Why has Dave Bilbrough gone global? Clive Price talked to him and his wife Pat at the Worship Together conference about the new rhythm of Romford.
The music of Paul Simon was a key influence on Dave Bilbrough in his personal search for God. So it's not surprising that Dave has continued to trace his hero's steps. This time he's gone down the road of world music.
For it was Paul Simon's epic Graceland album that helped to break down huge barriers in pop - with its use of African rhythms and township jive. And now Dave Bilbrough is pioneering a similar path through worship.
He's used Celtic and Cajun influences before, notably on Lift Him High (Kingsway). But now some may feel Dave's gone over the edge. His latest album - Live From Marsham Street (Kingsway) - employs bouzouki, fiddle, mandolin, cittern, bodhran, Irish whistle, uillean pipes, accordion and percussion from Africa, the Middle East, Far East - 'and Walthamstow', as songwriter Dave jokingly remarks on the CD cover.
Drummer Martin Neil and Dave's percussionist wife Pat keep the beat of the nations going. And Dave takes the lead vocal on songs with titles like Tell The World, Light Of The World and To The Ends Of The Earth.
The set was recorded live at The Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. That was the venue for the Sowing The Seeds Of Revival meetings spearheaded by Gerald Coates and his Surrey based church Pioneer People.
'Initially it was just going to be a couple of weeks,' Dave recalled, 'and it went on for about 15-16 months.' He was part of the rota of worship leaders with Noel Richards and Sue Rinaldi.He enjoyed the 'prophetic flow' of those meetings, held just a stone's throw from Parliament. 'There wasn't a constant celebration format that had to be followed. It was just, turn on the microphones and start flowing in the Spirit.
'It gave a lot of scope for creativity and sounds. And running with that was the whole thing of wanting to broaden and develop some world music sounds. The two sort of hit each other head-on.'Texan preacher Dale Gentry also played strategic role in the Marsham Street meetings, as they became known. He spoke of the need to break out of comfort zones, take new ground and believe God for new things. That was to become a significant message for many - including Dave.
'Dale's whole emphasis on breakout - breaking out to the nations - became very birthed in me,' he remembered, 'and a lot of the songs were born out of the experience of being at Marsham Street in that prophetic environment.'Part of that experience was Dave's development of 'world' themes in his music and songwriting. It was an 'empty canvas' approach, allowing God 'to speak and to breathe,' as he put it.
'We might sing two songs, we might sing five songs, we might sing seven songs, but the idea was to get hold of the heartbeat of God. That revivalist theme is right in my core, my psyche, and is probably what I'm most comfortable with.'When it came to the new recording, Dave had already decided on the world music style. In Dave's view, music itself can be prophetic - and representing something of the two-thirds world in worship is a powerful statement. 'I'm carrying this concern about worship and prayer,' he said,' the two being linked.
'There's something about our worshipping and representing the down-trodden, the two-thirds world, the oppressed, in what we're doing, that isn't necessarily just verbalised through the words, but is there in the heartbeat of the music.'The question arose, how to convey that on a recording? The decision was made to pursue this prophetic path in a live worship event. Despite its acoustic limitations - most visitors will know it's like singing at the bottom of a drink can - Marsham Street was chosen as the venue.
Interestingly, the centre is home for a Chinese congregation, amid London's political heartland that draws both politicians and tourists from all over the world. So even the setting was spot-on.
Dave has always wanted to take the prophetic approach. Although he's known as a songwriter - his early 'classic' Abba Father swept across the world in the 80s - he believes God is reshaping him into what Dave calls a 'psalmist'.
For him, that means catching the 'prophetic heartbeat'. He admits that can be difficult to put into words. 'I just know it's there,' he added, 'and I know for some-of the musicians I'm working with, it's there as well.'
Dave quoted his friend Gerald Coates on the subject. 'He was speaking about the prophetic, and he said it's when eternity is there, God is there, and this moment suddenly flashes. That's what happens with me.
'It can be at a microphone, or it might be while I'm walking down a country lane, and suddenly something comes into my mind and I think, that's you, God!' Dave realises for the musician, it means taking a risk. 'It's important not to let your brains go out the window,' Dave cautioned, 'but to set a direction, and then to let go.' The worship leaders he admires are those who take hold of the meeting at the beginning, give it a sense of direction, but then let go and let God - 'and it's at that moment that the real risk comes'.He went on: 'If you listen to someone who's a good communicator, they do many of the things the textbooks would say. But then it's almost like they throw the textbook out the window and they become themselves. Great art is something that's unique and special to that individual because it's come from the heart.'
Dave's wife Pat has supported his ministry for years as both a sounding board for song ideas and a supplier of backing vocalists! Now she can be seen and heard on stage, striking some big percussion instruments literally just a few feet from his ear.
Aptly enough, she has Armenian and Scottish heritage. Herinstruments also represent different countries - African, Middle Eastern and Turkish drums, timpani, talking drum, Tibetan bells and Chilean rainstick. So what part do those sounds play?
'When Dave talks about this third world thing,' said Pat, 'my heart is immediately there with him in it. It's something God has put on our hearts.' They have worked with Tamil people from Sri Lanka, helping them to redeem their culture, encouraging them to use indigenous iinstruments in worship. Pat recalled that during Pioneer's Event For Revival two years ago, someone blew a conch a large shell used as a horn.And in her words, some Tamil Christians 'freaked out'. For in their culture, the conch had been used to summon people to temple worship. However, the Tamils realised God was saying it was time to start to use their own instruments again. They had cast them aside, along with all their former beliefs.
'But now was the time when they were mature enough to start to use them for God,' said Pat. 'We went to a conference in Switzerland. I took all my percussion, and Dave and Sue Rinaldi were there as well. We shared some teaching with them. 'During that time they performed a dance with an actual conch that came from a temple from Sri Lanka which they brought back when Dave went the last time. And they redeemed the conch in the dance, and gave it to God.' A person came and blew it who used to be in the temple and had become a Christian. And it was so significant - it really broke something - and the same thing happened with the cultural dances as well.'Redeeming world music doesn't always involve the cultures of distant lands. The Bilbroughs have seen similar things happen in these islands, too. 'We went up to the Isle of Skye,' said Pat, 'and many of the people there worshipped using the metrical psalms - singing the psalms in a kind of choral response. 'It was absolutely beautiful with ornamentation in their singing. But many didn't use instruments because again they'd been told they were of the devil. They'd burned the instruments and weren't using them. 'So we encouraged them to bring back the fiddles and recorders. It's quite interesting what's happening among the youth there. Our two boys are into the decks and rock bands but they're not into that kind of stuff. 'They wanted to play accordions or violins really into the trad music - not all of them, but many that we met. And so we were encouraging them to do that, not just to take on our youth culture, where we were from, but to find out what theirs was. I think that's something else that God's put on our hearts to do.'
World music is a controversial area, politically and spiritually. People who have lived in certain regions may associate drums with voodoo and magic. How do Dave and Pat allay such fears?
'The iinstrument itself is not evil,' said Pat. 'It's a neutral thing. It's the spirit in which it's played that's important. So if the person playing that instrument is a Christian, they can use it in worship to God. 'But it may take - as we did with the Tamil people - an actual act of laying the instrument before God. In God's eyes thatinstrument isn't evil, but for them they may feel they need to do that.'Certain tunes and iinstruments mark out particular people groups, races and even political persuasions. Drums, pipes and even accordions have been used in various contexts from battlefields to street marches, to sound a rallying call.
'But this is the issue of redemption that is so vital, isn't it?' Dave pointed out. 'Jesus said, eat whatever is set before you - the culture of the people - and we redeem it by being salt and light, and letting that light overcome. 'But it requires transformation. It requires a process. And it's not always just a bland statement that's going to do that. Some people in that Sri Lanka situation needed some fairly heavyweight prayer. It was a powerful thing for them to pick up that conch. It wasn't just a quick "let's all do conch stuff now", you know.'
The Bilbroughs' message is one of releasing the individual into indigenous worship - seeing their culture redeemed in Christ. 'I do think this whole thing of releasing is so important when it comes to worship,' said Dave. 'It's been said that we don't worship God because he's a divine egoist - but somehow the act of worship puts God in the right perspective.
'We need that. We need to keep continually be affirming that. But we also become released in ourselves to be who we are, who God has made us to be. And for me I think we come to the heart - which is worship and grace coming together.
'Look at the vastness of a congregation. It's made up of individuals. And what we need again and again is to be releasing people to be who they are in their spheres of whatever they've been called to do. And the extent of that should be fresh, vibrant worship.'
The very day we talked, Pat had an encounter that related to that. She had just led a 'vocal' seminar, when an Iranian woman approached her. 'She was lovely,' Pat recalled, 'and she said, "how can I learn to sing in a western way?"
'I replied, what do you mean? She went on to say, "my intonation is more quarter tones and the eastern way". And I said, but you mustn't lose that. That's you. 'She said, "well, sometimes people look at me in a funny way and they don't like it". So I said, if you want to sing western songs, that's fine, listen more to that music and you can pitch and tune in, but you mustn't lose who you are and what you have because that is so excellent - that's how God's made you.'Dave pointed out that both Anglican and Pentecostal styles of worship have swept the globe, imported by other cultures. 'While both of those styles are valid and to be applauded,' he said, 'it's the releasing of the individual's cultural identity that I think really pleases God.'
It all sounds noble stuff. But is there a danger that culturally relevant worship can also stir up feelings of nationalism?
'It's a thin line,' said Dave. 'The big thing that needs to transcend over and above all that is the eternal kingdom of God and the much bigger picture that we're involved with - which I don't think we really see too often.'
The early church had its challenges in this area, too. The big debate then was whether Gentile believers were required to conform to the Jewish way. Would they now become Jewish - in the way they ate their meals and led their services? Or should they become 'fully Gentile,' as Dave put it, 'fully alive'? History tells us what happened.
'What made it work was the affirmation of the resurrection and of the new creation in Christ. And also another aspect that needs to be affirmed is the fact that we can have our preferences, but we mustn't have our prejudices.
'There is the wider picture. And that again comes down to this affirmation of the kingdom of God that transcends history and time and embraces all people.' Which takes us back to Dave's album.
'At the end of the day, it's still Dave singing, it's still Dave and his heart,' he said, 'but he's drawing on different musical styles. It's Dave being himself, I would hope, but recognising there's a much broader palate from which to draw.'
Clive Price
Clive Price is Editor of Worship Together, Consultant Editor of Pioneer's Compass magazine, UK Correspondentfor the US-based Charisma, and a regular contributor to Renewal. He is co-author of Miracle Children (Hodder & Stoughton), CBC's Book Of The Year 1998, and author of Glorious Awakenings (SPCK/Triangle).