Arguing About Food

A few weekends back, I was stuck in an argument with a relative over food. She wanted to have dinner with me, but wanted more expensive food and wanted me to pay for it. She euphemistically called it ‘good’ food, but we all know what she meant, especially when she dismissed all of my suggestions that would have fitted nicely into my food budget.


When she saw that she wasn’t able to persuade me from my stand (sticking to a wise budget is a basic discipline I learned the hard way) she started arguing with me, insulting me over my earning capacity and how little I treasure the relationship as I am not willing to spend 3 meals’ budget (6 if you include her) on one meal with her.


Moments like this really reinforce to me the truth of the following Scriptures:

Proverbs 15:17 - Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.


Proverbs 17:1 - Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.

Why would Solomon even set up a contrast between a place of luxurious food and strife, and drab food with peace? I am not sure, but I believe it’s because there are times self-indulgent people, whose god is their stomach and glory is in their shame (Phi 3:19) would consider luxurious food more important than keeping peace.


I know, most of the time we can’t choose our relatives. So if we have relatives like that, God help us! But there are two things we CAN do to reduce your exposure to this type of idiotic situations.


1) Choose your spouse carefully

Proverbs 21:9 - Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.


Proverbs 21:19 - Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife

If you have a quarrelsome spouse (male or female), he or she can turn anything into an argument. And that includes food too. You’ll end up walking on eggshells all the time, wondering when is the next blow-up coming. And your kids will either grow up to be argumentative and aggressive, or they’ll become timid and easily bullied by the people of the world.


So for the sake of your own mental health and the health of your future children, don’t ever, ever marry such people!

Of course, if we are all charmed by our potential spouse during dating and courtship, we may not recognize the person’s true colours until too late. But here are two helpful tips. Watch how much they insist on their own way and no other. And watch how he or she reacts when unexpected snags crop up. If they take them well (and over a period of at least 6-12 months), you know you have someone who isn’t going to give you much problems in this area. Also, someone who can take unexpected snags in his or her stride is the sort of person who can keep his or her presence of mind while parenting. Good thing to watch out for if you ever want to raise a family.

(And if you know the quarrelsome one is you, repent! Quick!)

2) Train your children well.

Proverbs 22:6 (NIV) - Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

We have to impart discipline and wisdom to our children and teach them God’s priorities. In this case this means making sure they are not ruled by their appetites but know how to keep their stomachs from wrecking havoc over their lives.


Besides teaching them the Word of God (all those above passages from Proverbs are a good start), we also need to teach them appreciate healthy food. Plain water is great, fresh fruits are fantastic and there is a joy in eating natural, unprocessed food.


We also need to keep our children from being addicted to processed and unnatural food such as white sugar, MSG and all that kind of stuff. Why? Because an addict isn’t able to think straight about food and nutrition. Their cravings will drive them to seek their own way regardless of the people around them. And that may lead to arguments and strife later on in their lives when they grow older.


Here’s the uncomfortable part: what example are YOU setting? Are you gulping down junk food yourself? Or can you say you set your children an admirable example in your food choices, attitudes and discipline? And again, are YOU the argumentative one?


For the relative I mentioned earlier, her parents were quite disciplined in avoiding junk food, but they were sometimes harsh and abrasive. That example was a hard one for her to shake off, and other people suffer for it. Including me…


Conclusion:


This is not a typical worship ministry post from me, I know. But it will be useful to those of us who are still single (so we know what to look out for when we are dating) and married with children (so we teach our children right). So do share it with people you think would appreciate it. Thanks!

Prosperity - The Challenge

This passage has been on my heart recently.

Psalm 118:22-26 (NKJV) – The stone which the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.

The Hebrew word for prosperity in this passage is Tsalach (Strongs #06743). It has a wide range of meaning, including to advance, prosper, to make successful and profitable. In fact, the NIV translates verse 25 as “grant us success”. In this passage we see that the Scripture exhorts us to pray to God for prosperity and success in our undertakings.

In my own Christian life I have swung between extremes. Sometimes I have been the typical Word-of-Faith person, declaring by faith success in everything. Sometimes I have been more passive, just getting along with my activities and trusting God to prosper whatever he chose to. This isn’t wrong, by the way, we see this kind of attitude displayed in Ecclesiastes 11:6.

But this season, I’ve gone back to plain old asking. God, prosper the work of my hands, and grant me success! Driving this consistent prayer are two realizations:

1) We cannot afford to NOT prosper

When can you afford to not prosper? I cannot imagine. If you are a parent, prosperity means raising your children well. If you are a pastor, prosperity means taking good care of the congregation God has entrusted to your care. If you are a doctor, prosperity means your patients get better, not worse. If you are an employee, prosperity means you succeed at the tasks entrusted to you. If you are a worship minister, prosperity means you led the people into a powerful and life-changing encounter with the God of the universe, instead of wasting the time and the opportunity.

So when can you afford not to prosper? If your life is meaningfully occupied, you have no room in your life for not prospering!

2) We are called to prosper

New Testament believers are called to a priestly ministry…

1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV) - But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

… and the priestly tribe, Levi, had a special calling to prosperity and success. We see that from the blessing Moses spoke over Levi.
If we take this prayer and apply it to our New Testament priesthood, it tells us that we are to pray that our skills (work, music or others) be blessed (successful) and that our works are pleasing to the LORD. We are called to prosper, but we have the obligation to seek God for it.

Deuteronomy 33:11 (NIV) – “Bless all his skills, O LORD, and be pleased with the work of his hands. Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they rise no more.”

And how will we know if we have it?

Consider the example of Joseph in Genesis 39.

Genesis 39:2-5 (NIV) - The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

In the above passage, both “prospered” and “success” are the same Hebrew word, Tsalach, again. God’s prosperity leads to blessings with tangible evidence in our work, ministry and family. If we are truly walking in the prosperity of God, the people of the world can tell. It’s as obvious to them as it was to Potiphar in Joseph’s time.

Are you feeling uncomfortable yet? I am. I know that my life isn’t anywhere near that standard yet. And if God wants me to prosper in all to which I set my hand, and there is a spiritual calling upon my life for success, then it’s MY responsibility if it’s not happening. It’s MY responsibility to seek God for wisdom and direction, and then to take action as he directs.

And that is why praying for success is so important. Praying means an active communication and communion with God. When I pray, rather than just speak the success over my life or let God prosper whichever area he chooses to, I am putting myself in a position and frame of mind to hear God on the areas of my life he wants me to work on, to see the results he wants me to have.

Conclusion:

Of course there is a lot more to Biblical prosperity than just asking God for it. There is the meditation on the Word of God (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:3), the presence of God (Genesis 39:2), seeking the LORD (2 Chronicles 26:5) and other areas I probably haven’t realized yet. But I share this with you first to invite you to join me on this journey. Let’s grow in wisdom and understanding in the prosperity God desires for us, shall we?

Behind The Pastor's Back

As you probably know, I serve at a few churches during the week. Just yesterday, as I was running errands, I met someone who regularly attends one of those services I serve at. It was an interesting conversation, because he basically wanted me to change my style of playing.

Him: "the way you play when Pastor leads the people in prayer after preaching, very stagnant. No flow. You must flow…"

Under other circumstances I would have asked him what he meant by flow. After all, it could refer to a musical flow (which I know I have) or a spiritual flow (which I believe I have). However, I felt there was no need to find out more, because I wasn’t going to change my style of playing.

Me: "I'm playing the way Pastor wants me to play. He told me to play this way, so that is how I am going to play."

Him: "I've known Pastor for a long time already. And I've been playing for 40 years. I went to Berklee (a famous college for contemporary and jazz music). You cannot play like that, you must flow…"

By now I suspected that he meant to play more spontaneously, to use Pastor's exhortation time as an opportunity to display whatever musical chops I have. Whatever he meant didn't really matter, because I already had instructions from the Pastor. And I'm not going to change stuff like that without checking with the Pastor first.

But why would I need to check with the Pastor anyway? He's got a lot on his plate, and he already has the habit of telling me whatever he wanted me to know. Bugging him about trivia like that is implying his instructions weren't clear enough, or that he didn't know what he was doing. No thanks!

So I took the easy way out.

Me: "Since you say you have known Pastor for some time, how about YOU talk to him about it? I'll just do what he tells me…"

Him: "Cannot, he's not a musician so he won't know. You must change it yourself."

Err, wait a minute. He's not a musician, but he has been in ministry even longer than I have. Am I to believe that during all that time, having ministered in many different churches around the world, he hasn't come across different styles of music and he doesn't know what type works best for him?

He could see I was not convinced.

Him: "Do you know (mega-church A) and (mega-church B)? I trained their musicians. You think I can only play one instrument? I can play more than one instrument! When I tell the chief musician (of the church I am serving at) to flow, he does it. Even the other guy, who played for the service when you were not there, flows better than you…"

I haven't listened to the worship team from mega-church B, but I did know that mega-church A had a team of immature musicians, who were professional only in the sense that they were being paid, not in terms of their musicality. Those musicians tended to overplay and get in each other's way, and overall the sound would be too cluttered to let the congregation sing their hearts out. So the congregation would spend most of the worship time standing there and watching the show up on the stage.

You can guess that I was less than impressed by his name dropping. I wanted to tell him "So it's YOUR fault that band is so lousy? No wonder…" but I knew God wouldn't approve of me being THAT direct. So I switched back to my one and only argument.

Me: "OK, so if Pastor thinks the other guy is better, then he can tell me to play like him. So far, Pastor hasn't told me to play like him, so…"

Him: "They can flow. Why can't you? No wonder your playing is so stagnant."

Me:"I've played other ways before, and Pastor has told me he wants it this way, so I am going to play it this way."

Him: "He's not a musician, he won't know. You must change, you must flow, then he will come and tell you that you are correct."

OK, this was going too far. One problem that has plagued many charismatic churches – some people think they hear from God better than the pastor does, and they don't want to discuss things with the pastor first. They deliberately choose to ignore or disobey the pastor's instructions on a specific matter. Those people then expect God to vindicate their disobedience by blessing them with obviously supernatural fruit, so the pastor has to swallow his pride and admit they were right all along.   

Hear this from me – no good will ever come out of doing this. Either get the agreement of your church pastor, submit to his instructions or leave to find another church. By this time I already realized that this person was NOT worth listening to. He may have music knowledge, but his understanding of the things of God was very lacking.

So I brought up the only topic that seemed to bug him, the pastor.

Me: "How about this? How about YOU play, then we let Pastor decide?"

He didn't like that, so he changed the topic.

Him: "Why, when you play, you don't play there and there (indicating the higher and lower parts of the keyboard), you only play here (indicating the middle)? I might as well chop off the top and bottom parts!"

God is my witness, he was THAT inane, thinking that playing solo piano accompaniment for worship was to be done the same way as playing for some show at Berklee. If other Berklee grads are like him, Berklee ought to get me to teach Musicianship 101. The fellow went back to his mantra of the day.

Him: "You must flow!"

Me: "You can flow?"

Him: "Of course!"

Me: "OK, then you play and show Pastor. We let him decide, OK?"

I guess he really had no answer, so he started getting personal.

Him: "I can flow, but can you follow it or not? Your playing is like sleeping! You ought to humble yourself. Other people can follow what I tell them, why not you?"

Me: "OK, then you play and we let Pastor decide, OK?"

By this time I guess he had enough. So he walked off. I wasn't too smart yesterday morning, it took me so long to figure out how to drive him away – keeping mentioning the Pastor! It was like showing a cross to a vampire, it might take a while but it will work in the end. Now I know what to say to him the next time we meet at the service…

The Point Is…

As you can tell from my previous posts, I can be very dogmatic. When I have the authority to tell musicians what to do, I fully expect them to follow my instructions. I don't want them changing things behind my back or without checking with me first.

And because I believe in treating people the same way I want to be treated (Matt 7:12), this is also how I follow instructions from my leaders as well. Don't expect me to try out suggestions and ideas from other people without checking with my church leaders first.

If you find yourself in the same place I was, with someone trying his or her best to get you to disobey clear instructions from your church leader or pastor, you may also find it helpful to do what I did – suggest that THEY themselves go discuss with the pastor or leader themselves. If they are sincere and have nothing to hide, they would be more than happy to.

But if the suggestion only seems to frustrate them into insulting you or arguing with you, you know they have an agenda and something to hide. Don't let yourself be manipulated by such people, OK?

Be blessed!

Prayer Principles from Psalm 41

This passage has been on my heart a lot this season. 

Psa 41:1-3 (NKJV) Blessed is he who considers the poor;
The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth;
You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.

Notice that God promises deliverance from times of trouble. Which means that there will be troubles, even in the life of the generous. Notice also that it also implies that generous people are not immune to sickness, and that they will have enemies.

Psa 41:4-6 (NIV) - I said, “O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
My enemies say of me in malice, "When will he die and his name perish?”
Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it abroad.

In this case, David has fallen into severe illness. And he knows it is the consequence of his sin (vs 4). Pay attention: David does not ignore the sickness or pretend it's not his fault. He also did not think God ought to ignore his sin just because of the good he has done before. He understands God too well for that!


I know some generous people who don't take their own sin seriously, and they are taken aback, caught off-guard and offended when they reap the harvest from their sin. And they start raging against God. It’s actually quite common; there are some people who head charities, for example, and have terrible tempers, or commit adultery or embezzle funds. I suspect they feel, deep in their hearts, that their good works gives them some room to sin...


Make sure you don't fall into that deception!

Psa 41:7-9 (NIV) All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying,
“A vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.”
Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

We don't see in the Bible any account of David falling sick, so it's hard to tie this psalm to a specific incident in David's life. The closest guess, in my opinion, is that this psalm refers to the time David committed adultery with Bathsheba, which eventually led to Absalom's rebellion and Ahithophel's betrayal (2 Sam 11, 13-16).


Remember that as David’s trusted counsellor, Ahithophel not only had the ear of the king, he also knew his heart. If any man would know how David would think and act, it was Ahithophel. Ahithophel thus would be the person most capable of plotting David’s downfall, since he knew David inside-out.


And if someone who knew him inside-out could not only reject him but actively work towards his defeat, it was a rejection of everything that David stood for. He must have been thinking “If someone who knows my heart so deeply could betray me, what does that say about my heart?” It's enough to crush a man's spirit!

Pro 18:14 (NIV) - A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

It takes faith to rise up above this. It takes faith in order to know God still loves us in spite of our sins and in spite of our failings. Hear the prayer of a man who pleases God's heart -

Psalm 41:10-12 (NIV) - But you, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up, that I may repay them. I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me. In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever.

Personally, I feel uncomfortable with this part. David prayed that God would let him avenge himself on his enemies. One thing I noticed, however, is that God kept David from doing so. Whether we are talking about Saul, who sought to kill David in the earlier days, or Ahithophel, or even Absalom, David never had to raise his hand against his enemies. God eventually took care of those enemies, and kept David from avenging himself on them.


The point, however, seems to be that because David loved God, David could pray what he wanted. God would still decide what was best and settle matters accordingly.


And that's what I want to share with you also. Just pray, pouring out your heart to God honestly, and let God decide how he wants to handle the matter.


Also, begin with remembering the promises of God.


If we had stopped at the end of verse 3, we would have thought this was a feel-good, sunshine-and-roses kind of Psalm. It’s when we look at verse 4 onwards that we realize that David wrote this in the midst of severe trial and testing. He was commanding his soul to feed on the promises of God.


We likewise ought to do the same. When we are in the midst of a difficult season, we need to discipline ourselves to not only to pray, but to pray remembering the promises of God. We see the same principle in the following passage:

Lamentations 3:19-26 (NIV) - I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”

Notice how the writer of Lamentations has to consciously remember the goodness of God even in the midst of grief? If we want to have a confident and enjoyable prayer life, we need to do the same.


Conclusion:


Our worship lives will not rise above our prayer lives. That is why we need to not only pray, but pray in ways that please God. The LORD chose to have this psalm preserved for us in Scripture so that it may encourage and strengthen us in the LORD. I hope my sharing has helped to spur you on and make your prayer life more like how God wants it to be!

Sharing Some Music

Hi, everyone!

This is rather different. Instead of worship-related material, I'd like to share some music I did recently.

The first is my own variations on a chorus. The original came from a Chinese song written by the Singaporean singer/songwriter Stephanie Sun. The original is like this:

My chorus and variations goes like this:

I also did a cover version of Girl From Ipanema, a famous bossanova standard. It was interesting, I didn't try out all the auto-accompaniment before I did the recording, so some of it caught me by surprise.

Anyway, these were done just for the fun of it. No teaching points included, so if that's what you were looking for, sorry to disappoint you! If you enjoyed the videos of my playing, please click over to those video pages (click on those videos) and leave a comment on them. Thanks!

Lesson from 1 Corinthians 14

A few Sundays back, one of the church leaders spoke to me after the service. He told me “I just want to tell you that you minister on the piano, really minister. Not just today, but every time…”

And that really encouraged me a lot.

Before you get me wrong, I am not one of those high-maintenance musicians, who need to be affirmed and encouraged every week. In fact, one pastor I serve with mentioned that I am very low-maintenance, and he’s glad for that. There are two reasons why I am low-maintenance: 1) I enjoy serving in the worship ministry, so I am self-motivated; 2) I am very confident of what I am doing, so I am self-directed most of the time.

But sometimes I go out on a limb and decide to try stuff out of nowhere. For example, that particular Sunday we used the song Dance with Me, by Jesus Culture. At one point the worship leader did not indicate which part of the song to do next. On the spur of the moment I turned up the keyboard volume and played the melody of the chorus. Because my church worship band is really a dream team, the whole team went that way too, and it all sounded prepared and rehearsed.

It wasn’t.

And later the worship leader directed me to just linger after a song and give the congregation room to sing their own songs unto the Lord. Err… I immediately launched off into one of my trusty chord progressions, Bm7 – C#m7 – D – E (we were in the key of F# minor), and stayed there until the worship leader went into the next song (which was in the key of A major). Again unrehearsed and unprepared, but it all worked out ok, at least to me.

1 Cor 14:29 (NKJV) - Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.

So to have that church leader approach me and affirm me after the service meant a lot to me.

Acts 2:18 (NKJV) - And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.

This passage tells me that the New Testament church is to be characterized by prophecy (we can argue what prophecy means some other time). But if you want to prophesy you have to be willing to let your prophecies be judged by the rest of your local body of Christ, as instructed in 1 Corinthians 14:29.

So I take the same principle and apply it to my playing. I have to be open to having it judged by the body of Christ, especially my church leaders. Now, it isn’t practical for me to go around making a nuisance of myself and bugging the worship leaders and my pastor for feedback after EVERY service. But 1 Cor 14:29 does mean that I do have to be open to feedback on my work and ministry unto the LORD.

So what does it mean for you?

Two things:

1) Be willing to submit to judgment.

It’s unrealistic to believe that diligently seeking God's guidance will mean that you will make no mistake or have everyone approve of your decisions. And if that worries you, you are operating from fear rather than faith.

All it takes is humility, being willing to accept feedback and maybe realize that sometimes we don't hear God as clearly as we'd like. Exercise humility and teachability when you're serving God with other people. It's less pressurizing in the long run...

2) Be gentle and generous with your feedback.

If someone went out on a limb, either in the worship ministry or some other way, be quick to affirm the good in it. How about problems or mistakes? Personally I would not mention the problems or mistakes unless I have a relationship with that person (he/she trusts me) or if I am in a leadership position in that group.

Why? Because of my manner. I can come across as strict and harsh in person, so I have to be extra careful to be gentle, to not crush someone's spirit.

Isaiah 42:3 (NIV) - A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

Watch out for that too, if you are in a leadership position. There will be times when you will have to call someone out on his or her mistakes or defiance, especially if the culture in that group has gone haywire. But hopefully that is not going to be common in the church or fellowship you serve at!


Conclusion:

We love God by serving his people (Heb 6:10) and we become effective only when we work together with others and let them sharpen us (Pro 27:17). So be open to the feedback and advice from others, and also remember to exhort and encourage one another, especially when they go out on a limb to serve God!

Going for the Heart

How to keep the wrong people out of the worship team

Pro 14:15 - The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps. (NKJV)

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how gullible some worship ministry leaders can get. I've seen many of them taken in by people who say they are serious about serving in the worship team, yet are not willing to put in the effort to get training. Sometimes those leaders approach me and say things like "That person is very serious about worship ministry, he has the heart for worship, can you help him?"

This, by the way, is usually an indirect request for free music lessons. People in church can be like that. This comes from a spirit of poverty upon that person, but that's a topic for another day…

I know I sound uncaring and calculative, but I've done this way too often and I have NEVER seen my efforts bear fruit. Such people never practice what I tell them to practice, never put in the work they need to put in and as a result never become effective in service. So don't waste my time!

Pro 20:11 Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right. (NKJV)

I wonder how much heartache and frustration would have been averted if ministry leaders kept the wrong people out of the worship band. In this day and age people have no excuses to not have the skills for whatever instrument they wish to play. Youtube has easily millions of dollars worth of music lessons available for free. Anyone who is serious but lacking in funds can easily head over there and get loads of good instrument and vocal teaching.

Of course it takes more work to organize and understand the material, but a serious person won't let that stop him or her!

But how about the heart? Would every good Christian musician have what it takes to do well in the worship ministry? Not necessarily. Here's a simple list of what they need to be an asset to your worship team.

• Basic level of skill with the instrument or voice – easily checked during the audition. And as a side benefit, if someone has a basic level of skill with an instrument, it shows that he or she is capable of putting in consistent work over a period of time. This basic level of discipline is very useful for many areas of life, not just music.
• Willingness to take a supporting role – you have to explain this during the briefings and auditions. Why? Because many immature musicians who are more impressed with flashiness rather than good taste, can hear a mature church band (playing only what is necessary) and think they are called of God to join the team and show the rest of the musicians how to rock the church building for the glory of God. They are expecting that once they show off their stuff on the guitar fretboard or piano key, for example, all the rest of you would immediately affirm them and say "That's great! If only you joined us earlier!!" And Sunday worship would be made up of them "humbly" displaying their skills to the glory of God…

Don't wait until they start overplaying on Sunday before you tell them that they need to restrain themselves. Tell them early and let them decide if they still want to join the worship team.

• Willingness to follow direction – this is the most crucial point.

If I tell a musician to play something in a particular way, and I know this musician has the necessary skill for it, this musician has totally no excuse for not following my instructions. "I'll try" is an unacceptable answer. If they cannot remember my instructions, then they should write them down on the chord charts I take time to prepare for every session I lead worship.

(Or they could just simply follow the chord charts. It takes only a couple of months to learn how to read them. A musician who plays solely by ear may be stuck in his/her ways already. Teaching them how to read chord charts is a quick way to see if they are still teachable and humble…)

Of course, I can be that dogmatic when giving specific instructions to other musicians. That's because I understand music, can play 3 instruments and have loads of experience teaching adult learners. If you don't have that level of skill and understanding you may have to be more careful when issuing such firm instructions. But at a minimum, you should expect musicians to follow the chord charts, just as you would expect singers to follow the song lyrics you give, and not keep changing the lyrics every time you do the song. People who will not do that do NOT have the necessary heart to serve in a worship ministry.

On YOUR part…

… if you are the worship leader or the leader of the ministry, you have to make every effort to make sure your followers have no valid reasons to not follow your directions.

That's why if I lead worship I prepare my own chord charts, ensure they are sent out a couple of days before, going through everything during the rehearsal and check if the musicians and vocalists can hear me and the anchor instrument I am using. As a leader you need to anticipate problems and deal with them or move around them.

How do you check if a musician can follow directions?

You have to build all that into the audition process. Give them directions and see how they follow. One idea is to tell them to repeat a chorus three times and build up the intensity each time. Give them some leeway in how they do it, but see if they do it, or at least try. Then decide from there.

Conclusion:

Never be desperate to take in just anybody. It's a recipe for trouble. The last thing you want is a worship "team" made up of individualistic players, each off in his or her own world, contributing more noise than music and giving you attitude problems in other ways as well. Keep the wrong people out and exercise your faith to believe God to provide the right musicians, those with a genuine heart for worship ministry. 

May you and your worship team grow both in size and skill, in the name of Jesus!

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Announcement:
I've noticed that some people have purchased my Invisible Worship Musician e-book but have not signed up for the special lessons and updates emails. If you are one of them, please email me so I can put you on that list. I have some lesson materials that are more private, and kept only for the people on that list. Thanks!

How NOT to recruit musicians

I came across this excellent article on recruiting church musicians.

http://www.worshipministry.com/worship-planning/worship-planning-six-lousy-methods-to-get-more-musicians-part-1/

It's well written. Not only does it cover what I consider important (as written in my article here - http://www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/article02.htm) it also has some insights I didn't consider before, like how people with the gift of helps end up in the worship ministry.

I also like how the writer would offer to teach music-score-dependant pianists how to read the lead sheets they use. It's a requirement in his church, some pianists can't meet it, but if they are serious, genuinely serious about serving God in the worship ministry, he'll take the effort to help them meet it. (so those with more heart than ability have no excuse to not buck up!)

It's a great article, so I wanted to share it with you. Again, it's over here at

http://www.worshipministry.com/worship-planning/worship-planning-six-lousy-methods-to-get-more-musicians-part-1/

If you like it, do leave a comment on the page to encourage the writer (public encouragement like this is the way to go in the social media age). Enjoy!

Don't Entertain Fear

It's both amusing and sad at the same time.

I come from a Word-of-Faith background, and I get to fellowship with people who believe in biblical wealth and divine health. So they do not put up with financial lack or sickness; they will immediately pray for money or healing, as the case may be.

But I personally know many in the worship ministry who would tolerate and entertain the spirit of fear. Why???

2 Tim 1:7 (NKJV) - For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Sometimes the fear is obvious.

One worship leader I work with regularly ALWAYS puts her songs in keys that are too low for the congregation. And she does that even though she can reach ALL the higher notes she needs, even if she puts the songs in my key.

I'll remind her to use the best key for the congregation, and I always get a snap, unthinking reaction. "No, cannot, too high for me!" She would say that every time, as if I was one of those dabblers and wannabes who don't really know music, or as if I am just a musician and not a fellow worship leader trying to help. I get tired of having to remind her that I already KNOW her vocal range, and that I'm not out to embarrass her or mess up her singing!

Sometimes it's not so obvious.

I remember once being a guest worship leader (at another church), and facing a musician who told me he does not read chord charts. I remembered thinking to myself "what's he going to do on the keyboards then? Doodle all over the place and call it playing by the spirit?"

You can guess how irritated I was by that, until I realized he would rather keep his playing random (doodling) so that he could deny responsibility for his note choices and "inspiration". Basically, he was afraid of people judging his choice of notes and thinking they were lousy.

(They were, by the way. His note choices were quite random, but consistently lousy. They'd clash with the chords, rhythms and the rest of the band. The music sounded better whenever he stopped playing...)

And that was why he refused to learn how to read chord charts or write down the notes he needed to play to fit the rest of the band. Ironic, to 'protect' his note choices from being judged he ended up with totally lousy ones.

Fear has a way of messing up everything, I noticed...

The point of what I'm saying is this: many people, including myself, have areas in our daily lives where we need to face up to our fears. Whether those areas are music-related (sight-reading, singing or strumming) or not (writing in proper English, public speaking or making conversation with strangers) does not matter. We should not entertain or tolerate fear in our lives. We should face up to them instead.

How should we do that? Get the support and prayers of our friends, get coaching from someone who knows what he or she is doing, and just get on with it. God has given us a measure of faith (Rom 12:3) and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13), so let's throw off fear and live the life of faith he wants us to live!

Be blessed!

Looking Back

(personal blog post)

August is the month I do a lot of looking back.

Maybe it's just my perception, but it seems like lots of significant things happen to me in August. Should I go check it up in the Jewish calendar and see if it coincides with any specific Jewish season, feast or event? :)

So I naturally think through past events even more during August. I read through my old notes, I flip through my journals and even look at older emails. There's always a sense of nostagia, of how innocent I was then. I always feel as if I am getting more jaded and cynical as the days go by. Of course, in a year's time I'll look back at this post and think about how innocent I was back then!

I usually don't have enough time or mind-space to spare for reminiscing, because I am really busy. But once a year I make the time for it. It's good, I find that it helps me plan better how to use the rest of the year, so that I won't be totally frustrated and remorseful over wasted time by the end of the year.

But August 2011 is over. Enough of looking back, time to get things done. I still have four more months to make 2011 rock, so let's keep going! :)

Giving to the Poor

"You must be led by the Spirit when it comes to giving to the poor."

Do you agree or disagree with that idea?

I've met a number of people who say that we should not give to the poor without the specific leading of God. Some of them argue from this passage in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!" (Luke 15:17, NIV)

Their reasoning is:

1) The son came to his senses because he was starving.

2) What if someone gave him food before that? Would that not have delayed him coming to his senses, or maybe even short-circuited the process?

3) We cannot tell where poor people are at in their lives, if they are just about to come to their senses if their suffering lasts a little longer;

Therefore we need to inquire of the Spirit before giving to the poor, whether we should give and, if so, how much.

Here's My Answer

Firstly, anyone who can be bothered to just skim through the Bible will know God commands us to give to the poor.

In the Old Testament:

"During the seventh year, let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove." (Exodus 23:11 NIV)

And again,

"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 23:22 (NIV)

All that is about leaving food for the poor to pick up. Notice it didn't say we need to be careful about who we leave the food behind for, nor does it warn us that letting the poor eat may delay them from coming to their senses. How about giving to them directly?

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs… Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. (Deu 15:8-9, 10, NIV)

And in the New Testament:

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Matthew 19:21, NIV)

Notice that Jesus did NOT say "follow me and I'll tell you who are the poor you should give to"? He also tells us not only to give to the poor, but to go one step further and have fellowship with them.

"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind." (Luke 14:13, NIV)

Let's compare the "Spirit-led" reasoning and my answer.

In their thinking, only the first point is supported by Scripture. The second is a --what-if-- and –maybe--. The third is true. But the conclusion, that we need to be led by the Spirit to give to the poor, is based entirely on the --what-if-- and –maybe-- given in the second point.

It is NOT directly stated in the Bible at all, nor do we see it demonstrated anywhere in the Bible. It looks good and sounds very spiritual, but it is only human teaching. And Jesus' opinion of that is "They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." (Matthew 15:9, NIV)

I Understand Where They Are Coming From

I really do. Poverty is actually a spiritual problem, and the poor very often are poor because of some attitudes, beliefs and wrong ideas that they hold. After all, everything we see in our lives originates first from our hearts (Pro 4:23) and we experience physical prosperity is tied in with our soul-prosperity (3 John 2). So we can argue that if someone is poor there may be some spiritual problem causing it, or some spiritual lesson the person has to learn in order to get out of poverty. Maybe.

And I have seen some poor people who only care about milking you for all they can get. They may say they don't want to be poor, but they are still doing the things that keep them poor. They also avoid doing what will bring them financial provision and abundance. As long as they can get a hand-out from you, they have no motivation to change their lifestyle and behaviour. And they will stay in the cycle of poverty.

So if you decide that because of that you will NOT give to the poor, or you will give only to very selected cases, I understand fully. But please don't try to justify your decision with spiritual-sounding clichés and jargon. Call it what it is, a personal decision or personal conviction. Don't mention the Holy Spirit to make your decision sound more acceptable, I believe that is misusing the name of God (Exo 20:7).

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."( 1 John 3:17-18, NIV)

Why Am I Talking About All This?

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Hebrews 13:15-16. NIV)

Because giving to the poor is also tied in with worship. When you give to the poor, God calls it a sacrifice that pleases him. Some people think they should not give to the poor because they are struggling to make ends meet. That's like saying that only those with good voices should sing praises to God. It's disobeying the clear commands of Scripture.

In case you misunderstand, I'm not financially rich myself. There are always things to pay for, expenses I know are coming up and unexpected problems that cost money. So I following this command isn't easy for me either. But I will still find ways to do it. And there will always be ways.

Here's An Example

One day I was meeting a customer at a church in a poorer district of Singapore. There an unkempt woman with a scrawny little boy (about the same age as Jessiah) approached me and asked for a few dollars to feed her son. And as she talked the smell of alcohol hit me smack in the face.

Dilemma: Should I give her a few dollars, knowing she will throw it away on alcohol and leave her son hungry? Or walk away and leave the poor boy hungry? Both were unacceptable to me.

So I decided to take charge of the situation and overwhelm the woman with enthusiasm. "What?!??!? Your son is hungry? Little boy, how old are you?" I spoke to the boy directly. The kid was surprised at me talking to him directly, but he answered me with Jess' age at that time. "You're hungry? I'll buy food for you!" And I dragged mother and son off to a nearby food stall, told the boy to order what food he wanted and told the stallholder to pack a larger portion of rice, meat and veg for the boy and his mother.

"Boy, are you thirsty?" "I'm OK, I drink water from a tap." "No boy, that's not good enough. Come with me!" And I went over to a nearby convenience shop and bought them bottled water (Singapore water is fluoridated, bleah!!!) and apples too. It was fun actually, because I was both feeding the poor (as God commanded) AND playing along with the mother. You should have seen the look on her face as she saw me paying for the food and water. Total dismay. All that money that she could have spent on beer, and not a cent going to her! I spent more than the few dollars she was hoping for, and she couldn't stop me without admitting that she only wanted the money for beer.

In the meantime, I kept talking to the boy. It was heart-warming to see how happy he was. I made sure the food was enough for both him and his mother, and if she chose not to eat it but to get drunk instead, then the boy would have enough for 2-3 meals. On top of that, I talked to the boy as if he was an intelligent fellow, deserving dignity. He was a good kid, I could tell from the time I spent with him.

Finally, when I HAD to leave, the mother made one last try, asking for a few dollars again. And I could honestly tell her that I was out of cash, showing her my empty wallet. And I needed to rush off for another appointment. And with a cheery "God bless you!" to the son I left. She got what she asked for, but not what she wanted. Hahaha!

Conclusion:

I share the above story not to boast of my good works (many people do more than me, and much more often) but to show that there are always ways to help the poor. You just need to be a little bit more creative. It doesn't have to be just money, you can organize a church outing to clean the homes of some poor people, the aged who are staying by themselves and cannot clean up their homes.

And just as I have discovered that things go better in my life when I take time out to praise God, I believe you will find things going better in your life as you make the effort to do good and share with others. Be blessed!

From Father to Son

A short time back, I found an old CD of an audio recording of Bible verses I did for Jess. In those days Jess was just an infant, and I wanted him to hear over and over again the Word of God. So I just got down to it, did a few simple home-made recordings and kept having that CD played when I wasn't around to read the Bible to him.

Well, Jess grew and I started spending more time with him to read to him. And other things came along, and I misplaced my final copy of those recordings. But I finally found my last CD, put the tracks on my phone, started listening to it every day ever since, and found that it built MY faith too!

So here is one of the tracks, From Father to Son. It's a short (less than 7 minutes) recording of selected verses from Proverbs. You can just download it as a gift from here.

Yup, it's a gift. You don't have to buy my e-book, make a special donation, refer customers to me or whatever. Just go to this page and download it. And let your Christian friends know of it too, so they can get it and be blessed as well. It's especially great for parents with sons that they want to raise as godly children, but I sincerely believe anyone will be blessed if they get it and keep listening to it everyday for a couple of weeks.

Remember, it's a home-made recording. And when I say home-made, I really mean home-made. The sound quality isn't going to be fantastic, the music isn't going to inspiring, my voice isn't going to be EQ-ed properly and all that. But it blessed Jessiah and I, so I share it with you also.

If it blesses you too, do let me know. Leave a comment or something like that on this blog page. Thanks!

Worship Leader Basics

About two weeks ago, I attended the funeral wake of my grandmother-in-law.

It was a Christian funeral service, because she received Jesus as her Lord and Savior for quite a few years already. I wasn’t close to her in the first place; the Singapore pace of life makes it hard to build decent relationships amongst relatives and friends. So it was out-of-sight-out-of-mind for her, and I'm not proud of that.

Because I wasn’t emotionally close, I was emotionally detached enough to observe the worship leader and musician trying to lead worship for the service. They stumbled over some of the basics. I haven't talked much about worship leading basics before, so I had better mention some of them now.

1) Sing Appropriately

One of the songs they used was 轻轻听, (it was a Chinese service). This means "listen gently", but if you don't understand Mandarin Chinese you'd never have guessed from the worship leader's singing. She was bawling it out for the entire song. Her dynamics ranged from loud, very loud and voice-distorted-on-the-mike kind of loud. I spent the 4 minutes or so cringing and feeling embarrassed for her.

So please sing appropriately. Match your voice and singing volume to the lyrics of the song. Don't sing a rousing song timidly, and don't belt out a quiet, contemplative song at the top of your voice. If you do, it shows you aren't really paying attention to what you are singing in the first place.

2) Rehearse

They sang Amazing Grace (but with Chinese lyrics) next. The worship leader and musician stumbled over the song for the first verse. Why? Because the leader was singing the song in three-four time (which is how it was originally written, and how many Singaporean Christians know it) and the guitarist was playing in four-four time.

What made it even more of a waste was that the people really tried to sing this song. And it was all choked up by the guitarist. Now if the leader and guitarist had rehearsed the song before hand, they would have been able to come to an agreement (three-four or four-four?). That would have allowed the two of them to start in sync, which would have made a large difference.

I recently got tagged into a discussion on Facebook about rehearsals. A lady was questioning the need for rehearsals. Her thought was that since it was worship, God was the recipient and the sincerity of heart was the most important, why practice so much? We don't practice our prayers, do we? She believed that practice was for performances unto men, not to God. So we should just spontaneously sing and play unto God, right?

Now I could go into her points the way I was taught in my university philosophy course, go straight for the assumptions behind her points, challenge the assumptions and then demolish them with Scripture passages. But I understand where she's coming from. She's reacting to the extremes of performance music in church. Performance music tends to have structure imposed for structure's sake, so she, like many others, went the other extreme by rejecting all structure.

She even said that the musicians and singers at the dedication of the temple just spontaneously played and sang unto God. From that we could easily guess that she never tried to coordinate 288 singers and musicians (1 Chr 25:7) as well as another 120 priests with trumpets before, or she'd quickly discover how 'spontaneous is best' would epically fail on her…

Just so you know, the idea that worship was supposed to be spontaneous also came out in the book Pagan Christianity. But just because an idea is popular doesn't necessarily mean that it's correct!

So practice. Rehearse. The only time you won't need it is if all the worship team is doing familiar songs. In other words, if the rehearsals are already done!

3) Match the intensity of the people

Leading worship for a funeral service is tough, because there may be visitors there who are not yet believers or who come from a different church and worship culture. So they may just stand there and not sing.

When that happens, it's difficult to generate momentum in the worship. The worship leader that evening tried to do so by singing louder and later singing in tongues. Maybe that would work in her home church, the congregation may take that as a cue to sing in tongues together with her, and there would be some participation at least.

But at a funeral service? With outsiders, people from liturgical churches and non-Christians?

1 Cor 14: 23 - So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? (NIV)

As I said, I understand how difficult it is to lead worship properly at a funeral service. If you are the worship leader, you have to be ready to feel as if you are singing all alone. If the people DO sing, they usually sing in a lack-lustre way. It's tempting to try to rouse them by hyping things up a bit.

Don't.

Go as far as you can for that session and that's it. If the people aren't flowing with you, don't try to force them. One objection some Christians have to contemporary praise and worship is that they see it as emotional manipulation. And if you try to hype up the worship when the people aren't responding, you ARE doing exactly that.

Conclusion:

The basics. If we have been serving in the worship ministry for some time it's easy to assume everyone knows the basics. But once in a while, just to be sure, it's good to go back and re-visit them again. And share them with your worship team also, especially the newer members!