Kung-Fu Movies and Worship Ministry

I have a confession to make.

I watched loads and loads of kung-fu movies when I was a kid.

Looking back, I wonder why I ever wasted my time with those movies.

The story lines were ALWAYS the same. The hero gets the EXCUSE (revenge, usually) to try to beat up the bad guy, always gets beaten because the bad guy is too tough, then finds the MASTER and learns the SECRET to kung-fu success, then always finally beats the bad guy.

The EXCUSE and the SECRET changes, but otherwise the movies stay the same...

I guess what I enjoyed most were the scenes of the Master training the hero in the basics first. The hero would ALWAYS have to prove himself with the basics to convince the Master to teach him the secret. And the training in the basics was always brutal, strict and exaggerated for dramatic effect.

What else do you expect from a movie, right?

What about the Worship Ministry?

I said before that God looks for the right people and puts them at the right place to do His supernatural work. And this leads to the question: how shall we know if someone is the right person for a particular work?

We look for the basics. If the person wants to play an instrument for worship, they need to have at least a basic grasp of the fundamentals of that instrument. If someone wants to sing, they need to know how to sing, breathe correctly and sing in tune consistently. These are basics.

Just like Jesus sent Peter, a fisherman, to go fish for the temple tax money (Matt 17:27).

If you are the one auditioning the musicians or singers, don't get taken in by people who tell you how passionate they are about serving God in the worship ministry, or how dedicated and sincere they will be. Someone may say "What if the person has the heart for the ministry but doesn't have the skill yet?" If the person is passionate, dedicated and sincere, they WILL give be willing to train for 6-12 months (or more, if necessary) to be ready to serve.

After all, the Bible did say that those who want to serve (deacons) should be tested, right (1 Tim 3:10)? If those people cannot pass the test of learning some music skill, which is one of the simplest parts of worship ministry, what makes you think they are that faithful in all the other parts of it?

Don't get me wrong.

I am not a technique freak. In a worship situation I do not believe in technique for technique's sake. You will NEVER hear from me anything about playing what is 'excellent'. All too often I have heard that word misused and misapplied to playing more notes than necessary and being a distraction to the congregation. You WILL hear me talk about playing what works, what is effective, what supports the praises of the people, rather than what distracts.

And even though that is easier to do, it does require that your basics be in place.

There are people who think I am being legalistic or too fussy about this. They are not the ones who have to pick up the pieces when an amateur vocalist holding a mike is belting out the songs out-of-tune at the top of his or her voice.

I am.

Those people are not the ones facing angry musicians all frustrated and wanting to quit because of the wannabe drummer playing out of time.

I am.

They are not the ones trying to unify the praises of the people in spite of all the distractions created by worship team members attempting to serve before they are ready.

I am.

I've lost count of how many times church leaders have told me "this brother/sister is passionate about serving in this way, please work with him/her." A quick test reveals that this person does not even have the basics in place, but needs at least 3-6 months of proper lessons, not just worship team practice, to be ready. And when I tell the leaders that, they say "Just work with them doing the practice, it's OK." Oh, please!

So if you want to serve, make sure your basics are in place. If you are the one choosing musicians and vocalists, make sure their basics are there. Please.

Now my book, Invisible Worship Musician, is NOT a book on music basics. You will not get from it stuff like how to form a major chord, how to hold your drumsticks or how to breathe properly for singing. You can get that from many other people, even secular instructors. There is no such thing as a holier C major chord, for example. When it comes to the music basics, we don't have anything that the world does not already have.

My book, however, does teach the basics of worship leading, since there are not many who actually know how to lead worship. I explain how to choose songs and how to use them. I also teach what the musicians ought to do when playing for worship. And the musicians need to know their own instrument basics so they can understand how they ought to apply the basic skills in a worship context.

If you are a musician and you KNOW your basics are not in place but you are already serving in the worship ministry, please address that now. Get music lessons, ask experienced musicians or if you are on my email list, email me about any of the music parts of my book that you do not understand if you cannot find someone to help you with it. I will continue to try and put up videos in myYoutube account demonstrating worship music principles I talk about in my book.

Final Kung-Fu Movie thought

Do you know the biggest difference between what I saw from my childhood kung-fu movies and what I discovered from real life kung-fu practitioners?

The real life ones LOVE the basics. They never get tired of the basics; some even practice all of them daily. You'll never hear from them any desire to skip the basics and find some shortcut to mastery and success.

They have already learned that the basics ARE the shortcut.

He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. (Pro 28:19)

May the Lord himself find us just as serious when it comes to serving his people in the ministry!