Chip Off The New Block...

Chip K is a household name in British youth circles. We spoke to the man behind the crazy hair and the lively dance moves.

With his trademark mohawk, stage dives and boundless energy, it’s no surprise that Chip Kendall continues to reach thousands of young people through his music ministry. As well as serving as Creative Arts Worship pastor at !Audacious Church, Manchester, with his wife, Helen, he’s released three albums with the Chip Kendall Band, who are in huge demand having performed at several festivals around the world including Big Church Day Out.

Before establishing his band, Chip was no stranger to touring, having spent the previous 11 years with the bandwith no name, whose biggest hit was a heavy rock version of Amazing Grace. Chip explains how he was raised to have no fear of performing on stage, even as a child.

“My dad was a worship pastor of a really big church in Florida of about 2,000 people. We would pack out our local football stadium with these really big productions. Because my dad was the worship pastor he would put his kids up on stage right from an early age.

“I learned the 50 states rhyme and I sang it in front of thousands of people in a big stadium and that wasn’t a big deal to me because I did it all the time. Other people were daunted by that, but I developed a confidence early on. By the time I was 16 I was already recording albums and touring with my family.”

But Chip’s passion for reaching others stems from a major encounter he had with the Holy Spirit at the age of ten.

“In 1988 our children’s pastor invited us to come forward to the front if we wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I went for ward and I got the most amazing physical sensation. It was like chills going down from the top of my head down to my feet. But the best evidence that something changed that day was that for the first time I turned around and faced my friends who weren’t filled saying, ‘God, what you did for me do it for them.’