Awesome Night of Worship

Just come back from a fantastic night of prayer & worship with our church.

We recently moved our services into a big old church - St. Martin's in the Bullring and tonight we had a night of worship & prayer. It was amazing to celebrate in a building that has been a place of prayer and worship over the centuries. The spiritual heritage in there is amazing. We really sensed God's spirit as we prayed and worshipped together.

Our move represents just one stage in a remarkable faith journey. As a church we feel we are supposed to gather in the city centre for a while along with Sutton Vineyard & Vineyard City Centre (our African Congregation) in order to establish a ' hub' from which congregations will be planted out around the city. Meeting in St. Martins has been a big move but it seems that God is blessing our step of obedience with his presence.

Last time I was in St. Martin's at night (the only other time) was about 2 years ago after we had recorded the HOLY album. We did a small promotional worship tour with some of the musicians involved, playing in several school halls which were fairly uninspiring as worship venues go, but I'll never forget the last night playing at St. Martins with a huge PA etc. The place was jammed out & again, an awesome night. (Check out the photos above)

But anyway back to tonight. You know those times when you didn't practise at all, and some of the band hadn't even met each other! Potentially a recipe for disaster - but no, God's Spirit moved, the people worshipped & prayed, and the band played tight & together like they had been for years! Big shout to Dewi - the welsh rhythm meister was bang on with a kit that was less than 'helpful', Ricky who was as always understated, solid & funky on the bass and Paul who played some great licks on the piano. It was a joy to sing with Amy & Gemma who provided presence, harmony & spirit, and our find of the year was belgian Tom whose sax tone took us into another dimension.

When we first moved into St Martins a few weeks ago I felt pretty nervous about playning there - new venue, different acoustics, PA, public place, lots of change etc etc but tonight was a truly amazing experience & I can't wait for more of the same.