Tuesday 28 August 2007

Love songs

Been to choir tonight and we are practicing a number of songs at the moment which are secular and one of the ministers wives came along who comes from Rwanda and I had to explain the background of the songs to her (good job I know some music trivia). She seemed to find some of the songs quite amusing - I did suggest she might sing some of them to her husband when she got home to see what he thinks of them. Not sure if she will but I am sure I will hear about it if she does.
I may have to do a bit of research into some of the other songs we will be trying in the next few weeks in case she asks me what they are about.

Monday 27 August 2007

Picture this!

Suppose I should issue a health warning to readers! You will see that I have now put a photo of me on the blog - it was taken in the dining room of the house we stay in at Borth while on the Beach Mission. I was using the laptop at the time and my son took the photo of what he calls my computer face.

Back Again!

Hi folks,
Been missing for a while as I have had one of those really busy spells both at work and away from work so not managed to do much blogging - hope to get back in the swing now!
Had an interesting service yesterday as I was preaching at my own church where we have been thinking about buying a projector for use in services. I bought myself one a few weeks back so decided I would try it out yesterday for the hymns and the readings - only one church in our circuit does this - and I was pleasantly surprised by the result. We had all the hymns and the readings on a powerpoint presentation and my daughter operated the projector for me as I was playing keyboard as well as taking the service. I was ably assisted by the worship leaders and a guitarist and bass guitarist and the worship was very good. I had been told by someone from the other church in our circuit that they felt the singing was better with the projector because the congregation were looking up rather than looking down at their hymn books. I did think this was the case yesterday morning.
I asked people as they left how they had found the projector and the response were quite favourable so it may move us towards actually buying the equipment for use in the church.
I suspect the only difficulty with using this type of equipment will be persuading preachers to provide their hymns early enough in the week for them to be put onto the computer - really needs to be no later than Thursday evening and I know that sometimes when I am wearing my other hat as an organist I don't get hymns until Saturday morning.

Sunday 19 August 2007

Less of the old please!

One of my readers has posted a message on my previous blog saying welcome back you old blogger! Don't mind the blogger but not so sure about the old!!! I am only 21 after all!! Ha Ha!
Been busy today playing the organ this morning at Pleck Methodist and we had our first Christmas Hymn/Carol - Come and join the celebration! This evening played at St John's in Pleck and we had a hymn with the tune of It came upon a midnight clear so just thinking about getting the Christmas tree out.
My daughter informed me tonight that there are 128 shopping days to Christmas so it seem to be the topic of the day. Spoke at St Johns on Psalm 133 about how sweet it is when we dwell in harmony - what a great thought that is, the world dwelling in harmony and peace instead of the current turmoil that seems to rage. We sang O Lord the clouds are gathering and it just struck me how relevant it is to the state the world is in today. Caught a bit of a documentary on TV this afternoon about Moss Side in Manchester and some of the problems there. A lady was interviewed who had lived there for thirty years and she said she didn't let the goings on affect her life - she just carried on as normal! Sometimes I think that is the best thing to do as the baddies get less pleasure if they are ignored.
Some years ago I had a problem with nuisance phone calls (no not the automatic dialler types I get now) and tried everything - blowing a whistle, shouting, hanging up - in the end somebody suggested the next time I got a call I said 'Thank you for calling, please call again' and you know it worked the calls stopped.

Saturday 18 August 2007

Hello Again!

Been emailed today by one of my readers asking where the blogs are so thought I better write one in case any one else was missing it.
I have had a couple of busy weeks what with going to Borth on the Beach Mission where we had a great time, met some wonderful children and what a night we had on the Friday when a lot of folk came down from Walsall to join us in a praise concert led by Acts 2:15.
I then seemed to be busy planning two services for last Sunday including the Circuit Service on Sunday Evening. I was really pleased with the way the circuit service went and for those who know me I actually managed to keep it to the hour even though there were 8 hymns three video presentation and a talk based on two of the presentations. My son John-Mark did a talk around two clips from the film 'The Matrix' which was very well received by those present. The band which was made up from members from various churches in the circuit led the worship exceptionally well and I believe the worship was certainly God honouring. Many of those present stayed for tea, coffee and biscuits after as well as a time of fellowshoip so this was good as well. From a purely personal point it was good to see a fair number of folk from the church I had been at in the morning at the evening service as well.
Well got to go as I have to do some work on a hymn for the service I am involved in tomorrow evening at St John's church in Pleck along with the worship leaders from my home church.
Have a good Lord's day - may post again tomorrow evening!