Sydney-based music ministry EMU is moving offshore to meet the demands of the digital revolution.
Emu Music, producers of evangelical church songs such as Consider Christ and Nothing Can I Boast In, is to be launched in England by its founder and executive director, Philip Percival.
Philip, his wife Kate, a teacher, and their three young children move to Britain this month where Philip will become Director of Music for St Ebbe's, Oxford, one of the country's largest evangelical churches.
Emu's Australian arm will continue while the Moore College graduate works for the parish part-time for 16 months. He will establish Emu by building on the exposure it has in like-minded churches. Philip says there is no UK equivalent producing conservative, word-centred congregational music.
"There looked like there was a place for us without treading on other people's toes," he said.
He will also run training workshops to teach church musicians and pastors to think biblically about their music ministry.
According to the rector of St Ebbe's, Vaughan Roberts, the launch of Emu is a win for evangelical churches in Britain.
"It is important that we maintain really high standards so that the music best serves our aims of evangelism and edification," he said.
UK move a must for EMU
Meanwhile, Emu will be launched as a digital music producer for the British market, to capitalise on faster broadband internet speeds and the global trend of cheaper music sold over the internet.
As the internet makes ministry resources like music more affordable, independent labels like Emu need to find new ways of equipping churches to stay in business. Philip says if Emu sold its songs through Apple's online music store iTunes " as Hillsong does " "we'd probably be broke in three months'. Instead, Emu will launch its own resource facility online.
"The profits are going down for everyone who's producing music," he said. "CDs are going to have a limited future because of digital distribution. We'll plan for that eventuality but we can't put a date on it."
Emu is not alone in seeing a digital future. Last month Sydney Christian radio station 103.2FM became one of the first Christian stations in the world to launch a digital service. It will provide radio over the internet along with services such as podcasts (audio recordings for digital music players) of sermons from well-known faces like Sydney author John Dickson.
Bible Society reinvents Mp3
Meanwhile, a ditigal communication tool developed by former CEO of the Bible Society NSW Tom Treseder is now ready for mass distribution which will take the gospel to illiterate people in countries where missionaries are banned.
The MegaVoice device is a cheap and durable MP3 player that can broadcast the Bible in any language using solar power.
