a church plant with Tim and Rachel , but we sort of decided not to tell them because we didn ’ t want to put anything on them . So we sort of waited . But then literally the very next week I had a songwriting session booked with Tim and I went around to his house . At this time Tim was based at Holy Trinity Brompton ( HTB ). As he opened the door he just said , “ Nick , I need to let you know something . We ’ re going to plant a church . We don ’ t know where it ’ s going to be , but we really feel we ’ d love you to come with us .” And at this point no one knew they were even going to plant a church . And so I responded , “ Well just to fill you in , we really had this sense that you were going to plant and that we were going to come , so we ’ re up for it .” And that was about nine years ago .
And so we sold our house in London , moved up to Birmingham and started Gas Street Church . It ’ s been a really incredible journey . Right at the start of Gas Street , we had a kind of a prayerful sense given to us as a church that we were going to be woven in worship as a church , that worship is right at the heart of everything . And I guess that ’ s partly because there ’ s a lot of worship and worship leaders there . It was always going to be a church that was going to be full of worship and a real heart desire and that was always going to be our cry . But really that ’ s been our desire , our passion is to say , you know what ? We want to make sure that everything flows from this place of just honoring God and glorify spending time in his presence .
I ’ ve had various roles at Gas Street . My wife Ali is actually an associate pastor there , so she ’ s kind of right at the heart of it as well . I ’ ve always been doing different roles . I ’ ve been a creative pastor , I ’ ve been a prayer pastor , songwriting developer . Currently my role is prayer consultant and songwriting developer . And I work there so many days a month sort of helping develop prayer because we see prayer and worship as two sides of the same coin .
And we really see that as huge . I think where we are going is to really build this house of prayer and worship and that ’ s our vision and Tim and Rachel ’ s heart . More than ever there is a great sense of just wanting to see that we ’ re woven in worship , and that we desperately desire to be powered by prayer . The only way you can change a city , change a nation , change the hearts of God ’ s people , of people who are coming into church is really through prayer . So we want to see those two things develop and we ’ re hugely excited about that .
And as part of my role there , I help stoke those fires a bit . And then we all lead worship as well . So we ’ ll regularly be on rotation . Then I also go over quite regularly to a church in Los Angeles called Vintage Church in Santa Monica and I ’ ll lead worship there as well . And then I ’ m signed with Capitol CMG music . So as a writer , I ’ ll regularly go to Nashville and write and work with different artists . So that ’ s kind of everything in a nutshell .
[ WM ] Wonderful ! Well listen , so I ’ ve got to ask you , was it ever intimidating for you to lead worship for now Vicar Tim Hughes ?
[ Nick ]] ( laughs ) That ’ s a good question ! I think the thing is when you are in an environment like ours and there are so many worship leaders , we all understand the responsibility of the job .
There ’ s always a moment where you ’ re looking
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