Meet…Simon Brading
Simon Brading (Church of Christ the King, Brighton) has had quite a summer. He’s led worship at two large conferences, graduated from university, got married and now leads the worship team full time at CCK! To find out a bit more about Simon and the forthcoming CCK Worship School, read on…
Tell me a bit about yourself and your family
I’m 22 years old and have just got married to Anna, the most wonderful girl ever. My parents and younger brother moved to Sydney two years ago to help Pete Brooks build a church there, and my older brother and his wife also live in Brighton and help lead the CCK student work.
How did you get involved with leading worship?
I started playing guitar at eight years old, and began playing in my Sunday school at Kings Church Hastings with my friend Aled Cousins. Then at 12 I moved to Woking, where I played in the youth worship band every month. A year or so later I began leading worship there and formed a little band… and at 17 I started leading in our main church meetings. Around this time I started to lead in some other regional events, then at 18 I lead at the first ever Newday…
Who are your mentors?
I’ve had many very godly people input into my life over the years, the greatest being my Dad. He’s an incredibly godly man of prayer who I look up to hugely, and unashamedly strive to imitate. Other than that, Matt Redman has been a huge encouragement over these last few years, particularly with song writing. Joel Virgo has really helped and mentored me both theologically and simply as a brother in Christ since I have been part of CCK.
What have been some of the challenges you have faced or are facing in growing as a leader and worship leader?
When you’re growing in leadership, your responsibilities are increasing, more is expected of you, meetings, decisions, deadlines, organisation, creativity etc…it can be easy to let your ‘one thing’ (Psalm 37) become something else, not God.
David’s ‘one thing’ was the presence of God, being with Him, seeking Him, gazing upon His beauty. With so much demanding your attention and time, there are things that fight for priority in your mind, or even heart (!).
Also, when you work in the church, you’re surrounded by Christians all day. I don’t like this. So I’m trying hard to be amongst as many non Christians as I can outside of ‘office hours’.
CCK has a heritage of strong worship leaders. What have you learnt in the three years you have been part of that church?
The most defining thing has been the intrinsic importance of making your worship times centred and focused around the gospel. I used to make the mistake of just singing lots of songs about Jesus at the 'guest services' so that the unsaved could easily understand Jesus and what He's done for them, and then do all the other songs in the 'normal' services, but actually that's totally wrong. Both saved and unsaved need to consistently and regularly be singing songs about Jesus and to Jesus. So every week I try to lead people to the cross, saved and unsaved, newly born or mature saints. For we never graduate from the cross, in life or in song. Quite the opposite; singing songs about gospel, the ancient story, is the best medicine for the human soul..
What is the CCK Worship School?
Worship School is a course that takes place on seven Saturdays between October 08 and June 09. The primary aim of Worship School is to teach and develop a deeper understanding of worship and how this applies to our lives, local church and culture. There will be teaching on a number of theological topics, as well as practical workshops, master-classes, seminars, and question & answer sessions.
What sort of people is it aimed at?
Worship School is designed to equip worship leaders, musicians, pastors and worshippers. You don’t even have to play an instrument or be a worship leader… For a list of the course material please check out www.worshipschool.com
What advice would you give to aspiring worship leaders?
Good question.
Firstly: Love God. Just love Him. Don’t get caught up in some performance based, legalistic, life-choking, guilt motivated life. Yes read the Bible, yes pray, yes fast, but make sure it’s all out of love. Let your heart be ravished by the love of Christ, and love him back with all your heart. As Stef Liston says, there’s only enough room in the human heart for one first-love: make sure that’s God.
Secondly: Love the Word of God. Rrreeeeeaaaaaad! Devour, meditate, chew, ponder, eat, think about, read the Bible… find Jesus in the scriptures, learn about him, learn about yourself, learn about the world, build yourself up… this will help you to love God.
Thirdly: Serve. Give yourself to your local church and leadership and serve faithfully with whatever they give you. Humble yourself often. Love the church.
Fourthly: Develop your gifting. Practice lots if you play an instrument. Watch and observe what other worship leaders do; ask them ‘Why did you do that? Why did you say that? Why did you choose those songs?’
Fifthly: Go to Worship School! |
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