Tim Hughes
Tim Hughes is the Director of Worship at Holy Trinity Brompton, London. Born in High Wycombe, Tim spent his teenage years in Birmingham where he learnt to play...
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Counting On Your Name
The world around us is shaking. Over the last few years we’ve seen economies collapse, nations rise up in civil war, earthquakes destroy cities, alongside other countless natural disasters that leave us heartbroken and confused.
It’s in these moments that our comforts and securities are challenged, our simple ‘neat and tidy’ answers don’t quite cut it and we are left once again turning to God for hope and strength.It is in this context that the song ‘Counting on Your Name’ was written.
My friend Nick Herbert and I had been playing around with some ideas and he had brought the phrase, (which I must confess he had stolen from a hymn!) ‘Counting on Your Name.’ As a statement it captures so much in terms of belief, hope and security. In all the unanswered question, the uncertainty, and the fear – we know that God is to be trusted.
“My life is built on nothing less than Your faithfulness.”
In a fragile world God can be the rock on which we depend upon. He is the Way the Truth and the Life. He is the anchor in the storm. We are finite, weak and limited but He is infinite, faithful and trust-worthy. In the midst of all that fails and fades away, through the struggles of broken relationships, empty words, through personal disappointment, we can find hope and be assured that God knows us and loves us. Our names are written on His hand. Nothing on earth can tear us apart from His unconditional love. One thing is certain in this world, God’s love is limitless and His name can be trusted.
“My name is written on Your hand. You’ve called me Your own. Now I am Yours no earthly power can tear us apart.”
So we too join with the Apostle Simon Peter in responding to Jesus, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
“I’m counting on Your name I’m counting on Your name Counting on Your name to save me.”
Love Shine Through
I've been working on a new album over much of the last year. It is now finished and 'Love Shine Through' will soon be released, 21 March in the UK and 19 April in US. Produced by Martin Smith (Delirious?), the album features collaborations with writers like Ben Cantelon, Nick Herbert, Nikki Fletcher, Keys Kraayenoord, Stu G and Martin Smith. Musicians included members of Rend Collective Experiment, Kim Walker-Smith (Jesus Culture), Marc James (Vineyard, Verra Cruz), Michael Guy Chislet (Hillsong United). Jerry Brown (Girls Aloud), Mark Prentice, David Grant and Fay Simpson on backing vocals, the Jesus House Gospel Choir and the keyboard genius of Josiah Sherman (The Listening). There is also a bonus track, produced by Nathan Nockels. There's been a great challenge of late for pursuing excellence in production, visuals, lights and a bigger use of creativity, which I love. My only fear is that we miss the raw, messy, spirit-led type of worship that leads people to engage with God. In my walk with God and my expression of worship I've been pushing myself to be more real, daring and honest. I guess these songs, many of which are collaborations, are an attempt to articulate that longing for more of God. That belief that He is everything and the desire that in all things His love would shine through. 'Love Shine Through' Track Listing: 1 Counting On Your Name 2 God Is Coming 3 Never Stop Singing 4 Saviour's Song 5 All Glory 6 At Your Name (Forever) 7 Jesus Saves 8 Love Shine Through 9 Keep The Faith 10 Wake Up 11 Ecclesiastes 12 At Your Name www.worshipcentral.org
Healing
We believe in a God who heals. In Southampton, during the Worship Central Tour, we were wonderfully reminded of this. During the evening one of our team had a picture of a twisted spine which we shared from the front. As we continued to worship and pray for people a young man approached the front clearly overwhelmed by what God had just done in his life.Four years ago Scott was in a nasty trampoline accident where he severely damaged his back. Since that day he's been in constant pain, with 14 trapped nerves down his back. The only solution was surgery. On Wednesday 10 November at Southampton's Central Hall, Scott was prayed for and the pain instantly left - the first time in four years. The following week he was due to have an operation on his back. Still with no pain he explained to the doctors what had happened. They did some X-rays and in Scott's words here's what happened next: "As I said, I was due for an operation on Thursday 18th, so as scheduled I went in and explained to the surgeon exactly what happened. He X-rayed my back and shown on the X-ray my shoulder blades were perfectly inline with each other and there looked to be absolutely nothing wrong with any of the muscles down my spine. The doctor was speechless and he said that there is no way that that could be physically possible without surgery, so praise the Lord, for he is beyond our wildest dreams." An amazing testimony to the power and wonder of our God - the God who heals. Scott's story is an encouragement and reminder that we should continue to pray for the sick and expect to see God heal. The challenge is will we stand on God's Word or our own experience. God's Word says “…I am the Lord who heals you.” (Ex 15) In Luke 9:1, we see Jesus calling the 12 disciples together giving them, ‘power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal those who were ill.’ In Luke 10:9 Jesus commissions the 72 saying, ‘Heal those who are ill and tell them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.’ In Mark 16:18, Jesus in a post resurrection appearance said of those who followed him, ‘they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.’ Jesus has given us authority to heal the sick and has given us the Holy Spirit to do it. I’ve been challenged by John Wimber’s words, that he’d rather pray for 100 people and 1 person get healed, than pray for no one and no one gets healed. We live in a broken world. We live in the midst of many unanswered questions. Why are some healed and others not? I'm not sure we'll ever really know the answers, but the call for us is to keep on praying. To keep on trusting and to keep on believing. These stories and breakthroughs of God at work, the Great Physician restoring bones and muscle are reminders that God's Kingdom is at hand. With God all things are possible! http://www.worshipcentral.orgLet Rip!
John Stott, in his book ‘I believe in preaching,’ quotes a preacher who when asked about their sermon preparation says, “First I reads myself full, then I thinks myself clear, then I prays myself hot, then I lets rip!” Seems to me not only a great way to prepare for preaching, but also for leading worship. Four tools to equip us to lead worship effectively. 1. Read yourself full I think it’s so helpful that as worship leaders we are constantly filling our minds with who Jesus. I’m currently studying theology. The last week or two as I’ve sat in libraries reading for essays, I’ve caught myself thinking, ‘what on earth am I doing?’ The answer I return to is, ‘I’m studying theology to fuel my worship and love for God.’ Good theology will inspire worship. What are you reading? Who are you listening to? How are you growing in your understanding of God? What is fuelling your passion for Him? The moment we grow tired and stale in our relationship with God, we are in real trouble. Pretty quickly we will dry up. We’ll start going through the motions. If you’re looking for a great book to read on worship check out, ‘Knowledge of the Holy,’ A.W Tozer, or ‘More’ Simon Ponsenby, or ‘Worship Matters’ Bob Kauflin. (Be great to hear other inspiring books in comments below!) 2. Think yourself clear A well structured pulled together set list can really help people in their response of worship. I challenge you to go through your lists and ask how the songs link together thematically. Try and think about the journey you’re building. What is the story you are telling? Take time to think about, not only your set lists, but how your team is growing, what are the gaps, strengths, weaknesses, what is God saying, how are people responding, are people excited to volunteer as musicians –all of these questions are so important to consider as we try and lead. The moment we stop to think, to ‘chew the cud’ and dream, we will stop growing. May I encourage you to engage in this thinking process with others – there is always so much we can learn from one another. 3. Pray yourself hot One of the greatest dangers with experience, is self-reliance. We show up at church, we know the deal and we hit auto-pilot. I do it – and I’m ashamed that I do it. When you think about it, if God’s Spirit doesn’t turn up we’re in trouble. Nothing of eternal value will happen without God’s Spirit. The Spirit enables people to believe (1 Cor 12:3), the Spirit gives life (John 6:63), the Spirit brings revelation, (Eph 1:17) and it is the Spirit who reveals the Father (Rom 8:15). We need to get serious about prayer. If we want to see God at work let’s learn to pray. 4. Let rip! The final thing – let’s lead with passion. Joy, excitement and passion are infectious. When we lead if our bands play with great guts, if we model worship not only in our playing but also in our physical posture, this will have a huge impact on a congregation. I was at a church service the other day and the band looked utterlely miserable – bored, disengaged and fed up. No one smiled and it was a depressing sight. I wasn’t surprised to look around and see that the congregation were responding in a like fashion. We’ve been working hard as a team to be aware of things like smiling, singing along, being freed up to worship. Worship is caught as well as taught. So let rip!!Accessibility
The Book of Common Prayer, was first published 1549 with a major revision taking place in 1662. A key purpose for this book was to make the prayers and liturgy of the Church of England accessible to the common man. As it says in its preface, its purpose is “…for the more proper expressing of some words or phrases of ancient usage in terms more suitable to the language of the present times…” In our roles as worship leaders and songwriters we are called to serve the congregations in which we lead. One of the ways we do this is by making our times of congregational worship ACCESSIBLE. I've sat through too many church services where the worship team have done anything but this. I've seen ten minute drum solos, songs with lyrics that require you to use a dictionary to understand the words, musical arrangements so complicated that no one has a clue how to join in, songs sung so slowly that it's excruciating. We must remind ourselves, leading worship and being part of a worship team is not a ministry for ourselves, it's a calling to serve and lead others; to facilitate others in a response of worship. As we plan our set lists, we need to think this 'accessibility' question through. Will people know most of the songs? Are they in a key that the majority can join in with? Is that 5 minute guitar solo really needed? Will that instrumental breakdown draw people in or leave people out? Do the lyrics make sense? To grow in keeping our worship accessible I encourage you to invite feedback into the set lists you pull together and the new songs you introduce. It's very helpful to hear what actually connects with people, rather than what we personally prefer. I love the vision for the Book of Common Prayer. Making the spoken expression of worship clear and accessible to all people. When we fail to lead worship in a way that is inclusive we end up encouraging people to disengage. We actually fail to do the very thing a worship leader is called to do. Don't hear me wrong - I'm not saying for a minute we should dumb our worship down and settle for the lowest common denominator. But the danger can be in pursuing being cool and cutting edge, we can end up failing to draw people in. Being cutting edge isn't about crazy and quirky sounds, I'm convinced it comes down to being led by the Holy Spirit. So a tough question to ask - who are we prioritising when we come to lead worship? Ourselves and our ego's? Or God's people?Only the heart
Today I begin work on a new album. So many hopes, dreams and excitements mixed in with a sense of responsibility and pressure. For the last year plus I've been working on songs, crafting away. It's been great teaming up with various writers - Martin Smith, Nick Herbert, Phil Wickham, Ben Cantelon, Stu G and others. But now comes the moment where we try and capture them on tape forever. In this process there are so many voices; lot's to consider. You want to represent the songs in a way that when people here them they can imagine using them in church. You want the songs to reflect your musical and spiritual journey. You want to be brave and take creative risks. But for me, more than anything you want to capture passion and heart. With the team working on this album we're trying to navigate through all these considerations. It's amazing to be working with Martin Smith who is producing. We've been working through the songs for months now and he naturally brings so much energy and edge. He's been pushing me. Sam Gibson is engineering and Josiah Sherman is playing keys and programming (the guys a genius!). Presently the thing I'm coming back to is trusting your heart. With all these ideas thrown into the pot, all the skills of song writing and playing you can search out something that is cool, but miss capturing the heart. It was the Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky who said,‘Only the heart knows how to find what is precious.’ As a song writer we need to know what is in our own hearts (this involves space and time set apart to reflect and ponder), but also what is in the hearts of others (this involves listening and observing people around us). As song writers and musicians in what we do we are trying to capture people's imaginations, to draw people in and express their desires and yearnings. The more I've thought about it the more I've realised the need to be both vulnerable and brave. To be honest in letting out the thoughts deep within. But also great art happens in community. How are we listening to others? Are we sensitive and aware of the cry within our church, city and generation? Great songs need to connect. There's that special something that moves beyond a cool sound or arrangement and cuts through to the heart. As we record, that's what I'm longing for and that's what we're chasing after!Task or Gift?
Leading worship week in week out is one of the greatest privileges. The joy of seeing people encounter God, the excitement of seeing a congregation respond; the encouragement of seeing lives transformed is nothing short of incredible.Leading worship week in week out is one of the greatest privileges. The joy of seeing people encounter God, the excitement of seeing a congregation respond; the encouragement of seeing lives transformed is nothing short of incredible. And yet the reality is that mixed in with these great highs are huge frustrations, many hours, often unseen, of hard graft, times of disappointment. In the light of this, as leaders, maintaining joy in what we do is essential. I’ve been thinking about how we view worship. Is it something we do through our own endeavor? Or is it something we’re invited into? As worship leaders whom are we ultimately following? How do we define a successful time of worship?James Torrence, a Scottish Minister and Theologian set’s out 2 contrasting views of worship. Firstly we can view worship as something we do – we sing, we pray, we give our time and resources to the church, we regularly attend small group meetings and the like. Essentially when we view worship in this light, we see it as a task. This concept of worship often leads to a perpetual sense of weariness. Our worship can lead to burnout. A contrasting view is to see worship as a gift, an activity we are invited to participate in. Here we understand that through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit we are invited in Christ to worship the Father. In worshipping we receive and enjoy all that God has for us. As Chris Cocksworth writes, “Worship is a gift we are invited to receive.” In viewing worship this way we rediscover joy, renewed purpose and hope. Of course there are elements of worship being both of these activities. Worship is about something we do. It involves sacrifice. But at the heart of the gospel is this truth, we are called and chosen by God to join in with the dance of the trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are saved for relationship. As we prepare to lead worship for the first time or hundredth time, how are we preparing? With a groan and a sense of ‘here we go again!’ Or with great anticipation and expectation? When we realize the privilege and honour it is to worship God, to be invited into relationship with the King of the Universe, I hope it will be the late
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