A meal for Denise

As an office we often go out together to celebrate birthdays.  This time we had lunch to celebrate Denise's birthday.  Denise has been volunteering with us for a couple of years now, as she builds up office experience in order to be let loose on the big wide world.  Denise has been an enormous help to us, and it was great to be able to celebrate with her.

We were very brave and visited a brand new buffet restaurant just down the road from Christ Church, Burney Lane.  This was brave because this pub used to have an interesting reputation...  But now it has been transformed and we had a lovely meal.  Sadly Tim couldn't make it, but the rest of us were there.

Another archive photo!

This newspaper cutting has been sent to us by Peter Cole, who used to be part of the United Christian Singers in Manchester.  Roger is talking to Eric Thorn about Saints Alive, and since then Eric has written some lyrics for Roger, a large amount of them can be found in the new Song Collection.

And the books are here!

The books arrived early on Monday morning, and Tim has been working flat out to send them to all of the people that pre-ordered.  So if you ordered, it is in the post!

We're really thrilled with them - they have a slightly different kind of spine to our old musical books, which makes them look smarter, and will hopefully enable them to stay open on a music stand a little better...

A new venture

Over the past few weeks, Helen has been in conversation with Saltley Methodist Church about a possible 9 hour a week job there.  On Tuesday this week those talks finally came to fruition.

The aim of the partnership is for Helen to work with the young people in the church, encouraging them in singing and in worship.  The long term aim is for this children's worship to infect the whole congregation with a sense of joy and fun, as Spirit-filled worship takes central place for the church.

The first Tuesday evening session was a bit of an eye-opener, as Helen taught three advent/Christmas songs to a group of 6 children, 5 of which were quite boisterous boys.  The songs did go down well though, particularly one of them which was a bit like a song from High School Musical.  The plan is to include a couple of them in the carol service on Sunday 19th December.

Drink Deep

This year we have regularly been joining up with Peter Smith and the team from Christ Church, Burney Lane, Ward End to hold regular Holy Spirit events.  So far they have mostly been renewal evenings on a Sunday evening with various speakers, but this time we went for a whole weekend of workshops and worship, culminating in a renewal evening on the Sunday evening.

There were about 50 of us in total, and we had a wonderful time.  On the Saturday Annie kicked things off with some worship and then Roger spoke on thirsting and drinking, using illustrations from Ezekiel 47 and Jesus at the feast of tabernacles.

After this first session, we broke up into 3 workshops.  Jane and Gill led a prophetic movement workshop, which really blessed those that were involved.  Brian and Sue led a 'Using the gifts' workshop, focusing on the link between the gifts and fruit of the Spirit. Helen and Alan led a 'Receiving the power of the Spirit' workshop, which included a lengthy time of silence, simply allowing people to wait and receive from God.

In the afternoon we had two more workshops - Annie and Mary led a Ministry in the power of the Spirit session, and at the same time Roger led a prophetic worship workshop.  Those that attended seem to have been really blessed by all the workshops - what a priviledge it is to be able to train people in life in the Spirit.

After these workshops we had a final session with worship led by Helen and the Peter Smith spoke.  He didn't speak for long - the emphasis was on giving people plenty of time to simply receive from the Lord.

On Sunday, CMM took part in the regular morning service for Christ Church, and Helen spoke, linking a well known healing model called 'The Circle of God's Love' with how Jesus dealt with Peter in John 21.

In the evening we held our now regular renewal evening.  Peter Smith spoke, and it was great fun.  A lot of people received ministry, and it was so good to see God at work in people's lives.

We had a fantastic music and ministry team for the weekend - including Tim on drums and Christine on flute.  It was the first time Christine had been part of a CMM team, and it was a delight to have her.

The CDs are here!

The CDs came today on a big white van - thankfully not a pallet as has happened in the past.  Big lorries have sometimes called with their driver looking very confused at our door, expecting a fork-lift truck to unload it for them...

Hopefully the books will come early next week.

They're looking good.

A bit of history...

Roger with Tim and the choir for A Grain of Mustard Seed - Chandler's Ford Methodist 1980

Roger and Mary with Tim and Andrew at Saints Alive - Chandler's Ford Methodist 1982

I've just found these photos in my inbox.  I think I put them on the Rock blog when I wrote up our Chandler's Ford production, but I thought it'd be great for everyone to see them.  If any of you have any old pictures of CMM in action, we'd love to have them - try visiting our facebook page - type in 'Christian Music Ministries' and try and find us!

Two Sisters rehearsal

The first real outing of the new musical is coming up - we're going to Barrow-in-Furness at the end of November to hold a workshop day for a 50th birthday party for one of CMM's closest supporters.  This is really a dress rehearsal - our official launch is on 5th February.

On Tuesday evening we had a rehearsal for the soloists travelling to Barrow - Emily, Martin, Devon, Caroline, Bill and Jonathan.  One of the key things to rehearse were the narrations that Alison Fuggle has written to fit between each of the songs.  Devon, Emily and Caroline did a great job seeing them for the first time, and still putting some wonderful expression into the words.

Roger and Annie will also be travelling to Barrow, and there were also some hangers-on at the rehearsal - Amy, Helen and Richard, who just came for the company!

An interesting weekend

This weekend, while not officially a CMM working weekend, has been a really interesting one.

Annie travelled along with members of her church to a weekend led by MWF (Music and Worship Foundation). The weekend was spent looking at encouraging churches in their worship - a kind of 'worshipping from the pew' session.

Roger met with a group of dancers led by Sally (formerly Jones, now Taylor) who are hoping to form a dance ministry group. There is huge enthusiasm from the group, and we look forward to seeing how God uses them in future.

Then Roger met with some long term friends of CMM, Robin and Carole. They are also beginning a ministry of their own which runs special retreats called Refocus days.

It is wonderful seeing how God is blessing and using people that have been associated with the ministry for so many years.

CMM Choir

Penny King has unfortunately stepped down as conductor of the East Birmingham CMM choir due to church and family commitments. Penny has done a wonderful job with the choir in the last 4 years, conducting performances of Mary Magdalene, A Grain of Mustard Seed, The Inn Crowd, Jail Break, Rock, From Pharaoh to Freedom and Saints Alive, Wildfire, and Rock. What a fantastic journey. We wish Penny and Peter all the best in what God has in store for them in their future ministry.

We are delighted to be able to announce that Annie will be taking over the choir from January. Their first project will be Two Sisters and a Funeral.

Two Sisters - in the post!

The last couple of weeks have been very fraught indeed here at CMM. We've been proofing and re-proofing the vocal score for the new musical, which finally went in the post last night, and we have been working extremely hard in mixing the new album.

It really has been a team effort, with Annie, Chris, Roger and Tim all involved in mixing, Helen, Nicky and Annie proofing and sorting out the score, and Andrew working hard on the various bits of artwork. We've all also had to listen to the album over and over again - Mary must be sick of it already and it hasn't come back from the duplicators yet!

Anyway, we hope to have the CDs and books back within a week or so, so all those people who have generously pre-ordered will be receiving their copies soon!

Cheltenham Male Voice Praise

On Saturday 30th October (the day after Roger had an operation on his toes) Roger was due to speak at Cheltenham Male Voice Praise. Thankfully the operation went well and didn't involve huge bandages, so Roger was able to attend and not look silly with crutches and elevating his feet!

Due to a slight miscommunication and some problems with traffic, Roger only just made it before the event started, which was very scary for the organisers, but the problems were overcome with God's help. Roger had to compare the evening - introducing the different songs, and also preaching towards the end.

The choir were excellent, and seemed to be really enjoying themselves, praising God with classics like 'I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene'.

Annie in Ipswich

While the CMM team were on the Isle of Wight, Annie travelled to Ipswich with Eddie Smith and Catherine Muggleton to lead 'Apostle in a day'.

Annie says it was an 'ambitious but very successful project with large choir, orchestra and full drama, re-written for the event by organiser Peter Miller. Very moving performance to an appreciative audience.'

Annie received a lovely email from Peter Miller after the event:

Thank you for your efforts with us doing Apostle. Those who participated really enjoyed the experience and we have had a number of emails thanking us all for the efforts put in and the great sense of fellowship that existed.

The Bethesda element of the Choir sang at both services on the following Sunday, we did Thank you, Thank you in the morning with the men singing the Paul solo parts and then the sixteen of us split into four groups of four for the round. In the evening we did Jesus has changed my life as written with Peter taking the Paul solos.

Overall a great weekend!

We hope you were not too tired after the long day!

Once again thanks for coming among us, you will always be welcome.

Rock on the Isle of Wight

For the last few years, CMM has made a regular visit to the Isle of Wight, inspired by Wight churches together, and several important connections over the years such as June, Trish and the Harley family. Brian Harley is a URC minister in Shanklin and is heavily involved with GEAR - the Group for Evangelism And Renewal in the United Reformed Church.

This time CMM travelled over to perform Rock on the island, and the team for the week consisted of the 6 principal soloists from the Rock CD - Devon Brown, Bill Carpenter, Simon Cooper, Ann Steer, Aly Ottaway and Helen, as well as native-moved-to-the-mainland Sarah Harley on violin. Sarah has only been part of a couple of CMM gigs, but she is already showing herself to be a wonderful asset to the team - amazing on violin, and with a lovely singing voice.

The team (accompanied by Barrie) arrived on the Island for a meal and a rehearsal on the Friday evening. The rehearsal was at St. John's Newport, which was to be the venue for a performance on Sunday afternoon. The choir were fantastically trained by June, and we had some amazing techies - Simon and Dave - who looked after us amazingly well.

After a night with our wonderful hosts we had a free morning and then a wonderful lunch at Trish's. As well as Barrie from the mainland, the choir were also supplemented by Mark, Cheryl and Shirley, all of whom are regulars on CMM's travels.

In the afternoon we set up and rehearsed at St. John's Sandown, and then our performance was in the evening. The church was very cold, but we warmed to our task - the choir were amazing, particularly in the lovely acoustic, and there was a big appreciative audience. People chatted for ages afterwards - it was difficult to get away!

On Sunday the team split in two - Helen took Bill, Simon and Aly to St. John's Newport for the morning service, and Roger had Devon, Ann and Sarah at Shanklin URC. The service in Newport was an early start, but it went well. Helen preached while Aly read a monologue and Bill and Simon sang 'Simon Peter, do you love me?' One of the highlights of the service came just after the lay reader Anne had spoken to the children about God's word being sweeter than honey and richer than money. Two small children came wandering slowly to the front after Anne's talk while Helen was getting up to speak. They were holding hands and looking pleadingly at Anne - in the hope that she would give them some of the chocolate money she had been holding up! Roger and team had a great time in Shanklin - there are a lot of good musicians at the church, including Verity, an adopted member of the Harley family. She is also turning into an amazing violinist, and perhaps we will be able to use her too in future.

After lunch it was time for our afternoon performance at St. John's Newport. As it was their second go, the choir were even better, and the audience this time seemed less reserved - it was a fabulous performance, and people were really blessed.

In the evening we had a lovely meal at the Harley household, before a day off on the Monday.

Huge thanks go to all those involved in inviting us and putting us up. We understand that someone became a Christian at one of the performances, which is wonderful news - praise God!

We received an email from Mary Jackson, who was inspired by the weekend:

I'm still singing along to Rock in my head all day long after last weekend on the Isle of Wight! It was wonderful - as always. I was inspired to write this poem after seeing 'just an ordinary man' take the part of Jesus.

Just an ordinary man

I saw Him standing there –

He was just an ordinary man,

Nothing to set Him apart from his friends –

Until He looked at me.

There was something different about him,

Was it the look in His eyes,

Full of love and compassion

As He looked and called me ‘My Child’.

But there was something else,

A sadness in His eyes

As if to say to me, ‘My Child,

I’m longing for you. Please come.’

And then it was that I realized

That this very ordinary man

Was no other than my Saviour –

Jesus – God’s son – come to earth as Man.

Looking forward to our next Roger Jones event on the Island in Holy Week.

Mary Jackson

Men's Supper Club

Roger is sometimes asked to speak at local events by the churches nearby, and on the evening of Wednesday 20th October he travelled the 10 minute trip to South Yardley Methodist to speak at their men's supper evening.

Roger really enjoyed his visit to them - although the men were considerably outnumbered by ladies! While he was there he found out that his old piano teacher (in her 80s) is still playing the organ at Saltley Methodist Church. He has since been in touch.

Instrumental recordings

After the soloists and backing vocals had done their stuff, Annie went into the studio to record some live instrumental bits and pieces. These live instrumentals really add to the sound and quality of the album.

The main things recorded were some strings with Heather Bradshaw (violin), Libby Golding (violin), Annie (viola) and Roger Barnett (cello) and also some guitar from Ian Price. The string sound is absolutely beautiful - particularly in Abide with me, and the guitars are always brilliant as Ian is a Christian session guitarist. His guitars particularly light up Tim's backing tracks for the 'baddie' songs. Helen also added a tiny bit of flute and trumpet - most of the flute had been added back in May when the 'Look of Love' album was being put together.

Annie and Chris have done a great job with the instrumentals - the CD has now been sent off to ICC for duplication, and we can't wait to have it back!

Another quiet day

While Roger and Annie were working hard in Bramhall, Helen was in Birmingham also working hard. She had been asked to lead a quiet day for Solihull Churches Together at St. John's House in Alum Rock, where she lived before getting married. It was great to see the sisters again and to spend time in the wonderful setting in the house and grounds.

For the last few years Solihull Churches Together had held their quiet day at a venue in Rugby, but this time they decided to stay a little closer to home, and they had a few more in attendance due to that - there were 18 at the day, which was wonderful.

Helen decided to lead the day looking at the end of the world, and focusing on what the Bible actually says. Tom Wright has written some excellent material which gathers the biblical material about the return of Jesus together, emphasising that the Christian hope finds its real basis on that, rather than only on the idea that when we die we leave our bodies behind and go to heaven. Instead, emphasising the bodily resurrection and the new heavens and new earth helps us to focus on Jesus' complete victory over sin, death and pain.

The day went down really well - there was some worship, some teaching, and loads of opportunity for people to be quiet and spend time with God.

Weekend in Bramhall

On the weekend of 15-17 October, Roger travelled to St. Michael's church in Bramhall, Stockport for a music in worship weekend called 'Psalms and Praise'. He took with him Annie, Andrew Lockwood, Amy Carter, Jaime Dawson, Val Dawson and Brenda Earnshaw. It was wonderful to be invited to Bramhall - CMM have several really good friends who live in the area, some of whom attend St. Michael's. Louise Richardson at the church has regularly trained choirs for our tour performances, and we regularly see people like Bob and Tricia Munn and Angie Wilson at our music weeks.

On the Saturday the team began by leading a plenary session called 'Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord' based on Psalm 95 - looking at using music in worship, incorporating thanksgiving, praise and more intimate worship.

Then Roger and Annie led two workshop streams, including creative worship, learning new songs, ministering in the Spirit and receiving the power of the Spirit.

The final session on the Saturday was called 'Search me O God and know my heart' based on Psalm 139.

On the Sunday Roger had to preach at two out of the three morning services - one more traditional than the other, and Annie and Amy helped in the Sunday school, teaching the kids 'Our God is a great big God' which went down like a storm with the kids and the congregation.

In the afternoon Roger and the team led one final celebration and then travelled home after a very busy weekend.

Thanks so much to Bob, Louise and all at Bramhall for inviting the CMM team.

Quiet day with Barbara Rowarth

Roger and Helen, along with a team of Deborah Wilde, Kaye Cooke and Richard Harvey were at Christ Church in Birmingham for a quiet day which was led by Barbara Rowarth ably assisted by her husband Mike. Mike and Barbara have been friends of CMM's ministry for years and years, and Barbara has led several of her quiet days for us before. One of her particular gifts is in gently leading people into God's presence through some bible teaching, and then giving people plenty of quiet time to enjoy God through visual prayer stations.

The theme of the day was the book of Ruth, and in the morning Barbara focused on the first two chapters, looking particularly at why Elimelech left the promised land with his wife and two sons, and why Naomi returned, accompanied by Ruth. She also spoke about Ruth's meeting with Boaz, and the incredible kindness he showed to her in the field.

The afternoon particularly looked at Ruth and Boaz' meeting on the threshing floor, and also Boaz's immense generosity in marrying Ruth and taking on Elimelech's property - Ruth was able to bear a son to continue Elimelech's line. This line of course continued to King David, and on to Jesus.

Barbara also offered some prayer ministry during the day, and almost all of the attendees received prayer and had a wonderful day.

It was also wonderful to work with Richard, Kaye and Debs in leading the worship for the day.

Musical in a day, Horley

On Saturday 9th October CMM found itself in two places at once. The first venue was Horley, near Gatwick, and Annie led a team there to lead Saints Alive in a day.

Annie had been invited to lead the day in celebration of St. Wilfred's Parish Church's 40th anniversary celebrations. She took with her Bill Carpenter, Ann Steer and Amy Carter.

There weren't huge numbers in the choir, but they sang really well and all enjoyed themselves. The performance was great, and it was lovely for Annie to see so many familiar faces.

Annie also took part in the morning service at the church the following day, helping to lead some of the music.

Congregational Recording Day

On Saturday 2nd November, a large choir descended on Christ Church in Birmingham for our congregational recording day. This choir was made up of over 150 singers from across the country - as far as Poole in Dorset, Middlesbrough, Taunton, Hull, Altrincham and Macclesfield.

The choir were able to hear some of the songs from the new musical for the first time, and to meet some of the soloists. Chris King came, and set up a powerful mic in the centre of the church at the front, and we managed to record some excellent singing which has been widely used across the album.

Often this recording is one of the trickiest things we do - it is impossible to have headphones for so many people, so we have to record unaccompanied, and keeping that many people in tune and in time is a difficult task.

So we were thrilled when we heard some of Chris' earliest mixes and he'd been able to use so much of what we had done on the day. The congregational sound adds a wonderful extra dimension to the recording - a fullness and richness of sound that the backing vocal group would struggle to manage alone.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a very worthwhile day (and a lot of fun too!).

Two Sisters Soloists Recording

For two days in the middle ofSeptember, Roger went in to Chris King's recording studio to lay down the main vocals for the new album. It was a really couple of days, and we are delighted with the results.

Emily played the part of Mary, Aly the part of Martha, Martin the part of Jesus and Devon the part of Lazarus. It is fantastic to have such a young (on the whole!) cast. Some of the highlights of the recording include Emily and Martin's duet in 'Sitting at your feet', Aly singing in 'Abide with me' and Devon's work in 'Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus'.

The four main parts weren't the only soloists to record. There were also two ladies - Amy and Caroline, who came to record some extra bits and pieces. They recorded a verse each in 'Jesus comes riding in to town' as well as some parts of the opening song.

Amy and Caroline were joined by a group of men - Jonathan, Bill, Pete and Richard to record the male 'baddie' parts. There are two songs which require some priests who are upset about what Jesus is up to which have been written by Tim specially for the musical. The guys sound like a fantastic rabble - and they sang really well too!

Renewal Evening - Jonathan Conrathe

On Sunday 19th September, we held another of our Renewal Evenings - evenings where we collaborate with Christ Church, Ward End, in order to bring people into God's presence where they can learn about his love, and how his Spirit can impact our lives.

Roger led the worship with Annie, Martin Fisher, Alan Smith, Amy Carter and Katie Leaver as the music group for the event. Peter Smith led the ministry team, and also took over proceedings once Jonathan had finished speaking.

Jonathan is an excellent speaker from Mission 24 based in Wellington, Shropshire. His organisation run missions across the world and training for mission weekends in the UK.

We are really excited about the way these renewal evenings are growing, as they seem to be meeting a real hunger in East Birmingham, bringing CMM right back to its roots in terms of inviting the Spirit to come in local churches. The ministry time was particularly wonderful, with so many members of the congregation blessed by God's Holy Spirit.

Two Sisters - the recording begins!

Chris King, Annie and Tim have been working really hard on backing tracks for the new musical all year, and in September we finally got to the stage where we were able to add some live recording to the tracks.

The first thing to go down was the backing vocals. For every recording Annie hand-picks and trains a close harmony group for the CD. CMM is honoured to have some wonderful singers to work with, and it is always hard for Annie to decide who would be best for the group. This time we had Katie Leaver and Helen on soprano, Annie and Catherine Muggleton on alto, with Amy Walters recording a mixture of both parts. On bass we had Simon Gudger and Paul Edwards, and Dave Tandy and Dave Morris on tenor, with Dave Roberton recording both parts.

On the finished CD the group will provide most of the choir sound, forming the basis for any solo work to go on top, and the congregational sound to be added later. It can be incredibly hard to get the congregational sound to be in tune and in time, so the work of the backing vocals group is essential.

It was a fun couple of evenings, and the group did a wonderful job - completing all they had been asked to sing and a little bit more, providing a great basis for Roger to go into the studio the next week and record the soloists.