UNITY WITHOUT UNIFORMITY

It was raining all the way up the M23. Chris's windscreen wipers flew left and right as the surface water sprayed up. I clutched the door handle as the train of brake-lights appeared in the mist ahead. I kept feeling my right foot tense up automatically.

"What was your highlight?" I asked, keeping my eyes fixed on the road.

"Man, probably Noel Robinson," said Chris. Noel had been amazing, no doubt about it. He's one of those guys who make playing the guitar look ridiculously easy. His hands shifted up and down his fret board as he jumped and danced around the stage, shaping each chord and each inversion so simply, so seamlessly and so skillfully that it was as though he hardly needed to be bothered about it. Chris also picked out something the guitarist had said in one of the sessions: There can be unity without uniformity.

In other words, you don't all have to look the same to achieve the same goal. You can be yourself; in fact it's best if you are yourself. It takes teamwork to make a dream work. That's pretty good stuff, Noel.

My own highlight was probably the session on creativity. Stuart Townend showed us how to use chord substitutions to make things more interesting, how to nurture creativity and how to find room to let it grow. He was also playing a Nord Stage 2 at the time which helped pique my interest. You should listen to someone playing the Nord Stage 2 - it's a beautiful thing.

I got home as the sun was setting into a beautiful orange sky. The roads were still glistening and the air was damp. I must have looked like a silhouette, carrying a bulbous rucksack into the sunset as I walked down the drive.

Unity without uniformity. I don't look like anybody else. I don't sound like anybody else. I am unique, just like you. It strikes me as a fascinating thought this, especially when quite a lot of worship music sounds the same. I mean it - and not just because I once mistook the soundtrack to High School Musical 3 for a Hillsong album.

I mean there's a tendency for the 'worship sound' to merge into one soupy rocky mess of electric guitars and predictable harmonies and drum fills and pads, like a kind of Bethelsongship Central. There's a trend for us all to play the same shapes, wear the same clothes, grow the same hipster beards and slip on a pair of those southern californian specs - or wear the same leather boots and hair extensions. I think we all ought to give ourselves permission to be ourselves once in a while and see what God does.

I reckon that would be awesome. Though I would still like to own a Nord Stage 2 if that's OK.