Interview with Ben Slee

On our YouTube channel you can find a full interview with song writer and music minister ben Slee. Here are some highlights from the interview.

Jim: Ben, tell us a bit about where you come from.

Ben: I'm based in Christchurch Mayfair in London. We've been here for about 11 years. I've grown up in church. My parents were wonderful Christian people, taught me to know Jesus from a very young age. I picked up a guitar in the youth group, very nervous. (There's some embarrassing pictures somewhere that hopefully won't ever resurface of me trying to play. I think there might have been some overhead clapping!)

I studied music in London. From there I went to an internship, which is when I met Sarah. We got married, and we came to Christchurch Mayfair. We've been here ever since. My job is to plan all the aspects of the service - songs and prayers and everything. And I'm coming at that with a pastoral view, our times of congregational worship can be a means of grace to the people of God.

If we don't prepare well for everything else that happens in the service spiritually, we might be well taught doctrinally, but spiritually we're going to end up as anaemic Christians. I think one of my big aims is to help the preaching of the word be driven deeply into our hearts and minds. Taking that pastoral responsibility really seriously has become a real passion of mine.

Jim: What advice do you have for church leaders in a smaller set up?

Ben: The work of God amongst us in congregational worship is profound - it's all of his grace. Mercifully, it doesn't require a certain standard or ability from us to do great good to his people. In 2 Cor. 3 Paul is describing ministry in the New Covenant. As we behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, the Spirit is at work to transform us. He's with us in a covenantal way to meet with us as we gather. That's not dependent on our ability, the size of our set up or our technical facilities. We join with the worship that Jesus is leading in heaven. Hebrews 2:12 puts on the lips of Jesus the words of Psalm 22:22 ‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praises.’ Jesus is the one who gathers up all of our imperfect offerings of worship and presents them as perfect before the Father. In the ordinariness and weakness of our worship, Jesus is our worship leader and the Holy Spirit is powerful at work to transform us into his likeness. That's a really precious thing to know, when it all does feel rather wobbly and weak.

Jim: Tell us about the course you are contributing to Crosslands Training.

Ben: Crosslands has courses has at both seminary level and a foundation level. I’m writing a Music Ministry foundation module for people who are responsible for leading sung worship, looking at big theological and practical themes, as well as our character in our hearts as we lead others in worship.

Jim: What does Music Ministry do?

Ben: If you go to music-ministry.org, you'll find lots of resources for local churches. There's help for planning services. You can type in a theme or a line, and it will come up with suggested resources that might be useful. There is the Dwell Richly Course for young musicians. It goes through some of the practicalities of leading, and what it means to worship God. There's a few blog posts as well.

Jim: One of the striking things about UK churches is how much of what we sing comes from America or Australia. Finding British talent is something that we want to be doing as a Trust. How do we get British writing and composing talent found?

Ben: That's a good observation. There are quite a few people writing now, names like Joyful Noise, Phil Moore and Colin Webster, and for children Awesome Cutlery are doing wonderful things. Also Resound Worship are trying to raise up writers. We're trying to write for our church. When it's grounded in the real people that we know with their struggles, and the grace that Jesus gives, that’s a good place to begin writing.

Ben went on to discuss the writing of a number of his songs, including ‘Creator God’, ‘Eternal Father, gracious King’, ‘When anxious storms within us rage’, ‘Through all life’s sorrows’, ‘Day of judgement, day of wonders’, ‘How sure and steadfast through every trial’, and ‘Gracious Father, Son and Spirit’.

You can watch the whole interview here: Ben Slee - musician full interview