Holy Trinity Brompton is the church which was to become most closely identified with that extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit known as the Toronto Blessing. Karl Allison visited the church and spoke at length to the worship leaders Charlie Groves and Andy Piercy.

Andy Piercy is a man with a past. During the 70s and early 80s he was frontman with the seminal Christian rockers After The Fire. They were the first British band to make the journey from Greenbelt favourites to respected mainstream performers, making three albums for CBS along the way. It all ended just at the time they threatened to make it massive in the States.

For a long while it seemed as if Piercy had completely disappeared. In fact, he was worshipping at HTB. "For a long time I just went pew-filling, and I was happy to do that. It was nice to go somewhere where 99 per cent of the people had no idea who After The Fire were."

So well has this virtual anonymity suited Andy that he's most reluctant to give it up. He says that it's the recent stream of visitors to HTB that's recognised him and was not even immediately convinced of the wisdom of exposure in Cross Rhythms. He's happy in his new worship-leading role and doesn't really want his past achievements to be a part of the deal.

He got involved in HTB's music quite gradually, helping with production or filling in an instrument as required. He eventually became worship leader for the morning service when it changed from being a liturgical, robed choir job into the informal service it is now. As he did so, he started writing some worship songs (including the excellent "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" which Noel Richards has been playing on his recent tour) and musical interpretations of Anglican liturgy. An album of Andy's worship songs with Dave Clifton, called 'Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow', was distributed into the bookstores last year by Kingsway.

The morning service at HTB includes a time of worship with the children and adults all together and Andy uses a lot of Ishmael songs for this section. Ishmael & Andy is a partnership that goes way back into the roots of British CCM. I asked Andy to describe the difference between being a performer and a worship leader. "The main difference is that in a performing situation you're encouraging people to look to you and admire what you do. In the role of a worship leader you're encouraging people to look to God and admire what he does. I heard it described as being like an usher at a wedding - it's your job to organise and to help everyone to the right place but when the bride and groom arrive you fade into the background.

"Strangely enough, when I was with After The Fire, we considered our music as an act of worship to God. We always used to pray before we went on and we always felt that if the audience had gone home we'd still have played and given it our all because we were giving it to God.

"As far as we were concerned, a lot of those songs were worship songs, so within my context there's not such a big difference from what I was doing then to what I'm doing now."

Such a blurring of the edges between ministry and art is something that should strike a chord in the heart of every Cross Rhythms reader. "Half our audience thought we were just a rock band but the Christians knew we were Christians. More and more I'm talking to people who say, 'What you were doing got me through those years and kept my faith when I would have lost it otherwise.' It was genuinely playing worship to God, so the line was blurred for me way back then. But that's for me. I understand others who want to be performers or musicians in their own right and I think if that's what God wants them to do then we should support people like that."

Maybe only those of us ancient enough to remember After The Fire in their prime can truly appreciate what they achieved. But what about the band themselves? Were all their dreams fulfilled?

"No, I don't think so. One of the biggest dreams we all had was that we felt we were pioneering something. It was as if we were pushing on a door as hard as we could. There was such a negative attitude towards Christians being in the music business. We felt we got the door open, only ajar, and when we looked round to see what we thought would be a line of people coming up behind us ready to go in, there was nobody. There was just a lot of people a long way off saying, 'Great, well done. We're staying at Greenbelt.' They liked being there and it was very difficult to go to horrible, dingy, sweaty gigs and play for £50.00. I'm probably sweeping too many people along with that generalisation and it's not meant to be accusing of anybody.

"We fulfilled a lot of what we wanted to do. And there's parts of it where we can't know how much we did fulfil; people we worked with, impressions we made. Strangely enough, we have huge respect within the music business for standing up for what we believed. So it has had repercussions and it's still going on, but I get frustrated by the slowness of it."

Still, Andy is excited by much of what he sees happening right now, particularly in the performance/worship crossover events such as those being pioneered by people like Noel Richards and Martin Smith. He reckons there's a valid place for creating environments for people who like their worship loud.

"Don't forget that I'm spoilt. I worship in a church with 600-800 people with a full band and exciting praise. I get it week by week!"

And, of course, all these considerations are made within the context of what God is doing in his church just now. Armed with the broad perspective of years in Christian music making and further enlightened by his ringside seat at HTB, Andy's vision of the future is maybe the most exciting I've heard yet.

"Whether we're trying to catch up a culture or set up a culture - that's the question. I think at the moment we're still trying to catch a culture. What happens when we've caught it? Do we try and overtake it or do we try to set up a culture? I think that would be a lot more interesting, as in a Reformation. First we have renewal, then we have revival, then we have reformation. I'm talking about a complete turnaround in what society enjoys and appreciates. A change of values. Who knows, sacred music may even become the norm. The church taking the lead. God pulling the rug out from under this man-centred thing that's going on at the moment. That's what I mean by setting up rather than catching up."

God is blessing his church and he's certainly blessing Holy Trinity, Brompton. In so doing, he's granted that fellowship two men of great humility and vision. It's a dynamic combination.