Back in February I went to Nexus Trust in Coventry and spent an hour recording a couple of songs for the TV show UKCMC.

Abide was televised last night but is repeated four times in the next week on UCB TV (Sky 586 or online www.ucb.co.uk).

It will be broadcast on: Friday 17 June – 5.30pm & 9.30pm Monday 20 June – 12.30am & 5.30pm

I will let you know when the second song is going out.

Well, once again my wife Felicity heard about a songwriting competition and thought I should enter. So I entered a song.

My song Fragile Case has been shortlisted and is one of ten songs that will be played this weekend on UCB UK’s Unsigned show. You can hear Unsigned at 5pm on Saturday 7th May or at 6pm on Sunday 8th May UCB UK

National on DAB
On Sky Ch 0125
Online www.ucbmedia.co.uk
and now on the UCB i-phone app again www.ucbmedia.co.uk/app

Once again it is wonderful to be recognised as a good songwriter, regardless of the outcome. For me, it is about being an artist with integrity rather than being signed and playing on huge stages. Of course, I will walk wherever God leads, so let’s see what happens in the days ahead.

The prize is a recording of the song, airtime on UCB radio and playing at The Big Church Day Out. A lovely prize for whoever wins.

Just to let you know that today is a day of new things. Firstly, I begin my new work in earnest. I am working on a new project to help local congregations develop and establish new forms of chaplaincy around the UK. My patch is the south of England, however, for the first part we are just trying to immerse ourselves in all things chaplaincy and establish the scope of this project. So theoretical groundwork for a month or so, then off to see what works out in the field — a real adventure!

Secondly, I have started a new blog. http://confidencetopause.tumblr.com It’s a catch all for all the other stuff swishing around my soul. So feel free to check it out if you get a chance.

Do keep me in your prayers as I begin this new work. It is a very exciting project which has vast potential to do good in countless lives. It is an honour and privilege to be involved in this from its beginning stages. I would value wisdom and eyes to see what God has already been doing so that we can join in with that action!

It is Lent 2011 and has nearly been a year since I last wrote with news. As I look back and reflect upon this painful and pivotal year I am amazed at how far we have travelled as a family. God has done some significant and necessary work that has both consolidated the past and prepared us for what is to come. We had an amazing 6 months in The Outer Hebrides, Scotland. There is something about that place — where nature is so plentiful and where the elements of wind, water and earth are so powerful — that facilitates deep healing and restoration. To many it seemed like an unusual destination for the Greens, but I cannot think of many other places that could give us the space we so desperately needed. In many ways this past year has been about creating a space in which God could dwell in order to heal, integrate, renew and restore.

Having a year’s sabbatical has been a big step of faith on many levels but it has been a step that has led us in an amazing direction. Into a future I could not have imagined a couple of years ago.

We have spent a lot of time with one another. It has been a year without church meetings! Where we welcomed 29 visitors to our home on the Isle of Lewis for up to a week at a time. We made new friends and worshipped with a great group of Christians at Martin’s Memorial Church in Stornoway during our stay. It was refreshing to sit with my family on a Sunday morning – the first time in about 10 years. It was refreshing to be known as Oliver’s dad instead of speaker, leader, worship leader etc. It felt good!

Whilst on the Isle of Lewis, I read, wrote, rested, cut Hebridean peat for fuel, walked, slept and waited on God. I listened and journaled. Went to the beach when the weather was good. Doodled on my guitar, gazed at the stars, watched the sun rise and the sun set, mowed the lawn (1/2 acre with a Flymo…), cared for Felicity and Oliver, climbed mountains, and hoped that God would lead us on at the right time.

Soon after we got to the Island, we discovered that Felicity was expecting our second child. Our home in Hampshire also became vacant soon after we arrived on the Island and so we decided after 6 months to spend the second half of our sabbatical closer to our family and friends in Hampshire.

In December we welcomed our son Monty Elliott into the world. He is an absolute delight and has a smile that melts us. Oliver is growing beautifully and exploring the world as well as being a brilliant older brother. He also loves to play music and we are enjoying watching him develop as a young musician.

After a year out of public ministry I have started leading worship again at our local church. I have also begun a songwriters circle which is going well and has huge potential – watch this space for more soon! I am also exploring with another friend locally about gathering worship leaders from around the region to connect with one another and with God in a deeper way. Exciting times ahead.

In the New Year I began to think about paid employment again. Felicity saw the perfect job for me which I applied for. I have just been appointed as the Chaplaincy Development Project Officer for the south of England with the UK Methodist Church. Not a title that fits neatly onto a business card! However, the job is amazing – I could not have imagined a more perfect job. I am working on the national team helping to form and innovate new forms of chaplaincy with volunteers in local churches. I am home based, working in Central London from time to time, and then out in the field as and when. It is a 1 year pilot scheme that if successful could be very strategic in the mission of the Methodist Church in the UK. I am thrilled to be a part of it and humbled to be entrusted with something like this again.

In a roundabout way then I have transitioned into a new phase of life and ministry where I am involved in local church ministry, writing books and songs and releasing music as well as being paid to help shape new expressions of church and mission around the nation.

So there has been a lot happening behind the scenes. The songs I am writing now are different and deeper and I am excited to be able to share them here soon. Sadly I do not have a dedicated studio space in this house but will be recording some simple ‘live’ versions in our kitchen in the near future. Also, I will be posting a couple of music videos here soon which will be broadcast around the world on the UK Christian Music Charts in April. Watch this space.

I hope you like the new website. The design has been on my mind for a long time now. I designed it from the ground up and I am very pleased with the way it has taken shape. Its launch marks a transition into a new phase of our lives. The sabbatical is very much drawing to an end and new adventures are afoot. We are thankful for our training and experiences of church leadership in the past, and treasure the relationships forged as we ministered in Sutton and Central London. We are moving forward with a deep sense of thankfulness, purpose and hope. I look forward to sharing more over the coming months and plotting much goodness in the years to come!

I want to let you know some of our news. The last 6 months has been the most emotionally challenging of my life. I won’t go into the details here, suffice to say that during Holy Week we moved from Pimlico in Central London to a peninsula on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides just off the North West Coast of Scotland.

We spent nearly 5 years in Central London, planting and nurturing a congregation called The Sanctuary at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster and it was truly a wonder to watch what God was doing among us. It was a busy and rewarding time in so many ways and that season for us is now over and the congregation is in good hands as it continues to evolve.

Today, I find myself writing from a very different place. We live in a detached house with sea views on 3 sides. Our lounge, bedroom and recording studio look out to the most extraordinary panoramic views with the ocean and the mountains of the main land to my left, a rocky coast line and the mountains of Harris directly in front of me and more sea to the right just past the isthmus. 150 yards beyond our house are sheer cliffs — it’s dramatic! The sunsets are totally amazing and I spend most nights here gazing out of my studio watching the sun set and the stars rising. Venus shining brightly over the silhouette of the mountains is simply breathtaking as is the moon through a telescope. It is a wonderful place to be still, silent and to practice solitude. There is a clarity here and a perspective that London too easily obscured.

We are not totally alone here though, there is a thriving community and over the next few weeks we will be having a number of house warming parties as we invite our neighbours and people from our new church community over. We are also looking forward to having our first set of guests to stay in May.

So this is a time out from ‘doing’ and is an in depth lesson in ‘being’. We are not sure how long this season will last, that is in God’s hands. However, it will probably last as long as it takes for healing, wholeness, strength and total integration to work its course in us — so probably a fair while!

I drove up here on 1st April in the snow, leaving London behind and moving steadily north. From the nation’s capital to the ‘Outdoor Capital of the UK’ as the sign reads as you enter the Scottish Highlands. Spring is here, the lambs are leaping (we are surrounded by sheep and lambs and pretty much every other farm animal you can mention as well as eagles and seals and otters and whales!) and just when you think spring has come at last, there is a hail storm or a snow blizzard! The winds are strong here, but you never know whether it will be a winter blizzard or a spring wind greeting you. I think that it is the nature of the Island’s weather!

I was reading from the Prophet Isaiah this morning. I love chapter 51 verse 11. In many ways it speaks of my hope for our time here, to come to a place where sorrow and sighing flee away. It’s a promise that I am holding out for.

The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah 51:11 The NIV Bible

My work here will be mostly song writing, recording and study. Learning to let silence have its way as I learn to hear and interpret the music that comes from that place.

I hope to be posting new songs more regularly as well as working on an instrumental album for release next year.

Today I am releasing the song Fragile Case. It is a very special song for me at this moment in my life and the first song I wanted to release during this new season. I hope it speaks to you and enables you to encounter God’s mystery – that God dwells within fragile and broken people.

I am delighted that Abide has been played on UCB UK and UCB Inspirational radio stations nearly every day since mid March. UCB is a national Christian radio station and you can listen on your DAB radio or stream the station online.

Download the song for free below. Also, check out the chord charts and words for download in the ‘songs’ part of this website and use the song in your church.

Download the MP3 version of Abide

It would be wonderful to hear the song on other radio stations – do feel free to play it sometime. Download the higher quality wav file of Abide

I don’t really know what to say, apart from that I am stunned that 2 of my songs reached the top 5 shortlist in a national song writing competition.

Abide came first and Never Walk Alone came third.

Check out UKCMC for more information.

All I can say is that I am humbled, thrilled and would appreciate your prayers as I continue to walk down unknown paths as yet to see!