Podcast: Never Before, Never Again

In the last couple of weeks at Faith Community Church, there has been a strong revival atmosphere. It started on 16 July 2017 when Rev Bill Wilson of Metro World Child preached at our church on the subject “What Do You See?” Many were challenged to become what Rev Wilson calls “100 degree” Christians – […]

Where are You in the Spectrum of History?

In the Worship Leadership Masterclass, I said that one of the things worship leaders must do is balance the prophetic and the pastoral. This means that we have to keep breaking new ground but not run too far ahead that our people can’t follow us. One of the ways we break new ground is in […]

Shadow to Reality: Worship from the Tabernacle to the Heavenly Throne Room

The author of Hebrews tells us that “the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves”.[1] A principal theme that can be traced through the Bible is the loss and recovery of God’s presence, beginning with unbroken fellowship in the Garden of Eden, through to the […]

A Historical-Prophetic Approach to Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Today, I want to continue the series on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. As a recap, I introduced two key texts. The first is in Ephesians 5:18-20: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music from […]

Should We Keep Harping on Hymns?

Today, I am continuing my series on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In particular, I want to explore the use of “hymns” in our worship services and ask the question: are they still a valid musical expression for the church today? The emergence of hymns was very much a product of the Reformation. Luther understood […]

Worship Leader Magazine’s Top 20

I am an avid student of the history of the so-called “praise and worship” movement. I believe that if we are going to revolutionise the way we “do” church and worship, we have a lot to learn from the past so that at the very least, we don’t repeat its mistakes. So when I first […]

Church (S)hopping

“Church hopping” is a phenomenon, particularly prevalent in the early Charismatic movement, when Christians would move from church to church, conference to conference, to chase down the best teachers and the most, well, charismatic speakers. As a result, many Christians became dislocated; whilst they heard great teaching, there was no space for them to apply […]

Epochal Song 5: Ancient of Days (Jamie Harvill and Gary Sadler)

Today, I’m continuing the series on Epochal Songs of the Praise and Worship Movement. At number 5 is “Ancient of Days” which in my view, was the high watermark for musical excellence. Hosanna Music had been slowly building up its musical prowess before deftly unleashing some of the best, world-class Christian worship musicians onto the […]

9 O’Clock in the Morning

I am reading Dennis Bennett’s book Nine O’Clock in the Morning at the moment. I first came across the name of Dennis Bennett in 2006 when I was researching the “Charismatic Century”. He was known as one of the pioneers of the “third wave” or the “Charismatic renewal”. Even though Bennett documents his own personal journey […]

Apostolic Worship and the Revolutionary Spirit

Last night, I was watching a Jackie Chan film called 1911 which chronicled the 1911 Chinese Revolution led by Sun Yat Sen. I have always wanted to read up on Chinese history, but the expanse of it was always too intimidating and I never really knew where to start. 1911 was a precis about the […]