Vineyard Worship Leaders' Retreat 2003
We arrived at Lee Abbey in glorious sunshine at the end of a busy week. It was great to be welcomed with such hospitality into this faith community of over 80 individuals from all over the world.

The view from the front of the Abbey is awesome - rolling hills plummeting to reveal the glistening bay.

In the evening Peter Davids (PD) introduced us to his topic of 'a biblical perspective on woship leading' through the illustration of the people of Rohan and their King. They call out "command us o King" - a great expression of what worship is.

The following day PD took us through the old and new testament asking what is our model for leading? He concluded that in the new testament there is no mention of worship leading, in fact there is very little mention of singing. In the OT we're faced with a different culture, the Jewish temple (which he vividly contextualised for us with his slaughter house-come-butchers description).

In the NT the physical 'temple' was superceded by the 'people' and therefore we can’t easily fall back on the OT as our reference point.

PD explained the living sacrifice involved in true worship. How our songs are merely a fragment of our day to day service of those around us. When we come to sing songs it is merely one aspect of our whole week spent worshipping.

In the evening Dan Wilt spoke on living in ‘sacred style’, how the church is in a phase of transition. We are called both ‘home’, to the centre and to the edge. His desire was that our interaction with the world will change from a monologue to a dialogue, no longer seeing the churches’ role as telling the world what it is not.

We will look beyond the walls of our buildings and see God working in the lives of those all around us, no longer limiting His work to our domain.

That’s my summary done with – all in all a cool weekend.

I had fun tonight chilling out with Emily and Claire. We went down the Bay and enjoyed some Chai Latte (a personal favourite), then wandered and finally ended up at Viv's. It was cool to just hang out and laugh a lot. God did a good thing when he invented laughter.

I've just noticed that we've been listed at 'sites unseen' a resource of recommended links for followers of Jesus. Cheers guys.

Have just come to the end of a rather busy few days. I've been working in the solicitors office doing admin. while trying to recover from the retreat last weekend. To make things even more interesting I had a 4 hour wait in casualty on Tuesday night only to be told that my knee was bruised.

I feel like I'm learning though which is good. I'm going to have a good night's sleep and then write something about the retreat.

I've just discovered that my good friend Tom Hope is in the realm of blog! Also, more importantly, he's getting married! Congratulations Tom and Nicola.

Today I went to see Chris' photo exhibition. I was very impressed with his prints which he did through tissue paper etc.

I'm back from Lee Abbey having had a great weekend. Far too tired to say anything profound - still processing everything. Watch this space for a roundup.

Today Lewis and I are off to a 'worship leaders retreat' at Lee Abbey in Devon. It should be a good weekend. I'll be out of blog range for a few days ;-)

A few of us hooked up at AJs (coffee house) for a time of coffee, sharing and prayer. I came away feeling incredibly privileged to have such a real, vulnerable group of friends. I think the awesome thing was that without any strong, human leadership we had a time that included worship, teaching, ministry - all informal and peer based!

I love the fact that God can meet with us wherever we are.

+Thank you God for your provision, thank you that the less we try to 'perform' the more you are able to shine through. Thank you that you take us where we are at+

Back from a few days at my friends the Parfitts. I really enjoy spending time with Lewis and Maria. They involved me with everything (well, a lot). Thanks for having me. Here's a pic of lewis in his native land.

Bristol Vineyard have finally done gotten themselves a live website. Check it out.

I've been going through the post-exam, unstructured crisis. It's crazy because you spend so much time looking forward to being off that when you finally are it's like a massive letdown. I guess I'm used to not having that many decisions to make and now that the world is my oyster so to speak I'm a bit confused.

King Balti RIP
We went down to the King Balti on Albany Road last night for our Fathers' Day curry only to find it had vanished. It left in its place a Mexican/Tapas bar called "etc." For a moment we were thrown off, struggling for words - how could it be gone? Reminiscing about happy memories just weeks before when our communities had indulged on their delicious pan-Asian cuisine. Soon we snapped out of it and went to Balti Empire just down the street.

Went to hear the Scratch Perverts at Cardiff Students Union last night. What a great night. They started out with their usual mix of new and old school hip hop from MOP (feat. Busta Rhymes) through Tribe called Quest, working it up to what must have been 45 minutes of real hard drum'n'bass from the likes of Twisted Individual via a remix of Breathe from the Prodigy. It's great to hear some turntablists mixing drum'n'bass, it brings a whole new angle on things.

The dance floor was electric all night, gradually giving it more and more energy as the atmosphere lifted and the beats got harder. When they dropped Nevermind in at the end everyone just went insane. Possibly the best time (out of 5 times) that I've heard them and definately the most dancy.

We visited the Purcell family earlier for the first time since their new arrival. Chara took great pleasure in showing off her new baby sister, Madlen Anne Purcell, who was born on Thursday (5th) at 6.14pm and weighed in at 7lb 2oz. Here she is sleeping:


And here she is eyeing my mum with suspicion:


They even let me hold her (the first time I've ever held a new born baby!) How exciting. Congratulations guys!

Look there's a pic of Zoe on the Web click here to view them and read the story of the guy who jumped the sky tower with them!

Took the matrix test that I discovered on Kevin Rains' blog...here's what it told me:


You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

that's nuts man, I must have answered the questions wrong!

Exams are over...very happy. I understood all the questions in my 20th Century European Intellectual History. woop woop. Partying ahead.

Congratulations to our friends Ian and Karen. Chara has a new baby sister! Madlen Anne Purcell was born today at 6.15pm. Weighing in at a grand 7lb 2oz. Our resident midwife in training - Kathryn - delivered her!

Got through my European Federalism exam this morning. The questions were pretty good. Please pray for my brain, it's beginning to feel a little strained and tomorrow's 20th Century European Intellectual History is quite a 'thinker.' Questions on Foucalt's conservatism and stuff like that. In fact if you could pray that I actually understand the questions that'd be ace.

I turned up for my European Federalism exam one day early (this morning). I don't know how I managed to mis-read the timetable. Land Law on Monday went real well which was a big answer to prayer. I only had 2 days of hardcore prep for it as earlier last week had been knocked out by a virus that made my head spin. The questions were better than I could have dreamed!

Just 2 more days of ::stress:: and it'll all be over. Thanks for all your prayers.