The Door is featured this month in Charisma Magazine. Below is the article in full. Praise God, He is still using The Door to get the message out there!

Indigenous Music Of The Chinese Church

A live worship recording is highlighting the indigenous sounds of the Chinese church––and drawing people to Christ

A live worship project that joins musicians from the U. S., Europe and China is highlighting the indigenous sounds of the Chinese church––and drawing people to Christ.

Produced during China’s Olympic Games, The Door was recorded during a Sunday service at Beijing’s 4,000-member International Christian Fellowship––where worshipers’ identities are checked by government agents before they can enter the hall.

“To get into the church, you have to show a foreign ID of some sort,” said Arkansas-born musician Mark Tedder, 47, who served as full-time worship leader at the fellowship for two years and spearheaded the project.

“There is a police presence at the front door.” Remarkably, authorities gave their offi cial permission, but Tedder and his team still made sure the hard drive containing the recording left China quickly. The main condition was that the team should not broadcast the recording before the Olympics.

“It was a miracle to pull it off , simply because it’s never been done before,” said Tedder, now based in Colorado.

Captured on both CD and DVD, the live worship recording brings standard Western worship sounds alongside 2,000- year-old traditional Chinese instruments such as the dulcimerlike yangqin, the harpstyle guzheng and the drone pipe hulusi.

“We wanted [the recording] to give the vibe that local worship teams could actually incorporate and redeem some of these ancient instruments,” Tedder said.

Tedder did not intend to make a commercial recording and initially distributed the album freely. But the project caught the attention of Integrity Music Europe and was picked up for distribution. In the U.S., the CD is available at worshiplanet.com. “I had no idea it would go outside of mainland China,” Tedder admitted.

“The heart of this project was that God would use it to encourage local churches throughout China.” There have been other major worship initiatives in China––notably the famous Canaan Hymns by Xiao Min, who wrote more than 1,000 indigenous praise songs.

In addition, Hong Kong-based Vine Band released From Ashes to Beauty in both English and Mandarin.

But The Door is the fi rst offi cially sanctioned live project to come out of China.

Reports claim that lives are being changed through it. “We’re hearing stories from China that villages are sitting down in one person’s home who has a TV and watching The Door project,” Tedder said. “People are getting saved through it.” —CLIVE PRICE

A Small Story of God's Marvel

We received this from a friend in the UK:

A small story of God's marvel:
I was asked very recently by a local church to help them out by leading worship singing at their evening service. The curate told me the Bible verses he would base his talk on and the basic layout of the worship programme. He asked that we both pray for guidance on suitable songs. He asked me to pray particularly about the song between his talk and the prayers.

We both did this and when we met to discuss the songs, we had both written down the same song for between the prayers! Your song: Be Still. Wow!

Many people were kind enough to speak to me afterwards and I was amazed by how many said that the "Be Still" song had really taken them into a mood of prayer.

Doors are opening!

The Door is opening many doors throughout the world! We just received this email from a friend working with pastors who are planting churches in Muslim countries.

Hi from the Philippines!
I'm here for a training seminar for two weeks geared to language coaches who train missionaries. I played one of your songs during a devotional (Redeeming Light of God) and a number of the Filipino missionaries who serve among Muslims asked if they could copy it. I wanted to ask your permission before I allowed them to do this.

And from Niger, Africa
We are in charge of Sunday night's church service here. I'm in charge of leading worship. Thought you might like to know that actually YOU are leading us in two songs. :) We are the People of God and How Great is Our God - off your Waiting for the Son cd. So, how about that?!?"

Hey all of you in the Manchester/Liverpool area come out to see us at Sutton Village Church in St. Helens on November 14 & 15.

"Tools for Worship"

Greetings from snowy Colorado!

We just returned from a tour of Thailand and Singapore. To be honest to try to tell the story would take several days of talking, lots of coffee and a room full of pictures!

I must tell you of a story however, of one of the guys Carrie met while we were in Thailand. This person asked that their name and location not be identified for security reasons. All I can say is that they are part of a 'pre-church planting' team in the middle east.

"Jim" asked the question in one of our worship workshops about how (as a worshiper) we can use what little we have to lead others in worship. Carrie began to explain how often in China where we served for two years, it was normal for worship services to be lead by human voice only! This prompted other questions - "but how can you lead them without instruments?" Jim asked; Carrie told them how many of the Christians in China often will create rhythm by taking a water bottle, filling it with rice and using it as a percussion (shaker) instrument.

The workshop ended. Later the next week, the Worshiplanet Band went into leading other events and the church planters returned to their host countries..... a few days ago Carrie received an email from "Jim" in the middle east. Following is the transcript from his email;

"Carrie - I hope this finds you well and the rest of your time in Chiang Mai was
blessed. I am sure that you all were a blessing to the churches there.
I want to thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to meet
with me and encourage and help me brainstorm ideas of how to bring a
more lively worship to my field and team. My teammates and I actually
got creative and used some empty water bottles and rice and made some
shakers that we incorporated into our worship the other day. It was
actually fun. At first we felt like little kids again, but I think
that really helped us just put everything aside and really get to the
heart of worship. Our neighbor's kids came over yesterday and wanted to know what they were so I got to sing worship songs over them while they danced and shook the shakers all over the room. I also contacted
my worship pastor back home and he sent me some stuff to help me get
going on the guitar again. I think this month, as it is Ramadan, will
be a good time to try and carve out some hours on the guitar as not
much else is happening here as everyone is fasting. Well I hope that
you guys found some time to enjoy Thailand and that you were in
someway blessed by being there as much as we were by having you there.
Thank you once again for all that you do.

In Him,
"Jim"

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Thailand & Singapore

Hey everybody!

We just returned from a three week tour of Thailand and Singapore. The first week we led 15 worship sets, 2 workshops and found time somewhere in the middle of the week to head into the jungle for a half day of "zip-line" adventure - see (www.jungle-flight.com) Our mission the first week in Thailand was to equip about 800 pastors and their wives who faithfully serve Christ in the most sensitive nations in the world. A gathering of church planters and missionaries who are strategically sharing the viral message of Jesus in countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan, U.A.E., Indonesia, Turkmenistan, etc...you get the picture. I guess to sum it all up, (according to one of the pastors who attended the conference) he told me; "Mark, we all came hungry and thirsty...to meet with God; we are leaving refreshed and full of His Spirit, excited to continue the work He's called us to..."

What an incredible privilege it has been to lead those modern-day apostles into worship every morning and evening.

We ended that first week with a Saturday 'night of worship' with all of the local international churches in Chiang Mai. There was a real sense of God's presence with us as we saw pastors refreshed, the body of Christ unified in worship and the name of Jesus be lifted up! We spent 3 more days with the local churches in Chiang Mai, leading workshops and spending time with a couple of the pastors and their families.

We then left for Singapore, via Bangkok, where Integrity Media and Scripture Union set up a series of workshops, training, leading worship, meeting some of the worship 'gatekeepers' in Singapore and basically hearing about what God is doing in that nation. We can truly attest of God's faithfulness and blessing on Singapore. One of the things we felt very strongly to speak into was to encourage the songwriters of Singapore to be refreshed, renewed and released to write new songs of praise for and over their nation.

We had an additional opportunity of leading worship (some in Mandarin!) at an event where several Singaporean Chinese churches came together for an evening of worship and encouragement. Again, we were blessed to see how God is strategically using the Chinese church in Singapore to "sing" back into China and over their own land the songs of redemption and blessing.

We are grateful that we are allowed this opportunity to travel the planet, meet with people just like us who are serving local churches week in and week out. We bless the nations of Thailand and Singapore - we sing life, health, peace and God's Spirit over the pastors, worship leaders and teams who, each week, create space for God's people to gather together to lift up the name of Christ!

Please pray for Thailand and Singapore!
Till next time....
mark

PS - if you want more information about what we do around the world - go to www.worshiplanet.com

God TV

To all our Asia friends!

The Door is being broadcast this weekend all over China!

You can access The Door "live" worship concert on the Asia platform Dream Network package out of the Philippines this weekend! Broadcast times are as follows (Beijing local Time)

Saturday July 18th at 18:00 (Beijing local time)
Sunday July 19th at 14:00 (Beijing local time)

Please tell everyone in that region of the world to catch The Door live in China!

Blessings
mark

from the inside...

from the inside....

We just got a story from inside china and had to share it with you. Most of you know that we are still waiting for The Door to open 'legally' in the Peoples Republic of China. Whilst we're working diligently on that, there have been a few "Door" stories coming back at us. This one happened a few weeks ago in an orphanage in a remote village in the Shaanxi Province. I'll just let you in on the story as it was told to me....

"we had a Chinese house church pastor with us who helped with explaining the song "Be Still" to the kids. And there were a few parts of the song that we had difficulty deciphering...so we replayed Be Still to him over and over on my iPod shuffle. Haha...then finally when we had the lyrics complete, Tiffany and I played it on guitar and taught the kids the song. They loved it!!!!!!

We're constantly amazed and grateful at how God is using The Door to open the hearts of people in China - even the little children.

Psalm 8:2 - "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise"

The Door Is Opening in Europe!

Hey everybody!

Check out this e-card blast that the guys at Integrity Europe have put together.

http://www.musicwithintegrity.com/ecards/thedoor/index.html

It's been a pleasure to partner with Integrity in getting The Door out there throughout Europe. You will start to see The Door project available in your local bookshops (particularly in the UK) and for sure on the e-card link.

We have had great response thus far and are hearing stories about how the project is being used to draw attention to Creator God and how he is shaping and restoring the peoples of China using the medium of worship.

Thanks for hitting the blog and if you haven't picked up a copy of The Door yet, get out there and get a couple - one for yourself and one to give away! :)

take care
Mark

Fresh Worship in Kenya

On Sunday morning, Mark was tuning his guitar on-stage at Woodmen Valley Chapel, when a man approached him and told him a quick story.
Just a week earlier, this man was in Kenya worshipping along fellow African believers. After the service, he approached the pastor and they began chatting about the worship songs in the church. They discussed the need for fresh, new worship in their church. The pastor agreed and asked for some examples of new music. At that point, the American pulled out his iPod and picked the song "More Of You". He put the earphones in, and as the song progressed, the pastor had tears streaming down his face. He said he was ministered to by the song and encouraged to bring new songs to the congregation.
Who knew that this recording in Beijing, China would minister to a man in Kenya, Africa just a year later? We are thankful that God uses us as tools in His Kingdom and we are praying that the ministry of this project would continue to spread to the far corners of the Earth.

The Door in Japan!

At Worshiplanet, our aim is not to have our name in bright lights. More exciting to us, is to know that worship music is going to all corners of the Earth. We were so excited to find The Door on Japanese version of Amazon. Now if we could only know what it says...

Spring Harvest. Abbreviated.

After a couple weeks in the UK, everyone has returned home and is getting some rest. Who knew that rocking out in worship could be so exhausting?

Let's rewind a bit. On April 1st, the team came together from all around the globe. Mark, Carrie, Jessica and Alli flew from Denver, Colorado. Daniel caught a flight from Beijing, and Manu took a short flight from Germany. Joe drove up from Brighton and Richard took the train from Brunel.  We all met at the Butt's home in London for some team time and rehearsals. After some fish and chips, we dove right into learning new songs and getting all the equipment together for our 10 days at Spring Harvest.

We did find some time to do a short tour of central London. It was Jessica and Alli's first time to see the city so we toured Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, shoved ourselves into a phone booth, and spent some time in Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Square.  It was a whirlwind tour and the beginning of great team bonding.  

And, of course, we made time for espresso. As a rule, there is always time for caffeine with Worshiplanet.

On April 4th, we loaded everything (and everyone) into 2 vehicles and headed north to Skegness. Skegness is an oceanside town with a Butlins Resort that hosted the 30,000+ people that attend Spring Harvest. The first week, the band led worship for the young adults in the iScape program. It was a joy to worship alongside young people as they learn to be Jesus' apprentices.

The second week, Mark and the band switched over to the Big Top to lead worship with the adults. The Big Top is named that because it's truly a circus tent. Every morning and evening thousands of worshippers would raise their voices under that yellow and green striped tent. It was absolutely beautiful.
This, of course, is the Reader's Digest version of a fantastic two weeks.  For those of you that attended Spring Harvest- it was our pleasure to meet you and worship alongside you!  

-The Worshiplanet Band

Spring Harvest UK

Hey everybody – we’re heading out to the UK for three weeks to lead worship at Spring Harvest. Spring Harvest (www.springharvest.org) is Britain’s largest Christian event which happens annually over the Easter holidays. Spring Harvest exists to equip the church into action. We will be leading worship week one for iScape. iScape is a program designed for those in their late teens and early twenties. With a strong emphasis on worship and Bible teaching, we're going to discover what it means to have an extreme faith and how we can live this out in the world. We will be leading worship for morning and evening celebrations alongside a team of some of Britain’s leading youth communicators. It’s gonna be fun & loud!!!

Week two, we’ll be leading worship in the Big Top. Worship in the Big Top is a little different. We’ll be working with a team of the UK’s leading communicators and equippers in post-Christian Europe. The theme this year for Spring Harvest is Apprentice”, with the backdrop of Matthew 11:28-29 - 'Come to me... learn from me...' said Jesus, 'for I am gentle and humble in heart.' Jesus' constant challenge to the people he met, was 'follow me'. His first disciples were apprentices, learning from his words, his stories, his actions and his attitudes. We will be leading worship for the Big Start – an early morning celebration including 4000 adults and about 2000 of their kids! The morning is basically a ‘wake-up’ to the day with fun, worship, short bible teaching and prayer. Then there’s the Evening Celebration which will include a full-on time of worship, teaching and creative expression in worship.

Week three we will be leaving Spring Harvest and heading down to London for a few days of meetings before taking the train to Norwich for a weekend of worship services with King’s Church. (www.kings-norwich.com) Thanks guys for hanging in there with us and covering this trip with your prayers. We need them!!

Winter Camp: A Note from Mark

I was in the middle of a week of meetings with church leaders and pastors in Hong Kong. I checked email that afternoon and received a message from Andy asking if I would consider leading worship for the winter youth retreat. 'Winter Camp' was less than 2 weeks away! Yikes! The worship leader who was slated for the event was called away to a family emergency - songs were already selected, the band was rehearsed and my head was totally light years away from thinking Youth Retreat!
It's exactly what God had planned for me since the beginning...through the miracle and speed of technology, I was able to review songs from earlier university gigs we did in Beijing, send the chord charts & mp3's to my friend Don McCaleb. He posted them on the youth winter camp web site for the band to download, practice and 2 days before camp - I was sitting on a stool on the stage of Woodmen Valley Chapel, leading a rehearsal. Two days later (and in the middle of jet lag) I was leading 350 students in worship with a very competent and focused band around me.
The Spirit of God was like a fresh wind that blew through that place as students worshiped with abandon! There's something about youth that is 'free' in their worship, no inhibitions, no pretense - just simply "child-like". (Matthew 18:3) It was a refreshing 3 days hanging out with students, hearing their stories of renewal, commitment, brokenness and determination to live the life for Him! I am grateful to God for the opportunity. Honestly, I was ill prepared, jet-lagged, didn't really want to do it, but the Father in his loving ways, always knows what's best for us even when we don't. Note to self: to obey is better than sacrifice.

Disturb us, Lord.

Read at Sunday Night Live in Beijing during the worship service. This poem was written by Francis Drake. He was England's most famous sailor and explorer, he sailed around the world in the ship - 'The Golden Hind' in 1580 and led the outnumbered British Navy to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588.

This prayer was found in his ship's diary, written on the eve of one of his great adventures:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storm will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push us in the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

From the Mainland to HK Island

After a week in Beijing, the Tedders made their way to Hong Kong for meetings and worship leading with some good friends. On Friday night, Mark Tedder and Jeff Caylor lead an evening of prayer at Island ECC. The evening had a focus on praying for mainland China and Mark was able to share some songs from The Door. Jeff Caylor, originally from Colorado and an artist on The Door, is now the worship leader at Island ECC on Hong Kong Island. The Tedders and Jeff were able to explore Hong Kong together in their free time. Above is a picture taken on one of their adventures.

On Saturday, Mark and Carrie taught a worship workshop at Island ECC. Worshiplanet, the non-profit they spearhead, is a worship-equipping and training ministry.

Sunday morning, the Tedders lead worship at The Vine on Hong Kong Island. They ended the weekend with an afternoon service at The Vine, where Tom Read leads worship. Overall, the week in Hong Kong was a time of reconnecting with Asia-based friends and an opportunity to encourage the Church in Hong Kong with worship from the mainland.

Beijing: An update from Carrie

The past 72 hours has been a real Beijing Blur. But a good one!

On Friday Mark & I scheduled back-to-back coffees with friends. It was so wonderful to catch up with their lives. Then Daniel hosted a drop in party for us Friday night. We had SUCH FUN. Chinese worship leaders & musicians, friends from the BICF, new babies, my language teacher, and even our former driver, Xiao Wang, were in the throng. We trashed Daniel's apartment but had made memories in the process.

Saturday we lead worship all day for BICF's spiritual life conference. The speakers for the event were Stuart & Jill Brisoce. We knew from working with them before that the day would also be a very restorative for Mark & I. And it was! Wonderful, wonderful subject matter of 'walking in the spirit'. Another bonus of the day was getting play with Beijing's best bast player and our semi-adopted son Timon from Dominica. 

Sunday was filled with services, conversations, dim sum, and a praise rally. But our biggest news from the weekend was an expected but none-the-less thrilling phone call from our son Benjamin. He's engaged! Yes. Ben & Megan are officially heading towards marriage. We are SO excited for them and thankful beyond words. We'd been anxiously awaiting the 'she said yes' phone call and was relieved to get it. Even if it came smack in the middle of a worship song!

It's now 5am on Monday morning and I'm up before the guys. Which, if you really know me, you know all glory belongs to jet lag because I'm usually the last one up! In 4 hours we catch the train to Hong Kong. So I'll be blogging again once we arrive in southern China.

Briscoes in Beijing

Stuart and Jill Briscoe, founders of the media ministry Telling the Truth, will be in Beijing on February 14th to lead a conference at BICF. The conference is simply called the Spiritual Life conference and the Tedders will be leading worship throughout the day.
If you're in Beijing and are looking for something to do on Valentine's Day, head down to the Zhong Guan Cun campus of BICF for this incredible one day conference. Tip: There's now a Zhong Guan Cun stop on the light blue line (Line 4).

Radio Envoy

Mark was recently interviewed by Radio Envoy about his time in China, the recording of the Door, and the transition from being a drummer to a guitarist.

Listen to the interview here.

Back to Asia

It's time again to jump on a giant United airplane for 12+ hours and head back to Asia! Dreams of kung pao chicken, $4 foot massages, and vibrant Chinese markets swirl in the Tedder's minds.
Mark and Carrie Tedder are getting ready to head back to Asia on February 8th for a small tour of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Bangkok.
Mark will be leading worship at a conference in Beijing, as well as their China home church of BICF.
Then the Tedders will head down to Hong Kong and lead worship at Island ECC, where their good friend Jeff Caylor is the worship leader.
Finally, they'll fly to Bangkok for some meetings and back to Colorado in late February.
Please pray for approval of The Door by the Chinese government for distribution within China, for safe travels and opportunities to reconnect with Asia-based friends along the way.

Humanifesto

I want to be a grace guerilla
no longer a chameleon of karma
the time has come to stand out from the crowd.
I want to give forgiveness a fighting chance of freeing me
I want to live in love
and live it out loud.

I want to drink deep of the foolishness of wisdom
instead of swallowing the wisdom of fools
I want to find a source in the deeper mines of meaning
to search out the unsearchable
to invoke the invisible
to choose the truth the TV hypnotists aren't screening.

No camouflage
no entourage
no smoothly fitting-in
I want a faith that goes further than face value
and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

I want to be untouched by my possessions
instead of being possessed by what I touch
to test the taste of having nothing to call mine
to hold consumption's cravings back
to be content with luck or lack
to live on water as well as on wine.

I want to spend myself on those I think might need me
not spend all I think I need on myself
I want my heart to be willing to make house calls.
Let those whose rope is at an end find in me a faithful friend
Let me be known as one who rebuilds broken walls.

No camouflage
no entourage
no smoothly fitting-in
I want a faith that goes further than face value
and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

I want to be centered outside the circle
to be chiseled by a different seam
I want to be seduce by another story
and drawn into a deeper dream
I want to be anchored in an undiscovered ocean
to revolve around an unfamiliar sun
a boom box tuned to an alternate station
a bullet fired from a different gun.

No camouflage
no entourage
no smoothly fitting-in
I want a faith that goes further than face value
and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

-Gerard Kelly on The Door CD/DVD

An Introduction to the HuLuSi

The instrument used throughout the song "More Of You" on The Door is the hulusi ( 葫芦丝) . A free wind Chinese traditional instrument, it originates from the Dai ethnic group in China's Yunnan province. The words 'hulu' mean 'gourd' and 'si' means silk, because of it's silky sound.

A gourd windchest attached to bamboo reeds, this instrument is distinctively Chinese, although variations can be found in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.

It's not uncommon to see an older Chinese man outside his shop in China playing the hulusi. It is said that originally the Dai men would play it to express their love to women. Gourds and bamboo creating silky sounds...not a bad way to woo.