We had the privilege of Matt Redman & Louie Giglio in town at the weekend. Another AboutLifer has linked to some great video footage of the night.

I've been following Matt Redman's music since the early 90s, and have really enjoyed his leading at Soul Survivor festivals, so I was really looking forward to the event. It was an awesome evening, in front of a sold out crowd, and it was so encouraging to see so many worshipping passionately.

The sound was a bit more upbeat than i expected, even on the mellower songs, but I guess that's in line with the progression on his recent more upbeat albums and the event was billed as a concert. Also he only did (I think) 2 songs from the new album (Never Let Go & the title track). I would have really appreciated 'Yes & Amen' especially, but I did enjoy the mix of old and new.

Louie Giglio gave a great talk, and had Matt pluck his guitar all the way through. It sounded great and worked really well, but I afterwards I heard that he wasn't in a good way with his strumming hand. They still have a couple more gigs in Asia and the US, so spare a prayer for him as they continue on.

One of the things Louie said that really stuck with me was that church should be a party, a celebration. I was inspired to start Sunday morning in a really celebratory way... which led to a spontaneous clap after the first song - something that doesn't happen very often in our church!