A friend asked me to get involved in playing some worship music recently. He and I used to play together quite a lot, but (as I have blogged about before, here) I have found myself deliberately stepping back from worship driven exclusively by music- or perhaps to be more accurate (if a little jaundiced)- music to pep people up for a sermon.

I think I may have posted this before-

But I do not think I am ready to leave worship music behind altogether. I continue to wonder where are the songs that will carry forward the culture that is emerging in our Christian groups and gatherings, and whether we might yet rescue something from guitar driven worship from the marketing machine that made it a sacred cow.

And wondering too whether the raw creative fun that making music can be might find a new rhythm outside the institution of formal church, and still allow small groups of Christians to worship together in meaningful, authentic and inspirational ways.

And even when we ‘plug in’ and make noise, needing space and greater organisation- I wonder too whether we can do this, but avoid the ego-worship hero stuff. Avoid the search for the next Matt Redman (who was, of course, the next Martin Smith.) I like Matt Redman by the way- some of his songs are great. Some are not. Like all song writers!

On the Tautoko network site, I made these comments ( and asked these questions)-

This is a bit confusing for me. I spent years ‘leading worship’- by which I mean playing soft folk rock choruses. I became increasingly dissatisfied with this, in terms of style, underlying theological assumptions and the exclusive one dimensional character that it brought to our collective worship.

I began a journey that will be familiar to many of you- towards older more contemplative ways to approach God, and into experiments with ‘alternative worship’.

But the love of music was still on me. It’s power to move and to unite. The beauty that comes when people join small talents to make something that is much bigger than the sum of their parts.

And as I look around me, in the wider alt. worship scene, we seem to use a lot of ambient stuff, and the odd bit of singer-songwriter creativity. But we do not sing very much. Is this because it is not cool? Or is it a pendulum swing reaction against the CCM/Worship machine that has made worship music a commodity?

In my group, we have members aged 9 to 75. And people want to sing. I have found myself digging into a 30 plus year backlog of songs and choruses looking for ‘hymns and spiritual songs’ that hold some meaning and truth that fits where our group is at.

So- a few questions…

Do you sing?
What songs still have meaning?
How does music fit with the wider alt worship stuff you are involved with?

There were a few answers. There is a lot of music out there unfamiliar to me. Songs from a Catholic tradition, or from the Iona Community (often by the brilliant John Bell– who, I contend, has also written some stinkers!)

But I am yet to feel that I am building a collection of songs that are I can sing with passion and integrity in my developing context. Sure, some of them I have carried with me- reworked old hymns, or the few songs that connect with Justice issues, and the mission of Jesus. But so much of the love-songs-slightly-reworked-to-be-religious, I simply can not sing any more- even ones I used to love.

I came across this bloke, Andy Flanagan on the Greenbelt website today- who I feel an affinity with as he seems to be a cricket fanatic and Christian socialist too. Must get along to his gig @ Greenbelt if I can.  I liked some of the words of his worship songs.

But if you know of others- songs that gather some of the hopes and dreams of this thing that is the emerging church, I would love to hear them. What songs allow you to reach up towards God and offer him something meaningful and beautiful as you gather together?

I can trade you a few that mean something to me…