[ a steady pioneer ]

How does a man, without any formal training in music, become a singer-songwriter of worldwide fame, a household name — and that before his fiftieth birthday? Well, that’s Graham Kendrick, born in the village of Blisworth, Northamptonshire in 1950 to Rev Maurice and Olive Kendrick.

Like many of his vintage, the young Graham was heavily influenced by the music of the sixties; The Beatles, Paul Simon, but he also had a great love for the traditional hymns of the church. He says, “That was a time when some Christians recognised the church’s lack of cultural connection and began to use Rock and Folk bands together with youth-friendly preachers in coffee bars”.

Those were seen by many as legitimate tools for evangelism, although Graham remembers that they provoked a pre-dictable reaction. “Culturally,” he says, “a major difference between then and now is that in the sixties rock, pop and youth cul-ture were new and marked a clear genera-tional line that represented rebellion against authority. The perceived sacred/secular divide was much wider then, and many sincere saints found it impossible to reconcile the use of ‘worldly’ music with preaching the gospel. He remembers being allowed to rehearse noisily in the Baptist church hall, in the front room of the minister’s house (his father!), and encouraged to play in youth services as well as running Christian coffee bars and concerts. “But I do remember one or two larger events involving drama and choreographed dance as well as bands of various styles where groups of church people walked out in protest”.

Many budding musicians found their feet in those days, discovering that at last, some in the church had found a way to promote the Christian message in a rele-vant way. Graham was already finding his niche; “While we were influenced by the sounds of the charts, our distinctive was the message, which in my case gave rise to a narrative style that featured charac-ters and situations from the Gospels or observations from everyday life”.

Graham trained as an English/Ceramics teacher and he used his time in college to hone his writing and performing skills. When his teacher training days were over, he discovered that, “ ... communicating my faith through the songs I was writing became more than a passion, it became a possibility”. Unfortunately however, none of his early songs have survived. “They were not ‘Praise & Worship’ songs, so would not have entered general usage. However, on the recent Cathedral Tour I was per-forming two of the songs that were writ-ten around 1970-72 and first appeared on my debut album ‘Footsteps On The Sea’, titled ‘The Executioner’ and ‘Simon’s Song’.

Graham’s connection with Clive Calver, the man who was to become the driving force behind Spring Harvest, Youth for Christ and the Evangelical Alliance, played a major part in shaping his career in those early days. As they worked together as part of a larger team Graham’s solo performances took a dip. “Instead, a new role emerged for me; a worship leader and a writer of congregational worship songs” — but more change was on the horizon. Next came March for Jesus, a prayer, praise and proclamation event that swept across the world involving almost 60 million people, the boom of Spring Harvest and songs like ‘Servant King’ and ‘Shine Jesus Shine .

“I’m a steady individual, no major crises”, is how Graham describes himself. It seems that each success forms the launch pad for the next one, and the crest-of-a-wave eighties gave way to yet another new role in the nineties, that of a spiritual ‘father’ and mentor. The early 21st century Graham Kendrick is as at home on one of his Cathedral Tours around Britain as he is in some ‘embryon-ic church’ in Turkey, Albania or France where he says he puts, “ ... a high premium on helping to lay worship foundations”.

You get the impression that as each layer of service and ministry feeds into the next, all that Graham is and has done, has been a preparation for his latest classic album, ‘Do Something Beautiful’.

In it he celebrates Spring Harvest’s 25th anniversary with the title track, but he also champions the cause of the persecuted church in the inspired track, ‘How Long?’, adopted as a theme song by Release International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
But maybe we should leave the last word to Darlene Zschech of Hillsongs, with whom he duets the very beautiful ‘There Is A Hope So Sure’ in the album;

“It has been an absolute honour to take part in this project. My respect for Graham and his unparalleled commitment and contribution to worship and worshippers, continues to teach and inspire me to know and love Jesus more”.