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!