Jesus music pioneer MATTHEW WARD speaks to Mike Rimmer.

There's nothing like having confidence in one's own work! In My Second Chapter Ward shares the challenge of when he was diagnosed with cancer. People say that receiving a diagnosis of cancer is more than sobering. "You know, I guess it is," agrees Matthew. "For me the thing that I got out of the whole struggle was the fact that I really had a screwed up vision of what the Father-heart of God looked like. That's what I came face to face with. I lost my parents at a young age and Buck did the best he could at raising me but we never saw eye to eye on anything. I didn't have a good clear picture of what a father-figure looked liked and that translated into my spiritual walk as well. I always thought of God as loving me but like in a collective sense; he loves everyone and I'm included in that. Not like, he knows every hair on my head. In my case it would not be that big of a job!"

Matthew laughs as he famously began losing his hair while he was in his 20s. I, of course, am too polite to point this out. "I'll do it for you!" he chuckles. "But you know what I'm saying? I really didn't think of God as taking any sort of real personal interest in me as an individual. I kind of thought, yeah I think he does but he's a busy guy. But it was through that cancer experience that I began to learn what it really means that God does have a Father's heart toward me. That Jesus is the great intercessor. He intercedes before the Father for me. And that's a powerful image." He describes the treatment he received, "I had surgery and then I took three different types of chemotherapy. I was fortunate, I did the shortest regime that you could do at the time, which was six weeks. I got the all clear in January 1994. It's been 13 years."

Matthew Ward may not be as high profile as he was in the '70s and '80s with 2nd Chapter Of Acts but a lot of his music is still available on CD. He says, "I'm working right now on getting a lot of my solo work on kind of like an iTunes deal where they're individual songs and you can buy them for a buck. I can do that, whereas I can't re-master, re-cover and manufacture 1000 units of all those - I don't have that kind of cash flow. I wish I could! Maybe if enough people buy these MP3s I will be able to do that because that's my goal. I want to actually go back and release some originally packaged albums."

The '70s was an unusual time for modern Christian music. There were pioneers making fresh music but there was also the whole wave of God moving through what became known as the Jesus Movement. It's the nearest America has come to a revival in modern times. The great thing about Ward's autobiography is that at least his part to the story is not lost. There is little documentation of the Christian music of the period which is sad. "That's true," agrees Ward. "I think it's important because I have been in it since I was 13. I got to know, especially on the West Coast, all those bands like Mustard Seed Faith and JC Power Outlet. All these different bands that people now today would go, 'Who?!' And it's because of places like the Salt Company and stuff. Places in LA that bands would go and play and we'd get to know these guys. There are some really great stories out there and some tragic stories that have happened since then that people don't know about, and should know about. Once in a while you'll run across some footage that somebody will say, 'Hey I had an 8mm camera going when you were down at. . .' Sometimes you run across that and they'll send a copy of it to you. But by and large yeah, much of it is undocumented. But the whole scene was not all ice-cream and cookies, you know?"

I do know! A lot of people were definitely casualties on the way and not all have survived with as much grace and sanity as Matthew Ward. He sighs, "Some people really lost their way. Oh man, trashed! I mean bad!" Despite this, he admits that it was definitely a move of God rather than a PR-manufactured exercise. He says, "I think that's absolutely true. I mean, we didn't know enough to promote ourselves properly, even if we tried."

As for it being the last true moves of God in America, Ward agrees. "Well, I think so." He elaborates, "Here's what I find exciting though. I've heard preachers say this and I'm normally very slow on talking about this kind of stuff but I really think that we're on the edge of something big. I think we're right on the edge of some breakthrough. And I don't necessarily think it's going to come through the Church. I think it's going to come through just people on the streets. God's Spirit showing up and falling. Because I think we're all too callous. We've seen the TV preachers and we think that's Church but I think God's gonna start knocking on hearts. The Holy Spirit is going to start drawing men. And it's going to be really exciting! I just hope we're in a place to help them out when that happens. Because in the first Jesus Movement, the Church wasn't in a place to help but the hippies became the church!"

Finally, looking forwards, what does Matthew hope people will get from the book? "Well you know, it talks about a lot of different things. It goes in a lot of different directions. I think people will laugh at times. Maybe cry at times. But what I want people to walk away with when they've read it is a real sense of the faithfulness of God. How he's always been faithful through all sorts of different circumstances. No matter how bad things got he was always there to whatever degree and he was always faithful. I get into that a little bit in the book."

And then the conversation is over. We stand and are ready to leave as a couple of old fans walk over and begin reminiscing about 2nd Chapter Of Acts ministering in their town back in the '80s. I guess this kind of conversation happens every day for Ward and it's just the consequence of making music that has touched lives over the years. As for me, I say my farewells and head off, leaving them to it.