WorshipCentral

As I write I’m sitting down relaxing on a short holiday in Palm Springs. On the TV my team Everton are playing Portsmouth - currently it’s 1-1. We’ve just finished an exciting week of Worship Central celebrations and training days across the West Coast of America. It’s been an amazing time and I thought it only fair to fill you all in.

We started in San Diego with an evening celebration at New Horizons Christian Fellowship. My friends Johnny and Sarah MacIntosh are the worship pastors there. Nearly 1000 people packed into the auditorium for a night of worship and teaching. There was a wonderful sense of engagement in worship. Al and I then spoke on the key values of worship. Based on the word Christ we explored why our worship needs to be

Centred on Christ
Holy Spirit Led
Revealing the Father
Intimate
Sensitive
Transforming

It was encouraging to meet worship leaders who had been plugged into the website and were listening to the podcasts. Wherever we went there was a real hunger to meet with God and grow in what it meant to worship and lead others in worship.

Next we moved on to Vacaville to a church called The Father’s House. It was an amazing church and for us it was so exciting to see their commitment to training worship leaders. In the afternoon we gathered with about 80 key local worship leaders. Al and I were grilled for an hour or so on everything from training leaders to song selection. We had another fantastic evening with a 1000 worshipers; there was an amazing passion as we responded to God’s majesty and mercy. During our time together it felt like God was reminding us of the importance of our worship being transformative of the world around us: worship and justice. It was great to make some new friends in Vacavile. Here was a wonderful church with a generous heart to serve and equip.

With another very early flight we made our way to the OC for our training day at Rock Harbor church. With 700 worship leaders we started with a Friday night celebration. Unfortunately I had lost my voice - all the team had been hit with colds (Al tried to insist he had man flu!). Al stepped up to the mark and led worship wonderfully. On the Saturday we started with a morning celebration. It was so refreshing to be led in worship by Caleb Clements (worship pastor at Rock Harbor). He had some great some new songs. We then had a panel with Don Williams (a great theologian, speaker and author), Todd Proctor (senior pastor at Rock Harbor) and Cindy Reithmer (worship leader and song writer from the Anaheim Vineyard). It was a fantastic worship conversation and we hope to have it up on the website soon. In the afternoon we began our seminar stream - Encounter, Equip and Empower and we ended with a final celebration. Mike Errie the teaching pastor at Rock Harbor closed the event with some great teaching. It all ended with some amazing ministry. We sensed that God was wanting to minister to worship leaders who were desperate to see breakthrough in their churches back home. Lots of people poured forward and God showed up in a really special way. I get so excited when I think of all these worship leaders and musicians heading home, equipped and fired up to serve their churches. The guys at Rock Harbor did an amazing job - a real partnership.

After leading worship at Rock Harbor’s 4 services on the Sunday, we headed off for something slightly out of the ordinary on the Monday. We led worship for 300 women in a women’s prison. After being dared to do it - I couldn’t resist. For the first time in my life I led worship using the song - ‘Ladies night.’ For those interested in set lists, that night it went from ‘Happy Day’ into ‘Shackles’ into ‘Ladies Night’ and then into ‘How Great Thou Art.’ It had a beautiful flow to it! In all seriousness the sense of God’s presence was over-whelming. It was genuinely one of the most amazing times of worship. Seeing people weeping in worship, over come by God’s love and forgiveness is incredible. God’s heart for the broken and marginalised always shines through. His favour and blessing is always there. Remarkable!

Well we’re coming to the end. Our final night was in Phoenix, Arizona. Gareth Robinson, our good friend from the UK is now the worship pastor there. We had an afternoon with the local worship leaders, before ending with a final worship central celebration.

As we reflect on the trip it’s been amazing to see what God has done. It confirms in my mind the need for training and equipping worship leaders and musicians. There is such a need - all over the world. God is doing something in His Church. What a privilege that we all get to be a part of it.

Oh and by the way - Everton are winning 3-1. Come on!!