This year saw the 20th anniversary of Operation Christmas Child, so as you can imagine there was lots of celebrating to be done. It is always really amazing to see people from so many different backgrounds, denominations, countries come together, because everyone is there for the same purpose, and you could barely tell that people there don’t all go to the same church. It just goes to prove that however ’split’ Christianity is in this country, actually when it comes down to it, we’re not really split at all, because we all have the same, one goal.

I was lucky enough to have a wonderful band to play with for the weekend, below is a picture from the weeekend.

Left to right: Pete (Keys) Steve (Guitar) Becca (BVs) Henry (Bass) Gaz, Harry (Drums)

It was definitely one of the best bands I have ever played with, and was such a laugh to just hang out over the weekend. It was quite hard to believe we only all met on Friday!

So thats that, If anyone that reads this is around the Chesterfield area next Saturday 26th June, I am playing at All Saints Church, Wingerworth at 7:30, It would be great to see you there.

I admit the one bit I am not looking forward to is the photoshoot! Not really a big fan of photos of myself, so we will see how that goes!

I am just working on a pre-order form for the EP, If you would like to pre order one, do let me know. Hopefully in the coming months this blog will be turned into more of a website, and as soon as I can give you a listen to some of the EP, i will let you know!

In the meantime, get on twitter… twitter.com/gazsimmonds and sign up to my mailing list by emailing gaz@gazsimmonds.com

After spending most of the afternoon picking songs for tonights maundy thursday service, and 2 good friday services tomorrow. I somewhere got inspiration to write a celebration song about the resurrection! It’s funny because it’s a song i have wanted to write for a very long time, almost like it has been on the tip of my tongue for months. And it all seemed to just go together, i then included part of a song that me and Andy Baker have been working on, which again fitted perfectly. But i have a feeling it may be a little too late to use it on Sunday, i’ll have another look over it tomorrow and see! I always seem to get inspiration when it’s a nearly too late!!

I really wanted to share this Youtube clip with You, The song is ‘Jesus Paid it all’ I find that it just speaks so much truth, so wanted to point you towards it, in preparation for tomorrow!

At first I didn’t really get why God would be Jealous. We are singing another song in church tomorrow, which also includes this word, as it says ‘See the Jealous Son of man, turn the tables upside down in Jerusalem…’ (Part of a kid’s song we are doing for Palm Sunday.) So in the practice today we were talking a little about God being a Jealous God.

Which inspired me to do a little more research… First of all, it is biblical! The idea of God being a Jealous God pops up numerous times in the Old Testament. Exodus 34:14 reads ‘Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.’

And Exodus 20:5 says ‘You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God’

I actually think that this is a really amazing thing, that God is Jealous for us. Jealousy is something that only really comes about from love, relationship. A man gets Jealous if the woman he loves goes off with another man. A mother gets Jealous if her Son tells her he loves his mother in law more (Though I am told this is not often the case… I wouldn’t know yet!!)

The point is I think there is a form of Jealousy that can be helpful. If a man wasn’t jealous that the woman he loves goes off with someone else, then I wonder if he really loves her? If a mother doesn’t get jealous if she finds her relationship with her son being lost, then there may be a slight worry?

Don’t misunderstand me there is definitely a lot of jealousy that is very unhealthy, again we read in the bible, this time in the 10 commandments: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.’

But Nearly all of the 10 commandments rely on God being a Jealous God, or they don’t really work, ‘Do not have other Gods before me’ Don’t make idols’ ‘Do not worship idols’ ‘Remember the Sabbath, keep it holy’ etc… If God is not Jealous then these wouldn’t work. He doesn’t give us these commandments because he wants to box us in, but he gives us these commandments because he loves us. He is not annoyed when we break them just because we are not meant to. He is annoyed because it ruins our relationship with Him. His Jealousy shows his love for us.

So going back to Jesus in the temple, was he Jealous at this moment? Yes I believe he was. I think he was more than Jealous, angry, furious, annoyed, but all of these spring from that Jealousy, if he wasn’t Jealous then he wouldn’t have a reason to be annoyed.

Its pretty late, these thoughts may all be very jumbled, but I wanted to share that with you anyway. I believe it is a real part of God that we don’t think about enough. Knowing he is all loving, Jealous for us. Knowing that when I give my worship to money, or the latest material thing, God doesn’t just think ‘Oh no, he’s done it again!’ But actually, He hates it. To me that makes me just want to give so much more of my self in worship, knowing that He really does care what I give my worship too.

Over the past month or so i have been working on songwriting and arranging songs. This has been a really good experience for me, taking my songs to other people and seeing what they reckon.

If anything sometimes it is good to just say goodbye to a song! For any of you who write songs, poems, or paint or whatever, sometimes you are really unsure about something you have made, and actually just need someone to say ‘no’ to put you out of your misery! So this has been great.

But also i have really enjoyed seeing songs develop and come from being rough ideas, being moulded into ‘proper’ songs! Over the past couple of days i have had the privelidge of doing some songwriting with Philippa Hanna (www.philippahanna.co.uk). It has been so good to have a fresh pair of ears and eyes working on these songs, we have worked on 2 songs together, of which i had the initial structure, but was really just very stuck with it! Today, one song went from being in 4/4 to being in 6/8, and then out of nowhere it seemed to just find life.

So yeh, really great process, enjoying every minute of it. I will try and fill you in as things progress. Can’t wait to share the finished thing with you!

So I have been meaning my latest exciting news. As you may or may not know one of my favourite things to do is to write songs. And over the past few of years i have been working on a number of songs. But never really done much with them.

But the plan is that this will soon change! I have recently teamed up with Andy Baker and Resound Media in Sheffield, www.resoundmedia.co.uk. So basically I will be bringing out a new EP in the coming months, as well as hopefully investing some time into doing some concerts etc. My main hope is really to take worship in the form of music outside the church walls a little. We really do box ourselves in a lot at church, and we allow ourselves to believe enough that God can really speak through our music to people outside the 4 walls of Church. I have been really challenged to have a go at this, with nothing in mind other than to glorify God and take the emphasis on church from being about 4 big old walls and religion, to it being about community, fun, and God!

Over the past couple of weeks we have started the arrangement process of a few songs, in the hope to record in a month or so. I will keep you updated with everything…

There was a really excellent atmosphere to the place, everyone was up for everything we did, and I was especially inspired by how willing people were to learn, and grow in their walk with God.

On Saturday night I had quite the traumatic experience however, when I got dressed up as a hoola girl, (Still with my original clothes on, don’t worry!) And was made to do various tasks, against my will. Including the dreaded food game, I hate all games food related! And then was asked to make up a dance routine with my team, for the song ‘Stacey’s mom’, not one I will be introducing at church any time soon. The video of which will probably never be shown anywhere, ever!

Today I lead a session on Worship, with just the Lads. One of my greatest prayers for the church is that we really try a little harder to grasp just how great our God is. Church, in my opinion is far too casual. We don’t get excited; we often offer lame, heartless, small worship just because ‘that’s what we’re supposed to do’. And this just doesn’t seem to match whom our God actually is. Our God is huge, amazing, and has such a heart for us, when I’m pretty sure it should be the other way round!

The God who made the universe, the world, the God who breathes out the stars, the God who speaks and light appears. This is a God we need to get excited about. A God that deserves more than a half raised hand once a week. A God that deserves more than our too often, lame worship.

Yet the most amazing thing is this is a God who makes Himself relevant to us as well. The God who came down, to give sight to the blind, bring life to the dead, and bring the lame to their feet.

One of the guys asked the question, God created everything, even the sun, and there is even stars bigger than the sun. Then he must be bigger than everything he has created, so how does he speak to us?

This kind of baffled me, because I always go straight to Jesus for the answer to a question like this. But so often we dumb down the sacrifice that Jesus made. This is not about a great man coming to earth to help us out. This is about God, who created matter, time and space. Who holds the universe in the palm of his hand, giving everything for us, forfeiting all glory for us, becoming so small, for us.

In the scheme of thing’s a miracle like making a blind man see, is only the start of things, but a God so big we cannot even imagine, becoming a fetus so we could understand, now that is amazing.

But we made it, and it was worth it! They played for close to 2 and a half hours! Including taking the role of their own support act, as the ‘Cutting edge band’ taking us back to where they started. Who would have known they were going to pull out ‘Men of Faith’?! And ‘The Happy Song’! Excellent.

It really struck me when they were performing, just how many powerful songs they have written, song after song was soaked in the incredible message of the gospel, and portray real hope and salvation. So many of their lyrics blow me away completely. It was like every song God was giving me a little nudge as if to say ‘Yep, thats me!’

There is always the old debate about performance and worship and whether the 2 should mix. And i totally believe they do. There is something amazing about seeing an example of worshippers, because although all the words may not be on the screen, and the songs may go above C or whatever worship leaders are told not to do. Your heart can’t help but jump on board and worship with them, even in the quiet of my heart i found myself in awe of Gods love, and through the lyrics, I couldn’t help but sing along and offer it to God deep within, even if i had no idea of the melody!

There was something really great about a packed secular venue, full of worshippers, worshipping using a slightly different expression than perhaps we are used to. God has really used these guys over the past 15 or so years. I know he will continue to do so in other ways. But it was really so encouraging to see 5 normal men, who simply gave everything they have to see Christ lifted in this world. There is not enough bands like Delirious in the UK, so if you’re reading, and this is your thing. Get on it!

If we take a walk up the high street, we walk past places such as Starbucks, Pizza Hut, PC World, and HMV. As we look in these shops we see queues of people waiting in line to buy the things that bring them joy, or at least the things they think will bring them joy. And while all these things may be very different, they all have something in common. They all attract a very wide variety of people. They are all culturally relevant. If Starbucks didn’t use their smart, swish advertising and marketing, then they wouldn’t gain half the amount of customers they have over the past few years. Because of their style, it has become cool to walk around with a Starbuck’s cup, if they only had the really nice drinks, but awful marketing then they would not sell half as much, which is sad because there will be many coffee makers out there with amazing coffee, but due to awful marketing, will sell next to none.

If PC World were still selling PC’s from 1995, and only Nintendo 64 games, it is doubtful that they would be still doing such a roaring trade. Yet they regularly update their stocks, to stock the things people look for; they regularly change the look of their shop, etc.

In this world today, as sad as it may be, people like to see what they are getting. The rule of not judging a book by its cover seems to have past away. If people see style, culture and care, put into their products then they will go for them, or at least try them out.

Many Churches now a days seem to have completely discounted themselves from the world. Scripture calls us to be ‘in the world, but not of it.’ Yet I think sometimes we go too much for the ‘not of it’ part! I believe that we need to remind ourselves that we are still called to be ‘In the world’. Church is first and foremost for God, to bring Glory to his name and to lift Him high. Secondly Church is about the people; it’s about the family of God coming together. But when we say the Family of God, we don’t just mean the 15 Families that have been coming to this Church for 10 years. But we mean everyone. We need to be striving to make our church accessible for outsiders, for non-church folk.

If we look at a church like Hillsong, most people who do not go to this Church would straight away say, ‘there is too much consumerism’, ‘It’s too much like a concert’, etc etc. And their opinions are not invalid because for many people not used to this style of doing things then this is exactly what Hillsong may look like. Yet somehow people love to go there. Thousands of people go all over the world to worship together at Hillsong. And the reason is, it is culturally relevant. People go to Hillsong Church, and it doesn’t feel unfamiliar. The marketing is not dissimilar to something they would pick up on the High Street, and the music is not unfamiliar to them, and it doesn’t take them back 15 years, or to their Childhood. It is a beautiful, fresh expression of worship.

Being culturally relevant does not mean our Church has to look like Hillsong, though they do a great job, there is still need for so many different styles of Churches. Starbucks is not for everyone, which is why there are franchises such as Costa Coffee, and Coffee Republic, which also do such a good trade. Please don’t misunderstand me; Church is definitely not about consumerism, and looking good. But In the world we live in now, it is no longer just word of mouth that brings people to our Church. When I look online at different Churches websites, if I come across a bad website, or a website that hasn’t been updated for a few months, then I click off if I’m honest, as I would with most other websites. Though each churches website may not be an accurate representation of their church, this is often how it comes across in the world today. I believe we need to strive to make our Church attractive so that people want come.

Obviously then, when they do come it is nothing to do with marketing, but it is then all about how we welcome them, and how honest and accessible our worship is for them to join in. But when we worship a creator God, in such a creative world. We need to make efforts to the best of our Abilities, to attract people, and show them that Church, and God mean so much to us that we strive do it well.

I am definitely not talking about every church, and I am definitely not saying every church should be trying to advertise like Starbucks, because for example an older generation would still prefer a more ‘traditional’ coffee shop, but even those coffee shops advertise in such a way that attracts that kind of customer.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this if you are reading; obviously it is something everyone may have a different view on. Thanks for reading.