Where Positions ARE Available

I got this email recently, and thought of sharing it and replying to it publicly. Here’s the actual email itself (with the sender’s name abbreviated for privacy).

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Dear Sir

I am A. M. Worship Singer from Pakistan. I am a Christian fellow and I sing to praise the Lord our God. God has blessed me with a wonderful voice to sing. I am singing since last ten years. I wish to continue to praise God and pray through my singing talents. But unfortunately, I do not have many resources to get my singing on recordings. I wish to join a group or a ministry filled with the Holy Spirit to accept me as a singer. I am praying and wish you to support my dedication and talent. If there is any idea or any support from you and your ministries please let me know and I will be ready to join you for this. Thank you. God bless you.

A. Worship Singer,

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Well, firstly there is no need to call me ‘Sir’. I am not a very formal person and go by the name of Junjie. People may not know how to pronounce it (since it is Chinese) but typing it on an email should be OK, right?

>> I am a Christian fellow and I sing to praise the Lord our God.

That’s great!

>> God has blessed me with a wonderful voice to sing. I am singing since last ten years.

Confidence. No false humility. I can respect that.

>>  I wish to continue to praise God and pray through my singing talents. But unfortunately, I do not have many resources to get my singing on recordings.

And why would that be a problem?

If you really want people to hear your singing, get a video-cam, video yourself and upload it on Youtube. You may not earn any money from it, but you will certainly bless others with your abilities if you are as good as you say.

Because of what the world was like when we were growing up, we can end up thinking that a singer’s success is measured by how many albums he or she can sell. So if he or she can’t even get on a recording in the first place, that’s sad, right? But for believers who are singers, success does not only mean selling albums. You need to specifically know what kind of singing God wants you to do. What I personally believe is that there are 3 main types of singers within the Kingdom of God.

1) Worship Leaders – when they sing, they get the congregation to sing too. They successfully lead people into singing wholeheartedly unto the Lord when they take the mike.

2) Evangelists – when they sing, they touch the hearts of pre-believers and open their hearts to receive the love of God.

3) Prophetic singers – when they sing, they minister to the people of God. They testify of Jesus in such a way that people are edified, encouraged and comforted.

1 Corinthians 14:3 (ESV) - On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

I am not saying that a singer can’t do more than one type of singing, but many singers I know have one that they are most effective at. And they will do well to focus on that one if they want to bear fruit quickly and with less effort.

So which one are you?

>>  I wish to join a group or a ministry filled with the Holy Spirit to accept me as a singer.

I can direct you to such a ministry. It’s called your local church. I am not sure what you mean when you say “filled with the Holy Spirit”, but surely it would apply to your home church. If not, why call that church home, right?

Your pastor will know where your strengths are, since you have been serving there for ten years. And he will want you to be effective, since that will help him serve the people God has entrusted to his care. So he does have a vested interest in your success.

Of course, that assumes that you have been faithfully serving for the past ten years. Moreover, you have to be willing to try different stuff, not just what you are comfortable with. If you are a performance singer and need to lead worship for example, that will mean a lot of work and learning for you. But it is only after you have put in all that kind of effort that your pastor will be able to see what you are best at and can give you accurate advice.

But you will most certainly start off as a volunteer. Which means you won’t get paid. It is this time as a volunteer when you will be tested, to see if you have what it takes to serve.

1 Timothy 3:10 (ESV) - And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

And one crucial area you will be tested on, in the sight of God and man, is faithfulness.

Proverbs 20:6 (ESV) - Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

Talented people are easier to find than faithful people. Many talented people want quick glory and the applause of man, so they are unwilling to demonstrate faithfulness in serving. So if you want to be used by God to bless his people, be faithful!

Now what if your home church is small? That would mean that even if your abilities suit the church and they appreciate you, they may not be unable to pay you. If that is the case, let me just say that if you are truly faithful to that church, you will set aside your own abilities and preferences, and work with your pastor to grow his church. And since it is a small church, what would grow that church may not be you singing. It may be you making it a point to share the gospel and invite people to church. It may mean you serving as an usher or running errands for your pastor. Many preachers started off as janitors – they had to sweep and clean the church!

Your faithfulness WILL be tested.

If your home church is small, they will need you to work hard at many things, singing, ushering, administration, evangelism and discipleship. And all that while you work at a day job to pay for your own living expenses and tithe to your church. If your home church is large, you probably won’t get the limelight at the very beginning. You will have to start small and slowly work your way up as a volunteer, all the while keeping your day job.

What if there is no local church you can join?

If there is no church in your area, district or county, then the needs of God’s people there are great indeed. They will need solid, practical teaching in the Bible more than they will need singing. And if you have a heart for God’s people, you may have to set up a church there yourself.

Sounds daunting? It is. But on the bright side, you need not worry about how to feed the flock with God’s Word. Email me and I can refer you to online sermons that are solid, Scriptural teaching that will bless the people and build them up in the faith.  Your job then will be to pray for your people when they have needs. That should not be a problem for you, since you have said before that you wish to continue to pray through your singing talents.

>> I am praying and wish you to support my dedication and talent. If there is any idea or any support from you and your ministries please let me know and I will be ready to join you for this.

Any ideas from me and my ministry? I’ve written an entire email of ideas for you! The biggest ideas are:  

1) Start where you are, doing what you need to do right now.

2) Be faithful in service.

3) Don’t think of yourself as a singer but as a Christian. If singing is what it takes to be a blessing to God’s people where you are, then sing! But if it is something else, are you willing to do that something else so that God’s people will be blessed?

I leave you with this Scripture, the one that sustains me in my ministry when it gets difficult.

Hebrews 6:10 (ESV) - For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 

If you truly love God, serve his people. He will remember your labour and reward you in due season.

Be blessed, A. M.!

Conclusion:

I know this has been a long post. What do you think of what I said here? Let me know your thoughts. You can do so by leaving a comment below.

Thanks!

Faithful in 2013?

It’s nearly the end of 2012!

I’ve already started planning for 2013, paying special attention to the areas of my life I believe God wants me to exercise faithfulness in.

Proverbs 20:6 (ESV) - Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

This passage tells me that faithfulness, a person who can diligently exercise faithfulness in his or her life, is a rare find.

Proverbs 28:20 (ESV) - A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

In this passage, we see that faithfulness does not only lead to blessing, it leads to an abundance of blessing. Sounds good to me! People, however, tend not to appreciate the value of regular consistent effort, whether in their health (eating, exercise and rest habits), work or in other areas. They tend to do things in spurts, hoping that the next special gym machine, money-making opportunity or chocolate-fudge-cake-diet plan that comes down the road is THE answer to the toned physique, loaded bank account and weight loss that they SAY they really want.

That is especially true in money-making, by the way. People who are hasty to be rich can end up shutting off their common sense or conscience. I remember being prospected by someone for a lottery-based “business opportunity”, in which people pay money to buy lottery tickets as a group and share the earnings. The company also paid recruiters for every person who was recruited into the scheme.

When I told the fellow I really wasn’t interested and did not want to be involved with anything involving the lottery, he mocked me for my qualms, especially since he COULD  prove that the government has given this company license to operate in Singapore. My reply was, “So what if it is legal? Prostitution is also legal in this country, does that mean I want to become a pimp?”

Needless to say, I didn’t win any friends that day…

The spiritual equivalent for charismatics would be hoping that the next anointed preacher who prays for them or the next big overseas seminar they attend will suddenly catapult them into the heights of their walk with God. In the meantime, however, they neglect prayer, renewing their minds with Scripture and regular serving in church (to actually put into practice what they learn from the Bible and the preaching).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that there is no room in a believer’s life for attending special seminars and all that. I’m just saying that seminars and other events cannot replace regular, consistent time and effort in the basic disciplines of the Christian walk.

Faithfulness does NOT mean complacency

I know someone who has been a church-goer for 15 years (or more). Whenever he ran into spiritual problems and started complaining about God letting him down, I would ask him “Have you been reading your Bible?” And he would say, “Yes. I did my daily chapter of Proverbs. Why? Isn’t that good enough?”

When you are a baby Christian, the daily chapter of Proverbs (moving on to a new chapter each day and starting again from the beginning when you have completed the whole book) is fantastic. When you are supposed to move on and grow up, however…

And personally I doubt he is consistent with even one chapter of Proverbs a day. I believe that people who are consistent with Scripture grow in their appetite and hunger. They want to explore and meditate on the rest of the Bible also, now that they have tasted and seen that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:10).

Especially in spiritual matters, we ought always to seek to expand our understanding of God and his ways, and live them out in our lives.

Hebrews 6:1 (ESV) - Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…

This passage is the background to one of the sternest warnings given in Scripture.

Hebrews 6:4-6 (ESV) - For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Often, people look at this passage and argue about the doctrine of eternal security, whether it is possible for a believer to lose his or her salvation. But that is missing the most important point here. The purpose of this passage is to warn us and urge us to grow up in Christ. Whatever you think the warning means, we can all agree that it is something bad. We don’t want to go there, and the correct response to that warning is to grow up.

So what is God nudging you to be faithful in for 2013?

What will is it that will give you the greatest bang for your buck, the most results for your time and the greatest growth in your life in 2013? It is going to be different for everyone. Talk with your pastor or a good friend, someone who has known you and your life for years, and ask for their advice if you have no idea.

We are not talking about massive time commitments, such as attending Bible college full-time (though I’m sure you will know if you have to). I’m much more small scale in thinking: what would be the best way for YOU, to invest 20-30 minutes a day, every weekday, for the next year? Exercise? Music practice? Scripture reading? Learning new songs? Family time with the kids?

For me, for example, I need to spend a lot more time in the New Testament next year. Following my Bible reading plan this year showed me that I am not as familiar with the New Testament as I want to be. But my ego fights against the idea, since it looks like a step down. My pride says that I ought to go through the entire Bible again, and expect it to work out better next year. But given that I am struggling to keep up with this year’s readings (and have them sink inside me) while juggling work, family and my health, I think I ought to just work on my weaker areas and add in other stuff (like Psalms, Proverbs and the Minor Prophets) after that.

Then Get Started

Find some way, even if it is just 20 minutes a week, to get started before the next year. Many people try to start new habits at the beginning of the year, and find it too much of a change. Far better to start gradually now and step up the pace when January 2013 comes. 

And when it comes to meditating on the Bible, I am toying with the idea of setting up a Facebook group where people can join and find others to hold them accountable to their commitment to God’s Word. And if that interests you, email me and let me know!

In the meantime, however, do seek God for his wisdom and direction for 2013. It will be upon us soon. Let’s face it with a clear direction from God as to what he wants us to achieve and how.

Be blessed!

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!

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!