Pastor David Daniel: The full interview with the Brit gospel stalwart

Wednesday 1st September 2004

The full Tony Cummings nterview with Pastor David Daniel.



Continued from page 4

Tony: I better pick you up on a couple of those things in a second but you mentioned something in passing I would not like to let go.  You have done backing sessions with pop artists haven't you? Isn't it true to say that the whole pop scene, the secular pop scene is kind of like pillaged gospel music?  In a way, often you get very mediocre singers, we see them on "Top of the Pops" with amazing backing vocalists.  You recognize half of them out of well known gospel choirs  and you are thinking what's it about, the secular scene - what's your view on that?  What's your take on that?

David: Well I think it's a tricky area.  On one hand I think that you need Christians in every area of work life and many Christians in the music field are great witnesses.  I know of some personally and some actually come to my church as well.  But then again, it's a very dangerous area as well and you have to be very very careful.  I don't think it's something everyone should just rush into because you have a talent.  I think you need pastoral covering and I think you need to be grounded and realize you know why you are doing it as well.  In my experience I was very cautious about the things that I did.

Tony:   You would like check lyrics out and make sure they were ok. We have seen some weird stuff.  Some groups dressed in choir robes singing backings to completely immoral songs, that kind of thing!  You are thinking - what's going on!  It can go in some strange areas can't it.

David:  Yes it can.  I think one thing that could be really helpful is for our churches to invest in our  musicians and our talent.  A lot of them, wouldn't it be fantastic if we could, instead of these singers and musicians having to go into the secular,  if they could be employed by our churches to lead worship and organise the praise and worship department.  I think it would be fantastic if even maybe one church cannot afford to employ a song writer, singer then maybe a few churches in the area could employ someone.

Tony: Or make some contribution.

David: That's right!

Tony: Because, let's face it the vast majority of musicians working in churches get no payment whatsoever.  It doesn't seem right to me because surely the worker is worthy of some payment.

David: Amen!

Tony: Which brings me neatly onto the "Peoples' Christian Fellowship Choir".  How long has that choir been going under that name?

David:  Basically it's our church choir and I would say, since from the age of 8, when I joined our youth choir, it's gone through different changes.  The name has changed and the leadership has changed but it's basically our church choir that has been there.  So there are some singers in this choir right now who I have known since I was a child.  They have been singing in the choir at our church since childhood.  I would say that this present choir has probably been going since 1991. My wife Donna Daniel took over the leadership of the choir and we kind of went down this particular direction where  it was not just a youth choir any longer because we were all kinda getting older!  So we dropped the "youth" title and we became the PCF Choir, which is the Peoples' Christian Fellowship Choir.  It's maybe since 1991 we have been in this particular form.

Tony: Have you made recordings before?

David:  Yes.

Tony: You are a little apprehensive there!  How would you like to tell me about your not very good early recordings?!  Tell me all about them! - let's hear it, let's get it on record!  What records have you made before then?

David: We did this EP at ICC in Eastbourne.  It was called "Change".

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Reader Comments

Posted by Evangelist Daniele in Luton, ENGLAND @ 10:21 on Nov 19 2008

Gospel music digs deeper than any other music throughout the world today. And those who make it so, and those who have made it so in the past, form an uncompromising band of Christian saints men and women, who have spent decades in contention with all manner of difficult circumstances.

Few performers have had it quite so tough as gospel singers and it shows in the way they commit themselves within a song: The Christian vision of deliverance from spiritual and social shackles has always held out the greatest hope to those with least to lose and the gospel song is essentially a song of deliverance. The real, breathtaking power of gospel singing cannot be understood as anything less than the ecstatic victory shout of a soul set free at last. There is no music quite like that of gospel music, no drama like the drama of Christians rejoicing, the sinners moaning and repenting, the tambourines shaking, and all those voices coming together in unity, crying holy unto, the LORD. I have never seen anything during my Ministerial life as an Evangelist, to equal the fire and excitement that gospel music carries, without warning can fill a church with the awesome power of God's glory.

Nothing that has happened to me since, can equal the majestic power and the glory that I sometimes feel when, in the middle of a worship song, I knew that I was somehow, by some miracle, really carrying, really singing, as they say, the WORD, when the church and I are singing and dancing, in anguish and rejoicing at the foot of the altar. So let your heart exult wordlessly into joyous song by breaking down all barriers in the immeasurable fullness of your countenance by the words of your songs, whether at the harvest table, in the vineyards, or elsewhere. For true, really, true gospel singers, groups or bands they will always worship God in Spirit and in Truth, and recognise that He and He alone gets all the glory, AMEN



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