Sing to the Lord a new song

IMPACT REPORT | 2024

Sing to the Lord a new song

impact report | 2024

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

COLOSSIANS 3:16-17

The impact of Emu Music

Emu Music exists to encourage and equip the church in biblical, beautiful and transformative singing.

We do this by:

Writing new congregational songs which are biblically rich, theologically true, and aesthetically beautiful

Training church leaders, musicians and congregations in how to establish and maintain a biblical music ministry

Encouraging churches to grow a servanthearted culture of musical excellence

Leading the church in singing the word (within the local church and larger events)

Creating and publishing resources that support these aims

We understand Christian singing to be primarily a ministry of the word of Christ (Col 3:16) and the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18-22) which fuels the church’s edification, thanksgiving, prayer and praise.

The past, the present and future

Since its founding in 2001, Emu Music has been committed to getting biblical songs sung in churches and training the music ministry teams who steward them. Started as an avenue for evangelical songwriters to record and release music for churches, today Emu Music is a growing ministry with a team of ten and counting!

Songs and stories from a saved people

By his grace, we are seeing God work through Emu Music. Throughout Australia and the world, churches, ministries, church leaders, musicians and congregations are being impacted by our training and music. This report tells the stories of these people, their churches and ministries, and how Emu Music has been a part of teaching, encouraging and growing them.

Training music ministry teams

Training church leaders, musicians and congregations is a core part of what Emu Music does.

As we work with teams through conferences and bespoke workshops, we are part of a encouraging churches to grow a culture of biblical singing.

Encouraged and equipped for Sunday ministry

Christ Church Northern Beaches partners with Emu Music

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Christ Church Northern Beaches (CCNB) decided to merge their evening and morning services, and therefore merge their music teams. Now with around 12 members of the team, music coordinator Belinda King thought they could use some training and encouragement to help them best lead worship in the service, so CCNB signed up as an Emu Music church partner.

Conferences, workshops and seminars in 2022-2023

Our aim to train church leaders, musicians and congregations has been seen through conferences and workshops held in big rooms and small, in Australia and beyond.

It’s been a joy to lead thousands of Christians in song around the world, and to encourage and equip God’s people through both third-party and Emu Music run events.

5,500

People led at non-Emu events and conferences

1,600

PEOPLE TRAINED AT CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

8

EMU CONFERENCES HELD IN FOUR COUNTRIEs

16

In-house church  workshops

8

third-party events and conferences

7

school concerts and events

1

education intensive

Across 2022-2023 we ran eight conferences across four countries, Australia, Northern Ireland, England and New Zealand. Our conferences were run (and often sold out) in Sydney, Western Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Orange, Wellington (New Zealand), County Down (Northern Ireland), and Oxford (England). 

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“Word in Song is a very practical music conference. I left the conference feeling more equipped to lead my music team at church, select songs and play my role in helping our church sing praises to our God and each other.”

brenton – perth, australia

Helping teams develop a biblical vision for serving God’s people through song

“What’s great about partnering with Emu is that they get it. They get what singing in church is about and their offering in all the spheres actually reflects that. They just have a really clear vision for serving God’s people in lifting their praises to God together.”

Peter Baker, Magnification Pastor at St Paul’s Anglican in Carlingford Australia, had been in his role for around six months when he first encountered the Emu Music team. Although he’d known about Emu and their music for some time, and they sang some of their songs in church already, he didn’t know what a resource they were to become for his ministry teams.

Partnering with your church

Emu Music church partnerships came out of the aim to train church leaders, musicians and congregations, as well as to encourage churches to grow a servant-hearted culture of musical excellence. Partnerships bundle together the training and resources churches need to equip and encourage their teams, in a simple and affordable way.

Partnership includes:

• Delegate passes to the Word in Song Conference

• Access to the online Word in Song Course

• Access to online song database HymnBook

• Resource library of all Emu songs, including sheet music and song leading videos

• Community additions like regular newsletters, articles and regional events

Partnerships can also come with custom options to suit the needs of individual churches.

Resourcing the Church

Releasing music, videos, online training and more are all part of how Emu Music resources the global church.

Whether through new music sung in churches or videos that allow small music teams to find rest, God’s people are praising him.

Soaking up the truths of the Bible through song

Since officially starting in 2001, Emu Music have released over 600 songs. We aim to produce new congregational music rooted in the Bible, to resource the Church with songs rich in Scripture to sing to God and one another. From songwriting to arrangement to production to release, our music is part of fuelling the church’s edification, thanksgiving, prayer and praise. This is something that Wayne Connor has seen firsthand.

“We’re really thankful for Emu Music. Just running one music team in one church is so much, I can’t imagine what it’s like writing songs, producing music resources and running workshops. There’s obviously a stack of work and prayer and thought that go into it. We’re super thankful for it because they’re a real benefit and blessing to our church.”

– WAYNE CONNOR, PASTOR

Simplifying choosing and teaching biblical songs

A new project for Emu Music, HymnBook launched for use in 2023.

Around the world there are millions of songs for congregations to sing, and they are all available online! This makes it challenging for churches to choose faithful and contextual songs to sing in their services each week.

HymnBook is a complete resource for searching, selecting and using songs for church. Designed in the tradition of hymbooks of old and new, we have chosen over 100 songs and hymns for the church which cover a breadth of biblical themes and passages, liturgical categories, and musical styles. Each song in HymnBook includes multi-tracks for each song, making them even easier for musicians to learn.

Fresh songs for the Church

Emu's commitment to writing and publishing new songs is to give fresh expressions to ancient truths.

When we approach writing, we are looking for clear gaps in the canon of contemporary Christian songs. Recently we’ve done this by giving focus to songs of lament and confession, songs for and about the church, and are exploring the area of human identity. We can’t expect churches to sing a broad range of biblical and liturgical themes unless we give them song options to work with.

Recently released music

Valuable videos

Throughout COVID, many churches used videos to help keep their congregations singing through online church. Emu made a number of videos available at this time to provide the Church with quality biblical music for socially distant worship.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

EPHESIANS 5:18-20

Equipping leaders

To meet the need of churches around the world, more leaders for the ministry of music need to be raised up.

Emu Music is committed to equipping people with the theological and ministry skills to be these leaders.

Building up music ministry leaders to serve the Church

Meeting the needs of the Church

Emu Music plans to double its annual intake of Ministry Associates (Interns) from three to six – to help meet the growing need for and gaps in trained music leadership positions in churches across Australia.

Equipping people with the theological and practical skills to do music ministry, therefore, is vitally important for the Church. The Emu Music Ministry Associate Scheme is about exploring skills and interests in the leading of church music; in the writing of songs; and the training of others in biblical music ministry. It involves practical and theological aspects, working in the Emu Music team while doing study at Moore Theological College. 

While studying music at the University of New South Wales, James McDonald had been convicted to seriously consider going into ministry. Having grown up serving on the music team at church, doing an internship through the Emu Music Ministry Associate Scheme seemed like the right fit.

Inspired for the future of ministry and music

Brian Hamilton is a second-year Moore College student, who has undertaken the last two Emu Music intensive subjects.

Although he had to shuffle the normal configuration of subjects to do the intensives, the effort was well worth it for Brian. He says, “I’m just here in Sydney for these four years, so while I’m here I’m going to grab everything that’s available. And this is something I felt I couldn’t go past.” Before moving to attend Moore College, Brian worked as a music teacher and was actively involved in music at his church. The Emu Music intensives have been a unique opportunity for him to integrate his passion and skills in music with his future training for ministry.

“It’s a great opportunity to think practically and theologically about something that I care about. I care a lot about how music is done in church, and while I’m a student at college, I think that it would make sense for me to spend time studying that.”

– BRIAN HAMILTON, MOORE COLLEGE STUDENT

Music leadership

Training church leaders, musicians and congregations is a core part of what Emu Music does.

As we work with teams through conferences and bespoke workshops, we are part of a encouraging churches to grow a culture of biblical singing.

Leading biblical singing for thousands of God’s people

In July each year in Keswick, England, the Keswick Convention runs over several weeks, drawing Christians from the UK and around the world together. Delegates come to hear the Word of God and to sing God’s praises, to be encouraged, inspired and equipped to love and live for Christ in his world. Keswick Convention is run by Keswick Ministries and has a long history, starting with the first Convention in 1875 which was held on the vicarage lawn of St. John’s Church. Singing together is a key part of the Convention. Emu Music has been privileged to be invited back again and again to lead the music at Keswick, helping thousands of God’s people raise their voices to praise God and minister to one another.

“For the past few years at Marsfield Community Church’s Big Weekend In, a band from Emu Music led us in singing God’s praises. We wanted the music to be as good, if not better, than we would have at a Christian conference but still be small enough for our gatherings. Jenny, James and the team are brilliant musicians, song leaders and are fantastic to work with. We immensely enjoyed having them lead us in singing, and these times of praise are a highlight of our weekends. I would enthusiastically recommend using these guys in any function to lead congregational singing”

HANS KRISTENSEN - LEAD PASTOR, MARSFIELD COMMUNITY CHURCH

Engaging young people

The ministry of music isn’t only for adults, but is relevant and edifying for young people too.

Emu Music is excited to be taking their experience from working with adult musicians in churches, to train and inspire young Christian musicians too.

Emu Goes to School at Abbotsleigh

Imagine standing up in front of a large group of people, trying to get them to sing songs with you about Jesus, when only a small number of the congregation are Christians. ​

Now imagine the people in the congregation are somewhat cynical teenagers, you’re only 14 or 15 years old, and these are your peers. Sounds pretty hard, right? This is what it’s like for many young Christian students at Christian schools around Australia who volunteer to join their chapel bands. While leading music at church can be challenging, that’s nothing compared to trying to get a room full of your teenage peers to sing along!

A new way to train and inspire young musicians

Emu Goes to School is an emerging program by Emu Music, that takes their music leadership and training skills into a school context. 

Through Emu Goes to School you can:

• Host an inspiring and encouraging assembly or chapel event

• Grow student skills in Christian musicianship and leadership

• Motivate students to creatively and intelligently engage with the Christian faith

Partner with Emu Music

Become a financial supporter and help encourage and equip the church in biblical, beautiful and transformative singing.

As you’ve seen through the stories and statistics in this report, God is at work through Emu Music and he is raising up workers to serve the needs of his Church in music ministry. But your support is vital to respond to the growth God is giving to the ministry of Emu Music.

Support a ministry project

You can help to deliver several new and ongoing projects, to continue to reach and resource churches around the world.

Perhaps you would like to help to:

• Recruit and train additional Ministry Associates

• Hire a new senior music ministry worker to be key in future training events

• Offer scholarship spots for church partnerships to struggling churches

• Fund plans for social media ministry content delivery – through podcasts and video shorts.

Can you be part of making these projects happen?

Become a monthly partner

We’re blessed to have monthly financial partners whose giving goes 100% to supporting the Emu Music staff team. When you support us in this way you help release us to serve and support churches and church musicians. Under God, our aim is for music to pay for music (through songs, conferences and concerts), and partners to pay for people. Our financial partners hear from us each month with prayer and ministry updates, and regular givers receive some goodies like new music, sheet music, store discounts and free entry to our events!

Can you partner with us financially?

Thank you for your support of Emu Music

Thank you for your support of Emu Music, and of your partnership with us in our ministry. We give thanks to our great God for how He is working through all his people. 

Please share this report with others who might be interested in supporting us, whether in prayer or financially.

Pray for us

In all things, we rely on our great God to sustain and grow Emu Music, and to use the team for His glory and to serve His church.

GIVE THANKS

• For so many workshops and conferences booked to capacity over the past 12 months

• For all the church partners and financial supporters of Emu

• To God for his provision of music as a way to glorify him and ministry to one another

ASK FOR

• Wisdom for planning for 2024 and beyond

• Growth of the Emu Music team, as there are more opportunities than we can currently take on and there is more need than we can possibly meet

• The Lord to raise up more Ministry Associates in the coming years

• Ongoing sustenance and good health for the team