25th March

What a weekend.

This morning i was determind not to let anything knock my focus on God, and i think i did that quite well! was rly able to 'go for it' again in the service, which was fab cause i just feel im back doing what im ment to be doing.

The evening we played at Plume Ave, awesome bunch of people, so welcoming.
The evening service i thought went really well, i loved playing with foldback wedges again instead of in-ears, just felt so much more free.

I felt able to put everything i had into it tonight, which is the first in a long time. God decided to meet with me through it. Always a great feeling.

My theory from the last blog proves correct, i was focusing on how i use the bass drum alot, its such a powerful tool, and you really can see its effect in front of you.

xalt and st johns event next week....

Worship Central

wow!!
its half 1 in the morning (as the clocks jus went forward lol)

Have been in London all day today at worship central which is hosted by HTB.

Sometimes i can get stuck in the same cycle off stuff within worship so its so nice to be able to go somewhere else and just get loads from it and learn and gain ideas, which is just what i did today!!
Not only was today just a general topup, which i needed, but i have also learnt loads about how we should be helping each other so much more than we do.

Interestin ideas that were used today:
At HTB they have an organ, and today, Tim hughes and his band led worship beautifuly using not only an organ but several stringed instruments, gives the worship such a fantasic feel.
I love the idea of using old methods of worship and mixing them with new ones. Wish we could do more of that really.

Paul Evans was drumming, love watching him, he makes worship drumming look so easy. (even though he started Happy Day with the drum beat of Beautiful One by accident!)
His drumming ability is good, but his knowlage of what makes a good worship drummer is outstanding.

Now here comes a bit of a BIG stantment!.....:

I think i have put my finger on what exactly it is that makes a worship drummer go from good, to very good. Worship drumming is in fact all about the builds, if you can build a song right, and get a driving feel to it that just makes people want to clap along or start stamping or whatever it is they do, thats where the most powerful moments are when drumming in worship.
And to do this best, its all about where you put in your bass drum, and at what pace you do this at, this is something i have been working on for a few months now, trying to get more options of how to use the bass drum better, and it really really works, its proberbly the most powerful part of the drum kit, its what stirs up peoples hearts. So, a bold statment, but i think worship drumming is all about the bass drum :)

9th 10th 11th

Another one of them crazy weekends!

Friday i spent the morning with Rob Buckingham (worship leader at Kingsland)
He had asked me to do some drum recording for their new worship album, always nice to be asked to be involved in other peoples projects, sort of felt a little bit of ownership towards it afterwards so ended up helping out on the Saturday aswell

On the Saturday they were recording the 'audience' parts. So that involved 30 ppl standing as close together as possible with mics all around them singing as loud as possible to a backing track, so quite good fun really, no i didnt do any singing.

The Sunday morning then rolled round, a good morning i felt, Jason was on electric so was good to be able to get some good sounds coming from that direction.
Then streight after the service i rushed off to the Charter Hall where kingsland had been hosting an event of which just over 1,000 people turned up, good to actually see the church of Colchester all in one place, dosnt happen very often.

Then in the evening i was asked to drum at Kingsland again haha they must have had enough of me by now! There was only about 40 people there but that was understandable considering the morning they all just had. Worship was very fast and uplifting, somtimes makes a nice change, all very light hearted and just wanting 2 praise God, so a good evening.

All in all a good weekend!

4th March. Crazy Days

Its very odd, how at the time when you feel least 'going for it' or not particually 'connected' with God, that is the time he will lift you up.

Im not really sure why, maybe it was the late night the day before, but sunday morning i wasnt really with it. But the morning went well and God was lifted up.
Then in the evening me and Jason bombed down to Mersea again to play in the Causeway band. Another nice evening as 2 young people were being baptised, so there was a fair number there aswell...
But again i just wasnt totally 100% going for it like i seem to find myself doing when i am sat behind the kit, but thanks to the grace of God he was still able to use me, even though i didnt rly feel useable.
A man came up to me at the end and we had a chat about drumming and music and worship etc etc which was really cool, what he was basicly saying was i should be in a 'proper' band aswell lol
I didnt rly understand what he ment untill i got home and i told Dad about this man, and turns out he used to play keys for quite a mainstream christian band that used to tour the world haha so that was quite cool.

Then when i got home i found myself with a myspace mesg from a girl i had never met, and she basicly wrote along the lines of, are you the drummer? you were amazing etc etc
which when you just read is like, yeh thats nice, but i had to step back and just realise how good my God is, at the time when i felt most disconnected, God clearly shone through me, and used the gift he has given me to lift his name. wow long blog, sorry bout that lol
cant wait for xalt now....

Feb Ends - March Begins

Last Saturday night we had our Febuarys Xalt evening. The was a fantastic turn out for the night where our guest speaker, Mark Pugh, gave a moving talk on being 100% for God.
Personally i had been having a rough week leading up to it but i found that the moment i sat down to my drum kit and started to play, everything else seemed to fade away and all that was important is lifting Gods name.

This weekend im drumming at Mersea on sunday night which im looking forward to, its a baptism service which are always special occasions.
And in the morning im back to drumming! wooo! as last week i was in wales and the week before was 'the sound guy' so im looking forward to making some noise for God all the way through the day!

We have very recently been asked to take Xalt to Plume Avenue at the end of this month, and then the week after we have Xalt, which im looking forward to more than ever.