Okey-dokey, here's a bunch of chords we played on the album. Please feel free to download & use… If you end up using any of the songs at your church, please add them to your next CCLI Copy Report. Thanks and enjoy... 1. Before The Dawn 2. Glorious 3. God w/ Us 4. May Your Heart 5. Sacrifices 6. I Am Yours 7. This Is The Heart 8. He's Alive
Great news! we have an official release date for GOD w/ US. Sunday September 2nd (Yes, Kiwis. That's Fathers' Day) will see our debut live worship album available at all our services. We've been working hard over the last few weeks with Nic Manders (co-producer) to complete the final mix and the songs are now in New York for mastering. The few people who have been lucky enough to have a sneaky listen already have offered great feedback and I can assure you that this album will be worth the wait. There's even rumors of a bonus studio version of a song so watch this space. We will be producing a limited run of physical albums so be sure to mark Sept 2nd in your diary where we'll be offering a super special St Paul's price for that day only. The album will also be available for download on iTunes. Get ready…
Sunday the 29th April saw around 800 worshippers gather across 3 services as we recorded a series of original worship tunes under the title GOD w/ US. We changed things up a bit and created space for a journey of worship which included times of confessing the light (signs of the Spirit in our world), confessing our darkness, reflective communion and plenty of praise. Perhaps the most wonderful thing has been hearing many stories of people meeting intimately and profoundly with the Holy Spirit as He graciously did His thing. A big, big thank you to Jason Williamson, Tom Roberton and Naomi Dixon – your visuals were beautiful, moving and really helped us journey together. Thank you also to those who have contributed finance towards this project. We've felt all along that as we step out, the gap would be filled. We now head into the post-production stage requiring a further 5k to bring this project to completion. If you'd like to contribute towards making this a reality then please email andy and all going well you can expect to hear the songs sometime in August. Below are four of the songs we sang…
Glorious is a song we wrote while on a writing retreat in October 2011. The idea came from Isaiah 40 “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."
It was St. Irenaeus who said "The glory of God is man fully alive". I remember flying home from Wellington one night after a Soul Survivor NZ meeting where we had agreed "Fully Alive" would the theme for our next Summer festival. I was humming a melody so I tried writing some lyrics. Before the Dawn was born as I sang into my phone while departing the aircraft. It has become an anthem at Soul Survivor NZ festivals ever since.
I remember clearly the payer meeting where this song was born. It was a particularly intimate moment and I began singing out the line "may Your heart by my home." It seemed to resonate with the people gathered and so we have developed the idea into a song. It is a very personal song of surrender, lucky 'cos that's what worship is all about.
He's Alive is a song we've just finished writing. The idea came last October while on a song-writing retreat up north in historic Kohokohu. We began singing the words 'He's alive' over a chord progression and the verses began to form. It felt like quite a bold statement so it made sense to have a strong tempo. We didn't have Easter in mind while writing but it seems like a great month of the year to be singing 'He's Alive'!
When was the last time you encountered God in worship? Maybe it was this morning when you woke up, or maybe last Sunday at St Paul's? I don't know about you but I love gathering as a community to lift up Jesus. Good God stuff always happens. As a church we are in a season of going much deeper in worship. It seems to be something the Spirit is doing and we really want to go with it. This is an exciting journey because as we relinquish control and trust Him, we never quite know what is going to happen next. I love that St Paul's is full of creative people and it is my gut feeling that much, much, much more creative expression in worship is yet to emerge. One creative expression I feel particularly strongly about is the writing of homegrown songs. Great congregational songs that connect, inspire and lead people to worship God. "More and more I feel the frustration of singing songs written by writers from almost everywhere except New Zealand. Maybe it's just me but these songs seem to be connecting less and less. Is our worship team at risk of becoming a jaded covers band with a regular gig on Sundays?" Well, here's something to get excited about. A group of writers have been writing, some creatives have been creating and the band have been rehearsing because we are going to 'capture' what is happening here at St Paul's and make it available to people beyond Sundays. It's not a 'look at us, aren't we great?' project because we know have a long way to go but more about making room to allow our songs to get into our hearts. Some of the songs you already know but there are also a few new songs we will be learning over the next few weeks. So, watch the vids above and make sure you are at St Paul's on Sunday 29 April to add your voice to the mix. It's also worth stating clearly that this is a St Paul's project, and that means you! :) "The goal is always, always, always deeper Holy Spirit-led worship." We would of course also love your prayer support as we journey deeper together and you also have the opportunity to help bring the recording to fruition by supporting the project financially. St Paul’s is paying 50% of the cost and we are looking for a further $8,000 to help cover the post-production of the album to ensure it is a great album. If you would like to help in this way, please email andy.