Lights, Camera, Action...

Every now and then in life amazing, once in a lifetime opportunities pop up out of the ordinary that are just too good to pass up. And when they do it's often a good idea to grab them with boths hands a run with them, to ride the wave and see where it takes you.

I had one such opportunity arise earlier this week. And I'm pleased to say I took it.

I had the chance to go to Ravensbourne College in London for the day to be filmed in a studio singing a couple of my songs. Anyone who knows me knows this was an offer I simply couldn't turn down. And so on early Monday morning I grabbed my guitar and a few shirts and caught the train to London (I'm often on trains to and from London so if you ever see me, come and say hi). When I arrived I signed in and was taken by my mate, who had organised the whole thing for me, straight to the studio to meet the crew, the director, the floor manager (The lovely Sophie, who looked after me and brought me water at every opportunity.) and the sound and light guys. It was exactly how I had pictured it and more; Lights, Cameras, more lights, monitors and displays all pointed at the stool where I would be soon be sitting and playing and singing. It looked very impressive.

Behind the scenes in the control room were more TV displays all looking at my stool (it didn't take me long to adopt that zone as my own!). I was taken to my very own green room to get ready, changed into my first outfit, warmed up my voice, tuned my guitar, milking every second of the experience before returning to 'Studio A'.

I took up my place in front of the cameras, surrounded by lights in front of me, and behind and above and below, and waited to begin.

And waited some more.

And then did some more waiting, for lighting to fix shadows and sound to set levels.

Then some more waiting.

Then I was asked to play for the rehearsal run-through and then more waiting and tweaking of lights and lenses.

There was a lot of waiting around that day. A lot of getting everything just right; the right look, the right sound, the right angles, the right colours. Everything was done to the highest level, the best standard. During this time I was given some advice. It was to do with where to look. I had little or no experience working with television cameras and so the best thing was to imagine an audience, or to look for Sophie, the floor manager, and sing to her.

And then it hit me. Surrounded by cameras and crew, lit up light something on MTV and the advice was to play 'to an audience of one.' I had heard that phrase so many times regarding worship leading. I'd used that phrase so many times teaching about worship, that God is the 'audience of one' that you play to, and yet in that new place there was a freshness about it.

Worship isn't limited to a church building on Sunday morning. You can sing to God in the middle of a take in a Studio. You can sing to Him walking down the street. You can sing to Him in the shower. You can sing pretty much anywhere and it all counts as performing to 'an audience of one'.

So I did just that. I sang my songs to an audience of one, and it was Sophie. I was worshipping just as much in Studio A as I have done in Church.

So back to the opportunities thing. It's not just once in a lifetime opportunities we should grab hold of, its the worship chances too. Don't just wait til Sunday, grab every chance you can. Perform as much as you can to 'an audience of one'.

And cut...