Mark Tiddy
Website of Mark Tiddy | Musician, Christian, Youth Worker

It’s that time of the year again when I have some spare time to ponder the year gone by…and mainly I’m pondering the music from the year gone by. I feel like this year I’ve experienced less anticipation about albums but purchased more old music…however as I scroll through my iTunes library there are some real stand-out albums from this year…in no particular order:

Alkaline Trio – This Addiction

Earlier this year I reviewed this album as one of my favourite punk rock albums in a long time and now, even at the end of the year I stand by that. This Addiction is a fantastic blend of melodic pop-punk with deep lyrics. It’s energetic and fun and the bonus version including a DVD and a whole host of bonus acoustic tracks makes it such a good listen. This album has been everywhere this year…it’s accompanied me during my gym work-outs, it kept us company on the journey to France and it’s been played endless times around the house.

Good Charlotte – Cardiology

Once again this is an album I reviewed earlier this year and is certainly an album which both myself and Jo love (so much so about a week after buying it Jo put it in her car and I haven’t seen it since!). Cardiology sees Good Charlotte returning to the pop-punk that first sold me to their music 8 years ago and is a fantastic album and certainly worthy of my top 5 of 2010!

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby – Lonely Avenue

Lyrics have always been important to me in music…whether they’re just ‘blow you away’ challenging or something simple that you can relate to I’ve always appreciated the words within the music I listen to and this is why Lonely Avenue is such an awesome album. The concept is simple; well known author (High Fidelity, About A Boy) Nick Hornby wrote the lyrics and Ben Folds (king of the piano!) wrote the music. The result is an album which is simply stunning both musically and lyrically.

Owl City – Ocean Eyes

2010 was the year a campaign tried to get a Christian number 1 however the campaign organisers failed to catch on that we’d already had a Christian at number 1 a matter of weeks earlier. Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’ is probably known by millions of people and the album it’s taken from makes it into my top 5 of 2010. Like ‘Fireflies’ ‘Ocean Eyes’ is light, catchy pop which cannot fail to bring a smile to your face. This album was pretty much all I listened to solidly for the 2 weeks when I first brought it (much to Jo’s annoyance)…it’s a fantastic pop album…good, clean fun!

B.O.B – The Adventures of Bobby Ray

As a big Paramore fan and follower of the amazing Hayley Williams on Twitter when I head she’d collaborated with a rapper I headed straight to youtube to check it out and it feels like I’ve heard it almost everywhere since. I am of course talking about the song ‘Airplanes’ which mixes a beautiful chorus lead vocal part done by Hayley Williams with the rapping of B.O.B. Unusually for rap songs I like I actually brought the album and ‘The Adventures of Bobby Ray’ was certainly a good buy. It’s got plenty of catchy tunes and some clever lyrics and takes the final place in my top albums of 2010.

I hate the majority of Christmas carols…in fact sit me in a carol service and I’ll stay quiet for a majority of the lyrics or moan about the theology (or lack of) behind them!

A couple of years ago I decided to re-write ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ and actually add some theology to it and so all reference to snow went and keeping 2 original verses I added two more before them.

Since then I’ve used it in worship sets the last couple of years at ‘The Point’ and at ‘SPARK’ and the worship group here in South Cave are using it on Christmas day this year however I’ve never made a recording of it….until today!

This afternoon I went on a massive distraction and made a recording of it…and the result is probably a light stadium rock carol!

I’ve uploaded it here so click to have a listen and download

Here are the lyrics too… (1st 2 verses by me, 2nd 2 originals)

Mysteries surrounding, prophecies come true
Jesus, God incarnate,  God, yet human too
Mary trusted You, O God, always good and true
Giving birth to Jesus, For Him we worship you

For Jesus, God we praise you, died to save our souls
Stepped out into darkness, as it was foretold
Suffered death, was crucified, Jesus took my shame
For Jesus, God we praise you, death He overcame

Our God, heaven can’t hold You, nor the earth sustain
heaven and earth shall flee away, when You come to reign
in the bleak-midwinter, a stable-place sufficed
the lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ

Oh, what can I give Him, woeful as I am
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb
If I were a wiseman, I would do my part
Yet, what can I give You; I will give my heart

I’ve been going to church ever since I can remember…I’ve survived Sunday school, enjoyed youth groups and sat through countless church services full of standing up, sitting down and singing songs written long before anyone in church can remember….to add to this I’ve heard plenty of drivel from the newer song writers and if I’m being completely honest I often find church boring and irrelevant.

As a youth worker for a Christian charity one of my concerns is not that the young people we have going to youth groups now don’t go to church but that they will never go to church (when I say church I don’t mean a Sunday service but a gathering of Christians).

This means that the youth groups I meet with whether it’s our 11-14′s group, Rock Solid group or Christian Union in school are all as much church as a Sunday morning service however what’s next? Maybe they’ll find trendy university churches but sooner or later they probably have to come back to the reality that generally church isn’t exciting.

I had a conversation with someone recently about someone who became a Christian and went to church for a while but always remarked ‘Why does it have to be so boring?’. This wasn’t a young person either and that person eventually gave up.

And along came the emerging Church…

Emerging church is a title is basically thrown at any ‘church’ gathering that isn’t a hymn sandwich.It might refer to cafe church, some kind of family fun day or a whole variety of ‘very slightly off the wall’ church events and whilst I love the idea of proper coffee and a informal church these things often miss the point.

These emerging churches can often become nothing more than a social gathering with the addition of something so watered down it’s barely a Christian message.

The Problem is this…

If church becomes something so boring that people switch off then we lose the ‘life in all its fullness’ that Christ promises. The freedom we’re meant to receive in Christ becomes nothing more than a chore of sitting through an hour of dullness a week.

If church becomes something so irrelevant that the event is nothing more than a social event with a watered-down, half-arsed attempt at proclaiming the greatness of Jesus then it is equally as pointless as the church that is boring.

The Gospel

The message that Jesus brought to people was neither boring or irrelevant. It was a life changing encounter. It caused people to do crazy things like selling their possessions and looking after the poor. It caused people to have a conviction so strong about having Jesus in their lives that they were willing to die for the cause.

A Passionless Church

On Sunday Jo and myself visited Emmanuel Church in Durham for no other reason than googling a church to visit whilst there and the format of the church was pretty similar to most (other than the coffee before the service which gave us a chance to feel welcomed in) however the difference was the passion oozing from the people.

The people at Emmanuel Church genuinely cared about Christ and you could see it in their actions and hear it in their voices.

The problem is that the majority of our churches lack passion.

The word passion comes from the Greek word Pathos and translated means something worth dying for.

Does church present us with a Jesus worth dying for? Does church present us with a Christian life that causes us to be passionate people…people who are so convicted by the gospel message and so filled with the Holy Spiirt that they simply cannot even talk about Jesus without it being obvious that this is something they really care about?

The fact is our churches need passion.

Yes some people express themselves differently but sooner or later with people you can find the buttons to push…for some people I know that button is the word ‘Fairtrade’, for others it’s the mention of homophobia and for some it might even be how dangerous the roads are with the ice at the moment.

Everyone has a button that when you push it they burst into life…passionately telling you about something they’re angered about, or excited about or something that they care so much about they simply can’t stay monotone.

How many people in our churches are like that with Jesus?

How many of our churches repeat liturgy as if their life depends on it?

How many people are so passionate about the gospel that they will do anything to spread it?

I’m not talking about people waving their arms in worship (although it does say passion), I’m not talking about speaking in tongues (although it’s God bubbling up from our very souls), I’m not even talking about people shouting or saying ‘yes Lord’ during prayers (although both say passion)…I’m talking about people being excited!

People being passionate.

And so yes…church is boring and irrelevant (a lot of the time) but it doesn’t have to be turned completely upside down to be appealing to people I think often it’s as simple as people wanting what we’ve got. People looking for something to be passionate about. People finding that passion in Jesus.

Emerging church is fantastic if it’s passionate as is an average Sunday morning service. If church is boring then we’ve really missed the point.

Our word passion comes from the Greek ‘Pathos’ which means ‘Something worth dying for’

Whilst the amount of snow we have in South Cave is a pain (meaning that we have a dead boiler and that I’ve dug my car out numerous times in the last couple of days) it does mean I’ve been able to get some lovely photos. Here’s 3 of my favourites…