beautiful

It's always a pleasure to renew friendships, even when there has been no time at all lost in the inbetween of life. Matt Truelove is a young guy who was a part of our youth group at St Catherine's, and who has now found more people his own age (and a girlfriend) in another local church so we don't see so much of him here these days. But when I do see him, it's always a pleasure. You may remember that three minute portrait of me - he did that; and he filmed my old Do You Not Know song a couple of months back. Actually, further back, if you are one of the 11,296 (and counting) people who have watched my MGQ boogie-woogie take on Chris Tomilin's Forever, Matt filmed that too.

Which is kind of embarrassing, because frankly, Matt Truelove is one of the best singer songwriters I know. He has a wonderful, yearning voice that has an amazing range, and his songs are simply beautiful.
Click and listen to his song Your Love - it could simply be a love song, or it could be a wonderfully intimate worship piece. I asked him to sing it as the latter at our Carol Service. I'm listening to it again as I type this - just beautiful, and "live" it was even more amazing.

Speaking of beautiful... We had Cafe Church last night, and I talked Matt into coming back to St Catherine's and joining with me for the evening, leading worship alongside me, and singing a few songs solo. I must say it was a real joy to play together - musically & for the spiritual kick of it. there was a genuine sense of understanding in what we were doing, and I took a great deal of pleasure from that. When Matt was a lot younger, I gave him a few pointers in playing for worship; he has learned well, and I know all of us benefitted from his maturity. One of the songs he then chose to sing alone was Phil Wickham's Beautiful. I took out my iPhone and videoed it. Here it is.




Afterwards, a few of us went for a drink, and then Matt & I chatted some more. Friendship renewed and deepened. It was a delight & a privilege having him here, and I look forwards to more of the same down the road. My Sunday was made quite special by the chance to worship alongside someone I have known for ages & whom I have grown to trust and respect.