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Friday, August 31, 2012

How I Get More Done – Useful Attitude Toward Ministry

I’ve been playing bass for my church services the past few weekends.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a bassist. I know where the notes are on the bass, and that’s about it. My tone is inconsistent, so much that I HAVE to use a plectrum. The tone becomes sharper, more twangy, but at least I have more control over the sound. And sometimes I’d blank out half-way during playing. I’d suddenly forget where are all the notes I need on the fretboard. If I stayed within the first 5 frets or so on the neck I would be fine, but I didn’t. And sometimes that meant I’d go “Where is the C sharp note again???”

More than a month back someone I knew via Facebook needed some help. He was a Chinese Kungfu instructor and had to put up a show last minute. None of his regular students were available to help him out, so he appealed for help on Facebook. Just so you know, the last time I took any lessons in this (Northern Praying Mantis style) was when I was 18 years old, and that was many, many years back. But he needed help, so I offered to be contribute what little I could remember after all these years.

So it meant I had less than a week to brush off many years of dust from my Praying Mantis forms. During that one week I still had to juggle my work, family and ministry, while being firmly reminded of the words of my teacher the last time I met him one Chinese New Year a few years ago. He told me “At your current age, forget about doing Praying Mantis, go do Tai Chi instead!” (No encouragement there...) In the end the whole thing went OK. I did my part in the show, and I don’t think I would have embarrassed my previous teacher that much if he saw me in action! 

One thing both of these episodes had in common: I was doing stuff that I wasn’t the best at. And that meant a lot of work for less result. But the fact is that I was filling a gap and I was able to be of help. And I guess that is one of the core values of my life: I want to be of help!

Two Attitudes

Whether in church or outside of it, I see two attitudes that people can take when deciding whether to help. Some people would not help unless they are totally skilled in that area. As I played bass in church, I did it knowing that there actually WAS someone else available to play bass, and he actually would have played the bass better than me, but he did not step up because his playing was not up to HIS own standards.

Others would expect that because there was a need, other people are obliged to accept their “help” even though they were really unskilled and more a hindrance than a help. And they get all offended and throw a hissy fit when they were told they weren’t really suitable for the role. (Some wannabe drummers immediately come to mind…)

One reason why I get more ministry done is because I avoid those two extremes. I prepare; yes, I certainly believe in preparation and training! But if a need comes up before I believe I am ready, I would approach whoever is in charge and offer my help. And let them decide if I was good enough for the role or not.

Perfectionists, freak out!

This attitude puts me in the worst of two worlds, so to speak. Because I am not as ready as I would like to be, I run the risk of being rejected. The Kungfu guy I helped, for example, could have taken a good look at my form and decided that I would be an embarrassment to him if I performed. If I ruined his reputation his career would have taken a setback. Not really worth it, right?

(Of course he didn’t turn me down in the end. During my teenage years I was pretty serious about Praying Mantis, so under the dust I still had some quality left…)

Meanwhile, the deluded who think people owe them the chance to serve MIGHT be able to get the opportunity because people are too desperate or too nice to turn them down. More likely, however, they will be rejected. Since they didn’t really put in proper work, their rejection didn’t really cost them that much.

But to put in serious work and then face the possibility of rejection, on the other hand, is the worst of both worlds. Some people have all kinds of spiritual sounding rationalizations for not stepping up to offer their help. They make it sound like the only way they would do something is if God were to speak to them in an audible voice, a “Thus saith the LORD: Serve! Approacheth thou thy church worship pastor, and sayeth unto him…”

Yes, I am not that “spiritual”. I do offer my help at times, and I have been rejected at times. Guess what? It hurt my ego a little bit, but it didn’t kill me. And in exchange for taking such risks, for being vulnerable to rejection, I have been able to serve God and his people in a wide variety of situations and circumstances. And those experiences have been enriching and valuable!

So if you want to get more done…

… I would strongly urge you to take on this attitude. Prepare. Train. Seriously. But if the need arises before you think you are totally ready, talk to your leadership and offer your help. And learn to deal with rejection.

But personally, I don’t think you will face that as often as you fear, as long as you seriously prepare yourself. I’ve always believed that the Body of Christ has a severe lack of people actually playing their part. Most of the Body of Christ is waiting for others to serve them or for themselves to be zapped into being inspired to serve. And the fear of rejection will stop many of them dead in their tracks.

So if you prepare, put in the work and dare to step up, you are already miles ahead of many people in church. Think about it for a while. Is there anything you believe God wants you to work on this season, in preparation for serving him effectively in the next? Get started.

And when the time comes, grit your teeth, swallow your pride and step up. Go for it!  

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Worship Team Auditions - Why Have Them?

I came across this blog post recently on when should you leave your mega-church.

And the first point on the list just HAD to be about worship ministry! Mr Wheeler said it is time to leave your mega-church when they start holding auditions for the worship ministry. To him, worship ministry is something to be open to pretty much everyone.

“Why even bother to answer that point?” you may ask. To people who have actual worship ministry experience, the whole idea is laughable. But I have the nagging feeling that somewhere, sooner or later, a young, sincere and inexperienced pastor planting a church is going to be inspired by Mr. Wheeler’s reasoning, tell his long-suffering worship pastor (or volunteer leader) that they were going to stop all worship team auditions, and then have that other pastor fix the problems and clear up the mess.

Not that those problems can be cleared, mind you, if they come. Even if they doesn’t come immediately, just remember that any church following that idea is at best 2-3 musician resignations away from problems. Believe me, you don’t want to be in such a position!

Here is his reasoning, in his own words.

"I always used to think the “worship audition” phenomenon was just an urban myth, but I am sad to report I now have confirmation of it. Still, I can’t wrap my mind around how it happens. How, for example, do you tell a prospective worship team member her joyful noise was for another time? Her rejection probably gets prefaced by, “We have prayed about who should join our team and I am sorry but we have not chosen you.” In other words, “Jesus told us you suck.”"

Let me begin with the basics. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you (Sorry, Paul!). The purpose of a worship ministry, worship team, worship leader or worship musician, is to unify the praises of the people. When they succeed, as the priests and Levites did at Solomon’s dedication of the Temple, the glory of the LORD will again fill the Temple (2 Chronicles 5:12-14).

In other words, good things happen!

I’ll be the first to admit that many churches (mega- or otherwise) do NOT have this vision or direction for their worship ministry. They may have some goals such as leading the people to an authentic encounter with God or having music appealing enough to attract pre-believers.  Or maybe just excellence for excellence sake.

Whatever it is, when you don’t have this basic direction for your worship ministry, you can end up with problems from two extremes. You can end up with musicians and singers who do excellent music that wows the audience but do not draw the people into singing their praises to God. Lead singers (not worship leaders) who choose songs based on what showcases their abilities rather than invites the congregation to participate. Things like that.

OR you swing to the other extreme and have a free-for-all. A “drummer” who only has two settings on his playing, slow and very fast (nothing in between), and soft and bleeding-from-the-ears loud (again, nothing in between).  A guitarist who goes out of time or strums erratically, which is guaranteed to mess up the efforts of everyone else who tries to unify the singing of the congregation. Back-up vocals who do their own stuff, who drown out the unfortunate worship leader, and refuse to take direction from the worship leader because they think that quenching the Spirit means not being allowed to be anything they want, anyway they want, anytime they want.

Having worship team auditions may not prevent the first extreme, but done correctly by a worship leader who knows what he is doing can certainly prevent the second. And the second problem is far more likely to occur in a regular (not mega-) church. Since regular churches are far more common than mega-churches, shouldn’t auditions or some other kind of screening process be even more necessary?

Mr Wheeler again:
"Can you imagine Jesus telling someone who loves Him and loves to worship Him that he or she is not good enough? Are we now in the dispensation of “the MegaCool Church”? Can you recall some biblical text that has eluded me that says: “All ye talented sing unto me, those who suck be quiet. Thus sayeth the Lord.”"
1 Chronicles 15:22 (NIV) - Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.
The purpose of the worship team is to unify the praises of the people, and unity does NOT happen without any form of leadership. The worship team (musicians, singers) plays that leadership role. The biblical text above is the relevant passage that eluded Mr Wheeler. That verse shows us that leading the singing was Kenaniah’s job because he had the skills for it. Wanna lead? Better have the right skills!

We are not saying that the tone-deaf are not allowed to worship God in church. But there is a world of difference between singing away in the crowd (at best irritating only those immediately around you) and being put in the front, leading everyone else. Of course this truth is really obvious to people who are actually running worship ministries. But for the sake of that newbie pastor mentioned earlier (and for the sake of his/her long-suffering worship pastor), it still needs to be said!  

Mr Wheeler's final paragraph on this topic:
"I have watched the first baby steps of withdrawn, church-abused friends who begin to venture into the world with courage. I remember the first time I saw them with their heads up and the first time they made eye contact during a conversation. I get a little weepy when I imagine their monumental bravery in accepting an invitation to join a real worship team. I can only imagine the crushing blow of their earlier rejection by those who were their “brothers and sisters in Christ.”"
We all have our horror stories to share. I have a few of my own about musicians or singers who are ego-driven and disruptive. Here’s one of them.

I had a drummer quit her church because I told her how she went against my clear directions as the worship leader. And it wasn’t only on small points, such as giving me more snare (though that would have been much appreciated). It was also on how we were going to shift from the faster songs to the slower ones. She did not turn up for the rehearsal earlier in the week, so I took the special effort on Sunday sound check to guide her through that transition (I knew it was crucial).

On during the actual set itself she did not give me more snare. She ignored my verbal cues for the song transitions. She kept her eyes turned away when I tried to signal her after she messed up my cues and I had to re-do the transition. Didn’t help, she ignored me and let the whole thing peter out HER way. And when I asked her about all those things after the service, she ignored my questions and refused to answer me.

Can such a person help unify the praises of the people when they can’t even cooperate with the worship leader?

Problems that make a musician a disruption rather than a help can be picked up easily within 5-10 minutes in a simple audition. Why was such a person allowed to serve in the first place? And if you want to give such a wounded soul the opportunity to serve, why was there no pastoral oversight, feeding, nurturing or ministry of any sort given to her?

Yes, I know that “worship” ministries based on performance rather than participation cause loads of problems. But those who indiscriminately let all and sundry participate based on their preferences and likings rather than their abilities and gifting are also wrong. Really wrong.

1 Timothy 3:10 (NIV) - They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.
“Huh? I thought we are talking about worship ministry? Why are you suddenly talking about deacons?”

Deacons, in New Testament Greek, are servers. Our modern equivalent is administrators and ushers. Why not include musicians and singers under this? They should be tested too, right? I would suspect that the extent of testing in the early church was far wider than a 5-10 minute audition. If I were the one testing, I’d look at their lifestyle, their speech and their family life.

But if people won’t even take 5-10 minutes to audition a singer or musician…   

Look, I know that some people have seen the problems created by a performance-based worship ministry, and think that swinging to the other extreme is the way to go. I can continue to give reason upon reason, going deep into the reasons why there is yet another way to do worship ministry, one that best edifies all concerned. But this post is getting way too long already!

So if you or your pastor is trying to access practical wisdom in how to make worship ministry work, don’t make try to re-invent the wheel and do it alone. Join worship forums, interact with worship leaders from around the world, and discover what works, from small, homely churches to mega-church in the next state. I would highly recommend the two forums:



You’ll get ideas, opinions and suggestions from people who have been there and done that. Some will probably disagree with me, and that is fine. If they have a track record of making things work, I’d say they are worth paying some attention to, wouldn’t you? 

Be blessed!