On Wednesday several of us headed up the A1 (A road that two of us know only too well as it also leads to Lincoln and Skegness) to visit Peterborough Community Church in order to look at their new Kingsgate building that has been open just over a year.
The Church was founded in 1989 with 9 of them in a front room. Today each Sunday attracts something in the region of 1200 people. This makes it about three times bigger than Arun currently is.
From the point of view of my Job, it was good to share ideas with both Peterborough’s technical director and the others who came. I could list plenty of things that I’d love to take back to Arun. By that I don’t mean the entire £750k sound/light/computer/AV rig!
Actually it was some of the numbers that impressed me. The Church saved and raised approximately £3 million towards the building. This left them requiring a mortgage of £4.2 million. A build cost of about £7 million to get to the end of phase one, a further £3 million is needed to complete phase two. Once the Church start repaying the capital (as opposed to just the interest) on the mortgage their repayments will be around £35k a month.
Was the trip worth it? Well, I think so. I’ve got some things to think about and some things that the Church leadership want me to think about. So from that alone it was worth it.
This is, perhaps, an odd post from someone who hopes one day to earn money from the music industry. However various recent things have got me thinking;
Firstly, Prince (and now Ray Davies) opted to release his new album via a national newspaper. This seriously annoyed all the traditional retail outlets who, all of a sudden, decided that they needed to stock the said paper. Then electro-rockers (Gosh! That sounds bad, but I can’t think of a better classification) Radiohead announced that there new album would be available as a download at no fixed cost. As they put it “it’s up to you.”
I don’t, in principle, have a problem with either of these. If it costs £100k to make an album and a newspaper offers to buy it outright for £250k in order to distribute it to 1.5 million readers you’re £150k up! That’s probably a good deal for all. I firmly believe that the internet is part of the music industries future so Radiohead’s move doesn’t really surprise me. What has, along with many people, is the choice of format and bit rate. The MP3 format has been around for a while now and in that time hasn’t really improved any so choosing MP3 has seemed a little odd.
It works kinda like this the AAC format (introduced by Apple) is more efficient than the older (but “standard” MP3. A 128kb/s AAC file is equivalent to a 160kb/s MP3 file. In the interests of fairness I believe that Microsoft’s WMA file is similarly efficient. Radiohead’s decision to opt for the MP3 format at 160kb/s means that a lot of people loose out on quality. Personally I use the AAC format at 256kb/s so it’s no comparison for me. The band were further criticized for announcing this after people had ordered. I chose to pay nothing for the album, not because I’m mean but for big releases (such as this) I’d rather have a physical product complete with art work.
Rosie and I were talking earlier, which isn’t particularly surprising, about people who have made an impact on our lives and really inspired us in one way or another. We discussed whether people we hadn’t met counted. For the purposes of this yes. Though it does raise the interesting question can people you haven’t met really inspire you?
I want to take the lead on this so here are four of the people who’ve inspired me in one way or another.
Person 1: David Crowder - No, I’ve never met him but as a “musician” I really admire what he’s done in pushing the boundaries of how “Worship” is defined. Plus anyone who can use a Banjo so well has to be an inspiration
Person 2: Duncan Mackrill - Duncan was head of Music when I was at LCS. He had a dream and a vision for the Music department that was sadly never realised; So he left, but in the 5 years he taught me he constantly inspired me and encouraged to fulfill my potential.
Person 3: Sim Dendy - Some may say that this is an odd choice but in the time I knew Sim he always inspired me to go for it. The way he looked after the reconstruction of Wickbourne and nurtured it into life is just amazing.
Person 4: Mark Yates - Another odd choice but Mark has such a passion for the local community and young people that it can’t fail to rub off and inspire you.
And…Here’s the edit.
In my original post I listed 4 people who’ve really inspired me and restricted others to also post 4 of there inspirations. However, I’m excusing myself I did miss a rather large one:
The Apostle Paul. Paul is a character who I really look up to in the Bible. Paul went through many things but never lost faith or his passion for telling the Good News to people who needed to hear. If we, as Christians stopped being so shy about what we believe and sharing exactly who Jesus was then we’d all be brining a little bit of Paul’s passion into today.
It’s perhaps not so odd to think of wedding and running the face as subjects for a blog, after all they kind of go hand in hand. And that’s exactly what my weekend consisted of;
Saturday saw the wedding of Pete and Ali. It was truly joyous and worshipful occasion and I’d like to thank the West’s and the Gray’s for inviting Rosie and me. I’d also like to thank Jon for leading the congregation in a great time for worship and Mr. Dan Lush for making the best man’s speech so memorable. I won’t give you any clues, but maybe click here.
So that takes us to Sunday and race for life. One of the last things Rosie did in Human Biology, before dropping it, was to sign up for race for life. I decided to go along to offer support, so we headed off to the Weald and Downland museum just north of Chichester. The sight of 2000 women (most of whom were wearing lycra) all warming up to a club version of Amarillo was one that will haunt me for long time to come.
The was a common singularity about everyone there, and I’m sure that many people reflected on people they knew who were either fighting, had won, or tragically had lost the battle with cancer. It would be hard to sum up the mood, it was kind of like an out door gig, yet also like a summer fete.
Rosie did it in a time of 59 minutes and 15 seconds which is very respectable.
Yesterday marked two years since Rosie and I started going out with each other and after some reflection, and lots of sleep, I want to declare them good. We’ve had many good times where we’ve laughed so much we’ve nearly cried, the random times where we’ve laughed so much we’ve nearly cried and the harder times where we’ve cried. Through it all we’ve grown closer and more together.
We’ve learnt a lot and have had good friends who have supported us. Of course, we’ve managed to change each other a little bit. I now like programs like Scrubs, 8 Simple Rules, Hope & Faith and Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. And Rosie? Well she now likes cars, technology and almost likes Macs as much as me. So only small changes really.
As Rosie put it on her blog…”I just think it’s really cool that we are as happy as ever and continue to have as much fun”
As I’ve already mentioned, today has been Rosie’s birthday and even though she’d had her main present over a week ago we made the day a special one. Once I picked her up we headed back to mine for a small lunch and then we headed over to Chichester to catch a preview screening of Shrek The Third.
It’s a pretty good film suitable for all. Whilst the main plot is a pretty bog standard Good vs. Bad one it’s with the sub-plots that this film really adds depth. Rosie pretty much branded me a sad muppet for pointing out that the emotional journey that Shrek goes on is interesting and could be used in youth groups across the country.
I won’t ruin the film for the rest of you all I will say is that if someone can find a Puss In Boots that is as soft as the one in the film looks then I want it!
