All of which is not to make excuses for letting the site stagnate a little bit (although the Calendar is always up to date), I just want to try and give my actual excuses to some better context.

The combination of family, worship leading, theREIGN, work and university have made it very difficult to keep on top of everything internet so, as I said at the top … sorry. I can’t promise that everything will be slicker and more up to date from here on, but I will try.

The major thing for me over the last few months has been a surprising and inspiring clarity of purpose for my songwriting in particular, and my general ministry in broader terms.

Over the last couple of years I have become “concerned” (not really the right word but the closest I can get) that I am constantly fighting against my songs all being about the same things, as if I have nothing else to say. If you have been paying attention to my writing, and heard some of my recent songs: Every Sound I Make, Never Failing Love, One Eternal Flame, We Are Yours being the most striking (but not only) examples, there are two themes that run unquestionably through them.

First, the marriage of the eternal and the personal, starting off the song with a vision of God as a mighty creator, Lord of the whole universe, etc. and then moving onto a vision of God as one who loves us as individuals and sent his own Son to die for each one of us because he loved us. Those two things might be at the heart of the Christian message, but as a songwriter, do I really want to spend all my time singing about generalities like that? I though not … more on that in a moment.

Secondly, starting with Where Jesus Touches the Earth, a lot of my writing is a plea for God’s people to rise up and be salt and light in the world. Again, a fundamental spiritual message but one that is inherently broad and general in nature.

In the case of each of these songs, with the possible exception of Never Failing Love I tried to move them in different directions, but in the end had to concede defeat (something you tend to have to do when you try to second guess what God is wanting from you).

And then, just prior to Christmas, as I was struggling with the same issues with the then half finished We Are Yours, God suddenly made his purpose clear to me. I am paraphrasing massively here, but he basically told me that these songs were needed. That is a big thing to hear, let me tell you. In the same way as he inspired me several years ago to tend my songwriting towards songs written from the collective, focussing on the body of the church (i.e. from “we” and “us”) rather than focussing on the individual (“me” and “I”) this was simply the next step he wanted me to take … not just singing songs which bind us together in worship, but singing songs that bind us together in a commitment not just to worship for worship’s sake, but to worship as preparation for ministry and action in our families and in our communities. And in the wider world.

In light of that revelation suddenly all of those songs make sense, and I can see a distinct pattern running through them moving from one to another. That doesn’t come from my addled little brain that is for certain. I take significant solace in the fact that I am not in ultimate control of my writing … that, even when I don’t feel like I am hearing directly the word of God for my songwriting, it is clearly getting through to me and I am able to respond (with or without the bar fight that goes with it).

I will be looking to get all of my songs up here (there are half a dozen or so that aren’t on the site at all at the moment) in some form or another over the next few months. Certainly once we hit the university summer vacation in 6 weeks time, I should have more space to get some files and recordings put together.

I hope you like them, and feel able to give them a whirl in your churches.

Every blessing,
David

Further details can be found on the Rock Eucharist website.

The site is not completely finished yet, but it is almost there, and work is continuing over the next few days to bring everything bang up to date.

Go have a look, and leave a comment to let the band know what you think of it.

Every blessing,
David

Also on the Buy Stuff page are links to our merchandise stores at Cafepress and Spreadshirt, where you can buy t-shirts, bags, hats, all that sort of thing … as well as the TFKM song book (although I would hold off on that, as we are planning to release a new edition very shortly).

If you check out the Cafepress store, we have introduced some new items related to the release of 96, including a handsome t-shirt, which comes in various colours, a striking new coffee mug and a cool tote bag.

Happy shopping, and every blessing,
David

A brand new song called Lift High His Name was written over days two and three of the conference, while a second, called Special To You was written entirely during the 10 minute walk from the tent to the evening celebration on day 5 (Thursday) as a result of an off the cuff remark.

Phil Gray, member of theREIGN and fellow St Barnabasite, was due to lead worship the following Sunday morning and struggling to come up with more than one song specifically about how we are special in the eyes of God, so I jokingly said “Don’t panic, I’ll write you one. Ha ha.”.

Never joke in front of the Lord. Twenty minutes later, there it was. It has taken a week back at home to fine tune it into abandonable format (art is never completed, only abandoned, after all) but essentially that 10 minute walk was all it took.

If only I always found songwriting that straightforward!

The “half” song alluded to earlier, called We Are Yours, is a song that I started to write (it had a chorus) at Spring Harvest 2010, and New Wine inspired some verses and lyrics so that should also now be completed pretty soon.

What I need to do is find a way to calm and focus my mind so I can write songs when I am not at a conference. Whether that will be easier or harder once I start at University in September only time will tell.

Every blessing,
David

The album will be available at the concert, and also online (as a CD and partial download) via the TFKM Store. Sadly, licensing restrictions mean that we can only make the songs we didn’t write available in physical format (i.e. CD in this case) and not downloadable. That means that 9 of the audio tracks will be available electronically.

The launch concert begins at 6:30pm, entry is free, and it will provide an opportunity to say a final farewell to Paul and Kev as they leave the lineup once and for all, as well as a rousing hello to Rob and Simon as they fully take over the guitaring and drumming duties. There will also be a very special finale featuring the massed bands of theREIGN!

I really hope that as many of you as possible will be able to join us on September 10th to celebrate the launch of the band’s third (and first live) album.

Every blessing,
David

Obviously more time has been spent on theREIGN in recent years, hence the site here has seen less activity (from my end at least) than it once did, but I hope you still find it to be a useful resource for my songs, and I particularly appreciate those people who visit here to check up on my diary and pray for my involvement with worship events around the City, and further afield, both solo and with the band.

As the band gears up for an active couple of months to come, including the release of our first live album, I thought I would commemorate this auspicious day by taking a look back over 10 years of the TFKM website, and I am enormously grateful to the Internet Wayback Machine for keeping copies of the earlier versions of the site … because I didn’t!

Below you will find images from various versions of the TFKM home page going all the way back to 2001. Sadly, moving the site onto WordPress in 2008 has made it impossible for the Wayback Machine to archive the look of the site any longer. The text, yes, but not the style. Click on the thumbnails to see them in all their “glory”.

	[2001] The original home page, first activated on 21 April 2011, but not fully launched until the release of I Will Follow was imminent. Looks very dated now, but the web was a different place in those days.
	[2002] I soon got bored of that text heavy look, and wanted to give the whole place a little more style … judge for yourself how successful I was. The “Error” in the top blue bar is where the Flash navigation was located. Took ages to get the frames working right, and I really shouldn’t have bothered.
	[2003] More Flash … navigation bar, news ticker etc., but still basically an HTML site, and that fixed width style with the solid, coloured credit bar at the bottom became the signature look for all my websites for a while. It was a pain to keep up to date, but I still really like this design …
	[2004] … as evidenced by the fact that the next re-design was more of a tweak. Shuffle the images around on the home page, make it a little more informative, that sort of thing. Otherwise the 2004 version is essentially the same as 2003.
	[2006] The site moved onto the PHPNuke CMS, basically because I could install that automatically within my web host. After many aborted styles, this became the look of TFKM for a couple of years, before Nuke’s security holes and ease of hacking drove me into the arms of WordPress where I have been ever since.

I hope you have enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of TFKM’s online history. Keep an eye out for the new songs as they appear over the next few months, and for the arrival of 96, theREIGN’s live album which is due for release in the next few months.

Every blessing,
David

Every blessing,
David