The Music Exchange

Chris Hayward was the first person I met who convinced me that it was possible to be an evangelical whilst being dedicated to music.

Chris oversaw the music at the Round Church in Cambridge when I first came across him. My immediate reaction to him was deep and selfish jealousy. This was because I heard him as a musician before I met him as a person. I was jealous that, though he was primarily an oboist, his keyboard skills far outshone mine, even though I was an organ scholar at the time. He used to use a spectacular ‘fill’ in the breaks between verses, which I sweated for hours to try and copy. God had given him a very natural musical ability.

Love for the Lord

More importantly, however, God also gave him a deeply committed love for his Lord, and it was this commitment that turned my jealousy into admiration. He was a Christian who was a musician, rather than simply a musician who worked for a church. This meant that all he did musically grew out of his love of the Lord Jesus and a longing for his Name to be known.

Chris had a contagious enthusiasm for music. Everywhere he went a small orchestra seemed to gather around him. I played in one such orchestra. The music was completely beyond our capabilities, but he managed to convince us we were making beautiful music even if we knew we sounded like 50 dustbin lorries with their reversing alarms on. He was able to work with any type of instrumental combination, however obscure or whatever the standard, and would instil in the players a confidence that sometimes didn’t match our ability. I learnt to improvise on the violin under his leadership, because he gave me the confidence and freedom just to have a go. I’m sure that all of us who have played under his direction are now much more useful as church musicians because of the way that Chris taught us to think musically rather than being stuck to the notes on the page.

I’m also very grateful to him for saving me hours and hours of work. Playing the violin for his orchestra at Word Alive, I learnt that you don’t need to make hundreds of arrangements for every instrument. All you need to do is stick Mission Praise on each music stand and tell everyone to pick a line to play. So easy, so why didn’t I think of that?

No pretensions

There were no musical pretensions about Chris. He enjoyed all kinds of music and wanted others to enjoy it with him. This led to some toe-curling moments for me — the rock choir, the key changes, the fanfare intros, the Disney chord sequences and the way he taught songs to congregations with vigorous hand movements. They were toe-curling for me only because I have pretensions that didn’t exist for Chris. He didn’t go into a tearful strop if someone didn’t like his style — not publicly anyway! He just got on with it and let us choose to join in with his enthusiasm for singing to Jesus in whatever way we pleased.

Lord of his music

Finally, Chris never liked to pass up an opportunity to explain Christ to those who listened to his music. He loved putting on big musical events, but, whatever was being performed, he managed to weave the gospel message into the programme and commentary so that Jesus was always the focus, and not the music itself. Jesus was as much Lord of Chris’s music as he was Lord of Chris the man.

Praise God that he is with that same Lord Jesus right now. I’ve been praying that I would have the same attitude of Christ-centred service as Chris, a good and faithful servant. Also that Helen, Chris’s wife, and the boys would know the depths of God’s grace strengthening them for a life, though without Chris, yet carried and led by our Good Shepherd, Redeemer and Lord.

Chris Hayward remembered

Love for the Lord

No pretensions

Lord of his music

Richard Simpkin

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