First things first, massive apologies to everybody for having to wait so long for some news!

Our Making the Band day was several weeks ago now, and I’m sure everyone’s been waiting for some correspondence. It was such a brilliant day, hugely successful and as time will prove, massively fruitful. Thankyou all so much for coming and giving your time and energy, it was really exciting to see the amount of talent we have at CCK.

As you may have heard, the decision was made that Simon Brading would take this summer to have an extended break from his responsibilities at CCK in order to return in September having had some proper down time!

This has meant that it’s taken a bit longer to organise the admin and follow-up for the day. The day is still being discussed, and the process of getting everybody knitted in to the team is imminently underway.

Thanks so much for your patience, please continue to be patient with us, we’ll be getting in touch as soon as we can.

In the meantime have a great summer and stay tuned!

Sam Cox, on behalf of the worship team.

Anna and I are taking some time out this summer.

It’s been a demanding two years and we’re in a situation which could develop into serious exhaustion. So I felt we needed to take a long break this summer, away from responsibility and serving.

The elders at CCK have thoroughly endorsed this decision and are keen for us to have a good break and time away. So, from this last weekend, I’m laying down all my responsibilities at CCK for the next 10 weeks, and my involvement at Together On A Mission, Mobilise and Newday.

Through some amazing God circumstances, we’re actually flying out of the UK to spend our time in a fantastic city with a superb Newfrontiers church. And I will be disappearing from the online world of twitter, Facebook, blogging and emails… !

It’s been a fast paced three weeks since these decisions were made, with elder’s involvement. There are no sin issues or wrongdoing. I haven’t been asked to step down or been disqualified and this is not a church discipline situation. It was my initiation and it has received the elders endorsement.

It’s going to be strange not being involved at any of the conferences. However, we believe this is a priority.

Simon Brading

So I have been known to enjoy the odd poem now and then… and recently I came accross this. Such a stunning piece of work..

He giveth more grace when burdens grow greater
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase
To added afflictions He addeth His mercies
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace

When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving has only begun

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure
His power no boundary known unto men
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again

By Annie Johnson Flint

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Exposition of Chapter 1: The Gospel of God
Chapter Ten

Romans 1:4-5 Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

‘Jesus Christ our Lord‘

Jesus Christ is Lord. The whole of the Christian faith depends upon this recognition of this; this is what really makes one a Christian. Early Christians were constatnly arrested because they said ‘Jesus is Lord’, not ‘Caeser is Lord’.

The great confessions and creeds were not done merely for their entertainment of amusement. The fathers in the early church were given to see clearly and rightly, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that if there was any question about the lordship of Jesus, the whole of the Christian position collapsed; and the central matter, therefore, is that Jesus is the Christ; the Son of God.

‘Lord’ in the New Testament is the same term ‘Jehovah’ taken from the Old Testament. So saying Jesus is Lord is really saying Jesus is JEHOVAH ! He is the everlasting, eternal God.

‘Jesus Christ our Lord’

He is our Lord because He has bought u; He has purchased us, We are not our own, we have been bought at a price. He is our Lord because He is our owner. This removes the false teaching of taking Jesus as Saviour, but not as Lord. You cannot take Him as Saviour only, because He saves you by buying you with His precious blood. And if you know that, you must know at once that He is your Lord.

Undoubtably the greatest Christmas hymn ever written:‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!’

He is veiled in flesh; but the Apostle says that in the resurrection He is ‘declared to be the Son of God with power‘. There we realise how powerful He is. Unless you were inspired by the Holy Ghost as ancient Simeon and Anna the prophetess were, you would see nothing but a babe.

What was veiled while He was here on earth, is now fully revealed. A proclamation at the resurrection!

‘received grace and apostleship’

Paul is repeating himself from verse 1, reminding us that he really is an apostle. He had enemies who went around saying, ‘This man is not an apostle at all.’ But he has been called by God to be an apostle.

‘obedience of faith’ not obedience to the faith

Note, he says ‘obedience of faith’, not obedience to the faith. To understand this, we must help by defining sin:

Sin:
Sin isn’t just doing bad things (sins of commission), it is an absence of doing the right things (sins of omission).This is sin: a refusal to listen to the voice and to the Word of God.

If you are living that little self-contained, self satisfied life in which you really only think of god now and again, and remember perhaps moring and evenings that there is a god, and you say your pryare; if that is your attitude to god, if you are not waiting upon him and listening for his word, and seeking it everywehere, and livinjg to practice it, then you are as much a sinner as the drunkard or the adulterer; you are not listening to god. That is the essence of sin.

If sin is disobedience, what is right? Obedience. The obedience of faith – to listen to what God has said about His dear Son.

More from Romans

The official video for our recording at Abbey Road studio is now out:

See if you can spot Stuart and myself…

We had our major vision team meeting for 2010-2012 on Tuesday evening.  It was an awesome time.
Here are some screen shots from the PowerPoint we used and video.

Download full PowerPoint

Easter is just around the corner and we’d love to resource you  for your Easter and Good Friday services.
For 2 weeks we’re giving away the sheet music to three great Easter songs!

A song on Good Friday:
Gethsemane by Stuart Townend | sheet music

A song on the Cross:
Pardoned by Mike Sandeman | sheet music | video

A song on the Resurrection:
The Third Day by Simon Brading | sheet music | video | MP3

Download all (.zip 10MB)

Pardoned:

The Third Day:

Our band took some time out of rehearsing our usual worship numbers to play at the CCK Leader’s Party. We did a full hour set featuring some classics from MJ, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai and more…

Was a hugely fun yet stretching experience for us. Recommend it to any band if you get the oppotunity – the discipline of learning a load of function songs beat for beat, helped us raise the game a lot. Anyways here are some videos from the rehearsals and live performance. (I got promoted/demoted to percussion)

Pete Coggan and his band Forerunner were leading at CCK last week and did a great version of Beautiful One. Nice arrangement.

We were invited up to Abbey Road recording studio to sing on a charity song for Haiti, with many other Christian artists, singers, choirs and rappers. Here’s a little video blog of the day plus some photos below…