This week on Rimmerama

The news this week is that there’s now behind the scenes video footage of the Cross Rhythms studio and how we put the show together, If you have any photo’s or video’s of Mike or Cross Rhythms please add them to the group.

We’ve also got a Youtube channel which we hope to keep uploading stuff to aswell so have a look at that and become a subscriber if your on youtube yourself http://www.youtube.com/rimmerama

Here’s info on what’s coming up this week,

TUESDAY

Paul Woolley from the public theology think tank Theos will be talking about Darwin and evolution

American music artist Patsy Moore will be talking about her new album, her fight against cancer and her life as a renaissance woman.

Irish worship leader Eoghan Heaslip lives in London now and recently released a new album.

WEDNESDAY

American folk singer Kathryn Wehr

Cross Rhythms music editor Tony Cummings playing brand new music and digging out oldies.

second part of Eoghan Heaslip interview

THURSDAY

American cultural commentator Dan Merchant talking about how the economic downturn affects art and creativity.

singer songwriter Paul Bell live session in the studio playing songs from his new album

final part of Eoghan Heaslip interview

PODCAST – www.crossrhythms.co.uk/podcasts or on itunes

On this week’s podcast German artists Samuel Harfst, Ed Einsiedler from the band Spincycle and Esther O’Connor who is the daughter of a Wet, Wet, Wet, guitarist.

The Gentlemen’s first national airplay

Rock band, The Gentlemen, from Sheffield were played on Terry Wogan’s breakfast show this morning. It was their first national radio airplay in their campaign to hit the charts with their forthcoming album which will be released at the start of May.

They’ve already released their first single from the album ‘Sendinig Cards’ which, although is a tight, catchy little number, it failed to chart. Their next single to be released will be ‘Something you can’t regret/I’m not leaving due to be released April 27

Find out more at www.the-gentlemen.co.uk

Christian media Internship – The overview

Since graduating from the University of Lincoln last summer and gaining a 2:1 in Journalism I’ve landed myself an internship in Christian media with respected Christian Journalist and Broadcaster, Mike Rimmer, In Birmingham. Previously in the blog I wrote about my experiences three months into the Internship. The start of the New Year marks 6 months since I started the Internship and a lot has changed in the last three months, which incidentally why I have been very quiet on the blogging front.

I now have a permanent part time job in a supermarket which gives me enough money to comfortably support myself in my Internship. It has also meant that I’m not spending three days a week on my internships and three days working elsewhere. Many people don’t understand what I do, or even, what Mike does for that matter, so here’s a quick insight.

Admin

There’s hundreds of CD’s that come into the CMBC production office every month and a lot of my time is spent helping Mike sift through new CD’s finding new music that is worth playing on the radio and whether it be on Rimmerama or Independents day if they are an independent artist.

I then have to keep up to date with filing the CD’s in the CD library each week which has at least three thousand CD’s made up of Jesus Music, Worship, Pop/Rock, Gospel and Hip Hop.

Production

Becoming a radio producer has been the main focus of my internship and what I love best. It includes editing the programme Profile Special which is broadcast on Cross Rhythms on Saturdays. It’s an hour long interview programme with American artists; these are done when Mike visits Nashville each year and involves picking from a back catalogue of interviews and editing the hour long programmes together with music from their latest album

The other pre recorded programme which I edit and produce is Independents day broadcast on Cross Rhythms on Sunday afternoons; this is where Mike plays an hour of music from Independent artists and tells you how to get hold of them. This involves creating a playlist of Independent artists once we have identified which tracks we want to play from each artist’s album, and then writing scripts for the show and editing it together.

Since November I have been producing a podcast for Mike’s main show Rimmerama. For this half hour long production I scan through 9 hours of Rimmerama programmes from the previous week and pick out the best bits including Interviews, live sessions and entertaining pieces. I’ll then write the scripts for Mike to record edit the show together complete with Jingles and beds and then send them off to Cross Rhythms who send it off to Itunes.

All this production generally fills a day’s work each week.

Presentation

I’m professional sidekick (Ok! I don’t know what that really means but it sounds good) to Mike Rimmer on Rimmerama, two out of the three shows he presents each week. Which involves, what would be seen in the BBC as basic BA duties, answering the phone, talking to listeners in the stations chatroom, which is where we make most contact with our listeners, researching ideas whilst on air via the internet and sending out competition prizes.

Writing

Mike writes extensively for the Cross Rhythms website www.crossrhythms.co.uk including music features and reviews. I have written a number of reviews for the website over the last year and am gradually writing more extensive features for the main website.

The year ahead

In the year ahead, I’m looking forward to taking on a bigger role as an Intern / PA / Producer including, taking on production work for Rimmerama, Learning how to voice track and operate a BBC style sound desk and take on new projects which may come up,

Three months in…

I’m long past the point of counting how long i’ve been in Birmingham doing my Internship and will never be counting down the days until it ends, but i do know that this week will mark three months since i’ve been here. So, what have a learnt so far? I’ve been doing a lot of Sidekicking or Co-presenting and become more confident in presenting and a lot of my Internship offers me the chance to find out about Birmingham, meet new people and learn more about myself as well as gain experience in the media which i have been constantly doing.

Last week I was at the annual Grapevine festival, which i have done every year for the last three years working on the Radio station Grapevine FM. The difference this year was that I wasn’t going to Grapevine because i was part of the church but because I was working for Mike as part of my internship. It was a great weekend but a long hard weekend of work too. Most of my weekend was spent working between midday and midnight creating features for the late show by going around the campsite and interviewing people and then co-presenting on the late-show between 10pm and 12pm.

Outside of my Internship i am still doing temporary work around Birmingham to make some money, although I have a job interview for an Events Co-Ordinator at ASDA in Halesowen in the middle of September and an interview to work in the box office at Symphony Hall tomorrow, so although I feel like it’s taken a long time to get to this point, things are starting to settle down. Hopefully this time next month I will be in one of these jobs

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

The Mike Rimmer Internship

…Ok, so It’s not as big as an Internship with the BBC or Guardian Media or one of those big corporations but it’s still a great experience and what i’ve decided to call it. People ask me “What do you do?”, especially as i’m new in Birmingham so i think from now on my elevator pitch will be “i’m a Journalist and Broadcaster on the Mike Rimmer internship. I’m his sidekick on Cross Rhythms Radio in Stoke, edit some of his other shows and write features and music reviews.”

I’ve been doing this job now for almost three weeks and it’s been great, not just to learn the practical stuff and get a kick up the back side with my writing skills but hearing all the stories from a man who has working in the media for 25 years, has been presenting Rimmerama for ten years and travelling to Gospel Music Week In Nashville, every year for 10 years too. I’ve been so inspired and often excited at the prospect of where I could be at the same stage in my career in 20,30 or even 40 years time!

Revival analysis

Many Christians on the streets across Britain and no doubt around the world have been talking about the Florida Outpouring and its ripple effects with similar things happening in Dudley in the last few months. I have been wanting to put my view across about these extraordinary events for a few weeks, but i believe It’s not right to make a judgement about such a big subject without having the indepth knowledge to back it up. I don’t simply want to tell you i think that it’s biblical or celebrity preaching or a cult or any other explanations i’ve heard in the last few weeks without knowing why. So without any specialist Theological degree just a bible and an interest in research I will be taking a look at the subject of Revival, what it means and how it compares to the events that are taking place at the moment.

The simple question to ask first of all would be what is Revival? These are some definitions from from Dictionary.com which may apply to the outpourings in Florida and Dudley

1.	Restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.

It’s claimed hundreds of people are being healed and upto 20 people connected to the Outpouring have been claimed to have been raised from the dead at the Flordia Outpouring that is being shown on God TV. Although we don’t see each one independantly verified by a qualified Doctor this has to be something out of the ordinary and something this to me consitutes restoration to life, vigour or strentgh

2.	An awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion.

Much of the church has clearly woken up to what is going on. In many Charasmatic church’s i hear about leaders who have been to Florida or Dudley to receieve some of the outpouring that is taking place and taking it back to their church’s and starting similar events, because people are seeing and hearing about what is happening and want it for themselves. But the big question many people are asking and is if these events are part of a new revival then why aren’t we seeing out communities affected as in the definition ‘An awakening in Community of interest in and care for matters of personal religion’. Although this is a valied point in considering whether we’re in an age of revival surely revival takes a while to spread to the streets and it takes people like Christians in the media and evangelists to do the work.

3.	An evangelistic service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening: to hold a revival.

 The outpouring meetings that have been shown on God TV so far, have been far from evangelistic in my view. But i also think there is a place for what we have been seeing. The hundreds of healings that have been taking place are causing an awakening of the church around the world and i believe it is only a matter of time before mass evangelism follows.

.4	The act of reviving.

 As i’ve pointed out above, it seems that the current outpouring’s have revived some Christians and some church’s around the country and around the world. But are they reviving our communities? -This has to be the ultimate aim.

 In my next blog in this series i’ll start to look at biblical revival’s

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……