nickjdrake

Summer 2010

It's good to stop and think every so often about why it is we do what we do - and to try and articulate it well. Seminars are a great chance to do that. We've got two seminars coming up over the Summer - here are the details - would be great to see you there.

1. Encountering God’s Presence in Sung Worship

New Wine LSE Thursday 29th July

An encounter with God changes everything and we look for his presence when we gather to sing. But what is the theology of encountering God’s presence in singing? What does such worship look like in practice and what are its dangers? Is there a radical middle of presence-orientated, accessible worship? Of intimacy and publicity in worship? A chance to stop and think about why we sing and how to best practice and articulate divine encounter in worship.

2. Big Family Of God: Leading All Ages In Worship

New Wine CSW Monday 3rd August

Uniting adults and children in worship can be one of the most
controversial and difficult areas of church life. Yet we know that God
loves it when we sing to him as one big family. This seminar will
unpack some of the things that make all age worship difficult, and
give tips on how to address those problem areas. It will also be a
chance to hear new songs and be refreshed by the Spirit to lead
worship. Whether you love, hate, or simply don’t understand ‘all-age worship’,this seminar is for you.

Back at St Paul's...

Meanwhile, back at St Paul's Hammersmith, life carries on through this Summer. We've just had a week of art called 'Invitation' - here's one of the photo's that captured the event. You will see in it the extension being built as well. When it opens in Sep 2011 we'll be all set up to run seminars of our own! 

Come and join us one Sunday this Summer. Or if you're moving to London in September, pop in and worship with us.

 

Pentecostal

This year we had an incredible gathering at St Paul's Hammersmith to celebrate and enter into the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2. It's always special to get together with Christians from all over town to worship, but getting together with people from all over the world is magic. We worshipped with the Chinese, Filipino and South African (EveryNation) Church in Hammersmith - incredible to declare 'Jesus is Lord' in so many languages. The video we put together this year really captures something of the Spirit's presence that day... helped of course by the fantastic Jesus Culture track, 'Dance with me' from the album 'Consumed'. Credit goes to my most excellent film team for this one: Candice Joiner (Producer/cameras), Tom Slinger (Director/Editor/Cameras), Ruth Key (cameras). Put the lights down low, turn up the volume and go full screen. Let God fill your vision and release your heart to sing.

All For Christ e-card - July 2010

Kingsway have released an e-card for 'All For Christ' - if you want some fun, check out the video intro... and if you like what we're doing click on 'share' to help spread the word... thank you!

God Is Here & Big Family Of God

It's always encouraging to hear people liking the all-age material that Becky and I have worked on. We knew that it worked for our church, and we felt increasingly confident it would work for others as well. The need is certainly great as many churches and worship leaders continue to struggle with the mythological 'family worship'.

It's taken a couple of years to get the message and the songs out. But it's gradually happening. We are now getting emails from people all over the world and hear regular stories of songs being used in the outback of Australia, across New Zealand, USA, Africa, India, and crazily in Kabul in Afganistan, and in Jordan. Apparently, they even know them in Knightsbridge.

Well, here''s a latest review/feature in the UK 'Christian Marketplace' retail magazine. Most encouraging. You can access the whole mag (we are on page 20) by selecting the magazine pages below. If you'd rather download the actual article in pdf then select the link here: nickandbeckydrake PDF DOWNLOAD

Click to launch the full edition in a new window
Online Publishing from YUDU

You can hear more about both of our All-Age collections, Big Family Of God (2008) and God Is Here (2010) by visiting www.nickandbeckydrake.com.

Holy Spirit Music

What drives me, my telos, is to see musicians who are filled with the Spirit, leading Spirit-filled worship (wherever and whatever that looks like when contextualised locally).

One of the privileges of working in a big city church is rubbing shoulders and learning from incredibly skilled professional classical musicians. Partnering with http://musicians-network.net/ we hosted a day here at St Paul's Hammersmith this month gathering professional classical musicians together. The aim: to encourage, be refreshed by the Spirit, and seek God for new initiatives and movements in the classical musician world. There is hardly anyone on the interface of theology and music (Jeremy Begbie is IT) - and part of this movement is also to start thinking through this interface and articulating it well. An exciting thing. If you're interested in what we're beginning to do or know someone who would be then get in touch.

Part of our worship vision here at St Paul's is to re-fill and re-fresh the heart of worship in as many people as we can. Often, all we need is to receive the Spirit again, be prayed for, welcome the risen Jesus to lead us and take over where we've tried to do stuff in our own strength. 

Who's with me?

 

Enabling Worship When Resources Are Limited

I recently developed some teaching material for a seminar at New Wine Harrogate on how to enable worship when resources are scarce. What turned out to be quite a thought-through technical collection of information became amazingly on the day a really God-present rich time together. In fact we even ended with a group-led spontaneous singing of an old praise song. I haven't heard the recording yet of the seminar and I don't know if they kept all the bits in the final edit, but I hear its now available to download here for those interested.  If you've ever felt or feel 'under-resourced' and discouraged in leading your church to worship then I hope you find it helpful. We look at some of the deeper question of what worship actually is and some real life case studies from here at St Paul's Hammersmith and other smaller settings. 

 

New Wine Leaders Conference

When I was 17 I remember being literally 'floored' by God in a time of worship during a missions trip with YWAM. It was utterly transformational as I felt, what I later could articulate as, the 'weight' of God's glory (Hebrew - CHABOD) pressing me into the grass. As God's glory is manifested, so we are transformed. As we sing, we change. 

This was my prayer for the worship this year at New Wine's Leadership Conference in Harrogate - that God would 'floor' every one of us. That we would all come out completely changed. 

Here's a glimpse of some of the time we had - shot on iphone and zi8. I'm greatly looking forward to the Summer conference at the end of July. See you there? 

worship-without-space

This article was written for Kingsway's new website which has just launched - you can check it out here. Meanwhile, if you're interested in worship as a dialogue - read on, the full text is available below.

 
WORSHIP_WITHOUT_SPACE

At the centre of sung worship is a person – Jesus. At the centre of authentic and true sung worship is therefore a relationship. Relationships need space to breathe, time to deepen, moments to dialogue and go deeper. They are a two-way thing. Our sung worship can so often forget this and become a ipod-playlist with normalization on and 2 second gap. This is Worship without space.

Obviously sung worship first and foremost is about us communicating to God – bringing thanks and praise to Him for who He is and what He’s done. Everyone knows that. Indeed, most of our worship songs are designed around that idea.

However, worship is also about God communicating with us. Changing us by His Spirit. As we lift up His name and sing of His glory, so He impresses His weight, His likeness, upon us. We sing and start to look like Him. It is one of the most amazing things about sung worship. God’s grace can not stop pouring out towards us, the presence of the risen Christ, by the power of the Spirit moving in our midst.

If I say something to my wife, I hope that she will say something back. That is the moment of connection, of relationship – the moment I know that I am really walking and sharing life with another person. That is the power of creating and valuing space within sung worship. Space announces expectancy. Expectancy that God will speak to us as we speak to Him; that He will sing over us as we sing to Him.

Space, whether planned instrumental breaks, silence, improvised chord progressions, or prophetic singing, invites the Spirit to initiate a true encounter between our being and God’s being. It gives our hearts, minds and wills time to volunteer themselves to God, to willingly yield and say ‘yes’ to Him. Space can re-awaken in the worshipper the need to personally relate to God through the singing rather than be carried along by the power of the band and the songs. Space allows hunger to grow, faith to rise, hearts to burn, encounter to be born.

I am on a journey to try and recapture the value of having ‘space’ within sung worship. To learn in the school of the Spirit how to lead people in the ‘unscripted place’, the place of heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus in corporate settings. To learn how to encourage people to be totally present to God’s presence. To expect more than they can even ask or imagine as they come to worship. If necessary, I want to sacrifice presentational excellence on the alter of authentic relational encounter with God. I want freedom from fear of man so as to deviate from the set plan, risk ‘failure’ in order to gain true transformative presence.

Sung Worship is a two-way thing. People need space to be. Relationships need space to grow.

Nick J Drake nickjdrake.com 

Spring Harvest

We had an amazing time this year at Spring Harvest. Becky and I were leading the All Age Worship with a fantastic team from St Paul's and Becky's brother, the inimitable, Matt Harding. It was so amazing to see so many people of all ages come together to worship together and be changed by God. We knew by the end of the week that the songs had worked their magic when even the Stewards were wanting 'God Is Here' to take home...

This clip is a quick glimpse of some of the 'behind the scenes' moments and team meetings. We're not allowed to show any of the actual celebrations unfortunately so you'll just have to imagine...

 

Worship in the Mall

Every year on Good Friday, we join with all the other churches in Hammersmith and march through the stilled streets carrying the cross to the shopping mall in the centre of town. It's a really powerful piece of theatre and the worship in the mall afterwards is always a special time. This year I took along my little handheld cam and captured some of the action - 

Song Story: All For Christ

'All for Christ' has been out a week or so now and Survivor have just released this little video we did to give a bit of an insight into the songwriting process and themes behind the title track. Kingsway are also giving the sheet music away free this month if you sign up on their site: Kingsway Songs 

You can order the full CD for just £5.99 from Kingsway Shop or download on iTunes (although ironically more expensive)...