Worship Song "Audit"

I'm a big fan of looking at stats... it's a great way of being able to see things that at a glance you may not be able to see.

I've done this before, but today i complied a list of all the songs we've played so far this year and tallied up how many times we've played each song, and also what individually each worship leader has played... on top of this i also put the year each song was written on the totals (just because it interested me really!)

Our top 14 songs were (because there were 5 joint number 10s)

And can it be (2010) - homewritten remake of the hymn
To God be the glory (2010) - Lou Fellingham
Keep Singing (2011) - homewritten
Stronger (2008) - Hillsong
Amazing Grace (trad)
Because of your love (2008) - Al Gordon
How great thou art (trad)
See his love (2005) - Tom Lockley
There's no condemnation (2005) - Simon Brading
I delight (2010) - homewritten
Our god he reigns (2007) - Simon Brading & Matt Redman
The righteousness of god (2010) - Jordan Dillon
When I survey (trad)
Yahweh (2009) - Hillsong

It's an interesting mix of songs, and in our top 3 we've written as a church 2 of them!

As a team we don't want to get stale and simple play the same songs again and again... As one would hope, it's encouraging seeing the top songs we played last year not getting played as often this year as we hopefully keep trying to stay fresh in the songs we sing and not kill songs by playing them every week...

While it's good to not making 'singing the latest song' the be all and end all, we similarly want to keep pressing on and singing the timeless truths in a fresh way... i'll be interested to see what songs RFC are singing when i do this next year!

So long farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye (london training base)

So yesterday was the final training block/day for the London training base. It's crazy how quickly this year has gone by and how the end is now very much in sight.

I still remember as we all shuffled in at the first training block, so many strange faces, awkward first conversations, sizing up each other and all that first time stuff that happens when you meet a whole new group of people. Over this year we've seen strong friendships form, seen highs and lows, done fun things together and generally just been one big happy FP family.

Brett got us doing various things throughout the day such as writing a letter to ourselves (quite a surreal experience), brainstorming what can be improved about the year, thinking about what advice we would give the future FPers. Stef Liston gave us a stirring talk on how to guard our tender regenerate hearts, and Pete Wood gave us a few hard hitting words... We ended the day worshipping God, thanking Him for what's He's done and fixing our eyes on Him as we walk towards what He has planned next for us...

It's been such a fantastic year, I've met some brilliant people who are going to do some amazing stuff for God, I'm sure of it, Brett has been a fantastic base leader who's honesty and openness has helped set the pace for us to do the same and generally he's just been amazing...

The next London Base Fpers are going to have a fantastic time and if anyone reading this is um-ing or er-ing about FP... just do it... you won't regret it!

p.s. we did a "most likely to" poll and apparently i'm the most likely to get a card from "Big Tezza" (aka Terry Virgo)... He forgot this year and i'll forgive him but i'm expecting one next year!

Craig and Ellie

Today saw my FP mentor Craig get married to the lovely Elli, was a fantastic day and a joyous occasion... It's great being part their family's day... I had "the view from the music seats"...

In His Shoes

As father's day approaches there's loads of videos popping up over the net/church resource websites... It's a challenging topic in many ways, and as I prepare to get marriage the reality that I could one day be a Dad does hit me every now and then... it's videos like this one that remind me I've got a lot of growing up to do still and how much responsibility there is as a parent!...

*UPDATE*
Dave Rogers has shown me a brilliant little video along the same lines!

Lion of Judah... the film...

So i came across this little film trailer, it can be perhaps described as a Christian attempt at a Pixar-esque film. I'm not going to say if i like it or not you can make your own mind up about the film, but it's interesting to see Christian's trying to step out into film culture.

Shame they seem to have given the whole plot away in this one trailer...

A little bit older, maybe a little bit wiser

So i've now collected another year to the 22 I've already collected so far. I managed to head back early from southampton and was treated to a meal at tampopo by Claire.
It's been quite a year with ups and downs. Highlights including getting engaged to my beautiful fiancee Claire, fp as a whole, the packed out carol concert and many other things means there's lots to remember. This time last year I was working at a recruitment agency wondering what my fp year would look like... Now i'm sat wondering what marriage and full time employment at rfc will look like... I know that this coming year is one of a big transition...
The best thing of all is that I can testify about God's faithfulness and goodness throughout and how I know this will follow me through all my years. Thank you to the many many people who have blessed me this year, i'm so grateful to God for you. Looking forward to being able to talk about all the great things that have happened this time next year.

Park life - day 4

So friday at park life has come and gone, and we've witnessed God move once again. I left a bit early today but there was loads of people still receiving prayer for all sorts of things. Rfc's very own Scott Taylor was giving the talks and he communicated the gospel brilliantly. We saw more people once again responding to the good news that Jesus saves and numerous people asking for prayer for healing. We had a great time celebrating as well with some very unbritish dancing going on. It's my last day tomo so looking forward to whar God is goin to do amongst us... Plus it's my birthday!

Park life - day 3

The fact day three ended with a large prayer tunnel pretty much sums up today. We saw more responses to thr gospel, healings (including legs regrowing!) and once again trying to bless southampton as much as we can in the time possible. We're definitely enjoying our time here and it's a privilege being part of park life 2011... it's great there's plenty of time left for God to continue to wow us

Park life - day 2

So it's been a busy day here at park life. After yesterday's training, it was the real deal today, as we told southampton about jesus. We had iffy moments with the weather including incredibly hail... I've been on bass duties for a bit and we had great times of worship over the 3 meetings. We've seen numerous responses to the gospel (unofficial count is 8) and people coming up for healing, so it's great seeing God working from the outset. Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.

Park life 2011 - day 1

So we've finished our first day here. We've mostly had training, worship and lots of prayer. It's been great hearing what's happened in previous years and stirring ourselves for the week. It's going to be a good week, i'm sure!

Park life - almost there

So tomorrow morning, the rfc interns once again hit the road for another chapter in our fp year. We shall journey to Southampton to take part in Park life 2011.  Sounds like there's going to be loads going on and we're expecting to see God do some amazing stuff (the stories from last year's event sound fantastic). Do keep the event in your prayers and hopefully we won't have to pull out the umbrellas very much over the week. Will try and blog/twitter during the week...

Prayer Meeting

Last night we had another one of our new monthly prayer meetings where we gather together as one church instead of meeting as life groups. We started by Richard giving an exposition on Psalm 24 before we launch into some songs.

It's always stirring seeing people passionately worship Jesus at these meetings and last night was no different. We try to choose songs that lift our gaze to our Saviour and remind us of biblical truths to help lead us into action. I think it's always good to be remind just how big a God we have before we start praying!

There was loads to pray about and we saw prophetic words spoken. We prayed about buildings, salvation, people to be set from and for people serving overseas. One of my favourite moments was seeing the church family huddle around Laura (who's going out to South America) and pray blessings over her.

It's such a privilege to be at nights like last night and to be standing side by side with other RFCers as we cry out to our Father. I'm looking forward to what He has in store for us! Do try to get along to the next one... you won't want to miss it...

Father's Day @ RFC, 19th June

On Sunday 19th June at 12:30pm we're going to be celebrating Father's Day together as a church (that means both meetings). There's going to be a BBQ, a bouncy castle, inflatable joust, a tug of war and the infamous "Young Pups Vs Old Dogs" football match which i'm sure will be just as much fun as last year.

I'm looking forward to chatting to some new people, great food and lots of fun! Hopefully see you there (maybe on the pitch!)