Late last year I let you guys know that I was leaving parish ministry at St Paul's in Katikati in the hope of making space for this amorphous music ministry that seems to be springing up beneath our feet.Well so far so good. Since the beginning of this year, I've had the opportunity to minister in Rotorua with St John's in the City; in Auckland with The Upper Room; in Dunedin with B@tch and in...

Step aside Rapture Ruckus with your #1 NZ album.Today I heard I've been shortlisted as a semi finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (henceforth referred to as the ISC).With much fanfare, I read of my 'aceptance' [sic]. 'Out of 20,000 entrants you have made the cut of just 1,800 semifinalists...

Here I am working on the lectionary texts for this Sunday, which is built around the Baptism of Jesus in Luke 3 (Psalm 29, Isaiah 43 and Acts 8 also feature - you can check them out in detail here.)I'm still in the early stages of my preparation, but at the moment, I'm drawn by the presence of all three persons of the Trinity in the final couple of verses in the reading from Luke...

When Matt and I were nearing the end of the vocal recording sessions for the new album, we reached the point where Matt began ‘comping’ the vocal takes together to create the final version. He was working away with his trusty studio headphones so I didn’t have to listen to 9 different takes of the same two and half word phrase as he searched for the perfect (/best) version. After a while he had enough...

So I've been thinking. Why does Jesus do most of his theology in stories while the rest of us write it in a style as unfathomable as a car manual (and often with a comparable level of excitement)? I don't know the answer to this question, except to suggest that Jesus was much, much better at it than we are.Not to be deterred however, I have given it a go.A parable.There was a man who...

He loves me stillSo I'm preaching on Luke 12:22-34 where Jesus is talking about 'Look at the birds...

So a while back - we put a funding application in to the Presbyterian Foundation - which funds projects within the PCANZ. We asked for a chunk of money to help complete my new album (mine, as in Malcolm Gordon's) and Benji Carey-Smith's debut album.Benji hails from Dunedin and is now based in Hawke's Bay, studying at Bible College. He's been writing songs for years as part of the Flagstaff Community Church in Dunedin -...

Here's a song from my 2008 album, One Voice (which you can get here). My friend Sally needs the lyrics for this song for tomorrow's church service over in Hawke's Bay - so I thought I'd make flick them up for everyone. Enjoy.  03 New Kind of Day A new kind of day – Malcolm Gordon 2007 Gone are the days when summer brought uninterrupted warmth And you could count on that for sure While our land drowns...

After summer soccer tonight, I'm jumping in the car for a late night trip to Auckland. We're starting the vocal sessions for the new album tomorrow morning. I've found myself getting steadily excited about this over the last few days.For starters, this will be my first opportunity to hear the instrumental tracks in a nearly complete form. When I left Auckland 6 weeks ago, we'd tracked most things, but they were in a pretty rough...

Today is my son, Sam's second birthday. As you can see, I've taught him how to smile. At the moment, he's at Mainly Music with Ness - no doubt enjoying being the centre of attention and hearing his fair share of 'Hasn't time flown by'-type comments.This year hasn't been a great one, but today is a great day. Sam is an unmitigated blessing  - still full of wonder and delight. Admittedly he seems to be...

So a week ago I was just emerging from my 13 hour ‘recovery sleep’ after GA12. Ever since I’ve been meaning to post some reflections on what was an incredibly fulfilling and infuriating experience!Let me say that I have been deeply humbled by the wonderful feedback to the worship times we led at Assembly. Here are a few of my favourite comments:‘...