track CD with her. Martin was dispatched back to Birmingham to find a CD and he managed to do so, as thankfully Andrew was at home and able to let Martin in!

A highlight of the day for Annie was during the performance. Eddie, singing the part of Jesus, acted out the last supper during the song 'Isn't it wonderful', lifting up the bread and the wine at the appropriate moments - a very powerful moment.

An Evening with Devon

On Sunday 7th March (yes, I know I'm behind with the blog!) we held our first ever Evening with Devon. It was a bit of an experiment with a programme we might like to use in future - taking some of CMM's associates and giving them chance to use their gifts and share their testimonies.

The evening with Devon included testimony and lots of songs. There were lots of Roger's songs, as well as some worship songs, two of Devon's own compositions and two songs from other musicals - 'All I ask of you' and 'Tonight'. Devon sang the latter two with Katie Leaver, who he often sings with in concerts around the Redditch/Bromsgrove area.

The team for the night was Annie, Helen, Roger, Katie Leaver, Amy Carter, Tim Jones on drums, Jonathan Chappell, Martin Fisher and Simon & Laura Cooper. As we had no choir for the occasion we had a lot of rehearsal time beforehand to make sure we knew all the four-part harmony for Roger's material.

The evening took place at St. Andrew's Church in Barnt Green, and we had a lovely big congregation, including Lindsay (formerly of the CMM office) and her mum, who Devon often sees at her nursing home. We were looked after brilliantly at St. Andrew's, including tea and cakes afterwards.

The evening went almost without a hiccough - Devon didn't have his glasses with him, so he attempted all of the music from memory. He almost got there...

Music in Worship Day, Witney

On 6th March a CMM team traveled to Welcome Evangelical Church in Witney in Oxfordshire for a music in worship day. Paul Herrington, who has been a CMM associate for some years training choirs for our Lee Abbey weeks in particular, invited us to lead a day specially tailored for musicians and worship leaders.

The CMM team for the day was Roger, Annie and Helen as well as Alan on drums, Marilyn on flute, Paul Herrington on keys and Caroline Finney as a singer. It was great to have such a big team, and wonderful to have Alan on drums as always - in the afternoon session as part of the worship block, Alan gave a wonderful worshipful improvisation. It's not often we have a percussion planned spontaneous happening!

In the morning Roger led worship and then Helen spoke on being a worshipper, and then Roger led a couple of workshops on planning, structuring and leading praise before finishing off the day with some creative and prophetic worship.

We were brilliantly looked after by Shirley Enoch and some others from the Witney choir.

Another highlight of the day was being joined by a couple of local instrumentalists - a flautist and a saxophonist.

It was a lovely day, and God was certainly blessing and meeting with people. And we hope those that attended were also helped to grow in their worship leading skills.

Clarence Park Baptist

One of the long standing friends of Christian Music Ministries, Kaye Cooke, is a member of Clarence Park Baptist Church in Weston-super-Mare. She, along with a number of other members of her church organised for Roger to visit their morning service the day following the Rock Roadshow in Bristol. This was a wonderful opportunity for Roger to share with the whole congregation some thoughts on freedom in worship. Kaye helped by singing solo, and Lorna came and played violin.

Sometimes it is difficult to say all you want to say just in a short space of time left for the sermon, but Roger was really pleased with the morning. One lady felt able to dance in worship for the first time, and others were really blessed.

Jairus' Daughter in Nottingham

While Roger, Annie and another CMM team were in Bristol (see the Rock blog), Helen went to Wollaton Road Methodist Church in Beeston in Nottingham for Jairus' Daughter in a day. The day was organised particularly by Helen's dad Chris, who is a Methodist Minister, with lots of help from her mum Viv with advertising around the churches in the circuit.

Helen's team for the day included Richard Harvey, who took the part of Jesus, Felicity Norris, who led a dance workshop, and Miriam Gray (Helen's sister) who played clarinet.

It was a fantastic afternoon workshop, beginning after lunch. There were over 40 in the choir, and 4 excellent dancers. Very few of the choir had heard the music before, and they learnt it incredibly quickly. One of the worries of the day was finding soloists who could cover the woman, Jairus and child's parts. Thankfully the worry was squashed pretty early on with some excellent volunteers, including the 4 young dancers who together sang 'Jesus, friend of little children'.

It was great having Miriam on clarinet. She was really on team to help if anyone should have brought their instruments. Although no-one else brought an instrument, there was plenty of opportunity for Miriam to shine and be the centre of attention - there are quite a few long instrumentals in the musical, so the audience could look at Miriam playing rather than the conductor!

The dancers did an amazing job. Felicity worked with the four girls on the two songs which include 'You've turned my weeping into dancing for joy'. The dance they learnt in just a few short hours was fantastic. Felicity also added a couple of extra solo dances - firstly in song 4 'If I can just touch him' where the woman is debating whether or not to approach and touch Jesus. She then continued into song 5, which mostly consists of a long instrumental where the woman touches Jesus and discovers that she has been healed before the choir join in and sing 'If with all your heart you seek him, you will surely find him.'

The performance itself went well until technology got in the way! The connection between the laptop and the sound system seemed to break down a bit, and cut in and out. Two breaks in the middle of the performance sorted it out though - thankfully Felicity had brought with her some powerful speakers to go with her laptop.

A lovely extra dimension to the musical was provided by our 4 narrators, who told the story through the eyes of 4 bystanders. The audience was much bigger than expected, and it was a great occasion.

The following morning Helen preached at the church for the annual Girls' Brigade and Boys' Brigade parade service. As Jairus' Daughter was originally written for the Girls' Brigade Centenary in 1992, it made an excellent link between the musical on Saturday with church on Sunday. The Boys' and Girls' Brigades learnt all about how to 'Seek, serve and follow Christ'!

Renewal Evening 2

Back in November we held a day together with Christ Church, Burney Lane. This was a day with Helena Wilkinson, in which she shared in the morning service, took a seminar in the afternoon, and then spoke at a renewal evening. This was the first of what we hope will be a whole series of renewal evenings held jointly between CMM and Christ Church.

So in February we held the second in the series, and this time the speaker was Ian Parkinson, one of the leaders of New Wine North and East. The music group and prayer team met simultaneously to prepare for the service, and to pray for the evening to come. In the music group, alongside Roger, Annie and Helen we had Martin and Katie leading the singing, Tim on drums, Paul on guitar and Jen making her debut on sax and clarinet.

Unfortunately by the time the evening was due to start, Ian was still stuck in traffic on the M6. So after delaying a little, we began with a nice long block of praise. There were quite a number in the congregation from the local churches, so we were thrilled, as this is only the second of its kind.

Ian did arrive after a couple of songs, so he was able to speak as planned. He spoke on the feeding of the five thousand, drawing links between that story and our approach to our relationship with Jesus and also to mission.

After Ian's talk, we had an extensive time of ministry led by Peter Smith, vicar of Christ Church. Lots of people were prayed for, including the speaker! Praise God for his love - giving words and pictures to people to aid the ministry time.

Afterwards we realised that this service had taken place on the anniversary of Peter Lawrence's death. Peter used to be vicar of Christ Church, and this was exactly the sort of evening he was encouraging. It's amazing how things come full circle.

The next evening is in April and our speaker will be Heather Butler. Heather has an amazing prophetic ministry, where God speaks through her in song. Should be a great evening.

Music in Worship Week, Whitby

From 7th-12th April, Roger, Mary and Helen made their way up to Whitby and were joined there on team by Andrew Lockwood and Jonathan Chappell. This has been our annual trip to Moorlands Hotel in Whitby, one of the Christian Guild chain of hotels. In the past we have had Mike and Barbara Rowarth as an important part of the team, but this time they were sadly unable to make it.

Instead of learning a musical in a week, this time we decided to focus on music in worship, as we often have a number of local preachers and worship leaders among the group. This meant that in the weeks leading up to the week, Roger and Helen were beavering away on a teaching schedule and workshops, that will hopefully prove useful into the future.

There were about 20 guests (not bad for off season) staying at the hotel, and one of the lovely things about this week is that we have a number of people come in from the local area for the different sessions, including Helen Drummond, a local URC minister.

After dinner on Sunday we held a short introductory evening involving some praise and worship, an explanation of the plan of the week, and a lovely epilogue from Jonathan.

On Monday we began the week's teaching plan which focused on different worshippers in the bible. This first morning after worship led by Roger, Helen spoke on King David, focusing on the passage from 2 Samuel 6 which includes the famous verse "And I'll become even more undignified than this." During this session Andrew sang 'See how he dies on a cross' and we finished up with a simple block of worship songs to put the theory into practice. After this session we had a practical workshop looking at how to plan 'praise blocks' and why it is good to include them in a service. After a free afternoon and then dinner, we watched a wonderful DVD together - "Everything is Spiritual" by Rob Bell - highly recommended!

On Tuesday Mary led the worship and then Roger took over the bible teaching duties. This morning he looked at Mary the mother of Jesus, taking examples from the annunciation and the magnificat to describe the way she worshipped. Roger continued after the coffee break with a workshop on leading praise, and the guests got into groups and chose their own worship blocks. Gill and Barrie were the two guinea pigs who allowed us to test out their excellent worship-leading skills. In the evening we had 'An evening with Helen' which included singing some rounds and looking a bit at the history of singing. The evening included Andrew singing 'You raise me up' and Mary concluding the evening by singing 'Your eye is on the sparrow' - written right back in 1904.

On Wednesday Helen led worship and then Roger spoke about Jehoshaphat, particularly focusing on the story found in 2 Chronicles 20. After the break Helen, Andrew and Roger shared duties leading a new songs workshop. The workshop included some from Roger's new book 'The Roger Jones Song Collection' as well as some from Spring Harvest 2009. In the evening we had 'An evening with Roger', in which Roger told some of his testimony, and shared some of his passions in life.

On Thursday, our last complete day at Whitby, Andrew led worship in the morning and Roger spoke on Peter - but not the talks he has been using for the Rock Roadshows. Instead this time he looked at the story of the transfiguration. The morning's workshop was a Holy Spirit ministry session, and guests did a wonderful job ministering to one another after a little bit of teaching and instruction. We hope and pray this was a real blessing to each person. In the evening we had our service which included the sharing of bread and wine, and Jonathan had his chance to lead some worship.

Then on Friday after breakfast we packed our bags and headed home after a wonderful week. Sadly, this is to be our last week at Whitby as the hotel has unfortunately had to close. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the staff at this difficult time.

From Pharaoh to Freedom

On Saturday 6th February, CMM began what was to be an extremely busy week. Annie travelled to Bakewell in Derbyshire accompanied by Pam Griffiths and Andrew Lockwood for a day learning and performing From Pharaoh to Freedom.

Methodist minister Fran Lane (who knew Helen when she was 5 years old) organised the day at Peak Methodist Church, which was aimed to be an event uniting all the churches in the circuit in fun and fellowship. It certainly did that! There were over 80 in the choir, as well as a group of dancers and instrumentalists. Fran's husband Piers sang the parts of Moses and Jesus, and a girl from Cliff College sang some of the female solos along with Pam.

It was great to have Pam involved again. She hasn't sung solo with us for a long time, and she was one of the original Pharaoh soloists, singing the part of Miriam.

The performance was such a success that there will be a further performance on Sunday 30th May at Cliff College.

Associates' Day

CMM is priviledged to have a group of people spread across the country who volunteer for us. These can be singers, dancers, instrumentalists, workshop leaders, prayer ministry team, bookstall sellers and CD operators. We have CMM team as far north as Elgin and Glasgow, as far west as Bangor and Bideford, as far south as the Isle of Wight (although of course we can't forget Paul in the Algarve) and as far East as Norwich. If there's anyone outside of these extremes let me know!

We call these amazing people Associates, and on the 30th January we had our first associates' day in quite a few years. With about 40 people present on the day, it was a wonderful opportunity for both CMM and EBRG to share some of the vision and aims of the ministry with some of our closest supporters.

The day included a session on worship and worship leading, as we are hoping to ask more and more of our associates to lead worship with us over the coming months and years. Then we looked at the doctrine and practice of the ministry, covering a wide spectrum from the profundities of 'Charismatic' and 'Evangelical' right through to laughing at Roger's jokes even when you've heard them a million times. After lunch we looked at repertoire and ministry songs, and also Holy Spirit workshops and ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It was a day full of information, but it was great to share with everyone. Huge thanks to our associates, and all they do for us.

Farewell to Lindsay

And now it is the turn of Lindsay to leave us. She has been given a new job at her church, directly over the road from her house (who can blame her!). So for a few weeks at the start of January we had both Lindsay and Tim working in the office (snow permitting), with Lindsay training Tim up to take over.

Lindsay then left us to have her tonsils out due to a calcium growth on them - and this is what happened:

"Good afternoon Rog

"At this particular time I should be feeling really anxious about getting
myself and the family ready for tomorrow..............................but I'm
not!

"Well, yesterday morning I felt the calcium in my throat move, and guess
what? I swallowed it!!! I telephoned the hospital in the afternoon
and the doctor was on the ward and said to 'CANCEL' my op and he would see me in
6 weeks.

"Talk about the power of prayer!! I was totally stunned for most of
the day but of course extremely relieved not to have to go under the
knife"

We're over the moon here in the office. God is so good - we should expect him to do things like that a bit more often! We'll miss Lindsay here, but we know God will be with her and her family into the future.

CMM Mailing

This week has seen the return of the phenomenon that is the CMM Mailing Stuffers. These are an incredibly wonderful group of people that come and stuff envelopes for us twice a year.

Just a few years ago, the mailing would take up to two weeks, but now with so many on email, it takes considerably less time.

On Monday we had an amazing team all crowded around the dining room table - Phil, Stella, Pauline, Jenny, Pat and Paul. And then on Tuesday Philip and Pauline finished off the last few bits. A record amount of tea, coffee and biscuits were consumed, and Phil even provided the team on Monday with cup-a-soups. What a fantastic team!

A snowy new year

Amidst snow and the big freeze, the CMM office reopened at the start of January to a backlog of orders. Lindsay and Tim both found it pretty hard to get in to the office due to children being off school - but somehow between us we coped.

Another impact of the snow was event cancellations. We were due to be leading worship at a ReSource supporters meeting at Emmanuel Church in Loughborough. This was due to be one of our first joint events with ReSource, and we were really looking forward to it. Hopefully it can be rescheduled in the future.

We also had to cancel our regular EBRG Thursday night meeting, which was a shame, as we were due to be preparing for our annual retreat, taking place on the weekend of the 9th and 10th January.

Despite the snow, the retreat was able to go ahead, and we had a wonderful time. We were led by Martin and Cesca Cavendar from ReSource. They began the weekend by focusing on the Word of God in all its different forms - Jesus, the Bible, hearing from God. Then they led us into looking at the gifts of the Spirit. So often as a group we have focused on the listening to God side of the gifts, and Martin and Cesca were encouraging us to broaden our range a little. It was a wonderful, challenging retreat, and we have plenty to ponder in the future.

The last event at the start of the new year that fell foul of the weather was the Rock Roadshow in Exeter on Saturday 16th January. Even though the snow had mostly cleared, the bad weather had meant a lot of people had been reluctant to book. Hopefully we will be back in the area again soon.

Christmas at the Convent

Our final event for 2009 was our now annual trip to St. John's House in Alum Rock. This is a wonderful Anglican Community of Sisters, who have been hugely supportive of CMM - Helen lived there for 3 years, and Sister Ivy attends Christ Church Burney Lane and also the CMM Choir. Denise, who helps in the CMM office has also been greatly supported by the sisters over the last few years.

So once again we were delighted to be able to share with them in an Advent Evening on Saturday 19th December.

We held an evening similar to the one at Tenbury Wells, in which Roger focused on Mary's meeting with the Angel Gabriel.

This time we had a large CMM team - as well as Roger, Mary, Helen and Annie we had Pat, Jonathan, Linda, Sue, and Alan. It was great to have such a large group of singers.

Grenfell Chrismas

Every year, Annie has been invited to the Grenfell Ladies' Christmas Service, to play for the carols and to provide another musical item. Grenfell Baptist Church is where Roger, Mary, Gill and a large number of the original CMM and EBRG supporters met and had their youth group. So it's a real privilege to be able to support this group of mostly West Indian ladies.

This year Annie was supported by Mary and Helen, and as well as providing accompaniment for the carols, we sang Mary and her man called Joe from Simeon, and also High Upon a Hillside from the Christmas Collection (it is also in The Inn Crowd, but with different words).

It was a lovely meeting, and we look forward to sharing with the group more next year.

The Inn Crowd

On the weekend of December 12th and 13, CMM found itself involved in three productions of the Inn Crowd, organised by the churches in Yardley. Anne Maddox, Roger's former PA, is the wife of Derek, the vicar of St. Michael and All Angels, Yardley. She, along with the wife of the minister of Digbeth in the Fields URC church, decided that it would be really great for the churches in the area to work on something together, and that a musical would be a good foundation for this.

So together they chose the Inn Crowd, and managed to get 12 churches or groups involved - a magnificent effort.

So after all the hard work and rehearsals, Roger, Helen, Tim and Amy were able to drop in and get involved in the performances. Tim on drums, and Helen and Amy with a variety of woodwind instruments, joining their already excellent pianist and guitarists.

The excellent local soloists (including some from the CMM choir) performed in costume in front of three packed churches, including mayors and bishops. It was the first time Roger had seen the drama performed, and it fitted with the songs beautifully. The drama had been written by Peter Lawrence, although Anne and team modified it a little - mostly fitting in a broad Black Country accent.

It was a brilliant weekend. Thanks so much to Anne and team for all the hard work, particularly including Margaret on the piano. Brilliant effort, and hopefully some wonderful relationships forged between the churches.