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.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Sunday, 31 January 2010
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
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
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
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
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
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
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Romania
Hi,
Big thanks to all of you who came out to support the Romania team on Saturday night. The team have more or less met their fundraising target. It was a great night of worship. Thanks also to the MarkFergusonBand who came out to support - you guys did a good job.
We haven't blogged as a band in a while - no excuse really but I feel there's a lot of stuff brooding so over the next few weeks I hope to add my fair share of thoughts and hopefully you will respond and help expand our hearts, vision and understanding.
Hope you are all well.
Claire
Big thanks to all of you who came out to support the Romania team on Saturday night. The team have more or less met their fundraising target. It was a great night of worship. Thanks also to the MarkFergusonBand who came out to support - you guys did a good job.
We haven't blogged as a band in a while - no excuse really but I feel there's a lot of stuff brooding so over the next few weeks I hope to add my fair share of thoughts and hopefully you will respond and help expand our hearts, vision and understanding.
Hope you are all well.
Claire
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Resonate 08
The Johnny Parks Band have been very kindly welcomed into the Resonate family over the years and now they are considering setting up a committee so that we can come and see them more often. (I'm not sure that we have time Pete but keep us posted!) It was a privilege to be involved in yet another resonate event. We missed the intimacy and extreme heat of the upper room but we had a blast in the Jethro Centre, Lurgan. Approximately 400 people gathered to worship with the Mark Ferguson Band who opened the night and then the Johnny Parks Band who played 2 sets with a wee sermon from Jools Hamilton in the middle.
The guys who run this event have a real heart for God and a real desire to create a place for people to come and worship in the Lurgan/Portadown area. As Johnny rightly said during our set, it is a fantastic opportunity for those of you down that neck of the woods to catch the vision and take ownership of this event. It is a real treat to be able to worship God alongside people from every kind of denomination and so we'd encourage you to check it out, get to know these guys and get involved in promoting and praying for it.
We had a great time playing the songs from the new record and hope that you'll get out to hear us soon.
Check out the website for information on when we're playing at a venue near you!!
x Bo
The guys who run this event have a real heart for God and a real desire to create a place for people to come and worship in the Lurgan/Portadown area. As Johnny rightly said during our set, it is a fantastic opportunity for those of you down that neck of the woods to catch the vision and take ownership of this event. It is a real treat to be able to worship God alongside people from every kind of denomination and so we'd encourage you to check it out, get to know these guys and get involved in promoting and praying for it.
We had a great time playing the songs from the new record and hope that you'll get out to hear us soon.
Check out the website for information on when we're playing at a venue near you!!
x Bo
Monday, 3 December 2007
album & launch
You may have heard me mention once or twice that we have recorded a new album which is due for release in about 10 days. I really hope you go out and buy one for yourself and all your friends and family.
I also just want to make you aware of the fact that you can purchase the album and a ticket for the launch gig on 4th Jan, The Spires, for £20 (bargain!).
BlueTree will be supporting and we are pleased to have Tré Sheppard along to speak at the event. Promises to be a fantastic evening, just what you need after a week of family, board games and turkey sandwiches. Tickets are on sale in CFC and the JohnnyParks website. Get your ticket soon!
Can't wait to see you there.
x
I also just want to make you aware of the fact that you can purchase the album and a ticket for the launch gig on 4th Jan, The Spires, for £20 (bargain!).
BlueTree will be supporting and we are pleased to have Tré Sheppard along to speak at the event. Promises to be a fantastic evening, just what you need after a week of family, board games and turkey sandwiches. Tickets are on sale in CFC and the JohnnyParks website. Get your ticket soon!
Can't wait to see you there.
x
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