come to an end. Blush scooped an exclusive Gospel Music Award (GMA) for Best Group in December 2009, fighting off competition from such big names as the London Community Gospel Choir, Four Kornerz and Hillsong London.

In a series of ‘God-incidences’, each band member has seen exciting things happening in their personal lives which have resulted in the band deciding to call it a day.

Speaking about the decision, Andy Hawthorne commented, ‘In every way Blush is coming to a good end. Jess and Jim are expecting their first baby at the beginning of June; Holly is love-struck, getting married to James and moving to London to be a part of a church plant; Pippa is going to work for her church, Ivy Manchester; and Nic will be continuing the heartbeat of Blush through a new music venture.’

Band leader Jess Cook explains from the band’s perspective: ‘Since last year, we’ve heard God very clearly speaking to us about “only doing what only we can do”. That’s enabled us to focus our work on helping girls and young women see their true value in God’s eyes and for that reason, this year has been the band’s most effective and authentic ever.

‘We’re very strong as a four. But we’ve come to realise that God is now moving us all on individually.

The heart for young women and girls continues just as strong as ever through each of our ongoing journeys and we are planning new things to help the girls we’ve worked with over the years.’

‘Of course it’s a sad day for everyone at The Message,’ added Andy Hawthorne. ‘But it’s been an extremely fruitful seven-year journey for the girls.’

The band  ended this chapter of their lives with a farewell gig on May 7 2010 at Wythenshawe Forum that was an awesome send-off.

***

What makes our schools bands different from ‘regular’ bands? We look back at the history and impact of our schools work, from The World Wide Message Tribe to Twelve24.

Back in 1988, Andy Hawthorne and his brother Simon ran a week-long youth mission at the Manchester Apollo. Thousands of young people turned up and hundreds responded – clearly God was at work.

Soon after, Mark Pennells approached Andy and Simon and started to work with them full-time in schools, singing and taking lessons, whilst music producer Zarc Porter honed his skills by working with Manchester’s popular rave bands in his home-built studio. What followed was ‘The Message to Schools’, a team dedicated to taking the gospel into Manchester’s schools, and a fore-runner of today’s Message Trust.

In 1992 Andy joined Mark as a rapper and communicator and Zarc as a producer and formed The World Wide Message Tribe (WWMT).

Andy explained their vision in an interview with Cross Rhythms in 1993, ‘God has called us to work in Manchester’s schools. There are so many kids here for us to reach with the gospel. Our long term aim is to have more than one team working in the area. We want our music to be as good as possible, but everything is a servant to evangelism.’

Over the next twelve years, the WWMT (just ‘The Tribe’ by 2001) performed in hundreds of schools weeks, concerts and festivals, released ten albums and led thousands to Jesus. The line-up changed over the years, as did their sound (and their outfits), but their vision remained the same: to share the good news in a relevant, meaningful way, to as many young people as possible.

In another interview in 1997, Andy Hawthorne commented, ‘All this stuff can easily become religion: trying to be funky, getting new haircuts and clothes, pushing the boundaries…it becomes the focus. If that’s an end in itself, it’s rubbish…it’s whether Jesus is at the centre of it. That’s what really matters.’

As the ministry developed, the band become overwhelmed by the number of requests to go into schools. In 2001, a second band, Blush, was formed to help cope with demand. The band is made up of young women who have a heart for teenage girls and takes lessons on issues such as self-esteem and ‘real beauty’.

In 2004, The Tribe took their final bow, but their influence didn’t stop there. Ex-band member Tim Owen took on the dream of forming a training centre (called ‘Genetik: The Tribe Academy) for potential new youth workers, musicians, and communicators. Tim and fellow ex-band members Lindz West and Andy Hawthorne regularly teach at the centre, which has seen two new bands form: LZ7 (fronted by Lindz) and Twelve24.

LZ7, formed in 2005, use a fusion of hip-hop, rock, free running and DJing in their shows. Two albums in, the band are planning an assault on the pop charts later this year: ‘This Little Light’, a song from their latest album ‘Gasoline’, has already received well over a hundred thousand views on YouTube and was used in a government-backed youth initiative, Shine.

Front man Lindz West comments, ‘When we’re in schools or at gigs, we want to be the best rappers, singers, drummers or DJs we can be, so that more people will get the opportunity to hear about our awesome God. We want young people to see, from our shows, that it is possible to live your dream and use the skills God’s given you in a positive way.’

Our newest band, Twelve24, are picking up the trail blazed by The Tribe, Blush and LZ7. They are named after John 12:24, where it says, ‘unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ The band is made up of three 20-somethings fresh out of the Genetik training programme.

Band mentor Tim Owen comments, ‘They’re taking the big issue facing young people today and hitting them head-on…they’re not watering down the gospel. They are committed to the young people of Manchester…their passion is growing by the day.’

In a culture where success is determined by how much money you earn, and how popular you are, The Tribe, LZ7, Blush and Twelve24 come as a shining light in the darkness. With a heart for showing young people that they are loved, and with Jesus at their centre, these bands show that they care more about the young people of Manchester than about selling records or rising to fame.

*Get The Message in your school*

You’re just one call away from having one of our bands or theatre company coming to your local high school. If you’re a church, please ask email Alan Saunders. For schools, please email Nathan Milnes. Our contact number is 0161 946 2300.

Message schools band Blush were awarded a Gospel Music Award for Best Group at a glitzy award ceremony this weekend.

Blush attended and performed at The Gospel Music Awards 2009 on Saturday night (Dec 5) at the prestigious Hilton Metropole in London, where they received the award for Best Group/Choir, fighting off competition from artists such as the London Community Gospel Choir, Siani, Four Kornerz and Hillsong London.

Blush’s Jess Cook comments, ‘We are gobsmacked that we’ve won, as we were up against some very talented bands. We’re not in Blush to win awards, but we are so passionate about working with young people and are thrilled that our work has been recognised. It’s like a little kiss from God, letting us know that we’re doing a good job. It was amazing to see God claiming back the music industry through great acts such as Rachel Kerr and Michaela the Poet. Thank you to everyone who voted for us, we feel very blessed. ‘

Blush would like to thank everyone at the Gospel Music Awards for their support, and Vicky Martin for lending them the dresses.

The band’s new single ‘Beautiful’ is now available for pre-order on their website.

The Gospel Music Awards 2009 is the first ever annual GMA ceremony in the UK. The event, including an Awards ceremony, concert and party, seeks to recognise and appreciate the best gospel music in the nation and showcase the diversity of the genre.

Blush have been nominated in the Best Group category and have also been invited to perform at the Awards ceremony on December 5 at the prestigious Hilton Metropole in London.

Please take a moment to vote for Blush to recognise their hard work over the last year – and the whole schools department working hard in schools week in, week out.

Voting closes on November 30 so don’t hang about!

Click here to cast your vote for Blush now.

Recent feedback shows that the group is meeting a deep need among girls in schools where they have been teaching sessions on self-esteem, body language and self-confidence. Jess Cook from Blush comments, ‘Our sessions expose the lies the modern media tells girls every day, like retouched photographs and plastic surgery. We want girls to see that make-up and nice clothes are fine, but when it’s all stripped away they are beautiful as they are.’

The band recently illustrated the principle by filming a photo shoot, showing the girls with and without makeup. The reason? To show girls that they believe what they say: To God, they are always beautiful.

One girl recently wrote to the band to say, ‘I’d been feeling so down about how I looked. There was a lad I liked but I soon realised he was only interested in one thing. I saw your video online and it made me cry… since then I have felt much more confident.’

You can watch the video of Blush’s ‘no make-up’ shoot on our website.

***

(This article was taken from the Autumn/Winter ’09 issue of flow Magazine)

***

The 2009-10 school year looks set to be the busiest year by far for our bands and theatre company working in Greater Manchester’s schools.

A total of 75 schools weeks are planned for LZ7, Blush, Twelve24 and In Yer Face next year and we are working harder than ever to ensure that the majority of schools weeks are done in partnership with local churches.

Check out the ‘Day in The Life with Nathan Milnes’ story for a behind-the-scenes look at our schools work in action. And there’s more.  Look out in the new year for news of our biggest ever evangelism event in Manchester. We can’t say too much yet but it’s going to be… big.

Also next year, we are attempting to get the LZ7 anthem This Little Light into the UK charts, not so that the boys can be stars but so that we can reach even more young people. ‘White label’ versions of the track will appear in clubs from the summer and a release is scheduled for next autumn.

Manchester born and bred, Nathan Milnes has been part of The Message team for seven years, working first as Eden Team Leader in Failsworth and now leading our outreach in schools.

***

7.30am

Early start today… we’ve got Blush, LZ7 and In Yer Face all in schools across Manchester this week. I arrive at a high school to check in with LZ7 and to meet the link teacher. Our church contact is also around all this week, helping establish a really strong relationship with the school. The sound check goes OK and after a few small tweaks to the timetable, I head off.

9am

Back to the office in time for Staff Prayers. I love this part of the job – what other job starts the day with prayer?

10am

Time to check emails, return a couple of phone calls and log on to Facebook. This isn’t a chance to check my own page (well maybe a cheeky peek!) but to check all the bands’ pages – it’s a great way for us to keep in touch and answer questions from past school weeks. We also use Facebook to continue follow-up with young people and encourage them to get along to church.

11am

Update meeting with Alan Saunders. Alan and I work closely together on finding local churches that want to do mission in their local high school. Our goal is to run every schools week as a partnership with a church because they are absolutely vital in providing prayer, follow-up and finance.

Alan tells me he has met with a local church leader who is excited about a possible schools week but they are struggling with one aspect: it’s likely to cost £1,500 and they can’t afford to pay for it. We agree to go back to them and say that we’ll find a way to make it work: the opportunity for mission is too good to let it pass by. We’ll say to them to raise what they can and we will underwrite the rest.

12.30pm

Head off to Starbucks to meet up with a local youth leader to catch up with them and find out what’s going on within their church and youth ministry. I try to meet with youth leaders across the city as much as possible.

2pm

Find a quiet space in the office (not easy to be honest!) to do some prep for a church I’m speaking at on Sunday. When a church decides to partner with us on a schools week we’re committed to helping the whole church buy into the vision of a schools week and pray for it. I will be preaching about mission and the call we have to tell people about Jesus.

4pm

Get on the phone to find out numbers for an upcoming curry night for youth leaders. We do these quarterly for youth leaders in the area to network and get some quality input that will benefit them and their ministry. It is a fact that all youth leaders love a good curry.

5.15pm

Snatch a few minutes off before the evening gets going.

6.30pm

Arrive at Costa Coffee. Tonight we’re doing the second part of a four week follow-up course for young people who became Christians at a recent Unleashed gig nearby. We like to do these at neutral venues like coffee shops where kids can feel relaxed. We always do it in partnership with the local church. We talk through the programme and the team prays together.

7.30pm

About forty young people have arrived and are sipping drinks and chatting. The programme kicks off, led by the local youth leaders and with contributions from the Message team. The girls are particularly excited that a couple of guys from LZ7 have put in an appearance!

Tonight we’re looking at more of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and how to live as a Christian. You can tell that the young people are really responding to the talk and building quality relationships with the youth leaders. At the end of the four weeks we hope that most of the young people will feel really at home with the local church and become members of the youth group.

9pm

The young people have gone so there’s just time for a quick debrief about the evening and to share encouraging stories from our small groups. We then pray for the young people and do the job that everyone loves… pack-down!

9.30pm

The day is done and I’m on my way home.

***

Get The Message in your school

You’re only one call away from having one of our bands or theatre company coming to your local high school. If you’re a church,
 please contact Alan Saunders. For schools, contact Nathan Milnes.
 Or call 0161 946 2300.

***

Message bands LZ7, Blush and Twelve24 spent time in six schools in the area, taking lessons and running workshops.

The gig, hosted by Ian Henderson and Nathan Milnes, featured performances from each of the bands including a moving performance of ‘The Avenue’, a track from Twelve24′s new album, by band member Ryan. A total of 95 young people texted a response at the end of the show, and have been given the opportunity to take part in a four-week follow up course.

The first follow-up session took place this Wednesday (October 20) at The Hub, a Community Centre in Altrincham. The sessions, run in partnership with youth leaders from local churches, will look at issues such as ‘Who is Jesus?’, ‘What is a Christian?’, ‘Building a relationship with Jesus’ and ‘Church and the importance of church in a Christian life’.

The schools weeks and subsequent gig were carried out in partnership with local churches, in an effort to provide the young people and their schools with a well-rounded and positive experience.

These two weeks are just the latest in a series of schools weeks happening across Manchester this year, part of our busiest year in schools ever.

Message theatre group In Yer Face and bands LZ7 and Blush spent time in schools across the area, taking lessons and running lunchtime concerts, as part of the two-week event known as ‘Vision’.

The lessons focused on suffering and how God can help us. Jess Cook from Blush, explains, ‘We chose to look at suffering because it is a subject that comes up everywhere we go: “If God is so good, why does he let bad things happen?” Instead of spending two minutes answering it, we wanted to go more in depth. It gave us the chance to share stories of how God has helped us through difficult situations’.

The fortnight ended with three concerts featuring live performances from Blush and LZ7 together with other local bands and teams.  Over 1,000 young people attended the three concerts, most of whom took an Alpha invite at the end of the night. Over three nights around 150 young people came into the response area to find out more – 80 of these are now attending Vision’s Youth Alpha course.

The Vision team donated all the proceeds from the concert tickets – over £3,000 – to Tearfund to provide water and sanitation equipment for villages in Uganda.

The Rossendale schools weeks were just two of 22 schools weeks booked in for our bands and theatre company between now and Christmas – our busiest Autumn term ever.

The Message’s bands, theatre company and CEO Andy Hawthorne are all on the road throughout the summer taking part in festivals and events around the country.

Andy Hawthorne, Matt Wilson, Ian Henderson and In Yer Face will be hosting the EmPower venue at New Wine North and East during July 25-31.

Andy is also leading various seminars in New Wine Central and South.

Andy is a platform speaker at Harvest 09 during August 19-21.

LZ7 are playing CreationFest (Aug 9), Soul Survivor (Aug 15, 17), Flevo Festival (Aug 20-23) and Greenbelt (Aug 31).

Blush are playing CreationFest (Aug 9)

All our bands are also playing the Audacious Unleashed event on August 8.