He told me that it had really worked well in helping folk worship and connect with God with a sense of intimacy.

One of the things that excited me, apart from the encouragement of seeing a song idea completed, was the fact that despite the song not being recorded, formally published or having to get some sort of distribution deal thousands of people were worshiping with it. And at that point I had yet to even hear it!

Gotta love this new fangled ‘interweb’ thing!

I’ve recently been using this version while here in the US and the feedback from first time hearers have been the same and shortly I’ll have the pleasure of meeting with and c0-leading with Sam.

I haven’t yet recorded the song, but Sam has - here is his YouTube version.

Enjoy!

It has been overwhelming the response to the house concert tour - I’ve had more invitations than I can probably fulfill but I will do my best to include as many as possible this time around.

Tags: houseconcert, andy rogers,

Whilst it was a Vineyard event it was open to anyone so it was great to see Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal as well as Vineyard churches represented.

Rather than write a ton of text check out the video below.

It’s a clip I did for my prayer team (I’m incredibly fortunate to have some folks willing to pray into these adventures) to inform them of the results of their efforts.

The effect has been profound.

I got this recent email from one of our translators at the Vineyard Worship conference in Lithuania. There seemed to be many there living under a heavy weight of depression so we invited anyone who could identify with that to come forward and we played and sang over them.

Here’s what Adone said:

I also wanted to share with you an amazing thing that has happened to me. When you guys invited people who feel heaviness inside to come out in order to play worship music over us, I did because I’d been living with it for a long time. I didn’t feel anything particular happening at that time but during the next two days the heaviness that I used to feel gradually left me completely. I used to pray that God would restore the joy I once had but he did something different - he gave me a new joy.

Worship & prophetic music can be a powerful thing. In fact my understand of it’s effect was really helped by something I read on Dave Wainscott blog a while back.

He quoted this.

While searching for the chemical origins of life, Shsumu Onnu found something unexpected: a waltz. Bored with tedious mathematical equations, the geneticist decided to convert chemical formulas for living cells into musical notes. He figured listening to the complex genetic codes, rather than staring at them, would make elusive patterns easier to detect. In the process, Onnu discovered genes…carry a tune. The tunes he found were not just the interesting random notes which other scientists had predicted…Onnu found genuine music…sometimes with an uncanny similarity to the works of great composers.

Translated into sheet music and performed on the piano, a portion of mouse RNA…sounds like a lively waltz. Except for its quicker tempo, parts of the mouse RNA Waltz are dead ringers for passages in Frederick Chopin’s “Nocturnal Opus 55.”

The musical score within a cancer-causing oncogene sounds somber and funereal, while the gene responsible for bestowing transparency on the lens of the eye is filled with trills and flourishes…When Onnu translated a funeral march by Chopin from notes to chemical equations, “entire passages appear identical to a cancer gene found in humans…the same patterns which govern the movement of planets and galaxies also appear in genes and in music.” -Dr. Jill Niemark

Amazing - what do you think?

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the
violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for
about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was
calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of
them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle
aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and
stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.A
minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman
threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A
few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him,
but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he
was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3
year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped
to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child
continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was
repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception,
forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played,
only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money
but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he
finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one
applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the
violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He
played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin
worth 3.5 million dollars.Two days before his playing in the subway,
Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average
$100.00 each.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing
incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as
part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of
people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an
inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If
we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians
in the world playing some of the best music ever written, how many
other things are we missing?

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Check out this interview
Mary-Kathryn: Poured Out In Praise - CBN.com

It’s a huge honour to be going back to Lithuania this weekend to lead and speak at the Vineyard National worship Conference in Vilnius.

Vilnius is European city of culture this year and having been to this country twice in the past couple of years I’m really looking forward to seeing the capital for the first time.

My intrepid band will include Mark Rainey on drums, Ian (Eddie) Smyth on bass and me on acoustic with Adrian Logan joining the crew for the ride too.

The opportunity to both export something of what God is doing in our community and import something of what He’s doing in Lithuania is always an adventure.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime I’d welcome your prayers.

Cheers - Andy

Tags: Vineyard, worship Conference, Lithuania

Firstly What is a House Concert and how does it work?

A house concert is quite simply a live music performance in someone’s home. You invite your friends and acquaintances over to watch a live show. Each of your friends donates a few bucks/pounds/euros (depends where you are) for the privilege. You then get live music in your home. Your friends get a personalized, relaxed environment to experience great music.

It’s a rapidly growing phenomenon. In a New York Times front page article a number of years ago Dave Nachmanoff, a singer-songwriter from Southern California, said “Part of the reason for the boom of house concerts right now is people are so hungry for community but lacking in ways they can get together with other people in an intimate or friendly way that isn’t commercialized,”

Why Do A House Concert Tour?

A few weeks ago after a brief conversation with a friend in church all of a sudden it made sense to do a house concert tour.

In all the years I have been doing this (over 20 now - yikes!) I have led worship, sang, performed at local churches, big events with thousands attending, conferences both big and small, yet week-in-week-out most of what I do happens in small intimate settings. Small group in our home, sessions at C-HOP (local intercessory worship gathering) - it’s in these more intimate settings that the Lord’s presence seems more tangible, peoples lives are transformed as a result of God doing something in the room, in the intimacy of a few dozen folk gathered.

Don’t get me wrong I’m open to doing bigger events but I’m excited by the prospect of recapturing something of the early church model of house to house worship gatherings.

Where Will I Be Playing?

This is the exciting bit - it literally could be a world tour because you get to decide where I play, it could even be in your living room!

I’m asking you, my newsletter subscribers, MySpace & FaceBook friends to consider hosting or help organize a local house concert where you live. If you’re interested in that let me know where you are and based on where the interest comes from I’ll try to join-the-dots on the map and see if I can make it work. You could be in USA, Australia, Europe, UK, Ireland or somewhere else.

Seriously, nowhere is off limits to be considered.

What Can You Expect At One Of These House Concert Sessions?

You can expect passionate ‘Ethno-Celt‘ flavoured music and songs that have worship at the heart but can also be accessible to folks who are not yet followers of Jesus.

Here’s the twist. Each gig will be recorded, for a live album of the best bits and all the hosts and helpers will get a credit on the recording. Sometimes spontaneity is the highlight of these sessions and hopefully the recording will capture these unique moments.

I’d Love to Hear From You

Would you consider hosting or helping organize a house concert in your neighbourhood?

If so I’d love to hear from you, wherever you are on the planet - ask me for my ‘Hosting A house Concert Kit’.

Comment below or email me.

Cheers - Andy

Tags: houseconcerts

Well, here’s what I do

Embedded Video

Earlier in the week I had the privilege of leading worship at a very significant, but largely under-the-radar, event in the Senate Room of Stormont (our parliament here in Northern Ireland).

It was a gathering of intercessors and prophetic folks who are journeying the process of ‘Discipling a Nation’

In the words of my good mate Davy Kidd it’s “the idea that ‘we’ Christians representing all denominations can ‘Disciple a Nation’

So far the experiment seems to be working, this approach was formed out of our prophetic initiative for the 2006/2008 Global day of Prayer events. We basically follow this simple process;

   1. Listen to God for prophetic insight as to the issues he wants to deal with in our Government
   2. Bind any negative ideas, mindsets, or spirits to use another word, here on earth so that they may be bound in Heaven.
   3. Loose and release positive thoughts, mindsets and Holy Spirit empowered bible based replacements, to the political establishment
      and people.
   4. Pray into these directions  adding a ’shaft to the prophetic arrowhead’ so that Gods will may be carried through in our Nation.
   5. Try to communicate with other believers the issues that God has raised and we have begun to deal with.
   6. Then Watch the news or through our inside connections listen for testimony about changes.
   7. Finally give thanks and praise to God for allowing us to be a part of his will bringing his Kingdom here on earth.”

So that’s the process. Here are a couple of the things that came out of our time on Tuesday.

1. There was a sense that we have moved into a whole new fresh ’season’ after a prolonged period of transition.
2. However, In the coming weeks it will seem like the opposite of that. The analogy that was given was a picture of what happens just before a tsunami hits, there is a sudden outflow of tide and what once looked like a sandy golden beach suddenly becomes a rocky weed covered seabed.

It’s like the real nature of what’s going on in our land ‘below the surface’ get revealed - then comes the wave, in this case we’re praying for a wave of grace; mercy that triumphs over judgment.

Interestingly, one of the poignant worship moments on the night was from the old Welsh Hymn ‘Here is Love’. It was the last line turned into a prayer - ‘Let Heaven’s peace and perfect justice kiss this guilty world in love’.

Anyway, back to the treacle thing.

Anytime I find myself involved in these type of events where history can hinge on what we do it seems there can be a backlash sometimes!

Any spare prayers greatly appreciated!