Teach, admonish and father

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me." (Psalm 27:10, NIV)

You know by now that I am a Psalmic kinda guy. And the above passage, which I read many times, I always thought it was just a metaphoric, figure of speech kinda thing.

But just a couple of days ago, I sat down to really think about what David's upbringing was like. The ideas were disturbing. How did his father, Jesse, see him? Was David treasured and valued by his father? Look at this incident.

[Samuel] asked "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." (1 Sam 16:11, NIV)

The great prophet of God, Samuel, came to the family out of the blue. Jesse and his sons, at least, those that were with him, were consecrated and invited to the sacrifice, the heart of Old Testament worship. What a great honor for the family!

But David was forgotten, excluded, not worth the hassle of sending a servant out to fetch him. Jesse didn't have any difficulty leaving David out of an important family event. How do you think David felt about it?

Was this an isolated incident? Could be.

Children tend to follow the example of their parents. Sons especially want to be more like their fathers. Could Eliab, David's eldest brother. give us an idea of what home life for David was like? Let's look at how Eliab spoke to David when David went to the military camp, heard the challenge of Goliath, and asked the rest of the men around him what were the rewards of successfully defeating Goliath.

When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." (1 Sam 17:28)

The other men took the time to answer David's legitimate questions. Eliab got angry, implied that he was neglecting his real job (taking care of sheep) and called him conceited and wicked.

Was this how Jesse also treated David? We can't say. But was this an isolated incident? Maybe not…

When you have a child growing up in a negative environment, the child will either behave very badly to get attention, or go the extra mile to get approval. Do we see any of this in the life of David?

"Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it." (1 Sam 17:34-35, NIV)

If I ever send off my sons to tend sheep, it will be with the standing orders that if a bear or lion came to steal a sheep, they are to get the rest of the sheep (and themselves) far away. If they ever try any fancy heroics like David did, I'll thrash them senseless myself, child abuse laws be damned. I'd rather lose all my material possessions than any one of my boys.

I'm sure Jesse would have given such instructions to David too. What kind of hunger for approval will get a boy to risk his life over a sheep? I used to read that above passage as a bold and powerful declaration of faith. Now I hear the voice of a heartbroken, neglected child, willingly taking his life into his hands for the sake of winning his father's approval.

Does that thought break your heart? It breaks mine.

If David really has been brought up to think that he HAS to perform to gain approval, he'll be extremely uncomfortable to have things handed to him easily. And that is what we see too. When Saul offered David his daughter's hand in marriage, the opportunity to become royalty through marriage, he turned it down. His words were very telling.

David said, "Do you think it is a small matter to become the king's son-in-law? I'm only a poor man and little known." (1 Sam 18:23, NIV)

Remember, he said this AFTER he killed Goliath and prove himself very capable as a military leader and received the acclaim of the people of Israel. This was AFTER the women of Israel had sung of him 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.' (1 Sam 18:7, NIV) He still felt the need to prove himself to King Saul.

And so when Saul set the bride-price at one hundred Philistine foreskins, David went to get two hundred. Having met and exceeded Saul's requirements, he finally felt he was worthy to become the son-in-law of King Saul.

I suspect that David was searching, either consciously or subconsciously, for a father figure for his life. What better man to prepare him for the task of ruling the kingdom of Israel than Saul? And now that Saul was his father-in-law, there was a legitimate way for David to succeed Saul as king, without having to usurp the throne.

'See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand!' (1 Sam 24:11, NIV)

Was David sincere in his love for Saul? We can see from the times he spared Saul's life, as well as how he grieved over Saul's death, that he truly loved Saul as a father. But Saul still betrayed David.

When we betray our children, be they physical or spiritual children, they struggle with pain and bitterness and will be more likely to backslide and go into the ways of the world. That is how I interpret David's settling in the land of the Philistines (1 Sam 27). His heart was still for God's people, but yet he began a life of deception, lying to his new master Achish, King of Gath. Was he acting out what the anger he secretly harboured against Saul's actions? Pretty likely, in my opinion.

And that is why David wrote what he wrote in Psalm 27:10. It wasn't poetic license or a metaphoric, figure-of-speech thing. He lived most of his life without experiencing the love or the guidance of a father figure.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

If we truly accept our role to teach and admonish God's people, we have to expect that just as we look up to others to mentor us and guide us in our spiritual journey, we will have people looking up to us as well. And because we live in an emotionally hurt generation, some of those who look up to us will see us as father (or parent) figures.

So what are we to do about it?

Teach and lead. Don't just do the standard Church-ianity thing and foist them off with clichés like 'Don't look to man, look to God.' Even the Apostle Paul, who lived his life totally sold-out for Christ and made it his personal mission to point people to Jesus, said 'Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.' (1 Cor 11:1, NIV)

He knew that people need someone to lead and guide them by example. And he took it as a fatherly responsibility. Earlier in 1 Cor 4:15-17, he said '…for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. Therefore I am sending you Timothy, my son whom I love…'

And when you encounter those who go the extra mile to win your approval, like David did for Saul, please, recognize them for what they are, people who look up to you and want to please you. Don't feel threatened but celebrate their success as your own. By the way, that is one characteristic of good multi-level marketing programs, celebrating the success of those we disciple, even when they exceed ours. This is an excellent value for us as believers to embrace.

This is a long post, not directly related to the praise and worship training life. But it’s something God has placed on my heart recently, so I decided to share it with you all. Be blessed, everyone!

Hidden Customers

We had some sound glitches with during the Monday service at Living Faith earlier this week. And that was such a pity. It was to the worship leader’s credit that he continued to lead worship well without letting the technical problems affect him noticeably.

What made it even more of a pity was that we tried an interesting song link – key change thingy that I just absolutely knew (110%) would bless the people. I hope that the congregation was still blessed by it even though the sound system gave us some problems. How did I know my idea would work? Well, through lots of experience and understanding some fundamental principles.

AND because I watched the back-up vocalists during the practice.

Back-up vocalists. Most church musicians don’t really notice them very much. We usually see them dutifully (or listlessly) standing slightly apart from us, staring at their song lyric sheets (which most musicians don’t notice because they’re not listening). Or because most musicians are self-occupied people, we sometimes don’t notice them at all unless there are pretty girls among them.

Hey, I’m just saying it as it is.

Back-up vocalists usually fulfill two roles in the worship team. First, they provide vocal support to the worship leader. When they turn up for the practice, they get to experience beforehand what the worship leader intends to try with the congregation. They are thus better able to support him/her for that particular worship session, instead of the worship leader singing alone, praying that the congregation join in quickly…

Second, they also model worship for the congregation. Even if you are not actively participating in worship, watching back-up vocalists enthusiastically worship God will move you, even if only at a subconscious level. What you see modeled will influence you, and lean you more towards worshipping God enthusiastically, just as you see (and hear) them doing.

But did you ever think of them as ‘customers’ in their own right?

If you are a worship leader, you can see them as part of your team, there to help you get a certain song idea across to the congregation. Personally, I feel that if you are trying something that really needs the help of the back-up vocalists, something that just won’t work unless they support you strongly, that is something the congregation will not respond well to.

Or you can see them as a testing group. If the song links and ideas you plan have them singing their hearts out even during the rehearsal, you probably got a winner right there.

That was what happened during that rehearsal, when we tried the song link – key change thingy that I thought of. The back-up vocalists didn’t have any mikes during practice, but they sang so loud that I could hear them clearly.

And because the team usually plays quite loud, that doesn’t happen very often during practice. I could see from the faces of the vocalists that it wasn’t just a practice for them, but they were encountering God in worship even in the midst of practice.

Back-up vocalists are a valuable source of feedback, if you know how to value them and use them as such. They are the hidden customers that most musicians and worship leaders miss. They may not have the musical know-how to tell you what to do to revamp the worship music, but you can see from their faces if what you are trying works.

And because most do not have much music background, they aren’t impressed by how musically advanced and sophisticated your ideas are. They only care about whether what you want to try works.

So if you think you are a really skilled musician, that you have some really cool music ideas that will work really well in worship, put your ideas to the test. Try your ideas during the practice (don’t spring them as a surprise during the actual worship session) and see how the back-up vocalists respond to it.

Let me tell you upfront that the majority of back-up vocalists in church will go on singing dutifully even if your idea doesn’t help enhance the worship. That’s their job, right? But if your idea DOES work, they will sing out better, louder and clearer. You will see them smile (without the worship leader having to remind them to do so) indeed, from their body language you will KNOW when you’ve got something that works.

So do you dare to put your ideas to that test? If you don’t know or follow the basic principles of playing for worship, be prepared to fail the test more often than necessary.

Again, I’m saying it just as it is.

People, I’ve had a brother-in-Christ, one I really respect and look up to, share with me his personal concerns about my ‘marketing’ text. He felt that I shouldn’t describe my teaching and info the way I do, as teaching essential keys to getting worship to take-off.

And because this was feedback from a brother-in-Christ I really respect, not some theorist-wannabe’s knee-jerk reaction, I really gave it a lot of prayer and thought. I spent lots of time in prayer and waiting on God, laying my heart before him, waiting for him to tell me if I am in error or acting in pride.

Even after all this additional soul-searching, I still stand by what I say about what I teach. I cannot tone down my course description, especially about the two new courses I now offer, without being insincere. I still see people in worship ministry struggle because they need what I have to offer but don’t have it. And that is why I am putting in extra effort this December to organize extra teaching sessions, hoping that I can minister to even more people in the midst of this holiday season.

So help me get the word out. I'll be emailing you soon with the schedule for the lessons. And pray for me, first ly that I have the wisdom of God as I plan my schedule for this month, and that I will be able to reach out to more people, that God will bring into my path the people who will really be blessed by what I have to teach. Thanks!

Be blessed, everyone!

Stage Fright

I did a performance thingy one Friday.

Those you who have been with me for some time or have attended my various worship training sessions know that I firmly believe that worship is meant for the congregation to participate in, not for a few people to perform in. Over the years I have focused more and more on worship, rather than performing, and thus have gotten better and better at worship rather than performing.

And so the moment before I went up on stage for the Living Faith Church “Honor the Servers” event to perform two worship songs I wrote myself, I had stage fright again.

Yeah, even after all these years.

What I was told later was that I did well, so that means that the methods I use to conquer stage fright work. Thought of sharing them with you today.

The MOST important thing you MUST know: ALL stage fright is based on two factors: 1) that people are all focusing on you; and 2) the feeling that you are losing control. So the secret to overcoming stage fright is dealing with these two factors.

So in a worship context, you need to shift people’s attention away from you and to God AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Firstly, because that’s your job as a worship minister, and second, because that takes away from you pressure that you don’t have to undergo in order to get the job done.

If you are a worship leader, get the people to start singing or to do something together as a congregation as soon as possible. In general, praying and exhorting the congregation before worship is quite unnecessary, in my opinion. It adds to the pressure on you (which you don’t want) and delays the start of worship (which THEY don’t want) and means that you have to put in even more work to generate the momentum in worship later once they do get started.

So if you can do it, do it well and yet generate the momentum later once you start the worship, great! Personally, even after all these years of leading worship, I don’t do all that kind of stuff.

Now, if you are a worship musician or your mouth volunteered you for something before your rational mind kicked in (as happened in MY case), your struggle will be more of the second factor, the feeling that you are losing control.

How can you deal with that situation? First, have a familiar preparation routine. That can range from a familiar song intro style you use or even something as simple as washing your hands and drying them exactly the same way every time. This tells your subconscious that you ARE in control.

For me I’d either keep moving (if I have to do something that doesn’t involve me talking) or pray for a relevant joke to use (Lots of people present that evening enjoyed my joke about my voice inspiring thanksgiving). When the people started laughing I knew I was still very much in control.

The keep moving method is one I don’t really use these days, because people in church tend to freak out when they see me do stretching exercises, but you can easily find other ideas you can adapt and use in YOUR situation.

There were some points I slipped up. For example, I had a mike in front of me during my singing, so to keep myself from going cross-eyed looking at the mike I just closed my eyes while singing (and played some chords wrong). But overall I did OK. Sometimes it’s a question of how you choose to see the whole experience.

As I mentioned before, the worship songs were those I wrote, so I could see the whole experience in two ways. I could choose to see the experience of performing my own worship songs as being judged. Composing something is very personal because you put a lot of who you are as a person into it, and it’s very easy to interpret people rejecting it as rejecting who you are as a person.

Or I could see it in this way: because it’s MY song nobody else knows it. Therefore no one else will know if I get it wrong. A lot less pressure, right? I chose to see it this way…

Of course all these ideas are not meant to replace proper preparation. The two songs I used are songs I wrote from Scripture passages very dear to me (from the book of Psalms, surprised?) and for two weeks before I was using those two songs in my daily devotionals and discovering what songs could be effectively linked with those two songs. (Hey, once a worship leader, always a worship leader).

But sometimes even after we’ve prepared a lot we still get the jitters. That’s where the ideas here come in useful. Try them out and let me know what you think, OK?

Side Point: It’s the December holidays now. Lots of people are going to be on leave, so I am trying to organize weekday training events for them. I’ll make the announcement soon, but if you have any suggestions or any specific training you want me to do (in an intensive session) do email me and let me know, OK? And do let your friends know about this too. I’m thinking (and praying) through all this right now and will email you about this shortly.

OK, be blessed, everyone!

Crisis Thoughts

Hello, everyone!

It’s been a long while since my last update. Things have been crazy, in both the good and bad sense.

In the good sense, well, I’m gonna be conducting a worship workshop for the Youth Worship teams of another church, conducting the piano segment of a worship seminar at a Presbyterian church (need to double check which one. Some of you are wondering if their musicians are covered by insurance, I know…) and actually speaking at a church Sunday service!

Yes, I do have messages for such occasions, but I was asked to present a message that I developed specifically for people in worship ministry. That means I have to be my usual opinionated and offensive self in front of people who just might not understand what I’m about. That’s about as safe as a loaded gun in the hands of a teenager on Prozac…

In the midst of all the fun stuff, I’m also undergoing a tough season. Lots of little things have gone wrong, and trying to fix them all is very frustrating. I also face crisis in various areas of my life (thus my prolonged absence). Though I’d rather not go through all this, it is a good training season for me.

One thing that really strikes me this time is the way pressure shows us what is in our hearts. Humanistic thinking says that under-stress people say things they don’t really mean. Which can be true in a sense, but Jesus had a different view of it. He said “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

So if you are speaking words of praise even under stress, that’s because that is what you have filled your heart with during the non-crisis periods of your life. If words of anger, or exaggerations of the faults of others come out of your mouth at those times, then it shows clearly what you have placed in your heart during the rest of times.

Please, people, don’t get me wrong. I’m not sharing this with you to bring guilt. Let’s face it, even a brother-in-Christ whom I consider the epitome of Mr. Chill himself admitted he uttered a swear word in a brief moment of frustration. I am sharing this with you to remind you, “Above all else guard your heart, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

And even James said “Is any of you suffering? Let him pray.” Not gripe to our spouses, colleagues and friends. Sometimes, even just thinking how we’ll describe our problems to God is enough to restore our perspective and see our problems the way God sees them. And of course when God talks back and reminds us that he is very much greater than our problems…

So instead of “Charmed”, “Smallville” or mindless game shows, take the time to really feed your heart with good stuff, like the word of God…

Which brings me to my second topic…

When you are in the midst of crisis, you can cope with it in many ways. One that is a life-saver to me at this time is just reading the Word of God.

Were you expecting something else?

I just came across this during a sermon recently. In the parable of the prodigal son, it was recorded that the father ran to the returning son and embraced him. Interestingly enough, the Greek word used for embrace in that passage came out again in the book of Acts, when Peter was at Cornelius house. When Peter was speaking the Word of God to the people there, it said the Holy Spirit fell upon the people present. And same Greek word was used for both the father’s embrace in Luke 15 and the Holy Spirit’s embrace in Acts.

And that explains why I feel the presence of God so strongly when I am just chilling out with the Bible, reading it aloud. Especially when I’m reading to Jessiah. As I told some of you before, he doesn’t get any children’s bible kiddie stories from me. He gets Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, oftentimes in New King James Version, because that’s the version that I tend to find first when I am at home.

And he likes it. If I home he’ll ALWAYS ask me to read to him, and that is what I read. Someone just asked me if a four-year-old is capable of taking the Word of God neat. Well, Jessiah has no complaints…

While speaking the Word of God to him, the presence of God comes down. Not in the awesome sense that we sometimes experience during moments of intense worship, but in the gentle sense, like a loving father’s embrace. And in that manifest presence of God my son Jessiah falls asleep, while I am touched, encouraged and strengthened by my Father’s embrace.

Crisis periods can be difficult, not because of the weight of the crisis itself, but because they often leave us feeling very lonely. And when you feel misunderstood by siblings-in-Christ and thus can’t bear to get angry with them, that can be even worse.

So give yourself time to just speak the Word of God aloud to yourself. It feeds your heart with truth and your soul with the strength and comfort of God.

Prayer time: Pray for me that I’ll see God at this time. In the midst of breakthroughs, I need to see God as the strength of ministry and the one who empowers and enables me to serve his people. Pray also that I’ll receive greater wisdom to make core decisions for my ministry at this time. Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!

What it takes

What does it take to play for worship?

This post has been taken down because I've got an even better (and much cooler) version in my book. If you are serving in the worship ministry or if you are a pastor looking for more information on this topic, email me and I'll send you the updated chapter free-of-charge in a PDF file.

You can get my email address by getting on my mailing list. Go to www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/lsite01.htm

Be blessed!

How great is YOUR God?

How great is our God, sing with me how great is our God, all will see how great, how great is our God. - Chris Tomlin, How Great is Our God.
I just led worship for the Sunday morning congregation of Acts Center yesterday. Wow!

The people were really singing their hearts out to God and encountering God in a real way during the worship. And again I had the satisfaction of bringing people to encounter God, using just a guitar and the anointing he gave me.

Of course I had help. People who lent me the guitar and the mike, people who helped project the lyrics for the congregation and of course a dear sister-in-Christ from Tuesday Group who specially took the time and effort to be there and sing backup for me to help the congregation flow in worship.

Kinda interesting, this sister, Sister F, arrived late for the pre-service preparations because her car broke down. And after the service when we were chatting she told me that the projected cost of repairs was $2000.

I couldn’t believe it. She too sang her heart out during worship and during the sermon she was furiously soaking in every word from the pastor. It was as if she wasn’t given a $2000 piece of bad news just that very morning.

Either that or she has a God who is greater than a $2000 problem.

Which brings me to the question I have for you. How great is YOUR God?

O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent. (Psalm 104:1-2, NIV)
Now, we all have the same God as Sister F. But not all of us can shrug off a $2000 problem just like that, because not all of us have a revelation of God in which he is bigger than a $2000 problem.

Let’s look at things in a different way. If you discover that you’ve left the baby’s things behind at home JUST after you’ve struggled to get the pram and the two boys up the bus, and you’ve got to get off, head home, grab the bag and then head off to church to meet the rest of the family, does that ruin your Sunday worship service and leave you fuming at yourself (or your spouse) during worship? Or is your God so great that all that hassle is a hiccup barely worth mentioning or thinking of?

What I am getting at is that you can see how great your God really is to you by seeing how great a problem has to be before it can trouble your peace and affect the way you relate to God and to others. The greater God is in your eyes, the smaller other problems become.

Now of course problems are problems and need to be dealt with. But do they need to affect your peace? Or you can just deal with them as if they are no big deal, because your God is bigger than they are? One very common source of quarrels for Sunday mornings is being late. I know of people who will argue bitterly with their spouses over being a few minutes late for worship.

And when the arguments start getting hysterically historical (“You ALWAYS XXX, I told you not to XXX for the last 3 Sundays and you promised that you won’t XXX again. Now you’ve XXX-ed again and we’re going to be late again, just like the last 3 Sundays…”) that’s when we tend to forget that nowhere in Scripture are we specifically told to be punctual for services, but we are repeatedly admonished to watch how we treat our siblings-in-Christ. Do we honestly believe God is so concerned about our punctuality for services that he’ll close one eye to us emotionally abusing our spouses or children for the sake of punctuality?

Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:20, NIV
Of course, I’m not advocating that you should be late for worship. In fact you should make a special point to be on time. (Especially when I am the one leading worship, of course). What I am saying is how great is your revelation of God will determine how much all these matters trouble you to the point that you forget what is really important to God.

So how do we grow in our revelation of the greatness of our God?

1) Pray for such revelation

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. - Ephesians 1:17-19, NIV
2) Feed such revelation.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? – Romans 10:14, NIV
We feed the revelation of the greatness of our God by exposing ourselves to preaching, whether during church sermons, sermon CDs, the preaching in the Bible, the preaching we sing to ourselves and to others during worship, or even from the indirect preaching of others as we hear their testimonies.

I’m willing to bet that if I were to quantify the amount of time, money and effort Sister F has put into feeding her revelation of the greatness of God, it will be easily be worth more than $2000. Because she has a greater than $2000 revelation of the greatness of God, I am looking forward to seeing how God will deal with her car problem. Will he just do something to the repair bill that it becomes negligible? Or give her a sudden windfall to cover the repair cost? Or just give her a new car? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.

Important note: If you are serving as a worship musician, don’t let your service deceive you into thinking you don’t need to further feed your revelation. There are musicians who serve in church for the sake of the music, not for the sake of serving God and his people.

Frankly, I’ve got absolutely no problem with that at all. If people want to indulge their desire to play music, I’d rather they do it in the house of God and let his people be blessed, than do it in a pub someplace, where the quality of their music is judged on how many alcoholics they can attract to that pub. And besides, there’s less 2nd hand cigarette smoke in church.

What I am concerned about, however, is that the musician may spend lots of time in the house of God and not feed the revelation within. And that would be such a waste. Here’s a quick test for you to see if a musician is there for the sake of the music or feeding the revelation of God’s greatness. Look at what happens when something goes wrong with the music.

Yesterday when I was leading the worship, the E bass string on the guitar went drastically out of tune, going to some out-of-tune D. So I had to immediately change my playing style to avoid that string, and tune that string later at the first available break. (Since I was the only musician, that break took a long time in coming.)

And I totally forgot all about it after that. It was only later yesterday evening when I was thinking through the points of this email, how Sister F just shrugged off the car problem she had, that I remembered that something went wrong with the music also. But because I knew my God is greater than the E bass string on the guitar it just didn’t affect me at all. My peace was unruffled and I just continued leading worship, being a blessing to God’s people and being blessed by his presence myself.

So that’s it for this somewhat longer post. Feed your revelation of the greatness of God. And may he reveal his greatness to us in ever-increasing measure as we continue to grow in him!

Prayer time: I’m going to be conducing worship training for the worship personnel of Acts Center this coming Saturday. Because I know the people involved (and have sat in for the services even when I am not playing for the worship) I am going to adapt my sharing to be more specific for this group (rather than share what applies to many churches across the board). Pray for me that I will say the right things and that what I share will be received in the right way. Other words, pray that if there are people offended with me, let them be offended because they heard me correctly and didn’t agree, rather than because they misunderstood me. Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!

More T & A (Teaching & Admonishing)

A quick follow-up note on the last post…

A couple of Saturdays ago, I spent 4 hours with my sis and one of her friends, a worship leader from her church. And it was great. I was totally in my element, sharing about leading worship, singing, demonstrating on both the keyboard and guitar… Wow! Totally fun!

Because I got held up at home, I got there late and VERY hungry. My sis got lunch for me, and while I was eating she was listing the questions she had for me to answer. When I heard some of her questions, however, my spirit got so excited that I forgot my hunger. I had to discipline myself to finish the food before getting started on her questions.

"I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:32, 34)

And once we got started, the time just shot past. I was showing how to modulate the key of a song in different situations, how to actually apply all these ideas in worship, what can be done with familiar songs, common situations during congregational worship and all that.

The really unusual part of the experience, however, was that AFTER it I realized MANY things about what I am doing, what I trying to teach. I found new and clearer ways of explaining what I had to teach. They just came to me in the days after the sharing session.

It was as if my subconscious was so stimulated by the interaction with my sis and her friend that for days I kept getting revelations and seeing connections about what I have been called to teach.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

This is what you can get from teaching and admonishing one another, as the Scripture exhorts. I know the other people there were blessed by the sharing, but I was blessed even more. And that is what I want you to experience too.

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25)

And I definitely was refreshed by the whole experience. After 4 hours I was ready to keep going on. Or find new people to share my info and experience with.

And that is why I do what I do, right?

Another point:

I shared last time about spending lots of time in the book of Psalms. My personal experience is that because the Psalms are less intellectual and more emotional, they build me up in my emotions more than other parts of Scripture.

And you kinda want to have more than an average familiarity with the book of Psalms. Because when the storms of life hit, sometimes our emotions just shut down and go dead on us and we find it difficult to pray our hearts out to God.

So at such moments, the Psalms do wonders for helping to bring life to our emotions again. The crisis Psalms (27, 31, 34, 54 and 61, for example) may seem a bit way-out for us during the normal days of life, but if you spend some time with them then they will minister to you so much more during the stormy seasons.

I just went through such a period, in fact. I was blasted in stereo, torn down effectively by a couple of experts and given burdens no one should ever have to bear, at a time when I most need my clarity… And the sheer unfairness of it all caused my emotions to just shut down. I couldn’t even pray the way I usually do.

All I could do was to take the crisis Psalms and read them aloud a few times each. And do that everyday until my emotions started coming back to normal again.

Now, you don’t want to wait until a crisis before you start feeding on these Psalms. It takes time for them to become a part of your spirit, and for them to start aligning your emotions and thoughts with the Word of God. So start on them now. It will take you less than 10 mins a day to read through them aloud a couple of times, but after just 3 weeks you will feel different, as if God has deposited something solid and substantial into your soul and spirit. (He will.)

Ok, that’s all for now. Get back to you all soon. Be blessed!

Teach and Admonish

I have a confession to make.

I am a control freak.

And that is a side of me that I had to face up to, especially as I am writing this.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…” 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)

When I first started serving in a worship ministry, the popular teaching was that we musicians were a specially called group, the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Levites and priests.

As I grew in my understanding (and just kept on reading the Bible) I just couldn’t hold to that idea anymore, that worship leaders and worship musicians are a separate group from the ‘average’ believer. I don’t believe that is an idea that can be justified from New Testament Scripture.

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a Kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father…” Revelations 1:5-6 (NIV)

Notice from the two passages I quoted that there is no argument the New Testament believer is a priest? Depending on what translation you are using, people can dispute whether we are made kings. But it is clear that we are definitely made priests.

All of us. Even the ones who are not serving in a worship ministry or see themselves as having no music gifting at all.

And one very neglected duty of the priest is the duty to teach. If Christ has made you a priest, he has given you not only the duty to praise God but also to teach. Consider this passage on the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe:

“He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.” Deuteronomy 33:10 (NIV)

And what are the priests to teach?

“They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it according to my ordinances.” Ezekiel 44:23-24 (NIV)

This is the tough part for me. To tell you all that you are called, no, you are commanded by God to teach his people. What if you start teaching the wrong things to God’s people? Wouldn’t I be at least partially responsible?

“I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” Romans 15:14 (NIV)

And THAT is the verse that slapped me in the face and told me to tell you what I am telling you now.

Now, I’d love it if I could teach you what to teach God’s people, and be your reference and guide if you have any questions, or be someone you check things out with before you share your teaching with others. But it’s better for me to share with you some principles that will help you teach the right things to God’s people.

1) “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult, whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still, teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning.” Proverbs 9:8-9 (NIV)

Remain open to being taught. Notice in the above passage mockers and the wicked are grouped together? And so are the wise and the righteous. Be open to what others share. Please, don’t swallow everything they say wholesale, because they may be wrong, but at least give them a fair hearing before you come to your conclusion. Remember Proverbs 18:13!

And thank them too, even if they are wrong. Oftentimes it’s very hard to step up to a sibling-in-Christ and share what you think they need to hear, especially if it’s something uncomfortable. So thank them for making the effort and assure them that you’ve heard what they had to say and you are giving it thought.

2) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16, NIV)

Notice the word “dwell”. Think about it. There are scientists who study cockroaches and centipedes, right? But they don’t let those creatures dwell with them in their own homes. Likewise, we can study the Bible seriously. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Word of Christ is dwelling within us.

So let the Word of Christ dwell within us as a welcome and respected guest. As you open your mouth and speak out the Scriptures, let this welcome guest minister to you, edify you and educate you.

And also keep up your worship lifestyle. Besides teaching God’s word we are also to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Now, there is room for us to disagree on the exact definition of those terms for worship, but it’s clear that we are to keep worshiping God, as that is part of letting the word of Christ dwell richly in us.

Side point: I personally spend lots of time in the book of Psalms also. I believe that it helps me understand the rest of the Bible better. In Ephesians 5 the psalms are linked with being filled with the Spirit. As I said, this is a personal thing.

3) Be ruled by peace.

In Colossians 3:15, we are commanded to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. We are called to peace, and in this context we’re talking about peace with our fellow believers. And this is the order of priorities that God has. First peace, then teaching.

And when we treasure peace, unity and continually release forgiveness to preserve that unity, we will find ourselves released to greater understanding of God’s word. And that will help you to teach the word of God to his people in an effective and appropriate way.


There is so much more to share on this topic, so I hope what I’ve shared so far will help you start off or encourage you further on this aspect of your priestly ministry. Be blessed, everyone!


Prayer time: Please pray for me that I will continue to be guided by the God in my decisions. Very heavy decisions to be made this season. The breakthroughs I’ve been praying for are finally arriving, and I need wisdom in reaping the harvest. Thanks, everyone!

Life-giving Kingship

We headed to the cars. We were supposed to worship God and pray at my friend’s new place, a house-blessing event, but received news that her friend’s old mother’s health had taken a turn for the worst. And her friend was about to leave for a mission trip in just a few days.

So after lunch we went to that friend’s place. Now ‘we’ were an interesting mix of people. A retired couple that used to be missionary pastors, a newly ordained Presbyterian pastor, my friend (an undergrad) and me. Along the way, we found out that the old lady had cancer for years, and in fact outlived the doctors’ expectations while refusing conventional treatment and taking massive amounts of fruits and vegetable juices every day.

But just when her daughter was about to go for an important missions trip in just a few days, her mother suddenly became sicker. So we became a kind of prayer Emergency Response team, going there to pray.

“We fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus” – Chris Tomlin, “We Fall Down”
For years I just couldn't click with that song. The lyrics seemed artificial and contrived somehow.

“And we cry holy, holy, holy is the Lamb” – Chris Tomlin, “We Fall Down”
When we got to the home and entered the room, we saw a tiny, frail old lady sitting in a chair, head down. She seemed so weak, barely able to lift up her head to look at the sudden burst of visitors that appeared out of nowhere, struggling to lift her hand to signal to her maid to show hospitality to these people who seemed to know her daughter.

She didn’t understand English, we were told, so the pastors in the group tried to speak to her in Cantonese. Because she was too weak to respond, we gave up trying to communicate, and the rest of the people started praying for her.

Now, because I hold quite strongly to Word of Faith teaching, I felt that the way the rest of the people there prayed lacked faith. It was as if they weren’t too sure that God wanted to heal the lady and wanted to pray in a way that would hedge their bets, whatever happened. (this was just my impression, ok?)

When it came to my turn to pray, I had a choice. I could pray in a way that would show off my theological position, make me feel superior to the other people in the room and alienate these brothers and sisters in Christ from me, or I could pray the same way they did (and leave me feeling like a hypocrite, because I wasn't praying the way I felt was right), or I could just take a song and worship God. I chose to worship God.

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. (Revelations 1:5-6, NKJV)

And when we all ended the worship song, that old lady finally looked up. Looking into her eyes I saw so much life in there, I was bowled over. And I felt God telling me in my heart that He touched her body and gave her life because I sought to bypass our theological differences and unite our prayers around Jesus Christ.

I sat there, stunned by the transformation that took place right before my eyes. And at that moment I realized that what the Chris Tomlin song spoke about, laying our crowns before Jesus, could not make sense to people who did not know, in their heart of hearts, that they have been made kings and are therefore crowned with power and authority.

And this is what I’d like to share with you. The question is not how to we, as believers, get more power and authority. Its how are we going to use the power and authority we already have as kings and priests serving God the Father. (Rev 1:5-6)

In the situation described earlier all it took to unite these believers from very different background into a group that saw the hand of God at work was a simple worship song. Why was this unity so powerful and life-giving? Because it was an alliance of kings.

“When a king’s face brightens, it means life…” Proverbs 16:15 (NIV)

And that is why there are so many accounts of kings, those of Judah and Israel, in 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles. God included all these accounts in the word of God so that we, as kings-in-Christ, will learn from whatever they did, whether wrong or right.

So what does that mean to you now, king and priest of the Most High God? How does my reminder of your power and authority in Christ affect you? I’ve got a couple of suggestions, practical steps you can take to exercise the life-giving kingship powers God has given to you.

1) Pray with confidence and authority.

2) Worship God more, especially with people from a different denomination or church. (Tuesday Group is perfect for this, of course)

3) Seek alliances with other believers, whether in work, ministry or even in family life. Some believers I know are talking about home-schooling their kids together when they have kids. This is a powerful example of the alliance of kings that we can set up.

Prayer time: God has been speaking to me through his people about growing up even further as a son of God, joint-heir with Christ. Pray for me that I will be led to the Scripture Passages that I need to feed on at this time, as well as the believers whom God has chosen to mentor me in this area.

Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!

Stepping Out

1 Chronicles 29:5 “… who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?” (NKJV)

This is the season of the year when I listen through “Prosperity” by Randy Gage

This is a CD series on the spiritual principles that he used to transform his life from bankruptcy, dysfunctional relationships and horrendous health to being a multi-millionaire with great health and joyful relationships in his life.

Now, Randy Gage is comes from a Mind Science church, one of those pseudo-Christian movements. He is very New-Age in his mindset and he is quite dismissive of evangelical Christianity. Having said that, his explanations of spiritual laws that correspond to Scripture principles are very clear and fresh.

And he pulls no punches, calling things the way they are. And sometimes, that’s just what we need at times.

Here is something that he taught that really struck me. He had this chapter called “the Return to the Creator” law of prosperity. This is what he called tithing. And he expanded the idea to more than just money. He said that we are to tithe our Treasure (money), Time and Talent.

The first time I heard that was during the season when I was running away from worship ministry. And when Randy Gage spoke about tithing the Talent (which for me was playing for and leading worship), that made me VERY uncomfortable.

Can you imagine? How could I ever let myself be out-tithed by a New-Ager?

That is what I wanted to bring up with you today. If we expanded our concept of tithing to include Time and Talent as well as Treasure, how different would our lives be?

Or in another sense, as King David asked in the passage from 1 Chronicles quoted above, who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?

“JJ, you don’t understand. You’ve been playing for worship for many years. It’s so much easier for you than for me to get started…”

Actually, God seems to delight in keeping me in a position where it’s not easy for me either, so I actually DO understand. Just on Sunday I was playing for worship at a church where I may be doing worship training for their worship teams.

• To start with, I was on my WEAKEST instrument, drums. Common sense would dictate that if you are going to some place new, start off with your strongest instrument so you leave a good first impression.
  
• On top of that, I was playing on Electric Drums, not the acoustic ones I was used to. Lots of my secret techniques just suddenly became impractical. Oops…
  
• I was playing with people I don’t know. I didn’t know who was gonna cover any slips I make or what I’ll have to do to cover theirs.
  
• And finally, I was already introduced to the congregation as a music/worship instructor. So the congregation’s expectations were raised higher. And thus I had even more to lose if I flopped.

So, in a sense, it NEVER gets easy. Therefore, you get to see whether you REALLY trust in God more than your skills and experience.

Now, if your music skills are not up to par yet, you of course shouldn’t be rushing off to play for service or cell group this coming week. That goes without saying.

But talk with one of the worship leaders in your church or your cell leader. Tell them of your decision to play or serve in worship and make a firm commitment to begin within the next 3-9 months.

Notice I didn’t tell you to wait till you are ready before you talk with them. Why? Because the biggest struggle many of us have is with our mindset. At our core we don’t really see ourselves as worship ministers, skilled and equipped to serve the congregation with music instruments.

So if we wait till we are ready, what will almost always happen is that something will crop up. Our kids will start acting up when we are going to practice, or our jobs will suddenly have a burst of work requiring OT, or something like that. All these events will delay us and become excuses for us to not pursue the equipping and training we need. So we end up not serving at all.

That’s why I urge you to make a firm commitment to begin serving in worship. Talk with your leaders about it (submission to authority is crucial as a worship musician) and give a definite date.

And once you do that you will tell your subconscious that you ARE committed to serving, and that it is to submit itself to you and work with you to obtain ALL the equipping and training you need.

Now on my part, I am in the midst of compiling and defining what are the music skills needed to play in an average church setting. This will be useful both to those who are interested in serving but need to know if they are skilled enough or what they need to work on, as well as to Worship leaders who are actively trying to recruit new musicians, because potential candidates would want to know what is expected of them before they subject their music skills to scrutiny.

But YOU can just email me about what skills you are gonna need at which level and I can give YOU an answer straight away. And if you are actively taking lessons from me I’ll tell you what else you’re gonna need to be ready.

And by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it yet, after you start playing for worship, that’s when we can start moving on to the REAL training. Not that you’ve not been receiving real training from me before, but everything I share suddenly seems to take a deeper share of meaning.

Those of you who are actively serving in worship right now, whether at a cell group/small group level or for church services will understand what I mean.

Pray about the question I shared from King David “who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?” May you be in that number, and experience the exciting and blessed journey that such a decision will bring.

Be blessed!

The Power of Encouragement

KK: “You know, JJ, you really ought to turn up for this Tuesday Group meeting I’ve been telling you about.”

JJ: “uh-huh…”

KK: “Yeah, one thing about the people there, when it comes to worship, they want the real thing. And that is what I know you can bring them.”

I was in Kenneth Koh’s car when we had this conversation. (If you are familiar with the people from the Tuesday Group, you know that this is the Kenneth who would NEVER be accused of having long, greasy hair).

At that point of time in my life, I was tired and weary, feeling quite hard-pressed on every side. I had gone 2 years in the wilderness, worn-out even at the thought of returning back to the worship scene.

The last thing I wanted to think about was any form of worship ministry whatsoever.

Did I lose my anointing during that period? Hardly. There were occasions when I led worship for a small group here and there, and ALWAYS received rave reviews. But I was settled in my thinking, comfortable with things exactly the way they were.

Hebrews 3:13 “…encourage each other daily, while it is called “Today”, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin – harmatia, Strong’s #266: Missing the mark.

That was what happened to me. I was hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, of falling short of what God intends. Nobody could say that I was doing anything wrong (playing in pubs, teaching classical piano, doing training here and there), but I fell short of pursuing the ministry that God called me to, to lead worship AND teach others to do the same.

So what broke the hardening of my heart? Encouragement.

Looking back, I see now how God orchestrated opportunities for me to receive encouragement. Snatches of conversations with other people, culminating in that turning point in Kenneth Koh’s car, finally broke all the hardness of heart I had when it came to worship ministry and pursuing the calling of God in my life.

As a side point, it was most likely the overwhelming flood of DIS-couragement that caused me to finally burn out two years before and leave the ministry. Hmmm….

Now, I could have chosen to not listen to Kenneth Koh at that time. I could have used all the excuses I used before to keep things exactly the way they were.

“You don’t understand.” “You don’t know what it’s like.”

I used to think that the only people who could tell me what to do were those who had gone through exactly what I had gone through. That was a deadly mistake.

Proverbs 14:10 “The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.”

Being totally logical, the only people who will know exactly what I’ve gone through are those who have gone through ALL the experiences that have shaped me as a person, and in exactly the same way and is NOW facing the identical situation I am facing now.

Now that just ain’t gonna happen. And if by some supernatural miracle I meet such a person, all that shows is that this person isn’t any smarter than I am, or he won’t end up with exactly the same problems as I have. “If the blind leads the blind…”

Can you imagine a person undergoing a heart attack insisting that he will receive CPR ONLY from a person who has experienced a heart attack before, because only such a person will know what it’s like to have a heart attack? Does a person HAVE to undergo a heart attack before he/she knows how to administer CPR?

There was once when I was fellowshipping with this sister from Tuesday Group. And she told me that the way I spoke of my wife at that time was wrong.

If I wasn’t teachable, I could have said “you don’t understand, you don’t know what it’s like…”

And why should I listen to her? She wasn’t me, married to my wife, undergoing all the same experiences I went through. So of course she wouldn’t know what it was like.

She was no relationship expert, I mean, she wasn’t a trained psychologist or counselor.To top it all off, she herself was emotionally volatile, and had problems relating with her own mother. She didn’t even show much fruit in this area of her life. Who was she to tell me I was wrong?

But at that moment she spoke forth the wisdom of God. I could take refuge in my excuses, or I could take heed to the wisdom of God in her words. I chose to take the wisdom of God to heart.

I share the above story not to boast of how smart I am, but to show you the excuses and self-deception that can take place when a person is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I did the right thing that time. Only God knows how many times I flopped all the times before.

So when you take that step of obedience, seek out that sibling in Christ that God has laid in your heart and begin to encourage him/her to rise up to his/her calling and high destiny in Christ, don’t be surprised or disappointed if you don’t meet with an immediately enthusiastic response. Or you run into the same excuses I used myself.

Just recognize that your encouragement is a powerful force, and it is the weapon God has ordained to overcome the deceitfulness of falling-short. Use it, as we are taught in God’s word. Remember, in due time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up!

Prayer time: Pray with me that I will hear God clearly as I continue to refine and tweak my marketing efforts. I am looking at a large change in my ministry, and I need wisdom to handle all the details.

Be blessed!

The Fear of Man

Vincent Kwok and I had just finished a band practice and were hungry. (not surprised, right?)

So we headed off to Plaza Singapura for food and as usual I began telling him my ah-peh stories. Somehow the topic turned to my wilderness years, the 2 years I went way out to avoid anything to do with a worship ministry.

And Vincent asked the logical question: Why did I do that?

Simply put, I was in a setting where I HAD to please everybody.
People, verily, I kiddeth thee not. And it was not unspoken rule or unstated assumption. I was explicitly told by my superior that I HAD to please everybody. He said that HE did it and therefore I could do it.

And I accepted that.

And set out to please everybody.

Needless to say, it was a dismal failure. First, I am NOT the sort of person who does that. God didn’t make me that way.

Then as I tried harder and harder to do so and failed, I prayed for God’s help. He didn’t help me. And I got unhappy with him over that. (Yeah, people, I am being very open with you here).

Looking back, it’s funny that I’d even dare to ask God to make me even more of what I am not and blame him when he didn’t. But it wasn’t funny then. And that was how I got burned out, frustrated and bitter with people and God.

Please don’t walk that path.

“The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” (Proverbs 29:25, NKJV)

I wish I remembered this verse during that season. It would have greatly sustained me and kept me from being bothered by the dislike of the minority.

1 Timothy 6:9 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare…” (NKJV)

What I have discovered to that the fear of man is very closely linked with the love of money. It makes sense, if you stop and think about it. After all, money is powerful, but it only gives us power over other men. Try using money to bribe an attack dog to leave you alone. Doesn’t work, trust me.

So if you fear man and feel powerless to affect other people, it is very easy to fall into the love of money to try and gain influence over others. It doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough.

Likewise, if you are greedy for money, it’s very easy to feel into the fear of man, because you feel compelled to please your customers (and you start to see everyone as only a customer, rather than a sibling-in-Christ).

So how do we keep ourselves far from this snare? Trust in the LORD and you shall be safe.

If you feel that you MUST please man, and find that you are deeply affected when people dislike you, it means that you have insufficient trust in God. And you can grow to trust God not by beating yourself over the head with it, but by growing to know more about him through his word.

Psalm 9:10 “…those who know Your Name will put their trust in You, for You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” (NKJV)

“The LORD is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6, NKJV)

Now you people know that I am not talking about being rude and offensive to other people. I am talking about what happens within you when you face rejection or when people dislike you. I am talking about what happens when you gotta address an issue and you are tempted to compromise or ignore the issue because you are afraid that people won’t like you after that. (like me talking about worship conferences and seminars)

I’m only human, of course I want people to like me. But I want them to like the REAL me, not some fake, sanitized, dismembered, politically correct semblance of me. “Any resemblance to the real JJ is purely coincidental”.

And that is why I am so frank in all my emails and conversations with you people. I am giving you the room to decide if you like the real me or not. And if you don’t, well, I’d rather you dislike the real me rather than like a fake me. Get it?

Paul said “… we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives…” (1 Thessalonians 2:8, NKJV)

Why did he say that? Because the gospel of God permeated his whole life, affecting him in all he did, said and thought. Therefore it was impossible for Paul to impart the gospel without imparting the rest of his life too.

And likewise for me. I cannot divorce what I teach you about worship from the rest of my life, so it becomes such that like Paul I’ll impart worship to you together with my own life as well.

Yeah, it makes me vulnerable. Like it did for Paul. It leaves me open for rejection. Like it did for Paul. It doesn’t make business sense, because I am reducing the potential customers I can have because there’s more room for people to be offended or dislike me.

But it’s how God has made me to minister to you. It’s one of those things that I am here to do, to say things that need to be said.

Ok, I’ve gone on long enough about how I got burned out and into the wilderness. Next time I’ll share about how God brought me out. Stay tuned!

Prayer time: Looking at this issue made me realize how much I have been blessed by you, by the love and acceptance you people have shown me. I thank God for you people. You have been a blessing to me. Thank you!

Pray for me that I will continue to trust in God and be kept from the fear of man, so that I will not be tempted to compromise on the message God has entrusted to me for you. Thanks!

Conference Complacency and Seminar Shudders

I get this question ALL the time. "Do you know that (XXX) is coming to Singapore? Are you going for the seminar/workshop/clinic/worship session (XXX) is holding?"

I know this is gonna ruffle a few feathers, but in all my years of serving in the music ministry and having been sent to all these events countless times, I've NEVER been to one that was worth my time.

And what's my criteria for that? Well something is a waste of my time if it doesn't give me something tangible and concrete that I can use in ministry within the next 3 weeks. And no matter who taught in all those I attended, NO ONE has ever given me something that I could use within 3 weeks.

I can feel the temperature rising in here…
And don't get me started on all the vocal or instrumental clinics and workshops that usually follow.

What usually happens is that whoever is holding that workshop has no idea of what to teach the people, so in an attempt to say something that is appropriate for everyone, they end up with what's not useful for anyone.

And because of the low price of these instrument workshops, they usually attract a number of absolute beginners, dabblers who have not made the quality decision to be equipped in that particular instrument.

And so whoever is running that workshop feels obligated to cater to those people and give those people information they can get by going to Yahoo or Google and doing a search.

That of course makes the workshop even more irrelevant to those with a certain degree of skill, and so those with a certain degree of skill end up NOT going to such workshops. And so the proportion of dabblers attending those workshops increases, and thus the gradual and inevitable lowering of the skill level of what gets taught in those events.

Imagine the frustration I felt. I went for all these events hoping to get something that I couldn't get from the other musicians in my church and ended up with info I knew before even playing for church. What on earth was I doing there? I mean, other than wasting my time?

To all the dabblers out there, I say this: stop dabbling. Get REAL. Go join a REAL class. Pay REAL money and make a REAL commitment to equipping yourself for the music ministry. Why pay that few dollars to get what you can get free-of-charge from Yahoo? For the sake of the company and opportunity to socialize with other dabblers?

"He who walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of dabblers…" (Nevermind. You figure that out for yourself)

Why then do people still religiously go for such events?
Well, there are two sorts of people who go for such events. The first sort is made up of those who have made a quality decision to be equipped for ministry. They are actively going for regular classes or are being closely mentored, or both. And they attend such events to get inspiration.

I salute these people. They take concrete action AND have people monitoring their progress. These are the people who will count for the Kingdom of God.

Now, it's the second sort that will be really uncomfortable with this email by now. They attend such events simply because there is no follow-up. No accountability. If you're attending a class, the next lesson the instructor's gonna ask you "Did you practice what I showed you last time?" It's this accountability that leads to growth.

Such accountability and follow-up doesn't usually happen when it comes to worship seminars or the instrument workshop that goes along with it. So those who want to feel like they're growing but are not committed to the effort that brings about REAL growth are perfectly comfortable with such an arrangement.

Now I can't change everything that occurs in this area. And there are probably many who don't want me to.

But if YOU are a frustrated keyboardist with a certain degree of skill and training, and you still want more, and if you have genuine reasons why you can't commit to regular lessons with a good instructor (money issues, a job with shift-work) then I want to help you.

And this is my offer
I play for services at The Living Faith Church (www.thelivingfaith.org) on Monday evenings. Turn up for the worship and listen to what I play.

And if you like what I play and want to play that, email me with your questions. I'll give you a FREE email consultation with me on what I played and why. Email me at jvworship@gmail.com with your questions and I'll give you that free consultation.

Why should I do that, when I can charge you good money for the information? It's simple. If you are serious enough about being equipped for ministry that you'd turn up for a service, pay attention and ask good questions, you deserve that free email consultation, in my eyes.

If you're serious about the worship ministry, I'm serious about helping you.
Yes, there are many things that I can't explain over email. But I believe that if my playing resonates with you and you show God that you're faithful with what the little I can impart to you through my playing and my email, God will provide you the finances and open the way for you to have one-on-one lessons with me.

Of course, I'd like to expand this invitation to guitar and drums as well, but the fact is that I am not ministering with those instruments regularly, so I can't make such an offer for those instruments.

Anyway, my keyboard invitation is open to all. Whether you are currently a keyboard student of mine or not, or even if you've never had any formal lesson with me before in any instrument, you are welcome to take advantage of this offer. Just send me an email to tell me who you are, where you're from and when you'll be turning up, and we'll see what we can arrange from there, OK?

I know this is a crazy offer, and probably unwise too, from a business point of view. But well, in this case I've chosen to be a fool for Christ. (and not the first time either)

Prayer time: I am recovering well. Thanks for your prayers. Gradually getting back into the swing of life again. Pray for God's blessing to be strong upon the drum classes especially during this season, because it's about time for me to tie everything together so that the students can see the whole big picture of the skill and art of playing drums for worship. Thanks, everyone!

Be blessed!

What is that in your hand?

So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground,” (Exodus 4:2-3, NKJV)

What a week!

I just poured out my heart trying to get my website up, so that people can find out easily what training I provide.

And to top it all off, I fell sick earlier this week. Those of you who have met me or had lessons with me this week know that now my voice is good for doing Elvis imitations and very little else.

I actually wanted to talk about something else this week, but finishing up my website just triggered off something else in me, so I decided to just flow with that a bit.

When I clicked through my website and read through my text again, I realized the depth and breath of worship-related info and experience I have. Reading my descriptions gave me a somewhat surreal feeling, as if it was not possible for a person to accumulate that much skill and knowledge within a short period of time.

So that got me thinking. How did I ever get it? And how can you get it too?

First, you need to realize that the raw materials you need got whatever ministry you are called for are already in you.

Remember Moses? We tend to look at his calling and his ministry, but forget that his rod, a humble piece of wood, was the instrument he had in his hand at the moment God called. That was the same rod he bashed a few serpent’s heads’ with, brandished in the air to frighten off wolves, and used to poke straying sheep back in line.

I don’t know about you, but if I were Moses and knew that God wanted to use MY rod to do miracles, I’d get a new one, polish it, engrave some cool logo on it (together with my mission statement, website address and contact info) and then present it to God, fully expecting God to be impressed.

Didn’t happen that way.

Yes, I know that we’ll always have to upgrade our skills, strive for excellence and all that. But we have to remember that we do all that with the rod that is already in our hands. That rod which is mundane and normal to us, which we use to get through life, the rod which we most likely despise (make light of)

And that is what I’d like to bring up with you now.

What is that you have in your hand?

It can be just your physical body, your better-than average intellect, your money, your experience with computers, sports or music (as in my case).

Or if you despise all that, then how about your time?

Consider this: if you took 3 years to attend a tae-kwon-do class every week you’d get a black belt by then.

If you read a new chapter of the Bible everyday for three years (15 minutes a day) you’d have finished reading the whole Bible, New AND Old Testament.

If you choose to study one book of the Bible in some depth each month, you’d finish the whole Bible in 5 years. (If you start from Genesis, Obadiah, Haggai, 2 John and 3 John won’t take you a whole month each, trust me).

And you’d have a grasp of Scripture that many people I’ve met don’t have. How about using that to start ministering to God’s people?

Now when you take the rod in your hand and cast it down on holy ground, what’s gonna happen?

That’s right! Just like Moses, it’s gonna become a serpent!

You’re gonna see the evil within your gift. I never knew the dangers and character challengers of a worship ministry until I cast my gifting on the ground. I discovered things within myself that I never knew, none of which I was proud of.

And when that happens to you, you have two choices.

You can run away. “I need to get my heart right” “I need to deal with my inner pride” (makes you sound humble, thus feeding your pride even more) or “I want to serve God for the right reasons” or other religious excuses are perfect for this. Your church leaders will be impressed (I won’t) but at the root of it all you are running away.

Or you can do what God told Moses, which is to stay there, reach out your hand (“Won’t the serpent bite me?”) and grab the serpent by the tail.

And when you do that, you’re saying to God “I can’t take care of the head. YOU take care of it!”

And it will become a rod again. But this time, it’s one that you have seen become a serpent. You know that it’s poisonous, capable of great evil, and that it’s now a rod, an instrument of God’s work and miracle-power, by God’s grace and his grace alone.

When you step forth into whatever ministry you are called for, that God has purposed for you, you begin to live life in such an exciting and fulfilling way, that you’re gonna wonder why on earth you took so long to get started.

So get started!

Prayer time: Well, pray for me that I’ll recover even faster than this. Taking this enforced rest period (“huh? You call this rest?”) to wait upon God even more than usual. Pray with me, that I may hear God clearly concerning details in my life direction. Thanks, everyone!

You Gotta Sing!

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12, NIV)

Those of you who know me longer know that I am driven by dissatisfaction.I can only tolerate staring a problem in the face for how long before I end up compelled to do something about it.

Even in my emails about the drums, guitar and the keyboard teaching that I am doing, you can tell that I get involved with a particular field only if I believe that there are no viable alternatives to what I offer, or there are sufficient problems with what else is available. I rant a lot.

So I'm gonna rant about another topic, vitally important for worship musicians to understand.

You gotta sing!
As I said in my guitar course email, too often we have worship courses created by musicians with musicians in mind. They play Christian music for Christian gatherings and teach others to do the same. The unspoken emphasis is on good music, not on what works for worship.

I remember a conversation I had with one such person. Aw man, he was talented. If you think I'm good, you should have seen him, in raw music skill he had me choking in the dust.

The conversation went something like this:

Him: "Why don't we do THIS chord here instead of that one?"

JJ: "because it clashes with what the worshippers are singing."

Him: "But it sounds richer harmonically."

JJ: "Yes, but it clashes with what the worshippers are singing."

Him: "But it's musically more interesting."

JJ: "Yes, but it clashes with what the worshippers are singing."

Him: "The chord you want here is so conventional and boring. Everyone does that chord."

JJ: "Yes, but it fits in with what the worshippers are singing."

You can guess how the rest of the conversation went. In the end I gave up, and spent my time praying that nobody I taught would ever look at the chord sheet and ask "JJ, why is THIS chord here? Wouldn't it clash with the singing?" I probably would have burst an artery.

God is merciful. Enough said.
Now that you are in the habit of listening, take things a step further and sing, to see if what you play fits with what the worshippers are singing.

Because that's what we are counting on worship musicians to do. In the years before we started to understand music and how to play for worship, we assumed that the musicians would choose chords based on what would support our worship of God, not what tickled their ears musically.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

Since this is what we wanted musicians to do, this is what we ought to do ourselves. Please, guys, before you get seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, please remember that serving the cell group or congregation is the reason why we minister as worship musicians. Decide everything,
from the key you use for the song to how hard you whack the hi-hat cymbal, based on what enhances the worship for the people of God.

"Test everything, hold fast to what is good…" (1 Thess 5:21)

And the way to really check if what we want to play supports the worshippers' singing is to sing. You wouldn't believe how many musical problems would have been solved if the musicians took the effort to sing along with what they wanted to play in the first place, to see if it fits.

In worship I'd rather you play music that bores you stiff than music that distracts the people in any way.

Now, before those of you who haven't heard me play jump to conclusions and think that I am one of those anti-skill advocates in the worship arena, some of my more advanced students (Dynamic Devotions) have seen me spend ONE HOUR explaining the chord variations to "I Worship You, Almighty God" that fit into the singing.

And I wouldn't have discovered all of them if not for me singing and listening to both the singing and the chords I was playing.

Think about it. If it takes one hour to explain the variations that can arise from "I Worship You, Almighty God", that means that the chord variations do have depth. They effectively add fresh color to the same song and yet do not distract from the worship.

So take the time to sing and listen to what comes out. For those of you who are actively taking lessons from me, you warm my heart when you show me the stuff you discover by yourself by testing your music choices by singing along with what you play.

More than anything else, this joy of seeing you grow is what drives me on in my teaching efforts.

Be blessed!

Who's the mediator?

It never offended me before, but it did now.
I was having a conversation with one of my students, a lady in my Dynamic Devotions Course.
(In case you don't know, Dynamic Devotions is the course I conduct for keyboardists already serving in church and want advanced training in playing keyboards for worship. I cover the subtle details that many musicians miss, details that vastly enhance the worship experience of the congregation. This course also builds them up to the level where they can play the piano prophetically, that is, play down the presence and glory of God through the piano. Think of it as a black belt worship keyboardist class…)
This lady said "In order to lead the people into the presence of God, I HAVE to be close to God. How can I bring them to intimacy with God if I myself am not intimate with God?"
And if YOU believe that, brace yourself. And read what I have to say.
If you HAVE to be intimate with God in order to lead people to that point, you're saying that if you are not, the people CAN'T be intimate with God. You are setting yourself up as the mediator between God and man.
Well, in 1 Timothy 2:5 says "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…"
And when I lead worship, especially for Tuesday Group, I am so conscious of Christ Jesus in every believer present. If for some reason I am not living in the truth of Christ's mediation for me, there are so many others who can be that link, that mediator, that I can be touched by God, be closely embraced by God and be blessed.
That's why I LOVE to lead worship for Tuesday Group, by the way. :) There are so many people there who live in the truth of Christ in them, that at anytime they carry within their bodies the very one who connects God with everyone around them. No wonder the worship at each meeting is so powerful!
Now why then, doesn't that link, that divine connection, occur more often when people worship God? Couple of reasons.
First, there are too few people who truly understand true worship leading, how to really lead worship. They've been given cliches such as "You worship God and the rest of the people will follow." They do what they've been told works by people who can't consistently make it work. And wonder why what they do falls flat.
Second, many people neutralize the Christ in them, making him of no effect. In Galatians 5:4 "You who are trying to be justified (made right, be in right standing) by the law have been alienated from Christ…"
You can tell me all the doctrinal truths you subscribe to, Justification by Faith, Salvation by Grace and all that. All I want to know is this: when you have to meet God face to face, what are you counting on? Are you counting on you doing the right things? Or on Christ having already given himself as a ransom for you, making you good enough?
And let's take this verse a little further.
Mark 12:29-31 "The most important one, Jesus answered, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second one is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these."
Since in this passage, Jesus himself said that loving God and your neighbor is considered the law. When you face God, are you able to stand before him with confidence because you love him and your fellow man? Or because he has loved you? When you are counting on you loving God and your neighbor (fulfilling the summary of the law) to be in right standing before God, Christ (the anointed one, the mediator between God and man) is made of no effect to you.
As I said, don't tell me your doctrine. Tell me what really happens within you when you step up in front of the congregation after you've just quarreled with your spouse, yelled at your kids, shook your fist at the person who snatched that last parking lot from you (and realized that's your pastor!)
I personally believe God allows all these things to arise before we lead worship so that we can go back to square one and say "God, it's still ALL about your grace, sufficient for me, your strength made perfect in my weakness."
Before I get flamed by the people who are offended by what I say here, let me make this crystal clear.
I believe in intimacy with God. Really.
But I crave that intimacy with God not for the sake of the people I serve, but for my own sake. I know by now that I am a wineskin for God's people. My experience, my understanding, my deep knowledge of how to lead worship, my music skill and even all my anointing makes me an excellent wineskin. I am one of the best wineskins I know.
But I am nothing without the wine of God. Do you get it?
And that is what's on my mind every time before I lead worship, play for worship or even teach worship. God, give me (or us) the fresh wine!
My intimacy with God tells me one thing: God wants to be with his people and bless them because he loves them. My time with God tells me that I lead worship well not because of my time with God, but that he wants to spend time with us, with his beloved and precious people.
And he does, because someone in the whole group (not necessarily me) has the faith to believe that Christ, the connecting link between God and man, dwells within him or her. And God shows up.
So, worshippers of Jesus Christ, do give thought on what I share here. I'm pouring out my heart to you, hoping that somehow or other God will use my words to speak to you, that you may be blessed.
Prayer time: Thank God! The arrangements for the beginner guitar course are blessed! We are making my Core Concepts for Worship an integral part of the course, as well as teaching some things about how to effectively lead worship. Pray that God will bless us and expand our territory.
And help us ask your close friends and ministry leaders this question: if I were to take all my teaching on how to lead worship and make it a separate course by itself, would they be interested? Ask them to email their thoughts, comments and questions to me at jvworship@gmail.com.
Thanks! Be blessed!