my latest projects these are the results of my latest projects:
don't you just love God
Your grace has made a friend out of this enemy; Your grace has opened eyes of blindness Now I can see!
Your grace melted the chains around my heart Now I am free, completely overwhelmed by Your grace!
from: Your Grace
Let me tell you a bit about myself
My name is Gareth Paul Taylor and I am a songwriter, worship leader and musician with the worship team at Hope House Church, formerly known as Barnsley Christian Fellowship, having been a member since coming to the area to be a teacher in 1991. (I am now in my late-thirties.) Our fellowship was established in 1982 and is an evangelical, charismatic church with about 100 members. It is part of the Ground Level organisation headed up by Stuart Bell of Lincoln New Life church, who pioneered the annual Grapevine festival. Indeed our pastor Paul Bedford chairs our region’s network of Grapevine churches.
In 1994, shortly after my first venture into congregational song-writing, the fellowship encouraged me to attend a “Songwriters’ Weekend” that Chris Bowater, himself based at Lincoln New Life, had initiated as part of his School of Creative Ministries. This weekend became the first of an annual gathering of writers, and since then my song-writing has been predominantly (though by no means exclusively) in the area of praise and worship. I went on to have three songs published with Sovereign Lifestyle Music in the late 90s, two of which were recorded in association with Word’s Spirit of Praise label. While I have never really stopped writing at any point, God has brought me into a new season of writing in the last few years during which my then pastor’s wife, respected for her prophetic gift in the fellowship, prophesied I would write songs that would “catch in the Church”. Sure enough, two songs written shortly after this prophetic word were to gain greater distribution through a new project called “Released”, the brainchild of Chris Bowater himself. The second song that I recorded with this project, entitled “I Want To Tell You Of My Wonder (Lose Myself)” came to the attention of Kingsway who since its publication have gone on to publish three more of my songs, including the first one I wrote after the prophecy was given! Having adopted “Lose Myself” into his repertoire, Chris Bowater went on to do me the honour of recording it in Nashville as the closing track on his recently-released new album “Crown Of Beauty”.
My latest recording project, the promotional CD “Lose Myself”, was undertaken primarily in response to another prophetic word given to me in late 2004 through a good friend in my local house-group, who said that God wanted me to “cast the net out” with my songs; basically I am not to allow my songs to remain in a notebook or a filing cabinet, but to send them out to bless the Church before they go past their “Use by” date like the manna in the desert! I’m encouraged to think that my songs could help draw God’s people together and closer to God; I’m challenged by this too, as clearly God has called me to be more pro-active in getting the songs out there.
My association with Chris Bowater deepened over the next two years as I enrolled with the Worship Academy he co-founded with Andy Bromley. This saw an extension and deepening of my ministry as a songwriter, musician and worship leader. Various opportunities opened up as a result of this, including invitations to consider taking up a Music Director position in a couple of churches. To date though I am still firmly rooted in Barnsley, believing this is the place God wants me to be for the time being; to quote a Bluetree song that has become popular at Grapevine 2008, "Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city." I am still eagerly anticipating what God has in store for the church in Barnsley and the community it is reaching out to. I feel I am in the best of both worlds at the moment. While still based in Barnsley, other opportunities are opening up, the most significant of these being my increasing role in the Grapevine Festival. This year I was invited by Howard Williams, Chris Bowater's successor as Worship Pastor at New Life Christian Fellowship, Lincoln, to be part of the mainstage band for the evening meetings at Grapevine. In tandem with this opportunity came the request for me to typeset and edit this year's songbook, along with David Beardmore, and the resulting songbook also featured my song "I Will Lift Up My Hands", the very song which began this 'new era' of my writing. I am looking forward to further collaborations with the Grapevine team and more opportunites opening up with the Ground Level church network as my circle of influence increases, while seeking to remain true to my roots in Barnsley.
My involvement with education also continues, though in a different guise today. After completing my NQT year as a secondary music teacher I took on a newly-created post in my specialist area, as a piano/ keyboard teacher with Barnsley’s local peripatetic service. After 8 years in this role I felt I wanted to do more with my practical and creative music skills and embarked on my present path as a pianist in local schools. As well as fulfilling my practical gifts and allowing me to continue engaging with kids, which is itself wonderfully rewarding, this has given me opportunities to write and deliver songs for schools, sharing my faith in the process. I also continue to teach piano, although now only on an individual basis.
I hope I have managed to give you a reasonably clear picture of where I’m coming from.
Thanks for taking the time to browse my site, may God richly bless you,
Gareth
