Another Source of Worship Ministry Conflicts

Some time back I talked about one of the causes of worship ministry conflicts, people placing different levels of priority on performance and participation. There is actually another cause of conflicts and misunderstanding in worship ministry, and it is how we see worship ministry through the eyes of our own personal giftings.

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) - Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

What usually happens is that people will tend to fellowship with others with the same gifting. Teachers will enjoy hanging out with other teachers, prophets with other prophets and so on. This is how they develop themselves to be even stronger and effective in that particular area. The problems arise when they assume that they are the only ones who are right and the others are wrong. And THAT can lead to massive conflicts, strife and even people leaving the ministry.

Let's see how it works out in the following scenarios

1) Choosing songs for a worship set –

If you are a teacher, you'll probably prefer songs that are Scripture set to music and those that have solid lyrical content (like hymns). If you are an evangelist, you might prefer invitation-type songs such as So You Would Come (Hillsongs). If you are more prophetically inclined, you may prefer songs that are more figurative, poetic or symbolic, such as Dance with Me by Jesus Culture.

You can already see from here how conflicts can arise. Not many people are at the level of maturity when they can see the differences how other people approach worship ministry and celebrate them.

2) And how about worship music?

An evangelist will prefer what appeals to the pre-believers, exciting, performance-style music. Why? Because it is more likely to bring in the crowds for him or her to preach to. A prophet will prefer more a repetitive, droning style of music. A teacher will prefer more laid-back, unobtrusive musical accompaniment that does not distract the people from the lyrical content.

3) What if the church is spiritually dead in the area of praise and worship?

A prophet will be more inclined to think finding an anointed worship leader or on-fire worship team to minister to the congregation will work. This is more like the style of Old Testament prophets; they would seek God, speak to God's people to bring them the message on God's heart, and things happen. A teacher will try to get a worship trainer or pastor to teach the congregation. A pastor will be the one who worries about whether there are groups of people within the congregation who are alienated by any changes in the worship ministry or style, because it's unacceptable to him (or her) to rejoice over the 99 sheep who remain and write off the 1 who leaves (Luke 15:3).

Conclusion:

Of course, we know everything isn't that cut and dried in real life. Many church leaders have a mix of giftings. For example, many pastors have the teaching gifting to some degree, in fact, Paul puts it as a requirement (1 Tim 3:2). Timothy was supposed to both teach (1 Tim 4:11) and do the work of an evangelist (2 Tim 4:5). And Peter, in Acts 2:17-18, says:

Acts 2:17-18 (NIV) – "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."

This suggests to me that every believer has the potential to move in the prophetic gifting in some way. By the way, Jack Deere has written a chapter on how the key people in the history of the Presbyterian denomination (such as John Knox) actually moved in the gift of prophecy. It makes an astounding read. It's in his book Surprised by the Voice of God. Do check it out, it's a very good example of how a teacher (Jack Deere) sees the gift of prophecy from a teacher's perspective.

Anyway, many people I have met slant their thinking along one particular gifting, and have the priorities that come with that gifting. So I hope that this post will help you see your own slant and understand the perspectives of those around you, so that we can understand each other better, have less conflict and work together for the glory of God!

Be blessed!

P.S. Jack Deere's book, Surprised by The Voice of God, is a well-thought-out, Scriptural look at how God speaks to his people today. It has my highest recommendation for every believer, especially those who are seriously want to hear the voice of God in their lives and want to avoid the common mistakes. You can get it here!

Bass and Bible Study

(Personal Blog Post)

An unexpected day off. Good, I need the rest as well as some time to chew on what's been happening…

Playing for Sunday service was interesting. The music director took the bass (usually he's on one of the other instruments). You see, there are two sorts of people who play bass, those who really understand harmony and those who don't. Those who don't will play the bass notes they are supposed to, just like what's on the CD or what's written on the chord chart. Those who do may actually change the chords of the song on the fly to better fit the energy of the moment.

That's what the director did on Sunday. For example, one of the songs had a simple F – Bb – C – F progression that came out for both the verses and the chorus. And we knew the worship leader was going to camp on this song quite a bit. So the director did a pedal point thing, playing an F note on the bass throughout the changes, making them:

F – Bb/F – C/F – F

What this does is that it creates a lot of musical tension. People subconsciously expect the bass note to change with the chords, and when the bass note doesn't it creates a sense of building up. If you do something like that, you can actually go back to the original bass line later on in the song (maybe the last chorus, for example) and that would give the song a huge burst of energy.

If you want to be a bassist who can control the music in this fashion, you need to really know the notes of the chords. Like how a C major chord is made up of C, E and G, how a C minor chord is C, Eb and G and all that. You will also need to have a good sense of chord progressions, when a melody line allows for more than one possible set of chords to be used, so you can decide when to change the chords for a better musical effect.

Finally, you need musicians who will keep out of your way. There's no point on the bassist keeping to the F note in the changes, for example, if the pianist will still continue playing the F, Bb and C notes in the lower registers of the piano. That way, you end up with a muddy sound in the bass part of the sound mix. Bad…

If you are a pianist or guitarist in a band with this kind of bassist, you need to listen carefully to the bass at all times to recognize when the bassist is changing the notes. When that happens, keep yourself out of the way! One of the best bassists I know personally once told me that he enjoys having me on the keyboard, not just because of my piano skills, but also because I keep out of his way. Many other keyboardists he plays with don't care, they just happily clutter up the sound trying to play along with the bassist (and messing things up)…

By the way, that bassist was the buddy who helped me to record my Youtube vid on auditioning church pianists . When I talked about keeping out of the way of the bassist, he was giving me two thumbs up from behind the camera. It was only that day, after the video recording, that I found out how other keyboardists bugged him so much!

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Another thing: it's nearing the end of the year now. I started doing inductive Bible study on the books of the New Testament this year. The goal was to cover one book each month, so I am supposed to be done with Colossians by now. But because I got massively distracted a few times this year, I am only up to Ephesians.

Yeah, I set Bible study goals for myself and FAIL too, just like many other believers!

Since I am expecting a bit more free time this December, I'll be able to catch up on the books I need to work on to get myself back on schedule and ready for next year. The key point, however is this: even though I didn't meet up with my own expectations and achieve my own goal for Bible study this year, I still got a lot more Bible study done than I would have if I did not decide to do it.

Yes, I could have still kept on cruising with the way things were last year. I was already spending a lot of time in God's Word even without the inductive study, so I wasn't too shabby. But because I set the goal this year and kept at it most of the time, I put myself in a place where God could reveal to me more and more of himself through his Word. And that's always good!

So if you have been setting goals for yourself and failing, or starting on New Year's Resolutions and quitting them by February, don't lose heart! All you need to do is to make sure that you go further, do more and last longer than the last time you tried. That's called progress, isn't it?

Just Between You And God

I would that every believer sing praises to God daily, not just on Sunday at church.

Psalm 92:1-2 (NKJV) - It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night

And that is why I think it's a joke if someone claims to be serious about being in the worship ministry and yet does not take out time for personal worship moments with God. A person who needs to have good music and an audience before he or she starts singing passionately unto the LORD or dancing around is a hypocrite, in Jesus' opinion.

Matthew 6:1-2 (NIV) - Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

I don't think that Jesus is not talking about total absolute secrecy. If he was, then I'll have to donate things to the Salvation Army collection centres in the middle of the night while wearing a ninja suit. And I'll look really weird when I'm arrested by the police (for suspected burglary or attempted terrorism) and they discover children's clothes and old toys cunningly hidden in secret compartments on my clothes and ninja-utility belt…

I believe Jesus is referring to the heart, to the motive of our giving. Are we fine with people totally forgetting about our giving later on? Or do we need the honour in the eyes of others before we give?

And the same thing applies to prayer (and by implication, worship).

Matthew 6:5-6 (NIV) - And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

In other words, if all you want is the applause of men, then that is ALL you will get. But if you want the reward that comes from your Father in heaven, then you have to be prepared to go without the praise that comes from other people.

The reason why many people do not have a consistent and regular personal prayer and worship time is because it does not always feel good straight away. You have to be prepared for months of not feeling as if you are getting anywhere. And all Jesus would say about it is that the Father, whom we cannot see, will reward us. Yet nothing concrete and tangible is promised as the reward. Is it money? Power to heal the sick and raise the dead? Influence and authority?

Jesus doesn't tell us.

That means that the only people who are going to take Jesus at his word here are those who can 1) See the unseen God through eyes of faith; AND 2) believe that the Father knows best how to reward us for seeking him. And this was the case for Moses. He too saw God and valued the reward he knew God has prepared for those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:26-27 (NIV) He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

Seeking after the honour that comes from men is a lot easier. It's tangible and immediate. Some people are so earthly minded that the tangible and immediate things are good enough for them. So if praying, reading the Bible and worship doesn't feel good immediately, or at least within the first 5-10 minutes, they quit and make excuses for themselves, saying that they are not the spiritual sort.

Let me be blunt here: no one is. No one is born into the Kingdom of God finding all the things of God easy. Sure, we might enjoy prayer, worship, feeding on the Scriptures and other acts of righteousness at first because they are new and exciting to us. But soon, the routine and dryness sets in. That is when we have to make the choice: are we going to seek God only when it feels good? Or we will preserve no matter what, because we have set our hearts and minds on heavenly things (Col 3:1-2)?

It takes conscious decision and deliberate effort. That is why we are told to crave spiritual milk in order that we may grow up in our salvation (1 Pet 2:2). If the Bible tells us to crave spiritual milk, it means that it is not something that we would naturally do as believers. It requires us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2)

You know what I wish?

I wish that I could spur the average believers around me to seek after the things of God more. I wish spiritual hunger was contagious and that I could infect people with it, then they would overflow with the desire and discipline to spend personal time with God. I wish I could make them treasure and experience the relationship and fellowship that is just between them and God, that which no one else can ever fully experience or understand because it is strictly between God and them.

That is why I get so frustrated sometimes, when I meet believers who need to have God dumbed down for them. For them I try to show them how easy it is to get started with prayer and the Word of God. We all have to start somewhere, true. But if we are not growing in our faith, and find ourselves exactly the same place we were spiritually 5-10 years ago, then something has gone wrong somewhere. The writer of the book of Hebrews says:

Heb 6:1 (NIV) - Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity…

Conclusion: I am tempted to end this post with a few how-to-es. How to see the invisible God, how to trust in him to reward us, how to get started in prayer and all that. But I suspect it is not necessary. I suspect that every believer who is honest before God will know how he or she stands spiritually. I believe every believer who is honest with themselves already knows, deep in his or her heart, what God wants him or her to do next and what is the first step. The only question now is: are you going to take that next step forward? Go for it!

Be blessed!

Spiritual Metabolism and Digestion

Something interesting happened to me. A couple of weeks ago, I meet up with a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and he diagnosed me as having a very low metabolic rate. In TCM terminology, my body was too cold.

Now if you see from my Facebook pics how scrawny I am, and watch how I usually eat a lot (shoveling French fries down my throat like there's no tomorrow) and notice how difficult it is for me to sit still, you would understand why I was very skeptical of this diagnosis. The practitioner then convinced me by mentioning that I don't sweat easily, even out in the sun. And that was evidence of a low metabolic rate. At that time we were in an air-conditioned place, so there was no logical way of him knowing about my sweating habits. And that lent further credence to his diagnosis.

Then why am I so thin? Because my metabolic rate was too low, even my digestion was ineffective. In other words, I was unable to absorb and utilize the nutrients in my food. It was like someone giving me a wallet with $20 every day, and I would take $5 and throw the rest of the money away along with the wallet… I am convinced of his diagnosis, so I have started making some lifestyle changes to bring my body to a more optimal level of health.

His diagnosis also got me thinking: how many Christians have a spiritual metabolic rate that's too low, and therefore cannot even digest the Word of God properly?

How will you know if you have an optimal spiritual metabolic rate?

1. You will be hungry for spiritual food, the Word of God. Physically I can eat a lot, but a couple of weeks ago I could also miss a meal here and there and not feel hungry. I should have recognized that as a bad sign. The same thing applies spiritually. If you aren't craving and hungering for the Bible, something is wrong with your spirit's metabolic rate (1 Pet 2:2).
   
2. You will have loads of energy for the things of God. Physically I was active, but I found myself unable to bring my fitness to the next level. In fact, my energy level was dropping. Spiritually, how does worship, prayer, godly fellowship and acts of righteousness make you feel? Bored and listless? Or excited and enthusiastic? You can discern your spirit's metabolic rate right there.
   
3. You will sweat. As I mentioned earlier, physically I sweat very little. Just on Monday I sprinted for 3-4 minutes (late for an appointment and I missed the correct bus-stop) and didn't break a sweat. Bad sign. Remember, sweat helps your body remove toxins and waste from your system. Spiritually, that translates to you sweating out bad thinking, wrong ideas and lousy attitudes. Do you feel yourself getting rid of the junk within your spirit (2 Cor 7:1), the things you know are toxic to your walk with Christ? If you have difficulty in this, take a good look at your spiritual metabolic rate. Something might be wrong there.

What are the causes of a lousy spiritual metabolic rate? Here are a few.

1) Lack of proper feeding. If you don't feed on the Word of God in the first place, don't expect your spirit to have anything to properly metabolize.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Col 3:16, NKJV)

I hope I don't sound too harsh, but I get really frustrated when I hear the excuses some Christians give for not spending proper time in God's Word. Some of them would be hilarious if they were not so pathetic. God, give me patience with Christians who think getting life lessons from Korean soap operas is a viable alternative to feeding on the Scriptures!

2) Lack of action. Worship, prayer, godly fellowship and acts of righteousness are the natural fruit of feeding on God's Word. I pity the sermon junkies, people who go from one preacher to another, expecting to find someone who can preach them into feeling good without them having to take corresponding action. Ultimately, these people are doomed to a Christian existence (notice I didn't choose the word 'life') of boredom and frustration.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25, NKJV)

When I hear people complaining about sermons after the service, saying that this sermon wasn't 'anointed' or 'spirit-filled' or things like that, I wonder what they were expecting. Were they expecting something that would zap them into feeling good before they start obeying the Word of God? I heard a popular preacher who helped propagate that myth. He would talk about how some people would suddenly, naturally and effortlessly start living the life God intended for them after listening to his sermons long enough. The end result was a congregation of spiritually passive people, people who were waiting for God to zap them into wanting to forsake sin, read the Bible, pray and then live out godly lives.

*shudder*

3) Spiritual Indigestion. If you feed on the wisdom of the world instead of God's Word, you of course cannot expect to get the same results as feeding on the Bible.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Col 2:8 NIV)

There are two types of thinking often confused with the Word of God, secular positive thinking (self-help and personal development) and secular morality. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against secular positive thinking and secular morality in general, in fact, I do read up on them at times. But I have long decided that if I have to choose between those teachings and the Word of God, I'd take the Word of God.

I'm sure there are other Christians who claim they would decide the same way. My question for them is this: are you so familiar with the Bible that you can tell when a thought or concept is from the Bible or from some self-help author? And has the Scripture taken such a hold of your heart that the Scriptures, rather than Napoleon Hill, James Allen or Stephen Covey, are what your heart leans on when the crisis of life strike?

And there is one final group of people with a messed up metabolism. They are spiritually active and feed seriously on the Bible, and yet find themselves running out of steam, making big mistakes in their lives, and are unable to hear the voice of God and discern his will for their lives. They are those who have, in the midst of growing in doctrine and faith, forgotten how much they have been forgiven by God.

No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Heb 8:11-12, NIV)

Think about it: if those who know their God will be strong and do great exploits (Dan 11:32), and we can know God only if our sins are forgiven (Heb 8:11-12) then those who start off strong and later lose momentum may have forgotten how deeply God has forgiven them of their sins. I used to think that it was good enough that God has forgiven me, even if I forgot to acknowledge truth at times. But now I have changed my mind. I now believe that if I don't regularly acknowledge my forgiveness in Christ, I shall live as if I am not forgiven.

… that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. (Philemon 6, NKJV)

The above passage suggests that if I do NOT acknowledge every good thing that is in me in Christ Jesus (including forgiveness and redemption) then the sharing (or fellowship in the faith) becomes ineffective, useless and nullified. And that has been my own personal experience also. Whenever I find my spiritual hearing dulled and my discernment inaccurate, it is usually after an extended season of paying so much attention to the other teachings in the Bible that I forget to meditate on the forgiveness and redemption God has given me in Christ.

Conclusion:

Spiritual metabolism, converting what you get from the Word of God into action in our lives, such a vital topic because it determines whether we live our Christian lives as God intended. I am sure I can't do justice to it with just one post. Nevertheless, I hope that this would at least get you started in looking at your own spiritual walk with God. Is there anything you realize needs some tweaking?

Be blessed!

Ideas for Horn Section Arrangements

One of my favourite roles on keyboards is to play the horn section (trumpet, saxophone and trombone) parts on synthesizer. I don't know why, but over here in Singapore there aren't that many keyboardists who know how to create cool horn section arrangements. And as a result, we don't really hear a lot of that in churches over here.

Anyway, this post is to try and explain some simple concepts you can use to create horn section arrangements to fit into the songs you use in church. To start, listen to the following song, Halle, by Casiopea.



Now listen to the following arrangement of the same song, this time with a horn section included:



Notice the following points on this track.

Intro 0:00 to 0:26 – the horn section was doing short fills. The intro riff done by the rest of band filled up a lot of the rhythmic space, so there wasn't a lot of space left for the horn section to do fills longer than one and a half counts (crotchets).

Verse 0:26 to 0:50 – The verse had more held notes and lasted 6 bars in an 8 bar phrase , so the horn section had more space to do extended fills. You can hear that the fills for the horn section are about two bars long here, and they are done when the melody has a rest.

Pre-chorus 0:51 to 1:13 – The horn section did rhythmic fills here (repeated eighth notes/quavers) to fit into the held notes of the melody. Simple and punchy.

Chorus 1:14 to 1:31 – The horn section did more of an echo-thing here. In the held notes of the melody the horn section was doing a call-and-response interaction to the melody.

Guitar Solo (to chords of verse): 1:32 to 2:19 – The horn section didn't play here. When you are planning your keyboard parts, you don't have to play all the time either!

Pre-chorus 2:20 to 2:44 – The horn section kept to what they played in the earlier pre-chorus. There's no need to get too complicated or think that people get bored. Oftentimes we musicians get bored way before the congregation does, so let's not use the congregation as an excuse.

Chorus 2:44 to 3:15 – Again, they kept to the same horn arrangements as the chorus. The chorus structure is slightly different here because it is the final chorus, and that is all that is done to cue the audience that this is the grand finale. It's not done by the horns.

Ending 3:15 to 3:39 – The horns did the same thing as they did for the intro. This helps give the song a sense of finality and closure, by bringing the people back to where they started from.

The main points I want to emphasize are that horn section parts are:

1) simple

2) repetitive, because they are primarily playing a supportive role.

So the next time you have to come up with a horn section arrangement for an upbeat song, see where you can tastefully use short fills, more extended fills, repeated rhythmic patterns and call and response. And remember to keep your arrangements simple and structured at the same time!

Be blessed!

Introduction to Marketing

I know I am definitely going to offend some people for saying this, but it needs to be said. Do you know what sort of people should NEVER go into business for themselves? Those who are unwilling to take responsibility for the successful marketing of their business.

To them I say: save your time, effort and the money put in from your own savings, your relatives and other investors. If you don't want to take final responsibility for marketing, you don't have what it takes to start and run a business.

There are people who think having a great idea or concept for a business is enough to bring about success. Oh, please! Great ideas, creative inventions are a dime a dozen. But it takes more than good ideas to succeed. It also needs people who can bring those ideas to fruition, make them into sell-able products or services, AND bring them successfully to the end-consumer, the customer.

I had this conversation with a friend once. She was telling me about someone who she thought was a great businessman. Why? Because he knew how to set up shops and had done so a number of times. My question was "But can he bring in customers?" When she paused to think about that, I pointed out that any business without customers is out of business. So how can we call someone a good businessman if he can't bring in customers?

If you are in business for yourself, or thinking of starting up your own business (and this includes being an insurance agent or a property agent), please understand that things are very different now, compared to even 10-15 years ago. I'll be describing these changes from a Singapore context, but the same changes have occurred in many other places around the world.

In the OLD DAYS

1) It was harder to get into business, write and publish a book, set up a shop or dining place, or start a training centre or school. There were less book publishers in the scene, less record companies to launch and promote music albums, and, especially in Singapore, less office and retail space available for rent. Those factors meant that only the serious, the very good and those who had loads of capital to spare could go into business for themselves.

But this also meant that those who managed to get into the scene had less competition to worry about. Therefore they didn't need to be that good at marketing. It was still easier for them to capture enough market share to survive or thrive.

2) There were less distractions. I remember growing up with only 1 English newspaper in Singapore, 2 Chinese newspapers (that eventually merged), 2 English language stations on radio and even less for Chinese, Malay and Tamil. On TV we only had 1 channel each for English and Chinese programmes, and would get 2 channels from Malaysian TV (complements of our neighbor to the north).

What this means is that people had less distractions and less to remember. So they could remember your business, book or album a lot more easily. It also meant that it was easier to dominate the various marketing channels (print, radio and TV) and get public attention for your business.

3) Fewer channels of communications. If people wanted to talk to each other about your business, they would have to either write letters to each other or call each other on the telephone. This meant that word-of-mouth happened very slowly, if at all, and there were less things clamoring for people's attention every day.

BUT NOW

1) It is very much easier for people to go into business for themselves. They could sell insurance, be property agents, or make use of the loads of retail and office space now available for rent to start a dinning place, retail outlet or some other business. Technology has made it easier and cheaper for someone to write a book or cut an album, or maybe even do a great music video to go along with it.

This means that there are a lot more businesses now taking aim at the customers' dollar. Unless you find a compelling way to make your business stand out from the crowd, AND effectively make it known to your customers, you are in trouble. And please, don't expect that claiming you provide the best service/product at the lowest price to work. Many others are also claiming exactly the same thing!

2) We are flooded with distractions. I read in passing that an average American is hit by 3000 sales messages a day. We should be nearing that here in Singapore! In just TV alone we have 170 channels on cable TV, for radio we can listen in to stations from around the world via the Internet, and besides all that we can access almost any form of entertainment we want, thanks to Youtube and other similar sites. We have Facebook and Twitter to keep ourselves occupied and up-to-date with the events around the world, and there are blogs galore to satisfy our interest in our not-so-mainstream interests.

So that means that even if you can get your business/book/album noticed positively, the odds are that your prospective customers will have forgotten you and the name of your business/book/album within a few days. And I think I am being generous here! If people forget your restaurant before they get a chance to patronize it, you have lost that opportunity right there.

3) We have MANY more channels of communication. Blogs, forums , Facebook, Twitter, and email allow us to communicate with people within moments. Moreover, they usually connect people who trust each other, so word-of-mouth messages about your business/book/album get passed more powerfully.

Before all the cheapskate "business"-men start rubbing their hands in glee and thinking that they can sit back and let word-of-mouth handle ALL their marketing work for them, please remember: 1) People may be passing around BAD publicity about your business; 2) Why WOULD they talk about your business to their friends? Just because you want them to? It doesn't work that way!

So That Means:

1) Your marketing has to stand out, and in a compelling way. Many people think that entertaining and clever ads lead to good sales, or they blindly copy the same ads their competitors are using. Entertaining ads may get some attention at the beginning, but I have read of award-winning ads leading to a drop in sales before. So please be careful before you had over loads of money over to an advertising agency. I'm not saying that they can't help you, but please don't switch off your mind, hand them a blank cheque and expect your business to boom uncontrollably after that!

In order for your business/book/album to stand out, you MUST be clear what are you offering that is superior or different compared to your competitors. If you are vague about it ("good service, prompt delivery, good prices") your marketing will leave a vague impression in people's minds. And in this day and age, a vague impression is as useful as no impression at all, except that you wasted more money and time to get it…

And if you are a writer, if you yourself can't put into words why other people should buy your book rather than the next bestseller from Dan Brown or John Grisham (or John C. Maxwell, for that matter) don't expect other people to be able to do it for you. Besides, if you claim to be a writer and can't write a persuasive ad for your own book, I personally would suspect you are a lousy writer and I won't be bothered to read your book at all!

2) People are distracted, so your marketing efforts have to be done on a consistent basis. Don't think a one-shot ad or a short-term marketing blitz will bring in customers in droves for the rest of your life. You need to bring the message of the benefits of your business to your customers and prospects over and over again, once a month at least, or your business will be forgotten.

Writers, don't think that your job is done once a person has bought your book. He or she may have bought your book on the spur of the moment but later forgotten to read it. Your marketing will remind your customer to read your book and benefit from your writing efforts (which is what you want, right?). And if your book is that good, that is where you can get more testimonials to use in your marketing efforts.

3) People will talk and share with their friends about what has captured their attention. So make sure they are saying good things about your business (because people WILL trust their friends more than your promotional efforts) AND make sure they have a good reason to share about your business to their friends.

It need not be in the form of money (rebates, discounts, referral fees), it could even be simply a personally written thank-you note, a special report useful to their lives or small gift (like a cute or classy cup with your company name on it). Just make sure that gift fits in with everything else you are saying about your company. If you deal with serious matter such as estate planning or ending world hunger, a cutesy, teeny-bopper cup design will probably backfire!

By the way, word-of-mouth doesn't only apply to getting customers. If you are a boss, what are your business vendors, suppliers and former employees saying about your business?

For example: Billy Graham Ministries (BGM) has a great reputation with their suppliers.

• They are famous for paying their bills IMMEDIATELY, on the very day they receive the bill, rather than waiting for the end of the month. Because of that reputation, many people want to do business with them. They never have to ask for discounts, the suppliers are falling over themselves to offer them discounts and good rates.
  
  
• Lousy suppliers are fired immediately, because BGM has hordes of other suppliers and vendors waiting at the door.
  
  
• Non-Christian vendors are known to send offerings and donations to them even after the business deals are over, because BGM gave them opportunities when they were down and out, and those vendors responded by giving excellent value in the work they did. Those vendors still remember the hand of compassion extended to them at their time of need, and show their appreciation by making voluntary donations to BGM for years after.

So how much easier would it be for you to run your business and get top-notch employees if your business/company has this kind of reputation? Because word WILL spread, but you have to determine if it is going to be good or bad…

In Conclusion:

I hate seeing businesses go down. Something about it just offends me, because it just stinks of broken dreams, shattered hopes and wasted money. Most of the time I see a business go down because of a lack of customers, and so that is why I am taking a huge detour from my usual writing to bring all these thoughts to you.

Many of us had our impressions about marketing set in our growing years, the years before marketing was so deeply affected by the three major changes I described above. Many people rose to become bosses, or made lots of money from selling insurance, their books or their albums, based on what happened in that era, and are now wondering why what used to work doesn't work anymore. I hope this article will give you a broad sweep of the changes that have happened and why they will affect the way you conduct marketing in the future.

Business people, I wish you success!

Me and Plants

(Personal Blog Post)

I've been really busy with work. I've done stuff ranging from music, my kampong (that's Malay for home village), to English Language to taking kids on tours to the Botanic Gardens. Now that last one was really weird for me.

You see, I am not really interested in plant life. You know those people they say have green thumbs? I'm not one of them. Plant life in general is too organic for my liking. My appreciation for plant life and vegetation is limited to really liking french fries. I know nature is good, and I want my two sons to appreciate and enjoy nature.

Just don't ask me to join them, OK?

Anyway, because a good friend of mine asked me to help him with the learning journeys he was conducting for a secondary school, I agreed. The whole thing didn't start off well. Because I almost never go to the Botanic Gardens, I keep forgetting how large the place is. My friend organized a training session for us guides, and I ended up an hour late because my cab delivered me to the wrong part of the Gardens and it took me ages to walk to the correct meeting point. As I was hurrying to the meeting point I was already muttering to myself "I hate this... Why did I ever agree in the first place... And why can't they make this place one of those itty-bitty little parks so that I won't have to walk so much?!???!?"

The actual tour itself went quite OK. The kids were quite well-behaved (compared to some other kids I was afflicted with recently). Of course there were moments when I felt really embarassed. Like this one: I was giving a brief, rehearsed explanation on some of the plants the kids saw that day. When the kids asked me some questions I hastily improvised some answers that sounded good but had little factual substance. (Parents, that is the lifeskill your kids will learn in the Arts & Social Science faculty of the National University of Singapore. Be warned!)

A few minutes later I found out the sweet young lady following that class, nodding politely at my explanations, was their geography teacher, who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the plants there at the Botanic Gardens, and who had been preparing the kids for that trip by teaching on the types of plants they would come across. In other words, the kids probably knew more about the plants than I did!

Ah well, such things happen...

Anyway, the interesting thing about this experience was that after helping out with that tour, I found that despite my lack of interest I started noticing the plant life around me more. For example, one of the plant types I had to explain to the kids was Epiphytes. These are plants that grow on other plants but not in a parasitical way.

After the tour I shelved the information on them into the Recycle Bin of my mind (to be deleted because it's useless to my life). But as I was travelling to my students' homes for teaching, I keep seeing epiphytes everywhere. Yes, they were there before all the while, but because I was ignorant my eyes just skimmed past them as if they weren't there. Now I found myself noticing them. I'd look at the following plant and think: "Bird's Nest Fern! They trap fallen leaves from the host plant for compost. And those little strands below the dead fern leaves should be Shoestring Ferns, right?"

God help me, I'm actually interested now!

And I even find myself going up close to the plants to get a better look. See that fern at the right, the one with all the triangle shaped leaves or leaf clusters or whatever you call them? That's a Rabbit's Foot Fern. I'm told that it's named thus because of the shoot (that little brown thingy in the middle of the pic) is supposed to resemble a rabbit's foot. Brown, thin, furry and bent at an angle.

The other guide who was with me was commenting "Does it really look like a rabbit's foot to you? It doesn't to me. Do scientists come up with these plant names when they are drunk?"

Anyway, I'm really hoping that after I get all this stuff off my chest I can go back to my usual world, thinking about how to manage my regular life, get better at my music and take good care of my kids. I really have to stop staring at every possible epiphyte I come across and taking pictures of them with my handphone. I've already got enough to do! :)

On My Facebook Wall

I received this message on my Facebook wall.

"Thank you so much for your help in music ministry! People have NO idea how taxing being a Worship Pastor is, and your instruction makes it soo much easier! I have tried some of your techniques, and they REALLY do work...talk about a move from God! May God continue to bless your ministry as well as your instruction! Blessings!"

Min. Warren Gilmore
Worship Pastor
Urban Outreach
East St. Louis, IL USA

One thing about Warren, he isn't a newbie to worship ministry or leading worship. If you check out his Youtube videos you can see that he is a fantastic singer and musician. On top of that, he can do something I cannot do, choir arrangements.

In other words, he is someone I would not presume to teach. He's got the charisma, music skill and enough experience in the things of God to make things work even if everything else goes wrong. Telling someone like him that I've got an easier way for him to get results in worship ministry is like approaching a billionaire to tell him you've got ways for him to save money in his day-to-day expenses. He can make it easily without my advice, why should he take it?

But he did, and even more than that, he was kind enough to tell me about how my Invisible Worship Musician has helped him. And that humbles me deeply.

This incident drives home to me a lesson about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10.

1 Cor 15:10 (NIV) - But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

This verse summarizes Paul's ministry – it began with a touch from God, Paul responded with all that he could humanly do ("I worked harder than all of them"), and yet realizes that even that was from God ("the grace of God that was with me").

And that also describes where I am now. I began my ministry with a touch from God (all the insights and experiences I detailed in Invisible Worship Musician) and responded with all I could humanly do (write the book, set up the site and do marketing work). Some people have felt my promotional work was too extreme, that I was too boastful about my abilities and that if I truly trusted God I would have toned down on my marketing efforts and spend my time praying instead.

You can guess that I didn't pay much attention to those people!

(marketing for Christians, a topic for another blog post?)

And Warren's post on my Facebook wall strongly reminded me that ultimately even the best of my natural efforts are still God working in me. If what I have can be a blessing even to someone like him, then it really must have come from God.

Now I find myself in a funny position. I used to find Christians who deflected praise cheesy. Do you know what I am talking about? I'm talking about those who, when you affirm them in some way or other ("Hey, you played the drums really well today!"), would say things like "All glory to God, it's all his grace". I thought there was something wrong with how they seemed unwilling to acknowledge that they put in effort and made themselves available to God to be used by him to bless his people.

But that is where I am now. All the human efforts I have put in (and which I used to be proud of) just look so lame now compared to what God did through it. So now I have to say, like those I found cheesy, that it's really God's grace working through me.

The point of what I am sharing is this:

There are believers who spend their time talking about God working through them, but they so busy waiting for God to zap them into inspired action and they miss the little steps they can take right now to become the right person in the right place for God to use for a supernatural work. Why? Because they don't see God working through the ordinary, the unexciting and the un-glamorous in their lives.

There are others who get so caught up with the human efforts that they even resort to methods they would be ashamed to acknowledge. One Christian marketer I know used an automatic article spinner to produce many different versions of an article he wrote and submitted those mass-generated articles to many sites to get Google's attention. The problem is, those articles ended up un-readable, with poor choices of synonyms, and therefore of no help to people reading them. And he did all this for the sake of tricking Google's search engines.

It is so difficult to navigate through life, to find that right balance where we labour as unto the LORD and yet fully trust him to work in us, through us and for us. So if you know God has brought you to that point, rejoice in him! And then expect that he will still have some more growing for you to do. And you disagree with what I write here, that's OK too. I'm still growing in the Lord myself, and if I am wrong it's only a matter of time before God will teach and convict me about it. I'm sure of that!

Be blessed, everyone!


P.S. Do take some time to enjoy the Youtube videos of Minister Warren Gilmore I find them very inspiring!

Thinking back on Monday

(Personal Blog Post)

I pushed myself really hard to prepare for Monday.

I had two things coming up that day, a music enrichment module (on songwriting) and playing for an audition for a hotel gig.

The Music Enrichment Module

That was super-challenging because it was to be conducted with a class of kids that were mostly defiant and rowdy. For the trouble-makers, if they were not actively causing problems (mocking the teachers, starting fights with the rest of the students in class and so forth) they were passive (going on Facebook and Counterstrike) while the teacher was trying to conduct a lesson.

Irony of ironies, some of those problem kids were outraged when told to shut down the computers. How dare a teacher mess up their Counterstrike session!

Anyway, because I saw those kids in action before, I knew what kind of challenge I was facing, so I worked like nuts during the weekend to prepare my lesson. Videos from Eagles, Michael Jackson, Santana and even the United States Marine Corps were carefully chosen to both illustrate the songwriting points I wanted to make, as well as keep even the dis-interested entertained.

When facing a class of kids like this, some people would spend their time complaining about how the parents didn't raise the kids properly, how the school should have allocated more resources to helping those kids and how ultimately everything is the government's fault. That does not help anyone in any way. I chose to face up to the challenge: I knew it was going to be like managing a large class of 5-6 year old kids (bigger sized, greater potential for violence, a lot better at provoking teachers, but still 5-6 years old at heart) and I prepared myself accordingly.

All my preparations went to naught. I put all the videos on my thumb drive AND even brought along my trusty laptop as a back-up plan. In the end the teacher's computer in that room couldn't even be switched on (so much for my thumb drive) and my laptop kept hanging every few minutes. So no matter what I did I was unable to conduct the lesson.

In the end the kids went back to Facebook and Counterstrike. Score: Kids 01 – Me 00.

Hotel Gig Audition

Why did I have to push myself hard for this one too? Because it was a piano and singer thing, and I was expected to do all the jazz piano solos and all that. Having neglected jazz for years because I was working on classical piano, my weaker side, I was very worried about blotching up the audition. So even while preparing for the music module I would take time out to practice some jazz standards.

The audition went well, I only messed up one solo. And at least two of the people there praised my piano playing. But before the audition I made it clear to the people involved that I would NOT be taking this gig. Why? Because of my kids. This was a typical hotel gig, starting at 7.30-8 pm in the evenings, and because of my kids' schedules that would clash with me spending time with my boys.

And of course I can't keep farming out my sons to my relatives 6 nights a week, right?

In the past when I was doing gigs at Chinese/Canto pubs, they'd start late at night, around 10 pm. That was just perfect for me. I'd get Jess to sleep (Jacques wasn't born yet) then rush out for work. In the morning I'd wake up to manage Jess, though I was usually groggy until the afternoon nap. But it was all good. I'd get to be with my son during the day AND get a full-time pay at the same time for working at night. It was a perfect arrangement while it lasted!

Things are different now. I don't get any Canto gigs anymore, that stream has dried up. And as my sons grew older and needed more of my time I had to turn down regular evening gigs, even though they are easy money to me (not that much work required). I am not too happy about it, but there is no point complaining. All I can do about it right now is to continue to be serious with my music (both jazz and classical) and see how things go later on.

Anyway, ever since Monday I've been kind of spaced out. It was a good thing that Tuesday was a light teaching day for me, because I was so worn out from the pressure I had to sleep a lot more than usual. I started ramping things up yesterday (work, training and practice) and I should be back in the full swing of things by this weekend. Yup, so that's about it for me this week. Will post again soon!

Leading Worship WITHOUT Musical Instruments

I had to lead worship for an office fellowship a couple of Thursdays ago, and because of the other tenants in that office, I was asked to lead worship without my trusty guitar.

Talk about a challenge!

You need to understand that I am a musician first and foremost, not a singer. Therefore I feel very insecure when I am trying to lead worship without any instrumental accompaniment at all. I was reading an article by another worship leader recently. In it he wrote glowingly about how a small church without music instruments can just make do by singing a cappella, and how stirring the effect of adding vocal harmonies would be.

Not that I disagree with him totally, but I've spent time trying to train vocalists to sing harmonies in praise and worship. Let's just say that it is very much easier to get someone to take guitar lessons online and play for worship rather than train up some singers who can sing harmony. Much, much easier! So I believe his advice may not be the best advice he can give to a new or small church struggling to manage without good musicians or instruments.

In the end I managed the session by choosing the right songs. I used the songs

Amazing Grace (traditional version)



My Jesus I Love Thee



These two songs

• Were familiar – there were people from a few different churches present, so I had to restrict my choices
  
  
• Had easy-to-manage vocal ranges – We didn't have the guitar to help cover any gaps in the singing, so I HAD to make sure there was nothing to hinder the singing. That, by the way, was why I do not like to use Chris Tomlin's version (My Chains Are Gone). The vocal range is 1 ½ octaves, very hard to manage. It's easy to cover that up in a large congregation, but not in a small group meeting.
  
  
• Had steady counts in the melody, without large gaps in the singing – This is vital. Remember, the two core roles of a music instrument in worship is to unify the key (through chords) and the beats (through the rhythm played). So if you have to lead worship without an instrument, you will have to unify the key through your voice. And you choose songs which have obvious counts.

Here's an example of a song without obvious counts – With All I Am (by Hillsongs)




The verse is difficult to sing without some instrument marking out the counts, because the melody just floats around somehow. There is also a 2 bar gap from the end of the verse to the start of the chorus, again difficult to manage without a rhythm instrument. Yes you can cut short that gap if you are singing a cappella, but that gap is the point where most people would be lost. And try as I might, I cannot think of a musically tasteful way to cut short that gap without getting artificial or contrived. So I will never use that song when leading worship without any instruments.

Conclusion:

Am I being too nit-picky with all these details? I don't think so. I believe that leadership involves looking ahead, anticipating problems that may arise and either preparing to face them or finding ways to avoid them.

Those who have read up to the final chapters of my Invisible Worship Musician will know that I believe worship ministry is all about controlling as many of the factors as possible to bring things to the point when we lose the control and surrender it all to God. We see this in how the priests in 2 Chronicles 5:12-14 carefully orchestrated all the details and how God responded by gracing them with his glory. And when he did so the priests could not continue their ministry any further. In other words, they lost control of the proceedings. And that's OK!

Too often I see people either bring down the intensity of worship before we get to the point when God responds with his glory, or they do things half-baked, let a lot of important details slip and expect God to show us his glory anyway. It's like what I said in a previous blog post "They want to believe that they can get results without putting in the necessary effort. And they use the Holy Spirit as an excuse."

May that not be said of us!

Cracking the Worship Ministry Code

My pastor was talking with me the other day about a tuition centre in Singapore that causes the students who enroll there to score well in the Singapore mandarin (Chinese) language exams even if they are weak in the language. They have figured out what the Ministry of Education is looking for at every level of the exams, and so they focus intensively on those areas. In other words, that tuition centre has cracked the code for the Singapore Chinese examination system.

What that centre has done for Chinese exams is what I have done for worship ministry. I have cracked the Worship Ministry Code.

To some people that sounds like no big deal. I am sure I am not the first to have cracked it. Maybe I am just the first to express it this way and really explore what it means to worship ministry and our Christian lives. When I interact with other worship leaders online, I find that many of them from other countries have cracked the code also, just that many of them don't give the Scriptural backing for what they do and why it works.

So when I say I cracked the worship ministry code, I am not saying that I am the only one or that I am the best worship ministry teacher around, OK?

To some other people, this claim is the very heights of presumptuousness. They believe that worship ministry is complex, difficult and requires very detailed leading and guiding from the Holy Spirit for every step and every nuance. Even worse, they believe that the Holy Spirit will often be leading them to do weird or flaky stuff to prove their obedience to him and to show how little they depend on formulae, principles and techniques.

These people usually unsubscribe from my emails after some time, because they disagree with me so much. And that is fine with me. I am here to serve those who find value in what I teach, not to irritate and provoke those who think differently!

How can we be sure that we can crack the worship ministry code? How can we know that worship ministry can be simple, straightforward and easy to teach?

1) God is consistent

That's very important, because worship has to be pleasing to God. If God is inconsistent, in other words, he keeps changing his character or his requirements, then there is no code to crack. In such a case, worship ministry would be complex, difficult and require detailed and nuanced leading from the Holy Spirit every step of the way. And we can have no assurance that we can get it right this time, even though we may have got it right many times before.

Heb 13:8 (NIV) - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

And because God is consistent, we know that what pleased him before in the Bible will please him now. We can be confident that the prayers he answered before are the same ones that he will answer now. We know that what he esteems and values in times past are what he esteems and values now.

And we can think, pray and act accordingly!

2) God is consistent in accepting us

Not only is God consistent, he is also consistent in accepting us. If God is harsh, demanding and unmerciful, there is still hope that we can please him IF we meet up to his high standards and requirements. But the Bible reveals that God is consistent, faithful in showing us mercy in spite of our sins and transgressions.

Mal 3:6 (NIV) - "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

3) God desires that we meet him in worship

God isn't putting up with our praises and worship. He isn't enduring it, hoping that we will get it over and done with as soon as possible. He finds it pleasing, that is, he enjoys it.

Psalm 69:30-31 (NIV) - I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.

Because he finds it pleasing, he has made it possible for us to worship him acceptably, through Jesus Christ.

Heb 13:15 (NIV) - Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Important point though: our worship is not automatically accepted through Christ, because some believers choose to make their status in Christ of no effect. They do so by trusting in their own works to make them acceptable before God, rather than the finished work of Christ.

Gal 5:4 (NIV) - You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

So we can say that offering God an acceptable sacrifice of praise is easy. All we need to do is to surrender our pride and self-righteousness…

Conclusion:

When we put all those factors together, we end up with a theology that makes meeting God in praise and worship something natural and simple for us as believers. So if praising God acceptably is natural and simple, why should facilitating praise and worship not be natural and simple too? Why do people in worship ministry want to make things more complicated and difficult than how the Bible teaches it?

Those who have read my book Invisible Worship Musician know that the first five chapters are about the myths and misunderstandings common in worship ministry. I realize now that I had to explain all those factors so you can understand that not only is there such a code for worship ministry, but that it is very simple to find, understand and make use of.

And once you have cracked the worship ministry code, everything else (how to choose the songs, how to lead the worship, what should the musicians play) flows very naturally and logically from there.

But it all starts with the right theology, knowing that God wants us to encounter him in praise and worship and that he has made it possible for the meek and humble to approach him easily. And if you truly grasp this, you find yourself growing in boldness and confidence in your prayer and worship life.

And that's always good!

Lessons from Last Friday

I led worship for the Lunchtime Fellowship of Living Faith Church last Friday, and the worship went much better than usual. So here's a breakdown of what was different and what stayed the same last Friday, so you can see what probably caused the people to keep on praising God and not want to stop.

1) Songs: they were

1. Show Your Glory by John Greene (F major)
   
2. Be Exalted by Brent Chambers (G major for the chorus, then A major)
   
3. Glory to The Lamb by Larry Dempsey (C major)

One thing all the songs had in common was the glory of the Lord. That was deliberate, as I felt in my heart that was what God wanted me to pay attention to for that worship session. Despite my cynical and skeptical exterior, there are times when I believe I hear from the Lord and do what I think he wants me to do.

Judging from how well the people responded to the songs, I think I heard God correctly that day!

But what if I was wrong? Or if I do not have any specific theme or leading from the Lord for the songs? I am not too concerned with that, because there are only two possibilities when it comes to choosing the theme for the worship set: either I am right or I am wrong. If I am right, that's great! But if I chose wrongly or failed to hear God correctly, then another Scriptural truth kicks in and starts taking effect.

Phil 4:8 (NIV) – Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

In other words, as long as we effectively use our songs to help the people take their minds off the things of this world and set their minds on heavenly things (Col 3:2), we will fulfill command given us in Phi 4:8. And Paul says that the God of peace will be with us. We will experience the peace of God in a powerful way (Phi 4:9).

Many worship leaders I know worry about choosing the right songs for a worship set. I hope this helps to take away the pressure!

2) The People

Another huge difference – the people were early that day. Usually we have only a handful of people when the service starts and the rest trickle in near the end of the worship set. (Yes, I must admit sometimes I am less thick-skinned than usual and start wondering if my singing is really THAT bad?) But last Friday most of the people arrived during the first song. And it also included a few people I know to be hardcore worshippers, people who take God with serious reverence. When these people are present, the spirit of the fear of the LORD that is upon them can spread to the rest of the congregation, especially if you have enough of them around so that they feed off and strengthen each other.

And that is what happened last Friday. The congregation kept on singing and the momentum kept growing. I felt bad to be watching the clock for the right time to hand the service over to the pastor. Anyway, the pastor had the option to tell me to extend the worship session (as he has done on a few occasions) but he did not tell me to do so this time, so I handed the service over to the pastor.

Important Points:

Firstly, I evaluated my success at leading worship not by some hazy, intangible concepts but by 2 Chronicles 5:13, whether the praises were unified. If you ask me to evaluate and critique a worship session, I'd also look at the worship leader and the musicians, but for that Friday there was no need to do that, since the worship leader and the only musician was me. That part didn't change.

Secondly, it is very humbling for me to admit that my success at leading worship last Friday was not largely due to how well I sing or play music, or how anointed I am. It was because of a few people in the congregation who happened to be there earlier than usual, and these people helped spur the rest of the people on (Heb 10:24).

I say that because I am convinced that New Testament worship ministry based more on participation rather than performance. So as long as I keep up to certain standards in my song selection, my singing and my music, I have done my part as a worship minister. And the rest is in the hands of the congregation, whether they will join me in declaring the goodness and glory of the LORD. So if things do not go that well I don't bear much of the blame. But that means that when things do go well I cannot claim much of the credit either!

This is my question for you: when you are NOT serving in the worship team, are you sitting near the front and supporting the worship team as much as you can? Or are you hiding near the back or even worse, skipping the church services? If you are not just trying to show off or gain acclaim for yourself, but have a genuine heart for worship ministry, then support the worship team for the glory of God. Sing louder, flow with the worship leader, sit (or stand) nearer to the front. Smile at the worship leader (yes, trust me, that makes a huge difference!).

In other words, be one of those people whom worship leaders and musicians greet with the words "Thank God you're here!"

Be blessed!

Lesson From A Loser Love-Song

I was buying groceries at a supermarket near my home one day, and they started playing one of those Loser Love-Songs over the sound system. *sigh*

Loser Love-Songs is what I call those songs in which the guy gets dumped by his girlfriend and he starts mooning over her and getting all whiney and weepy. Maybe she figured out that he was that sort and that's why she left him in the first place? I wouldn't be surprised!

You can guess I get disgusted with those songs…

But that day in the supermarket, I suddenly realized there was a Biblical truth in THIS Loser Love-Song.

It's called 不要對他說 (Don't Say This To Him) and it is the guy begging the girl not to say certain things to her new boyfriend (the one she is dumping him for). If you want to check out the song, you can hear it in the video below:


The Biblical truth I noticed came out in these words

不要對他說　夜裡會害怕
Don’t tell him you are afraid at night

別說你多睌都會等他的電話
Don't say you will stay up late just for his phone call

別說你只喜歡他送的玫瑰花
Don't say that you love only the roses that come from him

因為這些　是我僅有　殘留的夢
These are my broken dreams


What suddenly struck me was the realization that even though it was a Loser Love-Song (and was setting my teeth on edge) what the composer was asking for is actually something Biblical. He was asking for intimacy, in other words, that there be something that be kept as an exclusive experience between him and his lover.

I believe this is what we earnestly desire when it comes to our romantic lives, a sense of communicating and connecting with someone of the opposite gender so deeply and on an exclusive level. This is what is described in the following passage:

Song of Solomon 4:10-12 (NIV) - How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!

Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.

You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.

Not only is this sense of exclusivity shown to be desirable in women, it is also urged upon men as well.

Proverbs 5:16-17 (NIV) - Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

One thing about this sense of exclusivity, we hurt ourselves and the people we open ourselves to if we do it prematurely, or to the wrong people. That's why we need to give ourselves time in any romantic relationship, time to see if this person is someone who can be trusted with our secrets, especially our weaknesses or past mistakes.

Be especially cautious of people who take your weaknesses or past mistakes and use them against you when during quarrels and arguments. Cut these people out of your life immediately. You will regret getting even closer with such people, that I can promise you. These people are what I consider the thorns in the flesh, the messengers of Satan that you should avoid like the plague.

And if they can be harsh and unforgiving to you before marriage, remember, you are totally at their mercy after marriage. Either that or you be prepared to live the rest of your life putting on a false front before your spouse or wondering when any skeletons in your closet will be discovered or when your past will finally catch up with you.

It doesn't have to be like that.

But it does mean that you be very discerning about the people you share the deepest, most intimate (exclusive) secrets of your life with. It may mean waiting longer for the right person, or it may mean investing time, money and effort in getting sound Christian counseling and pastoral care for your life first, so you will be able to discern the right person when he or she arrives.

Will it be worth it? I can't answer that question for you, but would you rather be the one standing outside an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend's window singing a loser love-song?

One More Day In The Gym

I was digging through all my old emails recently and I came across this old post by Scott Wesley Brown. It's called One More Day In The Gym. It's an insightful post, one that I really resonate with, and I'd like to share it with you. You can check it out at

http://www.worshiptherock.com/profiles/blogs/one-more-day-in-the-gym

And if you enjoyed the post and found it helpful, do take a couple of moments and drop Scott a comment or note to express your appreciation.

Again, the post is here: http://www.worshiptherock.com/profiles/blogs/one-more-day-in-the-gym

Be blessed!