Category: TWIST


If on Monday 5th Feb you’re around a radio in Sydney (or a web browser anywhere) at around 10.30AM, have a listen to my interview with Joanne Traeger on FM 103.2. It will be streamed on the web from the FM 103.2 stream.

She’s going to chat with me specifically about the TWIST Music Conference in August, and the DVD we made from last year.

If you haven’t seen the DVD, here’s a sneak peak of the song ‘Never Alone’:

Buy the full DVD at www.twistconference.com. 

Check here after the interview for an update on how it went.

[PS. Sorry if you tuned in two Mondays ago and didn’t hear me… the original interview was delayed.  But fingers crossed for Monday!]

The Futter Hall at The Kings School-- The new venue for TWIST

The continued growth of TWIST, the music conference of Emu Music and Youthworks is causing more growing pains. As a result of three years of capacity crowds, despite increasing the venue size every year, we need somewhere larger.

To solve this problem, we will be moving this year to The Kings School, in Parramatta, to a venue that can seat in excess of 1000 people.

This year’s conference will be held on Sat 12th – Sun 13th August, 2006. Our guest speaker is John Dickson.

For full details, including online registration, visit www.twist.org.au

Behind the microphone at FM103.2

Listen to Sydney FM103.2 this Sunday the 4th of September at 10pm and you can spend half an hour listening to a recent chat I had with Phil Lamb. It was a nice time to talk through my life and my ministry… and the only strange thing was that it was being recorded for broadcast!

We talked about TWIST, Year 13 and my youth ministry training. We also spent a lot of time talking about the place of music in church.

If you’re not in the Sydney Metropolitan area, visit www.fm1032.com.au on Sunday night and listen to the interview in real time streaming.

Singing at the TWIST Live Recording

It was a great thrill to be a part of the TWIST Music Conference last weekend. This important event provides training and encouragement for people involved with music ministry in their local church.

During the weekend, I MC’d the main sessions (including the special live recording on the Saturday night for the upcoming EMU Music Live CD). I also conducted training sessions on the topics “Youth Ministry and Music” and “Rethinking Church”.

To read more about the conference, check out the recent article in sydneyanglicans.net titled “TWIST – but don’t shout.” You can also visit the official TWIST website at www.twist.org.au

A conference that started life as a little idea between friends is fast growing into a musical Mecca for evangelical churches.

Organisers say TWIST (The Word In Song Together) has taken everyone by surprise.

Philip Percival, director of EMU Music, remembers his original planning discussion with Cat Reimer, then coordinator of Youthworks Holiday Camps.

“Cat suggested we run a simple music camp — and three years later it’s grown to become the most important event on the Australian evangelical music calendar,” he says.

Cat and Philip joined forces with Jodie McNeill (Youthworks youth ministry trainer) and Edwina Soh to create the TWIST Conference, a joint venture of Anglican Youthworks and EMU Music.

The growth of the conference has caused exciting problems.

“In our first year”, Edwina reflects, “we filled Blue Gum Lodge at Springwood with 150 people.

“Last year we grew to nearly 400, filling the whole Youthworks Port Hacking conference site.”

Continued growth means moving this year’s conference to a new location.

“To solve the problem, we’ve moved to Trinity Grammar School,” Cat explains.

“We will miss the residential nature, but we simply need more seats!” she says.

This year’s keynote speaker is Bryson Smith, minister at Dubbo Presbyterian, and lyricist of well-loved songs such as Consider Christ and Nothing Can I boast In.

Mr McNeil says one of conference’s greatest strengths is the ministry training focus.

“It is great to join together to think theologically about the place of music in the gathering of God’s people,” he says.

“Not only can people attend practical workshops to improve their song leading or their playing, but they can also be trained in how to use music in youth or children’s ministry, and how to correctly understand the Bible’s teaching on church and worship.”

A highlight of the conference will be the Saturday night live recording of the new EMU Music album.

Full details can be found at the TWIST website or by phoning 02 9692 9944 or 1800 688 874.

This article originally appeared in www.sydneyanglicans.net.