New Song: “Walk With Me”
I spent an afternoon with local producer Danny, “Dee-Tech” Conran this week. At the end of our session, we had come up with this song idea. It’s a first-draft, demo recording.
It would be good to get some feedback about the song. Have a listen & leave a comment!
“Walk With Me” – Mike Ellis & Dee-Tech
Review: “More Than Noise”, Pocket Full Of Rocks
Though new to me, “More Than Noise” is the third studio album from Pocket Full Of Rocks and is set to release March 2, 2010 on Myrrh Records.
PFOR’s lead singer/songwriter Michael Farren had this to say, “A lot of what I’ve been sharing out on the road deals with losing your religion and finding relationship with an amazing God.” I personally believe that the message conveyed in these words and the title of the album are critical and vital for the Church at this time.
This seasoned five-piece, worship-focused band clearly have a message that, in my opinion, deserves to be heard. Listen to what else they had to say:
“Much of our message is that you’ve got to make more than noise. It’s easy to just walk into a room, sing the songs on the screen and lift your hands; but if you can walk out and not be transformed or see the world around you transformed, then that wasn’t worship. Real worship comes with change, both in you, and the world around you. If you encounter a real God in a real setting of worship, you can’t leave the same.“
Musically, PFOR’s style is, for me, reminiscent of Casting Crowns and Michael Farren’s vocal reminded me in places of Tom Petty. More Than Noise was produced by the more than capable Ed Cash (Chris Tomlin, Leeland, Steven Curtis Chapman, Bebo Norman) and from the opening song, “Alive” – the first single (co-written with Stu G, Delirious) – the album resonates with a vibrancy & passion (captured both musically and lyrically) that stirs your heart, fixes your attention firmly on the love, grace and goodness of God, and inspires and invokes heartfelt worship.
The album contains a number of songs that could easily be sung by congregations in a corporate gathering; songs like the anthemic ballads, “Ever Close To You“, “Wonderful” and “Let It Rain” (the song made popular on Michael W. Smith’s Worship Album – written by PFOR’s Michael Farren); the hymn-like, “Jesus Died My Soul To Save” and “Your Love For Me“; and the driving, “Let Our God Be Praised” and the opener “Alive“.
There are also songs that tell a story; songs like, “Strong“, “When Love Whispers Your Name” (written with Farren’s 14 year old daughter, Madison) and “Come As You Are” (co-written with Chad Cates & Tony Wood) – I love the opening lyric to this song, “He’s not mad at you and He’s not disappointed. His grace is greater still than all of your wrong choices.“
One of the songs which stands out for me is the final track, “A Worshipper’s Prayer“. It is a beautiful, intimate and honest song which brought me to tears when I first heard it; stripped down musically (piano & strings), you can hear the emotion in Farren’s voice as it cracks over the lyric:
“Here I am
And like a thousand times before I sing again
And when all my simple words have found their end
Once again I’m even more amazed
By the beauty and the mystery of your ways
Oh how marvelous to hear You call my name
So when there’s nothing left to bring
And there’s no song left to sing
Here I am.“
Worship was never about the songs we sing. It is so much more than that. I think PFOR understand that.
I shall be playing this album for some time to come!
News: “More Than Words” Gets Internet Radio Airplay
More than Words is in rotation on Jango Radio and being played to Jango’s 7 million listeners.
You can imagine the look on my face when I read those words at the top of the email I’d opened. So, I checked it out and… there it was! They had even created a profile page.
The email went on to say, “Jango is an extremely popular custom internet radio site (similar to Pandora) with 7 million monthly listeners.“
So, now for the shameless plug… Why don’t you listen to More Than Words and then click on “Like” (that is, of course providing that you do like it). The more people that like the song, the more it gets played.
I’d appreciate it if you did!
Review: “Bo’s Cafe”, John Lynch, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol
Another release from Windblown Media; “Bo’s Cafe” (John Lynch, Bill Thrall & Bruce McNicol) kind of crept up on me & bit me on the backside! Don’t get me wrong, I went into it with my eyes wide open; I had read a brief synopsis of the book & thought to myself, “I need to read this”. It was only while reading some of the later chapters with tears rolling down my cheeks that I became aware of how much I needed to read it.
The story follows Steven Kerner, a young, high powered business executive who seemingly has it all; or at least that’s how it appears on the outside. Despite his best efforts at home, things are far from good. Enter Andy Monroe, an old friend of Steven’s dad. Through Andy, Steven is introduced to a colourful group of characters that meet regularly at Bo’s. As he gets to know Andy & the others, Steven discovers the freedom of living authentically; no more masks, no more having to perform.
For me, Bo’s provides a beautiful picture of the Church – God’s people (or at least, how we should be); a safe community, where broken people can journey together and are transformed by the power of God’s grace & unconditional love.
The book was easy to read. I found myself wanting to read on – keen to discover what happens next and encouraged to by the short chapter lengths. I liked the characters I was introduced to and found myself yearning for what was on offer at Bo’s (no, not the food).
I would say that though Steven is a man and his situation & circumstances aren’t uncommon among men, his deepest issue, however – the thing that drives all of his behaviour, is common to both sexes. I would therefore recommend this book to both men and women alike.
Come Love Of God
We recorded this song ourselves; Ali wrote it & Adrian put together a video to acompany it:
It’s one of around 8 songs that we recorded at the Academy (hopefully some more will be ready soon). Let me know what you think…
God With Us
In my reading, I was drawn to books that spoke on the subject; books like, “Authentic Relationships” (Wayne & Clay Jacobsen), “Loving Our Kids On Purpose” (Danny Silk) & “Becoming A True Spiritual Community” (Larry Crabb).
Last Sunday in Exeter I got to share some of what God’s been saying to me about it. Rather than posting the usual style “Sunday Set List”, I thought I’d put up a recording of what I said…
God With Us – Mike Ellis
Redemption Church, Sunday Set List, 20 September 2009
Well… this is the second week (of four) that there is no whole church gathering in Stevenage; so, I’ll be posting about Exeter only.
From what I’ve heard so far, the small groups that are meeting in Stevenage are going really well. Here’s a quote from one of the hosts:
We had dinner with God. What a glorious night… God manifested His presence in a powerful way.
I like it!
Exeter (pm)
We certainly met with God in Exeter this week also (of course we did – otherwise, why else keep doing it…?).
The evening began with Mark leading us in prayer while I played the chords to the first song. It sounds so formal when I write it down, but the reality was we were all praying, “Your kingdom come…”.
All the songs were in the key of G this week, so we flowed easily from one to the other. It also meant that it was easier for worship to continue “between” the songs.
The songs we sang were:
- Hallelujah/Your Love Is Amazing (Brian Doerksen/Brenton Brown)
- Forever (Chris Tomlin)
- For Who You Are (Marty Sampson)
- More Than Life (Reuben Morgan)
- Oh How He Loves You An Me (Kurt Kaiser)
- Take All Of Me (Marty Sampson)
At the end of the first song, we were applauding God & speaking / singing our own thanks for His love. The next two songs worked like a medley; both being played with the same rhythm & tempo.
“More Than Life” was powerful. Mark had just talked about all of God’s promises being yes & amen; he wasn’t aware that the next song began “…stand by the promises…”. We repeated the chorus for a short while; as that came to an end, one of the ladies prayed thanking God for His love & puting her confidence in that (not knowing that Mark was preaching on confidence).
At that point, I replaced the song we were due to sing with one that wasn’t originally in the set list. In my worship time on the Saturday evening, the old hymn, “Oh How He Loves You And Me” flashed into my mind. It seemed to fit with what was being prayed, so I started it up, the band picked it up & everyone joined in.
The last song was an appropriate, passionate response to His love, “… love that’s stronger, love that covers (we sing conquered) sin and takes the weight of the world” as with our whole hearts we sang:
I love You
All of my hope is in You
Jesus Christ, take my life
Take all of me
Links:
#sundaysetlists
This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com
It’s Church Jim, But Not As We Know It
It’s been a very interesting few weeks. Things have been quite busy lately and I’ve not managed to post. I must admit to getting withdrawal symptoms.
There’s an expression that comes to mind, “Constant change is here to stay”; I’m not sure where I first heard this, but it has certainly been my experience.
As a church, we’ve been on a voyage of discovery. Along the journey, God has been reminding us of the vast richness of His great grace; He’s been revealing His heart for relationships and delivering us from the obligations of religious performance. We’ve been reminded that we are the church (the people) – not the building and not the Sunday service. Church isn’t somewhere we go, or something we do – it’s who we are.
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve always had a heart after God (I’m not the only one that God has told to move half way across the country to be involved with what He is doing here). As a group of believers, we’ve always sought to be real & passionate – in our worship and in our study & application of His word. It’s been good. We’ve operated to the best of our ability with the knowledge we’ve had. Yet still, we somehow missed the mark. We’d built an organisation… not a community.
God has been deconstructing the organisation and is now in the process of building the community. As part of the next step in the journey, we’re changing the way we meet together (in the Stevenage congregation – initially). From the Sunday just past (13th September) and for a period of 4 weeks, we’re not meeting together in one large gathering; rather, we’re meeting in smaller gatherings in homes. The main proviso being that we break bread together. Thereafter, we will alternate our large, “whole family” celebration & the smaller home-based meetings each week.
Will these changes bring about community? No (certainly not if all that happens is reproducing the larger meeting in smaller venues). That’s not the intention in doing this. Rather than being a cause, the changes in the way we meet together are an effect, a consequence; a means of expressing the life & love of God in community.
As an aside, I’ve heard reports back from several of the smaller groups which met Sunday. All have been positive. It did feel surprisingly bizzarre for me, however, not “going to church” Sunday morning & leading worship. Whether or not that says something about any addiction I may have to church attendance I don’t know (I guess doing something differently after 27 years will feel strange).
One of the upshots of what’s happening right now is that from the end of this month I will no longer be employed by Redemption Church. I believe that I should still continue with as much as possible of what I do here; so the challenge is to find a suitably flexible means of generating an income that allows me to do that.
I am genuinely excited about what is happening. I feel as though I’ve stepped over a threshold into a place I’ve never been; a much bigger place with no familiar landmarks. If you feel so inclined, please pray for me to have clarity & courage at this time.
Credits:
The title of this post is credited to Mark & Sandra Neale. The phrase came up in on one of our conversations on our Journey to Exeter. We were talking about what God is doing with His church; they said that if ever they were to write a book, it would make a great title.
The picture at the top of the post is from ASBO Jesus – cool site!
Redemption Church, Sunday Set List, 16 August 2009
Stevenage (am)
It was family service and we changed things about a bit in Stevenage this week. We started with the following songs:
- Good Morning (Phil & Heather Joel) Mike
- Lord You Are Good (Israel Houghton) Teash
- Be Lifted Up (Paul Oakley) Ali
Good Morning is the first track from Phil Joel’s “Deliberate Kids” CD. The children abslutely love this song; it’s so much fun. Even some of the adults wern’t able to resist the urge to tap their toes, clap their hands, or even shake their hips in a general, “lets twist again”-type fashion!
After the first song, Rachel stood up & said that God wanted to remind us that His banner over us was love (Song of Solomon 2:4), which turned out to be a really fitting encouragement.
The theme this week was about growing through the storm. Five people stood up in turn and each spoke; either about storms which they’ve experienced personally and through which they’ve known God’s sustaining presence and grown as a result; or about what they believe God to be saying to us concerning what we do during storms (either try to protect ourselves from them, or turn to Him).
During one particularly poignant testimony, one of the ladies quoted the following scripture, which aptly summarised what God was saying through the service:
17 Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:17-19, New King James Version)
We closed the service with 2 songs:
- Your Spirit Moves Me (Mike Ellis) Mike
- Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman) Ali
The first song is brooding in style; it’s purpose was to facilitate a time of reflection, concerning following the leading of the Holy Spirit. The second song brought a very appropriate end to our time together – celebrating God, no matter what the circumstance!
Exeter (pm)
We had a great time in Exeter this week. Right from the outset, there was a buoyancy to the worship, as we offered wholehearted devotion. We sang the following songs to start:
- Open The Eyes Of My Heart (Paul Baloche)
- Be Lifted Up (Paul Oakley)
- Here I Am To Worship (Tim Hughes)
- I Exalt Thee (Pete Sanchez Jr)
- Lord You Have My Heart (Martin Smith)
We were in the key of E (capo 2 D) throughout. As normal, the worship doesn’t end when the song does; the music carries on, accompanied by the heartfelt cries & impassioned prayers & praise of those present. During one particular time of extended worship (after, “Be Lifted Up”), one of the ladies was praying aloud; I can’t remember exactly what she was praying, but it caused me to change the song we were to sing next.
“Here I Am To Worship” was originally further down the list, but the lyric fitted so well with what she had just prayed. We spent a while repeating the chorus (venturing once into the bridge); we didn’t sing the verses, but rather carried on playing the chorus progression, alternating between the lyric & improvised worship.
We flowed from that into the anthemic, “I Exalt Thee” before quietly starting, “Lord You Have My Heart”. Though it started quietly, it most certainly didn’t finish that way! The song culminated in us repeating the the chorus:
I will praise You Lord
I will sing of love come down
And as You show Your face
We’ll see Your glory here
We could not only have continued, but also “kicked it up a notch” at that point. Instead, Mark spoke to us about being “storm proof” – a word that was partly inspired by the lady who testified in Stevenage in the morning (who quoted the verses from Habakkuk).
At the end of his preach, we had a time of prayer, asking God to help us, so that when we hit a storm, our main concern would be that people see Jesus. While we were praying, I played the following song (which we went on to sing to finish):
- The More I Seek You (Zach Neese)
Links:
This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com
What Do You Expect?
Since writing the last “Sunday Set List” post, I’ve been wondering what part my expectation plays in what happens during a time of worship (or in anything else for that matter). As I wrote about my preparation time for worship and how a particular song stood out; and then about how worship took off during that same song in the service, I began to wonder how much of that was because of my expectation?
Why did worship take off at that point? Had God decided beforehand that he wanted to do something during that song? Was it because I’d believed He wanted us to sing the song and expected something to happen? Had we reached a point of critical mass, where enough of the believers gathered had gotten to the place where we were more aware of God’s presence than our own circumstances, so creating a momentum? What part did others’ expectancy play? Perhaps all of the above were contributory factors.
As the cartoon above (courtesy of ASBO Jesus) suggests, are our expectations sometimes misplaced or misguided?
I believe that our expectancy plays a part in worship. I’m curious as to what others might think or have experienced.
Let me know & join the discussion!
Mike Ellis
"Real Worship" is the weblog of Mike Ellis; follower of Jesus, husband & father of 3; musician, singer, songwriter, instrument tutor; part of the Redemption family of churches
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