Faith and Cancer

Worship leader, Paul Baloche recently said ‘Worship is not music, but music can be worship’ (In his article ‘Seeds of Songs’, Worship Leader Magazine. Vol:23, No:1 www.worshipleader.com ). In a way, it is unfortunate that the word ‘worship’ has been used for different things within the church that quite often can lead to misunderstandings. For me, part of the problem stems from the genre of music labelled as ‘worship music’ as opposed to ‘Christian contemporary music (CCM)’ or ‘gospel’ for example. The music industry needed to call this genre of music something and labelled it ‘worship music’. Fair enough. We can now associate a particular style and sound of music to the ‘worship music’ genre and can even search for it on our favourite digital music distribution provider. However, this is where the confusion begins. Scripture gives many examples where music and song are used, and indeed when God encourages us to use them as a part of our worship to Him: ‘Be filled with

Image source: womenonthefence.com I have just returned from a luxurious holiday where my wife and I rented a lovely holiday let overlooking Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight. I don’t mean to make you jealous (ok, maybe a little) but the point I want to make is a serious one. During one of the breakfast TV panel discussions, the topic of work email was in the spotlight. The question was: Should people look at and answer work related emails when they are at home? The debate swung from one side of the argument to the other, as these things often to on breakfast TV. However, this got me thinking: I work 4 days a week as a primary school teacher and 1 day a week (technically) for the church. I find with my school work I am able to put down my pen at the end of the day and leave it and everything else school related at school, not to be thought about or acted upon until Monday comes round again. However, with church work I find this a lot more difficult. I suppose it is pa

Terry is a friend of mine. He comes to my local church. He has an amazing testimony that he shared with our regional radio station BBC Radio Cambridgeshire which became their feature Easter Sunday interview. It is a story of real life. It is honest and terrifying. It demonstrates God's amazing love, compassion and power at work in life-transforming ways in our world today. Have a listen to Terry's story here . Happy Easter - Jesus is risen!

Worship Leader Magazine, January/February 2014 edition, www.worshipleader.com I subscribe to the Worship Leader Magazine. It is published in America, but I am grateful to receive a copy of it here in the UK through annual subscription. It is fantastic that there are resources out there, on our side, for us – the worship leader. As such many of the articles are very helpful and cause me to think more deeply about what it means to be a ‘Worship Leader’ as well as a church worker more broadly. However, it does not stop there, recognising that church work is more than ‘just a job’ but involves our whole beings and so also looks more deeply at issues on a personal level that affect personal discipleship. On this note, I came across a great article in the January/February 2014 issue called ‘Blind Spots: Facing The Truth About You’ by Rory Noland. Rory is, for lack of a better title, the ‘agony aunt’ of the magazine. People write in and he responds with insightful and biblical advic