The Newday 2011 live album is out now on iTunes £7.95!

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Track listing:

1. Here For You
2. No One Better
3. We Are Yours
4. Devotion
5. 10,000 Reasons
6. Father Like No Other
7. Thank The Lord
8. Christus Victor
9. One Thing Remains
10. Our God Is Holy

Featuring Simon Brading, Jules Burt, Jordan Dillon, Sam Cox and Myles Dillon.

Acoustic tasters:

DEVOTION

CHRISTUS VICTOR

DEVOTION

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There’s a killer decease that every human heart is prone to, that is the disease of want.

Want want want. I want an iPad 2. I want a macbook pro. I want to be famous. I want more friends. I want to be thinner. I want to be more popular. I want to be liked by others. I want to have the best clothes. I want this, I want that.

Proverbs 11:24 and 13:25 actually talk about those who ‘suffer want’. This has certainly been my experience. Your heart can so easily and quickly begin to want, and it’s not a pretty place…’suffering want’ makes you anxious, restless and unhappy, as you can’t chill until your heart has what it wants.

So what’s the answer to all this want want wanting?

Psalm 23:1-2
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.

Have you ever connected the idea that God is your shepherd, with all the wanting in your heart? God leads and shepherds us in such a way, that we finally come to the place of being free from suffering want, and finally being satisfied.

Talking about ‘green pastures’, Barnes Notes on the Bible says:

The idea is that of calmness and repose, as suggested by the image of flocks “lying down on the grass.” But this is not the only idea. It is that of flocks that lie down on the grass “fully fed” or “satisfied,” their wants being completely supplied. The exact point of contemplation in the mind of the poet, I apprehend, is that of a flock in young and luxuriant grass, surrounded by abundance, and, having satisfied their wants, lying down amidst this luxuriance with calm contentment. It is not merely a flock enjoying repose; it is a flock whose wants are supplied, lying down in the midst of abundance. Applied to the psalmist himself, or to the people of God generally, the idea is, that the wants of the soul are met and satisfied, and that, in the full enjoyment of this, there is the conviction of abundance – the repose of the soul at present satisfied, and feeling that in such abundance want will always be unknown.

But that’s not all! We can now understand Psalm 23 (and indeed all the Psalms) in a way that King David couldn’t, through the lens of the gospel. Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible shows how this is speaking of Christ…. amazing:

This is one part of the shepherd’s work, and which is performed by Christ, Ezekiel 34:14; by these “green pastures” may be meant the covenant of grace, its blessings and promises, where there is delicious feeding; the fullness of grace in Christ… Here Christ’s sheep are made to “lie down”, denoting their satiety and fulness; they having in these green pastures what is satisfying and replenishing; as also their rest and safety, these being sure dwellings and quiet resting places, even in the noon of temptation and persecution.

Oh the riches and satisfaction for our souls in Christ! The Apostle Paul talks says ‘I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want’. He was a man who knew Christ was his shepherd.

Have you learned the secret? I’m not sure I have. But I’m learning to feed my very hungry soul on the riches of Christ, particularly when I can feel myself suffering want. For, as C S Lewis puts it, he who has God and everything else, has no more than he who has God only.

The Newday 2011 live album ‘We Are Yours’ is officially out 14th November, ready to download from iTunes…

The Newday team are working hard to launch a brand-spanking-new website in the next few weeks, so we’ll tell you more about the album soon………..

In the mean time we’ve recorded acoustic versions of the song, some how-to videos for guitarists plus the story behind some of the songs. We’ll be posting new songs online every week until the album launch!

This week it’s Devotion by Jules Burt

Devotion – Acoustic

Devotion – Lead Guitar

Like many, I’ve been wondering about how the future of ‘worship music’ will sound in our churches over the next few decades. At home in CCK we’re trying to be more diverse and explore more sounds, textures and arrangements (last Sunday I lead with a string quartet, in 2 weeks I’m leading with 8 drummers…), but it seems obvious to me we need to catch up with the digital music world.

Dubstep. I love it. And I would love to write some dubstep songs for CCK to sing, but I’ve never seen anyone pull it off live… UNTIL NOW. This genuinely feels quite significant for me. It’s like… someone’s set the bar… now who’s up for the challenge?

I think this is amazing. What do you think?

Quite a full on day today, but excellent nonetheless.

Met Sam Parker for breakfast in London – he’s just moved from Soul Survivor Watford to be the new worship pastor at Christ Church London. What a diamond bloke. I guess we have similar roles in our separate churches, but I can see already I’ve got a lot to learn from this guy – I look forward to connecting out more in the future.

Today mainly consisted of a Newday Review team meeting all day in London with the Newday team; Joel Virgo, Stef Liston, Stu Gibbs, Stephen Dawson, Adrian Holloway, Nicholus Ferguson and Phill Grey. The team meets 4  times a year, and I’ve had the huge privilege of joining these meeting in recent months. One of the major characteristics of all these team meetings is we always spend the first hour or so in prayer and worship together.

I’ve heard people say they care about different issues, or that they’re passionate about a whole number of things, but I heard my dad say once

You know what people really care about by what they pray.

I tell ya, worshipping and praying with the Newday team for an hour was one of the privileges of my year. Hearing these men pour out their hearts for this generation, for the youth of this country, for the glory of Christ in our land; hearing their passionate yearnings for God to move in power and change a nation… I was moved, inspired, challenged and grateful. Grateful that God has blessed us with such godly, humble men who will lay down their lives to see God’s kingdom come in our lives. These guys are the real deal. Wow. Absolute heroes of the faith. They’ve seen something of Jesus and His purposes that I’m hungry to see also

Got back tonight and went out to see The Xcerts live in Brighton. Free gig which is always nice! Not bad gig. They’re a three piece with a big sound, lots of energy and an American accent.

Newday tent photo courtesy of Steve Rowland Photography.

Back in August, Jules Burt, Jordan Dillon and myself had the enormous privilege of leading worship at Newday 2011. But this time we tried something a little different. Instead of each of us leading the different sessions over the week individually, we decided to co-lead all of them, all together, as a team.

What followed over that week was one of the most profound, exciting and fulfilling weeks of leading worship I’ve ever experienced. God led us places we’d never been; new songs and new sounds just came out of us; we journeyed deep into the heart of God. So after some thought, Jules, Jordan and I have pulled together 9 reasons why co-leading worship worked for us:

1. Breadth of gifting

God builds us to be a body of different parts (1 Cor 12:12-30) so each worship leader has different gifts – no one person has it all. Jules has a strong prophetic gift, I operate more from a leadership and teaching gift, whereas Jordan has a strong American gift. Leading as a team means we can all play to our strength and go places we wouldn’t have necessarily gone if just one person had led.

2. Breadth of songs

When say Jules is leading, there will be some songs she wouldn’t use as they’re more suited for a guys voice, so her song choice is restricted. Leading as a team means Jordan could step in for that song – opening a greater breadth of songs for her to choose from.

3. Breadth of prophetic songs

Sometimes one of us may have a new song to sing out in the moment, either prophetically or as a response song (Ps 96:1, Col 3:16, Eph 5:19). With more of us on the stage, there’s a greater breadth of style and song that would bubble up.

4. Stepping back, taking in

When someone takes over the lead for a bit, it gives you a chance just to step back and see what the Father is doing. It’s often easier to hear Him speak and see Him move when you step back and just watch, without having to lead the meeting. Then you can jump in again and take the reigns if and when is right.

5. More energy on stage

It surprises me how often I see people lead and play in worship bands who quite frankly look BORED. I feel like asking them “Do you actually believe what you’re singing??” Body language is such a big part of leading worship, we lead from our hearts, then our bodies. So having more people on stage, full of energy, zeal and passion for God, means people are caught up in a mighty celebration, rather than a dull life-less meeting.

6. Stops being about one person

Our role is to direct hearts to God and we always want Him to be the focus of what we do. Sometimes having one worship leader all evening, one face on the screen the whole time and one voice coming out of the speakers can be a temptation for us to place too much attention and value on that worship leader. Leading as team helps emphasise the fact we’re there to look to God, rather than enjoy a one-man show. It helps protect our hearts as leaders too.

7. Models team

Closely linked with number 6, there’s something about teams that God particularly loves. God Himself is a team; 3 persons, 1 God. They’re all equal, yet all honour each other. So in a world full of big egos, VIPs and X-factor celebs, it’s a great opportunity for us to try and model honouring each other, preferring each other, and respecting each other as we lead worship. (Note. I’m not comparing Jules, Jordan and I to the trinity. That would be wrong)

8. Sharing the load

Leading worship is spiritually and physically draining, so it’s great to know you don’t have to carry it all but there are others who can step in and carry the meeting with you. It’s like knowing you’re all in it together makes it seem easier!

9. It’s fun!

We love being team, dancing, celebrating and making a huge sound together!

3 leaders, 1 meeting?

So how did it actually work? Basically all three of us would be on stage, with different ones taking a lead in the worship at different points in the evening. One of us would still take more of a lead overall for that particular evening, planing song-list and deciding who’d lead which songs. But the idea was we’d lead as a team – if any one of us felt God leading it in a certain direction, we’d go with it – listening, honouring, respecting each other, and seeing what God would do. This is something I’d seen modelled amazingly well by Dave Fellingham, Stuart Townend, Lou Fellingham, Kate Simmonds, Paul Oakley and Matt Redman over the years, and more recently at Worship Central and was keen to give it a go….

DOWNLOAD (1.3MB):
Newday PDF Songbook

We’re pleased to release the first ever Newday Songbook – music for 9 new songs that we sung at Newday 2011 plus song projection lyrics, all for FREE

Songs: 
We Are Yours
Christus Victor
No One Better
Devotion
10,000 Reasons
Our God is Holy
Father Like No Other
Thank the Lord
Here For You

Over September and October, we’ll be releasing how-to videos for each of the songs, ready for the album launch on November 12th…