New CD from Steve

Steve was born in Newcastle-under-lyme in Staffordshire UK to his parents Frank and Gyll, has one brother John. He is currently living in Abbotsford, BC, Canada with his wife Karen and their children (now young adults) Josh and Amy.

Steve has been involved in Worship Ministry since 1994, and has been Worship leader/ pastor at South West London Vineyard and Winchester Vineyard in the UK. He has been writing worship songs for some years now and had his first published song Holy Fire on the Vineyard UK album “Come now is the time” in 1998.

He moved to Abbotsford BC in September 2005 and is working as a Family Doctor in Mission, BC as well as leading worship at The Bridge as part of the church family.

[thebridgeonline.ca]

He recorded his first CD “Arise”as a home project in 2004 and has just completed a  second produced by Philip Janz [philipjanz.com]  entitled “War of love” which will soon be available online via [ionworship.org]

See album bio.

The "War of love" is the story of the romancing and pursuing of His Bride by Jesus as Bridegroom. The story is one that is as old as time itself; the call of the lover has been sung since the beginning of creation and continues to this day. It is a song from a passionate God, whose love is unchanging and unremitting for us, his sometimes reluctant and at times outright rebellious Bride.

        “Arise, My darling, my beautiful one, come with me” Song of Songs 2:10
 
The album contains both Warfare songs and songs of love and intimacy. The War is that which is being fought by God, for our hearts, against the enemy of our souls who is bent on our destruction and turning us from our true love. The weapons in the spiritual realm are violent, but the weapons in the natural are those of love, tenderness, service and romance. There is a powerful lover, who could overcome His bride and force her to submit, but chooses not to and in a patient, passionate, gentle way, calls her to walk into intimacy with him. To a life of worship.

        “Even now…….. return to me with all your hearts” Joel 2:12

 I hope you enjoy the songs, but more than that I pray that through them God will challenge you as he has me, to hear the call of Jesus as lover. To realise that there is rebellion at times in my heart and to surrender to my Lord, who calls me to return to Him. There is a call to purity, through repentance which we must all hear and respond to before we can truly be the Bride (Church) that he desires and deserves and be joined with Him in this Divine Romance.

 This project is a true testimony to the Body of Christ functioning together. You will hear the voices and the musical skills of some wonderful friends of mine, some amazing people that God has placed in my life over the years. The subtitle to the album should be “Guys I need some help with this” they have responded with all the passion and commitment of a worshipping community. I have the greatest friends-what more can I say-thank you Lord.

We are called to a life of service (Mark 9: 42-45). We are called to serve the world as Jesus has done, to bring healing to the suffering, honour to the broken and justice to the dispossessed (Isaiah 61). The message of Jesus on earth was that the Kingdom of God has come, now in part-finally one day in completion. The drums are beating in anticipation, the trumpet sounds a call to be the hands and voice of Jesus in this age, until he returns in triumph. Will we answer His call, to something bigger than us?  Will we lay down our lives, in His service. We may fall physically in this battle-but we must go anyway.

A song from Psalm 144, where David comes right out of the gate  and says “Praise be to the Lord my Rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” His world was somewhat different to ours and at times the battles were very real. For us the battle is no less real, simply more difficult to see.

This is the first of many songs that have come from my wonderful friendship with Brian Doerksen. We have been writing together for nearly 10 years now. In that time we have been journeying and fighting together and the songs are a product of that relationship. How unlikely is it that we would have met and become friends? I’ll tell you the story sometime-somewhere else. I guess just as unlikely as God moving my family from the UK to Canada to be part of a new church called “The Bridge” where Brian and are now leading worship together and preparing for battle once again. A duet with Jeff Deyo, a fellow warrior.

This song is one of the prophetic songs on the album and a duet with Brenton Brown. This is a call to the “Watchmen” to take to the walls and watch to see what the Lord is doing and respond; to watch for the movements of the enemy and be alert and be vigilant-to intercede. The song came from a powerful encounter with God, and I wrote in my journal the words much as they appear now. This is not a normal method of song writing for me and though the words are mine, I believe it contains the urgency of a call from the Lord to intercession, that the Church would become the place of hope it was always meant to be. Brenton and I first met in the UK in 1998 and became friends-it has been wonderful to see how God has used him and his music in the years since. He is someone who has bravely fulfilled his calling in the face of adversity-thank you for partnering with me on this song you are an inspiration.

This is one of the newest songs on the album, and one that has come out of what God is doing within our church which meets in the little town of Matsqui in the Fraser Valley in BC. It has given voice to something He is doing within our community-and we are realising that it is time for change. It is time for us to turn once again back to Him. In these days there is darkness, there are those that are held captive in addiction and have wandered away. The only way things can really change is if we look to the rule and reign of God, bow to his majesty and submit ourselves to His authority. In the 10 years we have known each other this is the first time Brian and I have recorded a song together. It is very special for me to hear.

This is a song based in the life of Peter, and contains the sense of journey that makes up our lives too. Jesus asks Peter who do you say that I am? Peter confesses that He is the Christ (Mark 8:29), the long awaited Messiah. He also confesses on another occasion that this being so-where else can He go but to Him. We are also called to follow, to leave the comfort of our homes- sometimes literally.  In Luke 5:4 Jesus tells Peter to put his boat out into the deeper water-for that was where the fish would be, he never forgot the result. Maybe for us at times staying too close to the shore will mean we aren’t able to fulfil the call on our lives-“It’s time to follow”

This is one of those songs that I wasn’t sure could be sung! It comes from Hosea 4, and Joel 2 and is the voice of God through the prophets telling the people of Israel what He was seeing. This is His case against his rebellious Bride. It is easy for us to ignore and suggest that the Lord’s observations are true of our culture-however, unfortunately it is a message to the Church, written to us! Our Lord has come do we tremble in His presence. The days foretold have begun-and the message from the very heart of God is “Return to me” in submission and repentance. One day it will be too late until then......

Thank you to Tracy Rahn for an awesome vocal.

This song is one that follows the call to “Return” and here is sung as a response to it. Repentance consists of 2 actions. Firstly, acknowledging that we are heading in the wrong direction and asking forgiveness. Secondly, turning from where we are going to follow a new path. The greatest sin and the heart of God’s accusation is his brides “faithlessness” Hebrews 11 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. We must come to Jesus in repentance if we want to be a people who will pray and a people who will have no other God but Him. He will have it no other way.

Then, with confidence we can come in submission and ask that Jesus will have his way with us. As a gracious, passionate lover and Saviour-what else would we want?

Here Philip Janz joins me and adds his strength and passion to the cry for forgiveness and change


 

Here is the call to the Lover from the Bride. On the other side of submission and commitment she hears the call to intimacy. Here the heart of the bride awakes to the beauty of her lover and finds that she is surrounded and enfolded by him. This is the relationship that Jesus is looking for with each of us if we will respond; that he would be our contentment, the beauty of each new day, the laughter in the morning and the sunset in the evening. This song is wonderfully sung by Stephanie Lang, a young lady from our church you may not have heard of until now,-my sense is you soon will! Thanks Steph amazing.

A prayer of the early church was “Maranatha!” or “Come Lord Jesus!”

When we pray that prayer I have often wondered whether we truly understand what we are praying. For when Jesus returns in Glory it will result in the final judgement of all nations and the great battle to bring a final end to the work of His enemies (Rev 19: 11-21)  I have a sense that there is a move of God on the horizon-much like Elijah’s little cloud (1Kings 18:44) which we can see in the Spirit if we look. A storm is coming which will shake the malaise and complacency that we find ourselves in, which to some extent is a work of Satan and is a mirage. Storms generate waves that can change the appearance of the coastline and beyond. Even so “Come Lord Jesus”.

A wonderful old Hymn which has a timeless quality to it’s message.

Simply put “How Great Thou Art!”  There are times when words do not  adequately describe the greatness of God, even the majesty of the creation is but a poor reflection of his Glory. I have found that when I sing the last verse, and I see in my heart Christ coming and the shouts of acclamation that will result; I find my spirit leap and say “Yes Lord” in a way that goes way beyond words. We will bow for sure, we will. I want to rehearse that moment by bowing in surrender now. Let us be some of the first to the floor before His majesty. “Then sings my soul……..How great Thou art.”

I am joined here by Teresa Trask a friend from Abbotsford and a singer/ songwriter. What a voice-go Girl! A ballad this is not!!

The words are adapted from Ecclesiastes Ch3. I took some time out one afternoon to sit by one of the rivers here in British Columbia. The scene was beautiful but the shore was full of dead Salmon-having come to the end of their life cycle, and the season was changing from summer to fall (or autumn where I come from!) I was drawn to this passage of scripture as it underlined the sovereignty of God in all things to me; that there is a time for everything in life-the good and the bad-and whatever the experiences of every day life-His

Sovereignty is unchanged. There is a time for His Kingdom to come in fullness. Let us not forget the King is on His throne.

The words here are directly from Song of Songs Chapter 2.

I recently had the honour of being best man to my good friend Calum Rees as he married his lovely bride Joyce. (he also played the drums on much of this album before the said day-thankyou so much.) The joy in their union was amazing and palpable to all who were there. They wanted to be together so badly-that although we were all there to celebrate with them-they only had eyes for each other. They danced out of the ceremony literally-and into life as husband and wife. This song sung by Brian D, and Sharon Heap (who co-wrote the song with me in the UK) and is a song of celebration at the final union of Christ with us as his Bride.

This song came from the wedding vows and is another song I wasn’t sure could be done or not initially! It began with the line “Forsaking all others” which is really the heart of God’s call to us. He is a “jealous” God who wants our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Not to overpower or force us to submit, but to cherish and romance us with gentleness, patience and tenderness. This is an opportunity for the Bride of Christ (the Church) to sing her devotion to her Husband-Jesus, and to pledge faithfulness through life and beyond. The call to intimacy with our lover echoes through all of history-the invitation to the dance, to this Divine Romance. My thanks to Kathryn Scott, who has beautifully portrayed the bride.

Rev 22: 17

“ The spirit and the bride  say “Come!” and let him who hears say “Come!”

Whoever is thirsty, let him come: and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life”