Songwriting revival

This morning i started writing my first song for about two years. It’s been a while because for a year or so I was focussed more on establishing my media career and then personal situations meant that I struggled to hear from God. This latest song is all about our identity of Christ, following a teaching series at our church recently. Having led worship during that teaching series I realised there weren’t many songs written about our Identity as Christians so hopefully this will encourage the church.

Mystery Worshipper reaction

Having visited Birmingham Christian Centre a few weeks ago and written about my experiences I have had a few reactions to what i wrote which you can find further down this page. I thought i should address some of the commets that i have had, one especially from Birmingham’s leading Black Opinion Writer Veron Graham. This is what he had to say;

As a Christian, an experienced journalist and blogger myself, I don’t think this is a very responsible way to write, my brother. I’d never go so far as to asses a church like a food critic. I would have thought a Mystery Worshipper wouldn’t have much time to focus on much else but worshipping.

Veron has a point – As a Christian Journalist i shouldn’t be critiquing a church like it is a restaurant or a concert, but i think there is a place for people to write about there experiences of church’s from a subjective position. Having been heavily involved in church’s myself i think that as Christians we can often miss tiny details that would make church’s more accesible for visitors and the unchurched.

Having re-read the original blog i posted i think it was unfair to say “It was a very unpromising start with only a dozen people dotted around the 700-seat auditorium” – This was a mistake to judge a church by the number of people and always has been the wrong approach to Christianity, and growing up with a Carribean background my comment about Afro-Caribbean’s being half an hour late is very much in good humour.

By saying “A better welcoming team” people on the door were serving God just as well as the pastor and the worship team were, I just think there could be some general principles put in place to make sure people who are new are comfortable in the church from the outset.

As i said and will reiterate, I think BCC is a great church, I know a number of people there, it resources many other smaller churches in the City and i intend on going back in the future as a worshipper. My motivation for doing this was to write objectively about visiitng new church’s i visit and to provide some helpful pointers on how i think they could improve.

Birmingham’s Mystery Worshipper

I’ve been in Birmingham for a month now and this last weekend i decided to venture out and take a look at a different church. I’ve wanted to go to Birmingham Christian Centre for a while because my home church the Oasis Christian Centre have links through Elim. So as i’m new to the area I’ve decided to become Birmingham’s Mystery Worshipper. The idea was taken from the Satirical Christian website. Ship of Fools.

Here’s my first report and if you want me to come and analyse your church, drop me an email; garethduffield@yahoo.com

Church: Birmingham Christian Centre,

Parade (off Helena Street, off Edwards Street), City Centre, Birmingham, West Midlands B1 3QQ

Denomination: Elim Pentecostal church

The Building: A bog standard 70’s style convention centre in the middle of Birmingham, which is great because it’s obviously used for the business community by many people in the heart of the city during the week rather than just a place where Christians meet together on a Sunday, plus being a convention centre means there are tourist signs with directions to the church which i don’t think I’ve seen in any other city

What was the name of the service?

It was a ‘Pray and go’ service where the meeting is focused on praying for a specific event or situation happening locally, nationally or internationally. This service was focused on praying for the Midnight oils summit.

I was surprised to turn up to this kind of service because having researched the church on the Internet before hand i assumed it was going to be a general church service rather than a prayer service which was more focussed towards members of the church and Christians in particular.

How many people were in the service?

It was a very unpromising start with only a dozen people dotted around the 700-odd seat auditorium, but later when i realised later that 80% of the meeting was made up of black African and Caribbean worshippers i forgive them for turning up half an hour late!

Did anyone welcome you personally?

Two people welcomed me at the start, I got a look of ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you before’ from one welcomer but she didn’t initiate any conversation beyond that. Apart from meeting one person at the end of the service who i have known for a number of years, I only interacted with one other person in the church who i had to introduce myself too, despiite him coming across as a seasoned member of the church. It struck me that a lot of the people in the church would take advantage of the vast empty space and spread themselves out, avoiding talking to each other rather than be pro-active with their Christian brothers and sisters, which is something i don’t often see in churches.

Was my seat comforatble?

The upholstery on the seats were a bit too thin, but i’m a fidgity so and so, i could tell the interior of the auditorium was new and clean so it was generally comfortable thanks!

What was the opening of the service like?

I have to admit, although i was intimidated by the large emtpy church it was a pretty warm welcome with the line “If your joining us for the first time….” and an explination of what the ‘Pray and go’ service is all about which was good to hear.

What books did the congregation use during the service?

Books? Don’t be daft! this was a very modern church with the screens projecting the words being the focus point at the front and the sides of the church.
What was the worship like?

The worship was fantastic, I would give it 9 out of 10 for diversity and 7 out of 10 for quality. The band led gospel style worship with a range of songs including Hymns, 90’s classics an African chorus and a modern worship chorus from Hillsongs church. They missed out on getting 10 marks for diversity because they missed out kids worship, but as there weren’t any children there they could probably get away with this one.

I’m still baffled by the band set up, A keyboard and Synth keyboard with backing singers and a drummer, fine you might say? but then they had a bass on the stage but no one in playing it, despite it being heard nearly every song. What was going on here? was this pre-planned worship with the band playing to a click track? If so it adds a whole new dimension to the quality of spontanious worship.

Did anything distract you?

People on the fringes of the service who were often moving around and never comfortable, perhaps because they weren’t made to feel welcome enough and didn’t understand what was going on?

The Pastor constantly getting up and going out of the room during the meeting – although i don’t doubt that he was doing it for good reasons.

…and my BIGGEST distraction was the worship team not only playing, but singing, underneath people who were praying. It might be trendy and setting the atmosphere but it was too much and took away from the prayer rather than added to it i thought.

Room for improvement?

The church should think about taking away some of the seating when they have smaller meetings, to make the atmosphere more intimate and cause people to have to interact with each other a lot more. Extra seating could always be added later.

A better welcoming team that can recognise people who are new to the church and relate to them so that they are likely to come back, whether they are Christians visiting the City or people wondering in that are completly lost in society.

I always feel more comfortable during the collection when the leader of the service says something like “If your a visitor we don’t expect you to give we haven’t got you here for your money”. People have so many pre-conceptions of the church being money grabbers etc these days and I think we need to do everything possible to quash those rumours.

Oh and, finally Where were the toilets? how do i get out if there’s a fire? and what other activities are available for me if I want to go to some other event within the church during the week?

My conclusion is that BCC is a great church, with great diversity that it caters for well, there doesn’t seem to be any division between ‘black’ and ‘white’ congregation. But as a major city centre church one of their main aims should be to have a style or worship that is ‘An idiots guide to church’.

Worshipper rating: 7 out of 10

Changing times

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently, I’ve had plenty to say but not much time to say it. This week is very much a transition week for me. Last Friday was my last exam at University and next Monday i’ma moving to Birmingham to work with Mike Rimmer as a Freelance Journalist, producing his Cross Rhythms programme, Rimmerama, and moving on with current Journalism project which including reviewing for the Cross Rhythms website, presenting on Erewash Sound and Web Assistant and researching for the Media Diversity Institute.

At the weekend i was at a Business conference called Catalyst where multi-million dollar business man Paul Milligan spoke about good principles for starting a business and the Christian principles of running a business which was apt for me at this stage of my life.

Zimbabwe Vigil

I received this following message by email last night. As a Journalist, who is a Christian, the news rarely has an impact on my daily decisions in terms of how i write news and what i write day-to-day. Having read this email and monitored the complex situation in Zimbabwe in the last few month, i feel a need to act as a Christian and a communicator.

Please read the following Letters and consider how it might impact you.

Find out more about the Zimbabwe Vigil by clicking here and signing the petition to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur for Torture concerning human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and join the Facebook group ‘Pray for Zimbabwe’

DEAR FRIEND,

IN WORLD WAR II WHILE HITLER WAS BRUTALLY TAKING OVER THE WORLD, THERE WAS AN ADVISOR TO CHURCHILL WHO ORGANISED A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO DROPPED WHAT THEY WERE DOING EVERY NIGHT AT A PRESCRIBED TIME FOR JUST ONE MINUTE TO COLLECTIVELY PRAY FOR THE SAFETY OF ENGLAND, ITS’ PEOPLE AND PEACE. ZIMBABWE ! 8 A.M. OR 1 P.M. OR 8.00 P.M. AT ANY ONE  OF THESE TIMES, PLEASE STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND SPEND THAT ONE  MINUTE PRAYING FOR GOD TO INTERVENE IN THE AFFAIRS OF OUR COUNTRY. OUR PRAYERS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL ASSET WE HAVE. TOGETHER. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

THINGS DRASTICALLY CHANGED AND WELL, THE REST IS HISTORY

GOD IS THE ANSWER AND PRAYER IS THE ONLY WAY FOR

IN VIEW OF THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN ZIMBABWE WE ARE ORGANISING A DAILY ONE MINUTE PRAYER TIME AT

SOMEONE SAID IF CHRISTIANS REALLY UNDERSTOOD THE FULL EXTENT OF THE POWER WE HAVE AVAILABLE THROUGH PRAYER, WE MIGHT BE SPEECHLESS.

IF YOU KNOW ANY OTHER CHRISTIAN BROTHER AND SISTER WHO WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS POWERFUL EXERCISE, PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG.

THANK YOU ,
ZIMBABWE
24-hour Solidarity Vigil

Dear World, Zimbabwe . I think the time has come for a more direct
appeal, and so I am writing to you, the world.

I am a 16 year old person living in

Maybe, just maybe, there might be someone out there who can help us…

It’s tough here now. The inflation rate is so high that if you don’t change money within 6 hours you could get half the amount of foreign currency that you would have originally received.

We’re starving now; people die around us. In the last year alone at least ten people associated personally with my family have died despite the fact that they were only middle-aged. Other people don’t make it to middle age. They don’t even make it past childhood.

Our once-proud nation is on it’s knees. We flee or die. This beautiful, bountiful once-rich land has become a living hell. We have dealt with it until now; we have made a plan. That was the Zimbabwean motto: “MAKE A PLAN”.

But now we can’t make a plan. We’re too tired, too broken, too bankrupt. We can’t afford life, and life does not cost much, not really. We cannot afford to eat, we cannot afford to drink, and we cannot afford to make mistakes, because if we do we die. We don’t have the capital to support ourselves, and those few who do, have to deal with the horror of watching their friends and family fall into absolute poverty as they cannot afford to help them.We’re waiting desperately for a great hand to pick us up out of the dirt because at the moment we are outnumbered by Fate herself, and so we close our eyes and pray. We have fought for too long, and have been brought to breaking point. We simply stand, heads down, and bear it. Our spirit has gone; we are defeated. After a valiant struggle of over fifteen years, we have been broken.

There is no will left, no spirit. Like a horse that has been beaten until it cannot fight anymore; we are the same, and, like that horse, we stand dusty, scarred and alone, with dried blood on our sides and lash marks along our flanks. Our ribs too stand out; our hide is also dull.

Our eyes are glazed, our throats are parched, and our knees struggle to support us so that we stand with splayed legs to bear the brunt of the next beating, too dejected even to whimper…This is my plea. The thought of picking ourselves up again is sickening; one can only take so many blows before oblivion is reached, and we are teetering on the rim of the bottomless void. One more push will be the end of us all…
There must be someone out there who can do something. There must be someone out there who cares! We are a destroyed nation, and the world sits back and watches, pretending they cannot hear our cries. I appeal to you all…

HELP US!
A 16 YEAR OLD ZIMBABWEAN……

Street Pastors

Good news for the ‘Street Pastors’ initiative today. Thirteen new pastors are to be added to the current team of 26 in Lincoln’s city centre on Friday and Saturday nights.

Aswell as showing the unchurched that Christianity is accesible and relevent today, the project unites churches across the county. 14 churches make up the group of street pastors in Lincoln and the picture is likely to be the same in many other cities where they operate across the country.

Will foreign missions work ever be the same

Sun 02 Sept

So 19 Christian missionaries from South Korea returned home today after being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. They understandably faced much criticism after two of the original 21 hostages were killed. It’s believed the Korean government agreed a ransom which included withdrawing troops from the country.

Just a few weeks ago, another Christian foreigner in the country was held hostage for 24 hours before being freed by local police.

Although Christian missionary has been happening around the world for centuries, these recent cases raise concerns about how missionaries are done these days. For example should Christians be going to a countries that are ruled by Islamic law when politically America and their allies are already struggling to win the battle against global terrorism.

Perhaps 21st century missionary work should be focused on helping Christians in countries like Afghanistan to help casualties of the war rather than sending in over-enthusiastic westerners who probably don’t know enough about the culture they are going in to.