One of the most highly respected worship leaders and songwriters CHRIS BOWATER has recently released a new album. He spoke in depth about the project and his whole attitude to worship to Lukas Willcocks.

Lukas: What is a prodigal worshipper?
Chris: "Someone who has left, for whatever reason, the Father's heart. It is a common statement that this is a time when prodigals return. I put it more than just a returning to faith. There are a lot more people who are going through the motions of worship and are living away from Father's house. When I talk about a prodigal worshipper, I talk about coming back to Father's heart. Again, come back to a true focus about what true worship is all about. It's amazing how you can be present in body and absent in spirit!"

Lukas: A lot of this is a testimony to your life, being brought up in a Christian home then going to London and the jazz lifestyle, then returning to God!
Chris: "My story is a prodigal story, yes. It's not a period in my life I was very proud of, but in all things working together for good, part of Scriptures, it was an important part of shaping me. If you don't learn from experiences like that, you're very, very stupid. You live with the scars of it, but we all live with the scars of our decisions. Scars don't hurt, they are there as a reminder. Somebody once said, I think it was me!, 'Heaven can make scars beautiful.'"

Lukas: How did you start the School Of Creative Ministries?
Chris: "It started 13 years ago. There are up to a dozen training courses every year, covering keyboard, worship leading, dance, guitar, songwriting, a whole array of seminars. Over 13 years we've reached thousands of people, from many, many churches, across the nation even into other nations."

Lukas: Was it something you woke up one morning and said, "I am going to start this," or what?
Chris: "I am a teacher by profession, that is my training. So something of the teacher within me wanted to see that out worked. When I first came to Lincoln the vision that was given to me was to build a kind of music academy situation. I think it's been worked out by this kind of process, because I think it's more seeker friendly and it's more accessible to people. So, the idea was always there and it was a case of I'd have to do it one day and so 13 years ago we started it. We also have an International School for more extended periods of time. We have people from Poland, Portugal, France, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, Canada, USA, Philippines and Malaysia. There's a real sense of a touching point with the nations there."

Lukas: Has the vision changed?
Chris: "It has changed in as much as in the early days, I did everything. Now we bring in our own teaching staff and musicians like Johnny Markin and Trish Morgan and musicians. I've slipped very comfortably into an overseeing role. But the vision is in transition, as we are in the process of planning a three-week International School in France and one similar in America. We have also been invited to Greece. We have also been approached to host a Creative Ministry school in Scotland and Ireland. That's an interesting departure as everything has been based here in Lincoln. Now we're moving out with the same formula seminar in what we're aiming to do. So we are equipping people for their local churches, touching grassroots and hoping to lift the standards within the local churches, whether it be 25 people or 250, just to uplift. I'm excited about Scotland and Ireland becoming Creative Ministry centres. We'd continue here in Lincoln as we wouldn't necessarily draw too many from Scotland or Ireland. So we can service it in that way."

Lukas: You mentioned your son Daniel who runs the professional outfit here. What's your input here?
Chris: "My input is to be a resource and a back up to Daniel's skills, he's hugely gifted. I want to make sure there's as much excellence as we can physically do, so that it's an environment for Christians and non-Christians to work in, so that they will be enhanced by the experience of coming into the studio. We want to see the studio as a gift into missions as well, producing projects that will go into other countries that we are funding in effect. But we also need the commercial work here to make that kind of thing possible. So that's our vision/strategy really. It's hard doing any kind of business these days, but we've had a great start, we're encouraged. We keep the prayer mat out all the time."

Lukas: Going back to the album, track seven, "I Need You", talking about the desert of business. How do you focus on Christ in the maze of activity you're involved in?
Chris: "I was asked this question recently, about prioritising at New Life. I think sometimes the error we make is putting priorities into shopping lists. We have a kind of vertical list of priorities. The problem is anything not in the top three, suddenly enters the guilt syndrome, because we feel guilty we're not giving enough time to the priorities. So I've begun to reassess how I view my priorities. If God is my priority, he purveys everything. God isn't a priority in isolation from everything else. My relationship with God is a priority, out of which everything else ensues. Therefore my priorities are not a shopping list, but is the horizontal in my life. So in that horizon are my finances, family, friends and ministry. If God is my overall priority over all these, then he's the one who puts the searchlight on to different things. I trust him to direct my path. You have to give him the opportunity to do this. It's good to have people around who are close enough to speak the truth to you. Your family certainly will and have the right to. In all my years in ministry, I've never been away for one of the children's birthdays. That was a choice, a decision. Once I was away on my birthday and I was put through hell by the kids. How dare you be away on your birthday! Close colleagues and friends will speak the truth, only those who love you have the right to."

Lukas: It's easier to walk through a door God opens than to make a choice he gives you.
Chris: "I've never invited myself anywhere in my ministry. I put in to practice, the choice of five years of work, you couldn't possibly do in one year. What do you do when everyone says God has told them to write to you. The choice is, I can do that but am I supposed to be? I have the ability to do that, but is that my calling? I never make it a financial issue or size of venue. Choice is made in connection with the calling on my life."

Lukas: What about critical reviews? How do you respond to those?
Chris: "It happens! You have to accept people have a right to an opinion. No one likes criticism. As long as it is well informed and considered, then that's fine, I can handle it then. Everyone wants to be liked."

Lukas: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Chris: "At the moment I'm concentrating on the School Of Creative Ministries and travelling eight-twelve countries a year. In five years' time I'd like to say, 'Chris, you've done all that you were meant to do, at all levels of your life.' I want to have created space for the creative side of me, as opposed to the giving out side of me. I think that there is a danger that I spend more time giving out than to that creative process of writing. There's a lot in me I want to write about, a lot in me I want to write, musical projects and book projects. Logistically I find it difficult to write when I'm travelling as much as I am. So I'm hoping in the next five years I'll master this issue. To give myself the space that will be the fulfilment I'm looking for, satisfying the needs I've got to put into words and music. In five years' time I'd like to see a full time music academy in Europe. I hope more people will be released in their gifting. I hope the studio will be well established as a genuine resource centre..."

Lukas: Do you think you'll do a jazz album?
Chris: "Loads and loads of people have asked me that. Certainly we're planning to do an instrumental album, which I think will have some jazz influence. I'm passionate about jazz, you can make it accessible to people."

Lukas: Finally, which is your favourite song on the album?
Chris: "I think the arrangement on 'Gracious Father' is beautiful and I'm happy for David Lyon from Scotland, that we've been able to put that on. I think 'Creation Is Awaiting' is potentially a big song, because I think we need to be living in this eternal perspective. Not just living for time. I was brought up in church with every other song being about the second coming. That went out of fashion for a time, but it's still a truth, which we must not ignore. I'm really happy with the way we've treated 'When The Music Fades', and 'I Need You' has a credible passion to it, almost a Zulu feel to it at one stage. It's difficult when you've lived with a project, it's like asking which one is the favourite of my five children."