Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters

Hi,
I've just been contemplating this evening whilst learning some songs for some lovely session work with a friend and having a meal with my husband whilst chatting about life. I've been thinking about the 'success' of many of my friends who happen to also work in the worship industry.

It's such a privilege to be involved in leading worship.

It's such an unbelievable joy to work with other people (specifically those involved in recording and working with a record company) who aren't concerned about who might become more famous but who just want to simply worship the Lord and collaborate with others in the process. It expands my heart. It is good to be overwhelmed with love at times.

It's an honour for me to promote the people around me I love: Johnny Parks - true friend, fantastic songwriter, amazing thinker, truly humble, head screwed on!!!! A lesson to me in integriy! The Rend Collective Experiment - great songs, great guys, great hearts, great support and great creativity! (and kinda my band too! Thanks guys!), Brian Houston - charisma, great songwriter, a father of sorts. Kathryn Scott - lovely lovely friend, great role model, priorities in place, huge anointing, heart for the Lord that inspires me, example in purity and loveliness! Aaron Keyes - a lesson in pastoral care! a lesson in encouragement!

It might seem weird to list people in this way but these are my friends. To some they may be more famous and to others their names don't mean much but to me they mean a great deal because I've found people to work alongside who inspire me to walk a deeper walk with my Father. I'm genuinely thankful and trust that when you have the privilege of being led in worship by any of them or the countless others who lead, that you too will honour the work they put in to bringing you into the presence of the Lord. Some of these guys are in Ireland and some in other parts of the world but we are family. Our heart is to see people worship the Lord and know him more deeply. It is good to honour our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters!

God Bless
Claire

Preparation for leading

There are many expectations on us worship leaders: to perform; to bring something new, fresh, vibrant; to satisfy the requirements of our audience who do indeed expect high standards; to live as examples of worship - pure, spotless, humble, talented, sacrificial, gentle, strong, resilient; to write songs without cliché or triteness; to play better than before; to lead with vision, strength, integrity and purpose.

So with all this in mind I consider leading worship in my local church. How can I prepare to lead worship with all these expectations of both myself and the congregation whirling round my mind?

Humility.

Not humility so that I can achieve all of the above. Humility to recognise that I am simply a child of God longing to worship my Father and praying that as I do, others will meet him to.

Simplicity.



Today I'm starting with James 1:21
"So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls."


My belief is that God is the author; he is more able to write the worship story for every individual I have the privilege of leading in worship, than any worship leader, band, pastor or ministry team. So today I fix my eyes on Him and humbly ask Him to write a beautiful story of worship in the lives my church community.

The Plan

I trust that you are all well. I thought it’d be great to share with you some of my plans for this year.


So…to cut a long story short…I am going to be working with Survivor Records with the intention of doing a number of recordings this year. Songs will be available to download and then later in the year you can buy the CD. It is a very exciting time for me and probably time to sit down and do some work. I will start the recording process in February and will fill you in throughout the process.

Thanks
Claire

Update

Hi everyone,


Since going back to teaching after a year’s career break life has been FULL ON! I’ve been leading worship at Kingdom Culture, Dublin, supporting Mark Tedder when he visited Northern Ireland in the Autumn, and playing the odd few gigs with local singer/songwriter/musician Brian Houston. I’m still playing for the JohnnyParksBand and I’ve played a few times with Eoghan Heaslip including New Wine Ireland and Mission Worship, Eastbourne (back in November). More recently I have started playing for the Rend Collective Experiment…and as I write this I wonder am I far too busy? How do I get time to do my day job?

It has been an amazing journey over these last number of months and I am even more delighted and excited about starting to lead worship in CFC, Belfast (my home church). This is really where everything flows from and so I am grateful to this local family for welcoming me in.

I’ve been writing lots of songs and getting to co-write with some fantastic people and there’s more of that to come. It’s such a gift writing with other people and such a fantastic opportunity to hone the gift of songwriting that we’ve been given. I hope this time results in songs that bless, encourage, strengthen, bring healing and maybe even awaken us (the church) to things we’ve needed stirred up again.

The next year promises to be full, challenging, enriching and very exciting. I am going to be involved in a variety of projects and conferences which will be listed in the events section of my page. I hope that you can come along and that you will introduce yourself if we haven’t already met.

I'm going to start blogging again so I hope you'll get involved in the discussions!

Godbless

Claire

Blog

Hi everyone,
Updates and a variety of discussion topics centred round worship will be commencing again on my blog. You can read these on my fanpage or can go directly to my blog at:
http://clairehamilton.blogspot.com

Thanks
Claire