About This Blog

I am writing this blog, not because I think I am right all the time, or that I have all the answers about this thing called worship. I am writing it because at this stage in the journey of the Contemporary Worship Movement, I think it is time to ask some different questions, and maybe start to imagine a different future.

We have made great progress in the last 35–40 years: we have added a style of worship to our story that has proved accessible for many younger generations; we have grown in shared leaders of worship in our churches; we have seen some fantastically gifted songwriters emerge; we have connected together our worship and the ministry of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God; and we have become less afraid of intimacy with God and emotions before God and amongst his people.

Yet we need to get better at reflecting on on our experiences through an engagement with biblical theology, we need to get better in the formation of worship leaders in whom we increasingly entrust pastoral leadership to, and we need to be more like salt and less like sponges where cultural narratives are concerned.

I hope that in a very small way, I will be able to add my own voice to the future debate on worship, and ask some questions that will help us move forward in a healthy way, because for me, it is now time to imagine a different future for the Contemporary Worship Movement.

I am bound to make mistakes, but I am convinced that I should not let this possibility stop us engaging in deep conversation. Disagreement, handled well, can sharpen us. So everything I offer on this blog is offered with the acknowledgment that I could be wrong. In fact at the moment I am not even sure I agree with everything I have written in the book I contributed to, and I now have serious questions marks against the theology in one or two of my (lesser known) songs. This, I think, is what could be described as progress.

These are some of the things I’ve been fortunate enough to get to do in my lifetime that have formed my views and my current thinking.

• Over 30 years experience of worship leading in local churches, conferences in the UK and abroad.
• Over 20 years experience as a worship pastor.
• Author of “Now to Him”, a book on worship co-written with Simon Ponsonby
• MA in Theology through WTC.
• Trained Organist.
• Qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries 1993 with 15 years business experience in the finance sector.
• Discography of 20 major worship releases.
• Previously the National Leader of Worship Ministry for New Wine England.
• Previously worship pastor of Trinity Cheltenham (1994–2013).