Leading the throng in worship at Cross Rhythms '98 is MATT REDMAN. With a new album and big exposure in the US, the ministry of Britain's spearhead worship leader continues to expand. He spoke to Heather Bellamy

Heather: In your opinion, is all music, whatever its style, worship?
Matt: Everything could be seen as worship in terms of we're always worshipping someone or something. For us, we're blessed that it's the Lord and so everything we do, say or think in our lives, we want the whole of our lives to be worship. So any kind of music you make as a Christian would be worship in some form even if it wasn't congregational worship. I've got a real heart for congregational worship. In meetings I want to lead in a way that will help other people to worship.

The more contemporary side of music is often looked at as more of an evangelistic tool. I think that worship can be evangelistic and often is. We had a night at our church a couple of months ago where all we did all night was worship and someone became a Christian there. That definitely wasn't to do with how well we were playing. It's just that the whole experience of worship creates a dynamic that nothing else does. It says in the Bible that 'the Lord inhabits the praises of his people' and it must be an amazing thing also to see a passionate people worship God. Other styles of music can also be great evangelism.

Soul Survivor is setting up a band called Storm at the moment which will be led by Beth Vickers who is my fiancée. They're going to go into schools with the music probably in a similar way that the World Wide Message Tribe do. That's going to be dance music and the lyrics won't be congregational worship lyrics. I'm helping out with some of the songwriting and I'll be producing the album with Zarc Porter from the WWMT. It's a very different challenge for me to find lyrics that will be accessible and represent the heart of what we're doing in an acceptable way in schools.

But even that's worship because the reason I'm doing it is because I'm a worshipper of Jesus and I want to see him glorified.

Heather: The CCM scene is growing. With the first national contemporary Christian radio station, UCB Cross Rhythms, launching in July this year the scene looks set to expand. How do you see God using CCM for this nation?
Matt: It'll be a brilliant tool to communicate the Christian message and also to let people worship just by turning on the radio or TV. What I love about putting a CD out is when people say 'thanks for that, it's really helped me to meet with the Lord.' And someone wrote last year and said that her husband had been listening to the song 'Once Again' and had become a Christian. Both radio and TV, used in the right way, can help people to engage with the Lord.

Heather: There is a push on to "launch" you in the USA with the release of a specifically compiled album. Has that had any affect on your ministry yet?
Matt: It's just another extension of what we do, trying to resource people with worship music. So it's great that EMI Christian Group have taken the album and will take the music to some Christians out there. It's a privilege for us and I hope that it helps people in their relationship with God. One of our values is that a worship leader isn't an artist.

You've always got to try and stay focussed and for us we don't want to worry about CD sales, as it's about Jesus. A challenge for everyone is that no matter what we get trusted with, how big or how small, or in this case how many records we sell, let's try to keep the heart of the small shepherd boy of David who was humble before the Lord and dependent on the Lord. We need to maintain the heart that we had at first.

Heather: What do you think of the Nashville CCM scene?
Matt: The Nashville music scene is a good thing. Every time you get involved with a new thing you're just aware that you don't want to compromise your values, but you also can't expect them to have the same values as you. So we're just starting to work out a relationship there and it seems that there're some wonderful people out there and there're some wonderful things going on. So, again, it's just a privilege to be involved out there just to be a little part of that.

Heather: Can you update us as to how the Soul Survivor Church Watford is doing and what your involvement is in it now?
Matt: I co-ordinate the worship teams at the church. We've been really blessed by God in building us a strong worship team, which has been a privilege to co-ordinate. The church has been growing as well which is wonderful. Yet even when things appear to be going well, you're not nearly satisfied because what we have a heart for in our church is to see God touch the lost and we're not seeing nearly enough of that.

We're passionate to reach people in their teens and 20s and that's one of the main reasons why the Storm band's being set up, because we need to find effective methods of reaching those people.

Heather: How is your church life joined to the other things you're involved with?
Matt: Everything that you do, it all flows out of what you're doing in the church. There are so many reasons why it's important that you're plugged into a local church; things like accountability and family and also for us that's just where God seems to be doing it. In fact, that's the reason we planted Soul Survivor Watford, because we thought all this stuff was happening around the country, but what were we doing week in and week out? We need to be doing the stuff in Watford where we live. You can't just be travelling around doing it. There's no integrity in that. So we had a real heart to see the youth of Watford come to know Jesus.

Heather: Can you also update us on Message 2000 with the World Wide Message Tribe and your involvement with that?
Matt: Mission 2000 has been very exciting so far. Soul Survivor and the World Wide Message Tribe hope to take thousands and thousands of young people to Manchester to represent Jesus to people who don't know him, whether that be in evangelistic meetings or in servant evangelism - going around and helping people to clean up or whatever. It's time to get out there and live the life, it's time to back up what we're saying with our lives and this is just one expression of that. It feels like the Lord's doing a special thing. I'll be leading a bit of worship there as part of the Soul Survivor team.

Heather: How has it challenged you in your faith?
Matt: It challenges in that you think that's great what we're doing there and that's exactly the kind of thing we need to be doing at Soul Survivor, but on the other hand, let's not wait until the year 2000. Lets be doing all we can to reach people before then.

Heather: You're getting married, congratulations. Do you mind sharing how you met each other?
Matt: Beth was working for the World Wide Message Tribe and I was working for Soul Survivor and it was a wonderful thing when now and then our paths crossed. Eventually she ended up coming down to work at Soul Survivor and shortly after that we got together. It's great in that we both have a heart for worship and for evangelism amongst young people.

Heather: You've expressed discomfort in the past at being perceived by young girls as some kind of pin up. Do you hope that that will change now you are getting married?
Matt: As a worship leader, if the attention thing happens then at the end of the day I'm failing at my job; because my job is to try to be invisible. Sometimes you can understand why people get confused, because you're up there on the stage and they're only seeing the very best part of you. Whereas if they saw me when I was in one of my massive moods or throwing a tantrum or picking my nose I think it'd be a different story.

Heather: You've been entrusted with a lot of big things. At this point, on a personal level, how do you see your destiny with God?
Matt: In the end, we've all just got to try and be servants. Luke 17 verse 10 says, 'We are unworthy servants, we have only done our duty.' I just want to serve God for all my days, as I think most of us do. I feel very blessed by the Lord in my life that he's drawn close to me and befriended me and fathered me and become my Saviour. And for as long as he trusts me with the worship leading, I'll run with that and try to be faithful and try to be trustworthy. Again, what happened with my arm thing when I was out of worship leading for a couple of months was that the Lord was saying to me that as a worship leader you're not indispensable and as a servant you're not indispensable; anyone can find a servant in that sense. But as a child you are indispensable. I've only got one child like you and children are indispensable in life, aren't they? That's been the lesson again and again, that the Lord's saying 'I'm after your heart and a relationship with you,' and all the serving things should flow out of that. They are not what it's all about. In the end it's about being a child and being a good child.