Author: James Howard-Smith, 17 November 2023
Last Saturday, Bible Society’s Dai Woolridge was at the Step FWD Awards in Croydon, which recognised his poem ‘The Bible in Four Minutes’ as a song of the year, in the ‘spoken word poetry’ category.
Receiving the award, Dai said: ‘I’m a spoken word poet and I’m literally lost for words. The irony!’
Watch Dai’s unique ascent onto the stage and hear his acceptance speech.
Dai is Bible Society’s Creative Specialist, and also known for his brand of spoken word content ‘Spoken Truth’. The story the Bible tells has been life-changing for him, and he uses spoken word poetry to try to tell that story in a fresh and faithful way.
He produced ‘The Bible in Four Minutes’ to communicate the powerful truth that the Bible is one big story of salvation. In a livestream exploring the poem last year, he said, ‘I’ve been inspired by The Bible Series and some of Andrew Ollerton’s work helping us see the grander narrative.’
Dai has expanded on the poem as part of a creative devotion in his book Six Beats One Story.
In addition to winning Song of the Year in Step FWD’s spoken word category, ‘The Bible in Four Minutes’ was nominated for Music Video of the Year. The video, which you can watch now and present at your church, is an animation created by filmmaker Andy Toovey, who has been working with Dai since 2010.
Watch 'The Bible in Four Minutes'
Andy said: ‘It was so powerful the first time it was presented to me that the Bible itself does follow one story, one thread that goes all the way through.’ He hopes the video will whet people’s appetite for that core truth about the Bible.
The awards, in their third year, are given by A Step Fwd, which also runs the Christian music charts in the UK. The goal of the awards is to bring together genres and generations and to ‘celebrate and honour many incredibly talented individuals, all working for God’s glory to bring the gospel message to people through use of their various skills and art forms’.
Dai’s final word: ‘Humbled, grateful and truly honoured to win #SpokenWordOfTheYear for #BibleIn4minutes. Big thanks to Andy Toovey for a truly phenomenal soundtrack and animation, to @bible_society for supporting me to produce this project to help people encounter God’s word, to @poetessjessofficial and @benhxydn for sharing a stage with me and creating a live experience together on mainstage Big Church Festival, and to @astepfwd for recognising #spokenword as a genre in the Christian music scene. #HeartFull 🙏❤️🎤’
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