2004

[ 10.05.2004 ] Worship Explosion
[ 07.05.2004 ] The Roots Festival 2004
[ 08.03.2004 ] USA Tour

2003

[ 04.12.2003 ] Songwriters Consultation
[ 22.09.2003 ] Kingdom Builders, New Zealand
[ 02.07.2003 ] Budapest Praise
[ 18.06.2003 ] Do Something Beautiful Tour
[ 04.06.2003 ] Do Something Beautiful Tour kicks off

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[ 10.05.2004 ] Report from Worship Explosion

Graham and the band were invited down to lead at Arun Community Church in Littlehampton for an event called Worship Explosion. Graham spoke and led at the church’s Sunday morning service too which was an added bonus for him and the band as they got to spend time fellowshipping with members of the congregation and to meet with worship leaders and musicians in the community.

In the evening the band started off with a rocking version of Chris Tomlin’s ‘Forever’; followed by an excellent new song from Graham based on ‘Psalm 148’; exhorting everyone and everything in creation to praise God. This particular song was picked up very quickly by those in attendance at this year’s Spring Harvest and Roots 2004 festivals and don’t be surprised if this becomes a regular song on Graham’s song list. The first half of the evening was extremely upbeat and saw some poignant and powerful moments of singing scripture from Graham and the crowd, with some truly exceptional playing from the musicians; Henry George’s prophetic drum playing and Tim Oliver’s tasteful Hammond sounds.

As the evening progressed, Graham spoke on the two different kinds of fear we are faced with in today’s world; the choice between fearing the Lord or being drawn in to the fears of our unstable global community. To illustrate the talk Graham and band performed a song that featured on 2000’s ‘Millennium Chorus’ album, No Need To Fear. Originally performed by Wintney Phipps in his warm baritone voice, this track has been reworked by Graham to have a real contemporary feel. Based on Psalm 49 the song emphasise God’s faithfulness in our times of personal/corporate/national fear.

Pics: Adrian Oliver

Raul D’Oliveira, Graham’s percussionist and brass player, walked amongst the crowd playing his trumpet as the band gently lead a time of personal response to God’s message through Graham.

All in all, a very powerful time and a real privilege to be a part of what God is doing in this small, but significant pocket of the south coast.

For more images from Worship Explosion click here or visit www.aruncc.org.uk

[ 07.05.2004 ] Report from the Roots Festival

The Salvation Army's Roots Festival is now in it's 10th year. This year’s theme was 'Global Jesus' and a host of speakers from around the world including Jeff Lucas, Jim Wallis, Bart Campolo and Judy Mbugua were invited to teach, challenge and expound on the subject. Graham was asked to lead the sung worship in the Big Top adult venue. There were some amazing times of praise that swung from awesome adoration to joyous celebration. Times of wonder at the majesty of our Creator and moments of ecstatic praise in the presence of the Saviour.

The Sunday night Praise Party was particularly memorable as 2000 worshippers danced and sang from beginning to end with the band, led by Steve Thompson playing a set of songs that included a 'swing' version of 'Be bold, be strong', a 'New Orleans' rendition of 'Oh happy day' and 'Lord I lift your name on high', 'Shackles', 'Blessed be your name' and a brand new Graham song 'Praise the Lord from the heavens (Psalm 148)'.

For more images from Roots 2004 click here

For more info on Roots visit www.rootsonline.org

[ 08.03.2004 ] Report from recent USA 'tour'

Graham and band recently travelled to the USA to lead worship at a number of events.

Moody Bible Institute Founders Week

Following on from a very special trip to Budapest, Hungary in January 2003 with many MBI missionaries, Graham was invited to the Moody Bible Institutes Founders Week - an annual week of bible teaching and worship that is free to all members of the general public. Founders Week was started by D. L. Moody in the 19th century and the worship is traditionally an incredible mix of a gospel choirs, men's and women's chorales, hand bell choirs, concert orchestras, operatic voices and minstrels, so Graham's invitation to lead worship was a step in a new direction for many attending this years event.

Graham introduced the often 4,500 capacity congregation to many new songs including ‘There is a hope so sure, ‘To you O Lord’ and his version of ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing’. The theme of the week was 'prayer' , so helped by some very strong teaching from the likes of Stuart Briscoe, Anne Graham-Lotz and George Verwer, Graham was able to assist the congregation in prayer using songs like ‘O Lord, the clouds are gathering’, ‘Lord, the light of your love’ and Godrey Birtill's Lord turn your footsteps.

There were some extremely powerful and passionate times of corporate worship and the whole band felt extremely privileged to be a part of this historic event.

Click here to see Graham leading There is a hope so sure at Founders Week

Harvest Bible Chapel

Immediatley after the final morning seesion at Founders Week, Graham and the band were whisked off to the Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows on the outer limits of Chicago. Harvest Bible Chapel is a 6,000 strong church that has 4 identical services over a weekend in their amazing complex.

Graham was invited to lead worship at all 4 services - 2 on saturday evening and 2 on sunday morning. Once again these God-focused times were very special and each service was unique even though the songs sung were the same! One member of the congregation commented 'All I can say is "Wow"!'

Congress 2004

Finally, the band moved on to Boston MA. on the east coast for Vision New England's Congress 2004. Graham led there last year and this invitation to return was warmly accepted. Vision New England's Congress is an annual event that gathers 5,000+ christians from the surrounding states for three days of teaching, worship and encouragement.

Graham was given plenty of time and space to lead and was often accompanied by artist Tom Clark. There were many anointed moments and Graham used a breadth of songs from Mary Mary's Shackles to his own ‘Lord, you've been good to me’ to lead people into God's presence.

The short 'tour' was a great experience for all involved and American hospitality definately takes some beating!

[ 04.12.2003 ] Songwriters Consultation – 1st - 2nd December 2003 report

The second Songwriters Consultation took place at High Leigh Conference Centre this week, with over forty of the country’s most influential praise and worship songwriters and leaders in attendance. The two day consultation was organised by a working party, involving Matt Redman, Stuart Townend, Sue Rinaldi, Andy Piercy, Noel Robinson, David Peacock and chaired by Graham Kendrick. Spring Harvest kindly administrated and facilitated the planning and operation of this consultation, which was set up to constructively assess the lyrical and thematic content of praise and worship songs in the UK.

To help the delegates reflect on their individual and indeed corporate roles as songwriters and worship leaders, the consultation was joined by the Rt Reverend Bishop Graham Cray, Bishop of Maidstone and Mark Greene of the London Institute Of Contemporary Christianity (LICC). Both speakers were extremely thought provoking in reinforcing the responsibility of song writing and worship leading, affirming the positive contribution which Contemporary Christian Music has made to the renewal movement in the last 30 years and also in highlighting some of the gaps in thematic song content; stimulating fresh ideas for the present and future. Key Christian leaders from around the world also contributed by writing to the planning group outlining their thoughts on the current state of Christian music and offering their reflections and observations.

The second day of the consultation involved key Christian Music Industry representatives who came to offer their reflections and concerns about the current CCM Music scene. It was a unique opportunity to gather both songwriters and industry members in one room for discussion and prayer; examining the corporate and creative tensions which can exist and how the two can work more closely together.

All in all it was a deeply challenging, invigorating and successful gathering with excellent opportunity for fellowship and prayer, and corporate edification as we look to the future of praise and worship music in the UK and indeed the world.

[ 22.09.2003 ] Kingdon Builders, New Zealand

Graham recently spent a dew days in New Zealand leading worship at the Kingdom Builders Conference organised by the Bible College of New Zealand. Graham was joined by Musical Director Steve Thompson and singer David Lyle Morris. Too see images from the event click here

[ 02.07.2003 ] Images from Budapest Praise

Last week Graham led worship at a large open air concert in Budapest along with Noel Richards and Sue Rinaldi. To see images click here

[ 18.06.2003 ] 'Do Something Beautiful' Tour closes

“Wonderful – uplifting – renewing and strengthening. Not bad for a ‘little’ guy.”
JP (In the crowd at Yeovil)

The second leg of the Do Something Beautiful tour began in typical fashion with the band crammed into a ‘Rock Bus’ and zooming down to Cardiff. The venue was The Glenwood Christian Centre in Cardiff, which saw an enthusiastic crowd gather to hear Graham and the band play. Naturally, the Welsh were in fine voice as Graham led them in a selection of new songs and some of the old favourites.

The following evening was a whole new experience for Graham and the band as they played inside a cave. The Carnglaze Caverns, situated in St Neot, Cornwall, was the venue. This 150 yard cave takes you all the way to a fantastic stage at the far end, where many established artists have played. Despite many artists, Christian and secular, this was the first time that a praise and worship evening has been held at the venue and a full capacity of 400 people enjoyed a very powerful time of the Lord’s presence. Graham played Thorns In The Straw and one of his early performance songs, Peter At The Breaking Of The Bread. Side by side, which went down a treat.

At the beginning of the second half, the band returned to the stage sporting hard hats, in keeping with their surroundings. Graham lead the crowd in singing the title track Do Something Beautiful which has become a great way to end each concert, sending everyone out to do as the song says.
This was a really special evening and one in which the people of Cornwall seemded truly grateful for. At the end of the evening everyone signed a hard hat that will sit alongside others signed by the likes of Kiki Dee, Midge Ure and Gordon Giltrap.

Finally on Monday, the Graham and the band returned to one of the What Grace tour venues, The Gateway, Yeovil, for a great evening of praise and worship and performance songs. This was another sell out and marked the end of a very successful summer tour of the new album.

To see images from the tour click here

For video of 'Peter at the breaking of the bread' from Carnglaze Caverns click here (3.4mb)

[ 04.06.2003 ] The 'Do Something Beautiful' Tour kicks off

Heading north up the A1, Graham Kendrick and the band stopped off at Houghton Le Spring, just outside Durham, to lead worship for a YFC North East showcase evening co-hosted by World Triple Jump legend Jonathan Edwards. This was an excellent evening as it saw the tour off to a good start and Graham spoke to the crowd about his links with YFC right from the beginning of his singer/songwriter and worship/evangelism ministry.

The next evening was a fantastic night up in Strathaven, just south of Glasgow. Everywhere in the UK had been experiencing hot weather, but on arrival at Strathaven, the heavens opened and unleashed a flash flood the likes of which Strathaven hadn’t witnessed for 25 years. Adding to the excitement, Avendale Church was hit by lightning,

So it was all hustle and bustle as a soaking wet band arrived to set up. The evening was a sell out as 705 people crammed in to the rafters. It was a very powerful time of sung worship, with some special moments from Raul D’Oliveira, Graham’s trumpeter and percussionist as he launched off into some beautiful solos.

Saturday night saw the band play St Cuthbert’s church in the centre of Edinburgh, in the shadow of the castle. This again was a sell out with the band launching out into some wonderful improvisations as Graham led the crowd in singing ‘Knowing You.’

The final date of the first leg was in The Guildhall, Preston, where a large crowd gathered to join Graham in singing lot’s of his latest songs along with the more established classics. The eponymous album track ‘Do Something Beautiful’ was mixed into the well known chorus of ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ for a truly great finale.

This was a brilliant start to the tour. The second leg begins at the Glenwood Church Centre in Cardiff on the 14th June. Watch this space for some Autumn dates too!

To see images from the tour click here