Dave Wilkie

My album 'Breathe' is now available for free download

Hold On by Dave Wilkie

If you want to recollect or you missed my fund raising gig on the 18th April 2010, here's a video of the first song on the album 'Breathe', called 'Hold On'.  Hope you enjoy & if you like the music head over here to listen to the album.  Thanks to all who came & supported me, it was a great night!

Can your musical tastes get you closer to God?

My dissertation with CYM has been focusing on finding a name for God in youth culture, as a result a number of young people identified God (or their God/idol/characteristic/i got lost here) as MUSIC.  Here is my strategy to engage with young people to raise self awareness & explore spirituality.

The rise in the consumption of digital music through the internet and personal players, is beginning to provide us with the ability to engage with listeners in depth.  In the world of youth work this  topic can be a daunting one with constantly changing trends and mediums.  The data of a persons listening habits can be stored through the majority of applications using a website service called Last.fm and then used as a tool for spiritual engagement. Andrew Godwin has written a graphical program to crunch the data, called Lastgraph

 

Above is a graph of my years listening habits (April 2009 to 10), below I have zoomed in on the months of February and March 2010.

A number of avenues for investigation can emerge, some of these are suggested below;

• Look at the musical ebb and flow of your life, times when you were away from your music, or reasons why some weeks you listened to far more (December in my case).

• The moments when you started to listen to a band, was it a gig, a friend that introduced you, what memories does it bring back?

• How has your overall tastes in music or listening habits changed, what does this say about you?

• Compare your graphs with your friends or community, how do they compare? Are they also on the same musical journey you are on?

• Think of a sad or hard moment in the past year. What were you listening to then?

• If you experience God through music, are there any points you can identify that you were close to him/her?

• Does your music taste accurately represent you as an individual

Fundraising Album Launched!

Click the Banner or go to http://davewilkie.bandcamp.com/ for a listen & chance to download. 

All money raised will be going towards my getting me out to India to help with community projects in Bangalore click here for details

Thank you!

Help vote my new song onto Amazing Radio

Help vote my new song onto Amazing Radio. Click on the link to buy, play, recommend, rate or tag a song. Then the Big Clever Algorithm will get crunching, and decide what gets on the regular playlist.

http://www.amazingtunes.com/users/davewilkie

The resurgence of Scottish Bands

Its a proud post this one...

Recently i have found myself listening to a far greater range of music from the above the border.  As a fellow Scotsman it is music to my ears (bad pun).  Here's some to check out:

Over The Wall - this video is awesome, love the trumpet towards the end!!

Frightened Rabbit  - "floating in the forth" is another great song by them

MORE?

The Twilight Sad, Alexi Murdoch, Idlewild (old school but still great - lyrics are far greater than i first realised when i was singing along at 16) and Aereogramme (One of my most listened to bands, the only time i saw them was at one of their last gigs in Oxford, having sadly now split.  Amazing songs that have connected with my experience of life)

Any others i should know about?  (thanks to Moderate Rock for Over the Wall recommendation)

New song uploaded

Hold On by davewilkie

or go to "My Songs" tab above to listen to this and others. Any feedback welcome

Johari Window Worship Exercise - Gifts

This morning for staff worship at St Paul's Church i decided to use Johari's Window as a group development tool during the weekly worship time.

(link)

1.  Everyone had 5 mins to list their gifts, that were within the "Known to Self" column and then were encouraged to think of at least one example of a gift they had that "Not Known to Others"

2.  On completion of the "Known to Self" column, we moved into small groups and took it in turns to speak aloud our list of gifts we had written.  (note: some could not take part in this as were not comfortable in doing so, that is fine but still encouraged to take part in affirming others)

3.  Once someone shares their list, the rest of the group affirms and adds to that list, getting the individual to fill out their "Not Known To Self" but "Known to Others" Column. 

4.  Then the group prays for that individual and move onto the next person willing to share

5.  Lastly a selection of Bible verses on the theme of gifts were handed out to every person and we spent 5 minutes in silence, praying for God to reveal gifts that were hidden to us.  If any revelation or a desire of a new gift was felt then they are encouraged to put it within the bottom right box in the Johari Window.

6.  Finished with a song: "Waterboys - The Christ In You"

This worship/prayer exercise proved effective for building a more vulnerable & open community within the staff team.  A good reflection of our gifts we have as a group