Living Open Source

Jesus gives his disciples a lesson in elementary mathematics. Exactly how many times should we be prepared to forgive? Time to reach for the calculators…

Since Easter day, we have been exploring the theme of hope and resurrection in church. Making much use of Tom Wright’s Surprised by Hope, it has been an interesting experience to challenge some of the accepted understandings that people hold to. Having noted the lack of appropriate songs, I’ve also had a go at writing [...]

Well, that is at least what my kids have affectionately called it. I wrote this song recently and finally found some time to try and have a go at recording it – probably badly. The song is based pretty solidly on Psalm 8, one of my favourite Psalms. Not least because we did it to [...]

Well, I loved Jars of Clay‘s new Love Came Down track so much, I wanted to be able to play it myself. There is a song book out, but of course it hasn’t reached this side of the water! The chords are actually very easy. The original mp3 is available for free download at last [...]

One of my favourite Christian bands, Jars of Clay have a Christmas songs album out. They have a nice animated version of the nativity to accompany one of their songs as well as a book of reflections (Life as Advent).

At the end of last year I managed to pick up a Yamaha PSR2000 for a few pennies. I have used it a few times at church now and it strikes a good compromise between using backing CDs and the lack of other musicians. If you don’t have many musisians, this may be a solution [...]

The latest single from The Beautiful South, all about Manchester and the rain. This is where I grew up – so it’s a great song! From Cheetham Hill to Wythenshawe it’s rain Gorton, Salford, Sale pretty much the same What makes Britain Great, Makes Manchester yet greater… Rain! And you can watch the video right [...]