Why 14 years?
If you’ve read my promotional materials, you’ll notice that I’d emphasize the fact that I’ve been in the worship ministry for more than 14 years. It’s not having one year’s experience 14 times. The time frame is VERY significant, as you’ll understand if you’ve been around the scene long enough or if you know the history of the worship scene. That’s what I’ll be explaining in this post.
As I said before, around the mid 90’s the floodgates of worship chaos were unleashed upon Singapore. The full effects began to really kick in about the late 90’s or so. (So far my research suggests that it was a worldwide phenomenon). Despite being a believer for more than 23 years by now, I only started regularly attending church from 1992 onwards. This meant that I had firsthand experience in the worship scene before AND after the changes.
Was there no performance music in church before? Of course there was! But it didn’t take centre stage as much as it did later. There were worship leaders who did worship albums that had SOME performance-type songs, but the majority of what they did was usable in church. At that time CCM (contemporary Christian Music) was beginning to rise in prominence (remember Jars of Clay, anyone?) and the music of CCM was NOT used in congregational worship.
What laid the groundwork for all the later confusion was the fact that even though worship music was more common during that season, no one clearly defined what made up worship music (in fact, as far as I know, I am the first person in the worship scene to seriously expound on the topic). That was okay then because we didn’t really have to choose between using worship music or performance music for worship at church at that time.
But when performance music hit the scene in a massive way we had a correspondingly massive problem. People couldn’t agree on whether it was just a new style which needed getting used to, or if there was something that just wasn’t right. In general the musicians and the younger people welcomed the shift (“what’s wrong with good music?”) while the more conservative people (the elders and deacons) weren’t too sure.
Some of them wanted to give the new music a chance, just as they gave the modern worship format a chance when it first started. Others felt that there was something wrong but couldn’t give any objective reasons for it. And so the musicians and the youth ignored their reservations and objections and happily embraced the new sound. And so it spread.
To top it all off, some of what came out in that time COULD still be used for church worship. If you had a continuum with pure worship music at one end and pure performance music at the other, what came out in that period of time was just slightly past the midpoint of the line. It could still work, but required more effort. Then as time passed the songs went more and more towards the performance end of the line.
Now if the elders, deacons and other conservatives at that time said “All this is great to listen to, but difficult for most people to sing in church, so just listen to the CDs but not try it in church”, who knows how the worship scene in Singapore (and everywhere else in the world) might have developed? Too bad, that didn’t happen. So as the new stuff grew in popularity, those with objections or concerns found themselves more and more in the sidelines, marginalized and ignored.
I started training people in worship music during the season when the tides started changing. You can guess how confusing it was for me. Just when I thought I had the rules all figured out, the game started changing. New songs started growing in popularity, and they presented a problem for me when doing training.
Try to imagine what it was like. I was teaching the elements of worship music using worship songs as examples, and because the number of new songs popular in church grew suddenly my song selection became more and more retro in the eyes of the students. Of course I wanted to use the newer songs, but I soon found that those new songs didn’t work that well for teaching the elements of worship music unless they were dumbed down considerably, and the musician in me resisted that.
Add to the mix the fact that some of those songs really needed tweaking (or a massive overhaul) to make them work at church level (I mentioned a few such songs in my chapter on Worship Music 101) you ended up with the dilemma of giving the customers what they hear from the CD (what they wanted, what they thought was worship music) or giving them what would work when they actually used those songs themselves. It was a tough situation. People were paying you to teach them what they wanted. But what if what they thought you should do is different from what they wanted? And you couldn’t explain why?
I know I come down hard on Praise and Worship Inc. (in my book, in this blog and every other chance I get), but I did have firsthand experience in trying to make a living in the Praise and Worship business. I know firsthand what it was like to TRY to balance out my ideals as a musician and worship trainer with the pressure of having my first son on the way, loads of stuff to buy, bills and mortgages to pay. And what made it more difficult for me was that I didn’t understand what was happening in the scene. It’s so much easier to make sense of the whole thing now after a few years have passed.
God’s timing is still the best. If I knew then what I knew now would I have made a significant difference? Don’t think so. Why? Because people would still want to try out performance music anyway. And it would take years for the whole thing to run its course and for people to realize that it’s not bearing fruit. I think the season for effective worship ministry and genuine worship music has pretty much arrived. And my book’s release is a key part of that, because it explains in a step-by-step, logical format what worship music is and why it works.
Of course in the course of my journey there were funny moments as well. There were times when I’d have to lead worship, draw up a song sheet with my ‘retro’ selection, and have people say it was boring. Then I’d lead worship and everyone would encounter God in a powerful way, then I’ll be seen as a great worship leader because I could work wonders with ‘boring’ songs. Hmmm, if I had to choose between interesting songs that don’t work or boring songs that work I’d take the boring songs any day. Not a difficult choice, right?
So that’s my take on the 14 years in worship ministry. Some of you have been in church for as long as me (or even longer). Or maybe you have your own experience and opinion on the way things changed and what it meant. If my sharing of my own thoughts and opinions has triggered off your own thoughts and recollections as well, I’d love to hear from you. Do email me what you have to share!
That’s all for now. In my next post I’ll share with you all an email I received a couple of days ago and how I replied to it. I promise you that you’ll find it interesting (the offensive, non-politically-correct, JJ kind of interesting). In the meantime, be blessed!
Junjie
If you’ve read my promotional materials, you’ll notice that I’d emphasize the fact that I’ve been in the worship ministry for more than 14 years. It’s not having one year’s experience 14 times. The time frame is VERY significant, as you’ll understand if you’ve been around the scene long enough or if you know the history of the worship scene. That’s what I’ll be explaining in this post.
As I said before, around the mid 90’s the floodgates of worship chaos were unleashed upon Singapore. The full effects began to really kick in about the late 90’s or so. (So far my research suggests that it was a worldwide phenomenon). Despite being a believer for more than 23 years by now, I only started regularly attending church from 1992 onwards. This meant that I had firsthand experience in the worship scene before AND after the changes.
Was there no performance music in church before? Of course there was! But it didn’t take centre stage as much as it did later. There were worship leaders who did worship albums that had SOME performance-type songs, but the majority of what they did was usable in church. At that time CCM (contemporary Christian Music) was beginning to rise in prominence (remember Jars of Clay, anyone?) and the music of CCM was NOT used in congregational worship.
What laid the groundwork for all the later confusion was the fact that even though worship music was more common during that season, no one clearly defined what made up worship music (in fact, as far as I know, I am the first person in the worship scene to seriously expound on the topic). That was okay then because we didn’t really have to choose between using worship music or performance music for worship at church at that time.
But when performance music hit the scene in a massive way we had a correspondingly massive problem. People couldn’t agree on whether it was just a new style which needed getting used to, or if there was something that just wasn’t right. In general the musicians and the younger people welcomed the shift (“what’s wrong with good music?”) while the more conservative people (the elders and deacons) weren’t too sure.
Some of them wanted to give the new music a chance, just as they gave the modern worship format a chance when it first started. Others felt that there was something wrong but couldn’t give any objective reasons for it. And so the musicians and the youth ignored their reservations and objections and happily embraced the new sound. And so it spread.
To top it all off, some of what came out in that time COULD still be used for church worship. If you had a continuum with pure worship music at one end and pure performance music at the other, what came out in that period of time was just slightly past the midpoint of the line. It could still work, but required more effort. Then as time passed the songs went more and more towards the performance end of the line.
Now if the elders, deacons and other conservatives at that time said “All this is great to listen to, but difficult for most people to sing in church, so just listen to the CDs but not try it in church”, who knows how the worship scene in Singapore (and everywhere else in the world) might have developed? Too bad, that didn’t happen. So as the new stuff grew in popularity, those with objections or concerns found themselves more and more in the sidelines, marginalized and ignored.
I started training people in worship music during the season when the tides started changing. You can guess how confusing it was for me. Just when I thought I had the rules all figured out, the game started changing. New songs started growing in popularity, and they presented a problem for me when doing training.
Try to imagine what it was like. I was teaching the elements of worship music using worship songs as examples, and because the number of new songs popular in church grew suddenly my song selection became more and more retro in the eyes of the students. Of course I wanted to use the newer songs, but I soon found that those new songs didn’t work that well for teaching the elements of worship music unless they were dumbed down considerably, and the musician in me resisted that.
Add to the mix the fact that some of those songs really needed tweaking (or a massive overhaul) to make them work at church level (I mentioned a few such songs in my chapter on Worship Music 101) you ended up with the dilemma of giving the customers what they hear from the CD (what they wanted, what they thought was worship music) or giving them what would work when they actually used those songs themselves. It was a tough situation. People were paying you to teach them what they wanted. But what if what they thought you should do is different from what they wanted? And you couldn’t explain why?
I know I come down hard on Praise and Worship Inc. (in my book, in this blog and every other chance I get), but I did have firsthand experience in trying to make a living in the Praise and Worship business. I know firsthand what it was like to TRY to balance out my ideals as a musician and worship trainer with the pressure of having my first son on the way, loads of stuff to buy, bills and mortgages to pay. And what made it more difficult for me was that I didn’t understand what was happening in the scene. It’s so much easier to make sense of the whole thing now after a few years have passed.
God’s timing is still the best. If I knew then what I knew now would I have made a significant difference? Don’t think so. Why? Because people would still want to try out performance music anyway. And it would take years for the whole thing to run its course and for people to realize that it’s not bearing fruit. I think the season for effective worship ministry and genuine worship music has pretty much arrived. And my book’s release is a key part of that, because it explains in a step-by-step, logical format what worship music is and why it works.
Of course in the course of my journey there were funny moments as well. There were times when I’d have to lead worship, draw up a song sheet with my ‘retro’ selection, and have people say it was boring. Then I’d lead worship and everyone would encounter God in a powerful way, then I’ll be seen as a great worship leader because I could work wonders with ‘boring’ songs. Hmmm, if I had to choose between interesting songs that don’t work or boring songs that work I’d take the boring songs any day. Not a difficult choice, right?
So that’s my take on the 14 years in worship ministry. Some of you have been in church for as long as me (or even longer). Or maybe you have your own experience and opinion on the way things changed and what it meant. If my sharing of my own thoughts and opinions has triggered off your own thoughts and recollections as well, I’d love to hear from you. Do email me what you have to share!
That’s all for now. In my next post I’ll share with you all an email I received a couple of days ago and how I replied to it. I promise you that you’ll find it interesting (the offensive, non-politically-correct, JJ kind of interesting). In the meantime, be blessed!
Junjie
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