Choose your song, pick your key – MAKE SURE IT’S THE RIGHT ONE! It is hard to deny, but the songs in today’s church have brought to the creative team an interesting development and challenge. The songs are powerful, they are breathing life to the House on a Sunday service, and extending beyond that onto our iPods, iTunes, Spotify, the car CD player – you name it, we’re listening to it – in our personal as well as our corporate space.

Almost weekly, I am asked what the process is for getting ready to honour the platform on a Sunday. In fact, to be a little more to the point, I am asked “how do you learn your stuff for Church?” You know, one of the most important things I do in preparing for Sunday is PLANNING!! I have a relatively full life, working all the time doing television work, sheet music typesetting, lecturing, coaching….. it would be easy for me to turn up to a mid week rehearsal or a service soundcheck and not have prepared adequately for it.

The role of the Music Director can be traced to bible history times with specific reference to the time David became king of Israel. Even though this particular ‘portfolio’ had been around for a very long time, it wasn’t until David became king that it gained prominence in the everyday life of God’s people. A full study of the reforms that took place under David’s leadership (1st Chronicles) can attest to the emphasis that he placed on temple worship music.

Both of these roles play a major part in the exchange of ‘language’ between what is presented on the platform and then delivered to the congregation. However, to fully understand the roles that each of these play on the platform it is necessary to examine what each brings, and how the combination of these gifts creates a vehicle to declare the goodness and love of God to His people.

To try and actually provide an insight to this question, you probably should be asking yourself ‘what am I doing to bring the finest I can bring?’, and that’s a HUGE question!! Here is just one aspect of approaching this mammoth thought . . . and please know that I don’t profess to know it all, I am still a happy student in this symphony we call ‘life’. . .

To make either 36 or 72, you will need . . . an oven pre-heaated to 215c / 450f 500gm sausage mince (blend of beef, pork & lamb)