Q: What is the vision behind the album?
JC: It is in part a resource for the Church; certainly some worship leaders want some new songs for their small groups, but when you’re making any kind of record it’s not purely functional. We’ve gathered singers from across the movement, musicians that we believe are really skilled and creative and we don’t want to lock them down. There’s always a tension between letting creativity flow and getting the album recorded.
Q: Can you talk more about that tension?
CC: I like to think that we’re documenting songs that are coming out of the UK Vineyard movement. In a typical secular recording, you would normally have a live album as a secondary product, but in our world the live album is often the only product. When it’s done well I don’t think there’s a better way to document worship music. It’s the best thing to capture that live Holy Spirit dynamic, and it’s great for churches to hear how songs go so they can adopt them into their own worship ministry.
Q: As a record label manager, is it hard to balance the tension between being a worship ministry and selling records?
JC: Sometimes it feels like marketing is a dirty word in worship ministry ? we constantly ask, ‘How do we present Vineyard worship?’ We’re not trying to make these guys into rock stars; it’s more a case of when we come together and feel the songs have been God-given and we want people to hear them.
Q: Jimmy, you’ve said online that you believe that God is breathing afresh ? what do you mean by that?
JC: This is the first live recording in London since Hungry, which was the most significant Vineyard UK release.
Since then we’ve grown as a movement, but alongside church growth, it felt like the worship folks were feeling a little bit lost for a while. But now when I think of our worship community, there’s a real sense of everyone rooting for one another and building relationships. Out of this there is a harvest of new songs, but that’s not the only fruit. Much more important is the increased hunger for worship and a passion for engaging deeper.
Spirit Burn is out now. vineyardrecords.co.uk
JIMMY AND CASEY’S TOP FIVE TIPS FOR BUDDING SONGWRITERS
- SING YOUR PRAYERS: John Barnett once said, ‘Don’t try to write songs; sing your prayers.’ Good advice for budding songwriters who find professional writing daunting.
- WRITE WITH THE DOOR CLOSED: Some wise advice from Matt Redman. Songwriters should write like no one is listening.
- THEN OPEN YOUR DOOR: After that, open your door and scrutinise what you’ve done. Invite others into the process and don’t be too protective.
- WRITE IN COMMUNITY: Be generous, collaborate and don’t hold too tightly to your songs. Let other people sing them.
- WRITE FOR YOUR LOCAL CHURCH: Have a sense of what God is doing in your church; by and large the great anthems of the worldwide Church began this way.
