Preparation

I've always been a firm believer in preparation.

When I first decided I wanted to become a worship leader, I immediately planned my first worship set and the songs I was going to use. I also practiced all those songs on the guitar, since I wanted to use the guitar, rather than the keyboards for leading worship.

How long did I spend practising my first worship set? If I remember correctly, it was for months. I learned more songs as I learned more chords. Then I started playing guitar for worship in cell group. Even though I felt I was ready to lead worship, the cell group kept putting up other people to lead worship, people who didn't really know what they were doing either musically or spiritually. So that just went on for months while I just continued preparing, planning and practicing my worship sets. I did that even though I was not leading worship for my own cell group.

How many people would continue preparing to lead worship if that happened to them?

It was really funny, in the end I finally got to lead worship for a prayer meeting at another church. For 6 months, I led worship for their prayer meeting every week. Suddenly ALL my preparation became useful. Everything I prepared came in useful during those 6 months.

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I had other people telling me that they wanted to become worship leaders. And I always tell them the same thing: prepare one set of worship songs and we'll discuss that. And God knows, many times they would tell me "But I don't know when I will be leading worship!"

I tell them "It does not matter. Prepare first!"

And they never do…

Especially amongst charismatics, some people believe that preparation goes against the leading of the Holy Spirit in worship. It's sad, because it shows that they don't believe that the Holy Spirit will guide them in their preparations. They seem to think that the Holy Spirit is just waiting for the chance to throw some surprises on them to catch them off guard, and if they do not manage to follow the Holy Spirit 100% they will miss whatever blessing the Spirit of God has planned for them for that meeting.

There are two types of preparation that came to mind as I think about worship leaders.

1) Levitical Preparation -

The Levites were set apart for the service of the LORD, to serve at the Ark of the Tabernacle (Num 18:6). They initially started serving from 30 years old onwards (1 Chr 23:3) and that was later changed to 20 years of age onwards (1 Chr 23:24). But one thing remained constant – to be born into the tribe of Levi meant that you were chosen for serving God.

And that also applies to us, as New Testament believers. We are set apart as royal priests onto God (1 Peter 2:9). And just as a Levite knew from birth that he was meant to serve God, and his parents were to raise him up accordingly, so are we meant to serve God. And from the moment of our spiritual birth into the Kingdom of Heaven we should prepare ourselves with that same seriousness and dedication.

2) Prophetic Preparation -

Jewish tradition claims that Samuel set up schools of prophets. They trained people in prophecy and music (1 Sam 10:5-6). By the time of Elijah, these schools were so established that even after Jezebel had killed off many of the prophets, Obadiah could still find 100 prophets to protect (1 Kings 18:4).

For us that refers to specific training we receive for a particular ministry. Is it possible to be effective in serving in worship ministry, for example, without having gone through formal training for it? Yes. But some form of preparation IS necessary.

If even prophets, who learned to speak as they were moved by the Spirit of God (2 Peter 1:21), could benefit from being trained and mentored, how much more us worship ministers?

And the preparation never stops. Even as we step up serve with what we have, God is still continually at work within us. He wants us to get ready for further service.

• Are you serving God on just one music instrument? God may be nudging you to learn another.
  
• Are you leading worship with only a few familiar songs? I am certain God is nudging you to learn more. Why am I certain? Because the Bible doesn't talk about worshiping God with new styles of music or new instruments. But the Scripture DOES tall about singing a new song to the LORD (Psa 33:3, 96:1, 144:9). And if we want to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes, we need to pay more attention to learning and using new songs in worship as well.
  
• Are you limited in your music instrument skill? God may be nudging you to get out of familiar ground, to learn something new on your instrument or just patch up the weaknesses you have.
  
  Quite a lot of keyboardists I know can't play comfortably in all the keys often used for a worship set. If they are using a keyboard that can transpose they may think they are doing OK. Don't be lazy! Just put in the practice and you will get the skills. And you'll make it easier for your worship leader to flow with the Spirit of God and the dynamics of the people during the worship set.

Conclusion:

Get started! If you have not started serving yet, keep preparing. As I learned from my early worship leading experience, your preparation is something God can use. If you are already serving, I hope this post will stir up within you the desire to prepare yourself for the next step in your ministry as well, to keep pressing on to fulfil the work God has planned for you to accomplish in Christ Jesus.

Be blessed!

Another Source of Worship Ministry Conflicts

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

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

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

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

1) Choosing songs for a worship set –

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

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

2) And how about worship music?

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

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

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

Conclusion:

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

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

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

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

Be blessed!

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

Cracking the Worship Ministry Code

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1) God is consistent

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

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

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

And we can think, pray and act accordingly!

2) God is consistent in accepting us

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

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

3) God desires that we meet him in worship

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion:

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

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

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

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

And that's always good!

Chinese Service Musings

In my church, we have a Chinese service and an English service, and to save ourselves loads of scheduling grief we have the same band playing for both services on Sunday. We practice for the services on Wednesday evenings, first for the Chinese service, then for the English one.

Couple of things I noticed after playing for the Chinese services for about half a year. First, the melodies for the Chinese worship songs tend to be quite active. In other words, they tend to fill up all the main counts of each bar, just like the melody of All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, for example. Because of that there isn't really much room to add in more musical elements without making it distracting or gimmicky.

That's actually great for the musicians, because we can quickly run through the songs, play a simple bare-bones accompaniment, and that's good enough. Rehearsals for the Chinese songs get done really quickly, in about half the time we take for the English songs. Sometimes the Chinese backup vocalists stay behind and sit in for the English service rehearsals, and watch us struggle through all the stuff we need to put in for the English songs. I wonder if they feel as if we are not putting in as much effort for them as we are for the English service?

(Side Note: my brother – as in blood brother, we-have-the-same-parents kind of brother – has started playing on the worship team also, playing keyboards. Because he is less confident than I am, he is of course happy at having to play a lot less for the Chinese worship songs!)

Another thing I noticed also is that the worship leaders for the Chinese service are more dependent on hand signs rather than vocal cues. That's pretty frustrating for me, because I believe in vocal cues. Hand-signs only direct the musicians; they don't lead the congregation. If you are using mainly hand-signs, you are more a lead singer than a worship leader, since you are singing TO the congregation rather than leading them in THEIR singing. Are you with me?

God knows, I did try to explain that especially to the Chinese worship leader scheduled on the most recent Sunday. I encouraged her on a number of occasions to use vocal cues, and even demonstrated them for her a few times. She'd just tell me it's really difficult, and I'd try my best to explain to her (in my pathetic Chinese) that it's difficult only if you are obsessed with keeping up with a slick vocal performance. If you are more focused on leading the congregation than on your own singing it is very easy!

Anyway, I do understand why she might be struggling with this. Bear in mind that she doesn't see other Chinese worship leaders using vocal cues, whether in church or on the Chinese 'worship' albums. So within her immediate circle and exposure she doesn't see any immediate confirmation of my advice. And showing her how well the musicians respond to my vocal cues during the rehearsal just doesn't seem to impress her for some reason. *sigh*

That's the force of habit for you!

One thing playing for a wide range of worship settings has shown me is that there is an equally wide range of worship ministry cultures. Those who are afraid of offending others will take that to mean that there are no absolutes in worship ministry, no methods that are more effective than others, and claim that I am dogmatic and carnal by insisting that things be done my way.

I choose to see things differently.

I choose to believe that when you've seen a wide range of worship cultures and settings, you can see what works universally and what doesn't. And what works universally is usually based on how people really are, because fundamentally we all struggle with the same issues and problems. Or to express it in Scripture:

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man."- 1 Cor 10:13 (NIV)

And because most of the time people in the congregation are not able to read the minds of worship leaders and will therefore need something more obvious to direct them than hand-signals given to musicians, vocal cues are still going to work no matter what the language, what the culture or whatever the music style used.

Of course, if I ever come across any exceptions I'll definitely keep you posted!

In case you missed my previous blog post, I'm writing an e-book about worship musicians and singers. Do send in your book title suggestions and the questions you'd like me to answer in this e-book. I want to make it as useful as possible to people in worship ministry, so help me by giving me your questions! You can email me here.

Thanks!

A Lousy Movie...

It went exactly as my wife predicted. I thought the movie was a waste of my time.

I am talking about Storm Warriors, a Hong Kong film based on a Chinese comic series. Having gone to watch similar movies with my wife before, I already had very low expectations, but even then I felt disappointed.

What's wrong with the movie?
 

There was no coherent storyline.

So many lines, details and special effects were thrown in, but not developed into anything coherent. Meanwhile, important elements that would have developed the plot better, to keep the film from being way too jerky and the plot changes from being too abrupt, were introduced too late in the story, or flooded out of consciousness by the constant barrage of details, or not there at all.

It's like worship leaders who try to do too much within a worship set. They've got great songs they want to try, the latest album releases from their favourite Christian singers, and they want to put as much of it in as possible. Asking them to show a little restraint on the creativity or artistic expression usually gets you incredulous looks. "The Holy Spirit prompted me to use these songs," they'd say. "How can you ask me to quench the Spirit?"

I don't know everything about the Holy Spirit, but I DO know his heart.

He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. (John 16:14-15, NIV)

The above passage tells us two things: first, the Spirit's task is to glorify Jesus; and second, he glorifies Jesus by teaching and edifying us, giving us revelation about Jesus. In other words, the Holy Spirit will not have us worship leaders and musicians do things that do not reveal Jesus to the people.

And because the Spirit wants to make sure people can receive the message, we can safely expect that he will restrict himself and not flood the people with information overload. Consider the following passage:

If anyone speaks in a tongue, two--or at the most three--should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret... Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (1 Cor 14:27, 29, NIV)

Notice that even when it comes to divinely inspired utterances the Holy Spirit shows restraint? He keeps himself to two or three. If you've ever been in a meeting where there are prophecies released, you'll realise that two prophecies are already very heavy for people to listen to and judge if they are from the Lord. By three people's minds start to shut off already, so they are quite unable to judge and exercise Scriptural discernment on the utterances.

So if the Spirit shows restraint when it comes to tongues and prophecies, why should we worship ministers not show restraint in our song selections and music arrangements? Do we know more than the Holy Spirit about how to bless God's people?

OK, let's get back to the movie.

My wife kept saying "You didn't read the comic series, that's why you don't understand the movie". My reply to her was "You didn't read Lord of the Rings and yet you could understand the movies. So that's no excuse for lousy storytelling!"

It's like telling a congregation member that they couldn't understand or appreciate the worship set you just did because they didn't hear the original CD or album you got the songs from. "If you hear the album, you'll hear that the people can still worship even when the electric guitar is playing all that stuff, and after the guitar solo the congregation can all start singing again without the worship leader telling them when to start!"

That does not work at all.
The CD version is may not be the best version of the song for you to use. What comes out on CDs is meant for people to listen to, not necessarily to sing along with (otherwise why would Chris sing How Great is Our God in Db major???). Doing a worship song in a particular way just because that is how it is done in the CD is dangerous.

Remember, many people who do worship albums come from a performance background. Their training has been to sing and play music in such a way that the audience will listen and be impressed, not that the people will jump up to their feet and sing along. So if your objective is to unify the praises of the congregation, why would you copy an example is was created with a different objective? Yes, it MIGHT work, and SOMETIMES it does work. But wouldn't it be better to go directly for what would work and be effective in YOUR church worship setting?

 

Back to the movie

So you can guess that the CGI and special effects, the eye-candy actors and actresses left me underwhelmed. There will be women who watch the movie because they are fans of the pretty-boy actors, and because in their eyes those actors can do no wrong, they will say that it is a great movie.

It's like people who are convinced that certain Christian artistes or groups (or churches) produce fantastic and anointed worship albums, so whatever is done in those CDs can never be wrong. And if their home church doesn't appreciate the songs and arrangements from that album, that is because their home church does not have the heart of worship.

Anyway, I think this is enough ranting about a lousy movie! Maybe I shouldn't be complaining, since I am a worship leader, not a movie producer. But I really hope that you, at least, will be better at ministering in worship than the producers of Storm Warriors are at producing a movie!




P.S. and if you know you need more equipping to be an effective worship leader or musician, and you haven't got my Invisible Worship Musician E-book yet, what are you waiting for? Get it as a Christmas present for yourself! Order from this Christmas Sale page and get it more than 10% off!

Worship vs. Worship Leading

Worship vs. Worship Leading

What’s the balance between worship and worship leading?

This very important question is answered in the following short (less than 3 min) video by Sam Middlebrook.

Sam Middlebrook is the worship pastor of Christ the King Community Church (Bellingham, Washington) with ten years of full-time ministry experience and is the founder of developingworship.com. He’s not some wannabe theorist with a bunch of clichés and no fruit; he has experience and results to back up what he teaches. Anyone can have occasional flashes of brilliance and be used by God once in a while. Sam consistently imparts wisdom and insights in his sharing and teaching.

Enjoy the video!

A Pastor Fell...

And I am grieved, so grieved.

What happened was that I was in my pastor’s office with my pastor and another brother-in-Christ. I don’t remember how the conversation went that way, but they suddenly mentioned that the pastor I knew turned away from Christ and decided to embrace Judaism. For a moment I couldn’t accept it. There must be other pastors in Singapore with the same name, right? It must have been one of the others, right? It can’t be the same pastor I knew so long ago, right?

Wrong.

One of the memories of that pastor I remember vividly even to this day came from a church meeting more than 16 years ago. The altar call for that meeting was for people suffering from migraine. I did not really believe I would be healed if I went up for prayer, but I was desperate enough to try anything (Yeah, that happens). When I went up for prayer it was that pastor who anointed me with oil, prayed for me simply and authoritatively in the name of Jesus. And the migraine went away and stayed away for more than ten YEARS.

Now I find that he left the Lord and decided to go for Judaism instead. How could this have happened?

This is how it started. Years back the One New Man movement started in Singapore. Based on Ephesians 2:14-18, it had the noblest of intentions – to make the Christians in Singapore aware of the Jewish roots of our faith and to work towards reuniting Jewish and Gentile (non-Jew) believers in Jesus.

Very soon, I started seeing disturbing attitudes within that movement. It was one thing for them to teach on the significance of the Jewish feasts (great!), it was quite another to have people condemning and mocking churches that ignored the Jewish feasts while paying attention to evangelism. It was enlightening for me to see the Passover supper re-enacted the way Jesus did it on the night he was betrayed. It was worrying to see people denouncing their home churches as being deceived and corrupted by pagan influences because their home churches didn’t do it exactly that way.

I don’t know enough of the people in the movement to decide if the movement was of God or not. But I did see some people given a lot of new knowledge and they got heady with it. Suddenly they felt as if they were the only ones who knew the TRUTH ™ and were therefore superior to the rest of the body of Christ who did not agree with them. In the midst of all the new information they received, they forgot that knowledge puffs up but love builds up (1 Cor 8:1). The new knowledge became the source of significance for some of those involved with the movement, and so it was reasonable for them to continue pursuing more and more of it.

And as a result they were eventually led astray from a pure and sincere devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3). Whether it ends with massive theological errors or with gross moral failings, there will NEVER be good fruit coming from pursuing knowledge out of a desire for a sense of significance or superiority.

And why am I sharing with you about this?

Because I don’t want to be responsible for this myself. I am working to bring about a reformation in the way people see and practice worship ministry. Like the One New Man movement, what I am teaching is based on the Scriptures; on top of that it works a lot better, gives better results and with less effort, than the conventional teachings from Praise and Worship Inc.

When people start seeing how well my paradigm fits together and how effective in worship ministry they suddenly become, it’s too easy for them to get all puffed up with the knowledge I impart. Hey, I have to keep a constant guard against that myself!

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph 4:15-16, NIV)

I’ve said this before in my book and I’ll say it again. In order for the entire body of Christ to be built up, every part HAS to do its work. Every part has to have unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God in order that we may be built up together. And that not only means that MY part is important (you just can’t make it without me) but YOUR part is important also.

In other words, I just can’t make it without YOU.

Once you take that attitude towards people who disagree with you, humility comes very easily. For me I have a long list of parts of the Body of Christ who irritate me no end. And usually what they have in common is a smug sense of superiority over the rest of us, because they think have some secret insider knowledge that we don’t have, and we are all backsliden, paganized, deceived by the devil or whatever, because we don’t agree with them.

I have to look at those people and tell myself “I need them. I can’t make it without them! That’s what the Bible says!” It’s not difficult, just impossible. That’s why I need God to help me do it. That really helps to keep me humble!

Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? (2 Cor 11:29, NIV)

That verse pretty much sums up my heart right now as I think about that pastor. Before I head off to continue praying through the matter (until I am back at peace again) I’d like to share with you one parting thought.

When the One New Man movement started in Singapore, the people who first embraced it were mainly from the worship ministry. I guess it is the nature of our ministry to constantly desire to know more and more about the God we worship. And what the movement offered, a deeper insight into the Old Testament, was exactly what many worship ministry people want (and need).

But some of those involved found themselves caught up with the trappings of Jewish-style worship (minor chord progressions, shofars and singing songs that were partially in Hebrew) and they were distracted from worshiping in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23-24). They started assuming that their worship is more pleasing to God because they were singing in Hebrew, rather than depending on Jesus, our Great High Priest, to make their sacrifices of praise acceptable (Heb 13:15).

And when those trappings were not easily accepted by the average Singaporean congregation, it is easy for the worship ministry people to think that those people are not ‘true’ worshippers because they do not worship God the ‘right’ way. Continuing to do things the ‘right’ way became more important than ministering to the congregation, to serving the people God bought with his own blood.

The fault DOES NOT lie with the One New Man movement. It wasn’t studying Old Testament worship that caused all these problems, it was because of certain attitudes hidden within the hearts of SOME of the people involved, and those attitudes eventually bore bad fruit. And this can happen with ANY worship movement.

So always guard your heart. Remember that worship ministry is to serve God’s people. We rise to our highest when we humble ourselves to be a blessing to the children of God (Mark 10:43-45).

That’s about it for now. Do keep me in prayer, that God will help me and comfort me in my grief. Be blessed!

The Spotlight Anointing

I see this happen quite often with inexperienced worship leaders. If they manage to unify the praises of God's people, they would bring up the momentum in worship - and suddenly pause the singing. They usually say something like "the presence of God is here!" but no one else is feeling anything.

It's as if the presence of God falls on the worship leader alone, like a spotlight. That's why I call this phenomenon the Spotlight Anointing.

I didn't understand this at first. I used to think there was something wrong with me or with the worship leader. That went on until I started leading worship and experienced the spotlight anointing firsthand. The presence of God would fall on me in an intense way, and I felt as if I need not go on in worship.

Why did I continue to press in during worship anyway? Well, the worship leader I was patterning myself after didn't stop so early, so I didn't stop either. Thank God for that! Or I would not have discovered that the presence of God spreads to the rest of the worshipers later as I continue.

I personally believe this anointing is represented in Psalm 133:2 - It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. (NIV) Imagine, what if the anointing oil that was poured on the head stopped there? Would you prefer that it stop? Or continue to flow to everyone else?

So what do you need to do as a worship leader? Keep going, keep pressing in. Recognize that the spotlight anointing is a way of telling you that you are on the right track, but you must preserver so that the others there will be blessed too.

There are three points to note about the spotlight anointing.

1) The spotlight anointing is good, because it shows that you are on the right track.

Many worship leaders don't even get to the point where they have to face this issue in the first place, because they usually don't unify the praises very well. They allow the musicians to play distracting music, or they do not structure the songs based on what would facilitate the singing. Once they get all these little petty details out of the way, they can then begin to experience the spotlight anointing - and go beyond it!

2) The spotlight anointing can fall upon musicians too.

We see that happen when the worship leader has begun to unify the singing, and then passes the baton over to a musician to do some instrumental solo. If this is done too early, the musician feels the intense presence of God, but the rest of the people do not. So it becomes a performance, more of a show from people in front rather than the singing of everyone in the place.

From this you can see that putting in instrument solo in the middle of worship is not as simple as the 'worship' CDs make it out to be.

3) The spotlight anointing can lead to laziness.

Some worship leaders do not consistently worship God unless they are leading worship. If they have to rotate with other worship leaders, they find it difficult to worship God when other people are leading the worship. Why? Is it because they have no genuine heart for worshipping God? Maybe.

But another possibility to look at is this: when the spotlight anointing comes on the worship leader, it comes very easily. When this person worships God by himself or herself, it may not come that easily. Because of that, people may just give up and not strive to seek God in worship in their own personal devotional lives.

But this is no excuse for laziness. When you lead worship it is hard to focus fully on God in worship, because you need to monitor the singing of the congregation and respond accordingly. This can take up a lot of your attention. But when you are worshiping God by yourself you can fully focus on God. You are more free to express your praises to God without having to worry about whether the congregation can keep up.

And if you do not worry about that when you lead worship, well, you OUGHT to!

So worship leaders, value your own personal worship time with God. It is time for you experience God one-on-one. Let the spotlight anointing be an added bonus, not the main thing!

Conclusion: The next time you lead worship or watch other people lead worship, pay attention to when the spotlight anointing manifests. When you understand how this anointing works you can avoid the pitfalls that follow, while enjoying this anointing to the full!

Translation in Worship

One Sunday, after a particularly cringe-inducing worship session, I came to this realization.

I am a translator. I translate normal music into worship music.

On other words, I take what may or may not work for congregational singing and turn it into what works a lot better.

I realized that only after I noticed that I was always looking at the same areas whenever the worship didn't really take off, or it worked in spite of what the musicians did, not because of it. The problems were always in the same areas. So just as a language translator would look at subject-object-verb order, tenses, figures of speech and those other technical matters, these are the areas I'd address when translating normal music into worship music.

1) Key – I'll change the keys to something singable and comfortable. The two are not necessarily the same. There are many times when people CAN sing in a lower key, for example, but because they are croaking all the way they don't have the freedom to sing their hearts out. I'm not really a trained singer, so what's OK for me will usually be OK for the regular church-goer as well. That's a useful rule of thumb I use.

2) Chord Progressions – I'll change any weird chord progressions to something more natural. These days there are more songs written with odd chord progressions. These progressions draw attention to themselves in an attempt to sound distinct and clever, when the congregation is better off paying more attention to the singing in the first place. I've seen unnatural chord progressions like F – G/B – C/E. I amend those immediately.

3) Rhythms – I change all rhythms to what fits the singing. Sometimes I hear songs where the melody is in crotchets and quavers (quarter-notes and eighth-notes) but the music comes in some highly syncopated semi-quaver (sixteenth-notes) kind of thing. When the melody and the accompaniment isn’t in sync, the music becomes a distraction. If the worship takes off, it's in spite of the music, not because of it.

4) Intros – I'll change the intro to something easy for the congregation to get in sync with. Or I'd create a new one that will tell the congregation when to start singing. Musically sophisticated intros, though exciting to listen to, do not always lead to enthusiastic singing from the congregation. Welcome to the real world…

5) Structure – I'll look at the structure of the song and take out gaps where the congregation would not be singing. Too many gaps and the people lose momentum in their singing. In other words, no instrument solos in the middle of the song. Musicians, do your self-expression and improvisation on your own time, not on congregation time!

6) Bonus – if after all that I still have the time, I'll work on the chord progressions even more. I hear more sloppy song-writing these days, people having the bass and the melody on the same note (a G# in the melody AND the bass, for example). This causes the music to plod along. This is fine at the end of a musical phrase, but it's sloppy elsewhere. This is something I fix if I have the time (and the musicians have the patience!).

I've been doing this for so long that, until I started formally training church musicians, it was all done instinctively. But once I began articulating my translation process, I soon started drawing flack for it. I was accused of being worldly, operating in the flesh, not walking in faith, and not trusting God, all that kind of stuff.

James 2:15-16 (NIV) – Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?


This verse, by the way, makes sense only if you adopt a Word-of-Faith paradigm. We wouldn't say "keep warm and well fed" to someone in need unless we believe that our blessing would make a difference, right? James tells us to let our words of faith be backed up by our works of faith, to do something about the physical needs of our brethren in Christ even as we bless them with our words.

Applying this principle to worship ministry, what use is praying for the congregation to respond well to God in worship, or praying for God to use us powerfully to lead his people in worship, if we are not willing to manage the little, petty details that would help them in singing praises wholeheartedly to God?

Of course, there are cheap imitations of this attitude around. I'd hear musicians spout the usual church musician cliches, such as "Simple is best", "less is more" and all that. Problem is, these people then play the simple things that do NOT support the worship and leave out what would support the worship. What use is that?

We need to explicitly look at all these steps and processes. One thing about being a musician, we often forget what it's like to NOT be a musician. Yeah, it's egocentrism all over again.

I was talking with this worship leader once. She told me that she wasn't confident in leading worship because she had no formal music training and didn't know when to start singing. My reply was simple: "if YOU don't know when to start singing, the musicians are not doing their job. Because if it isn't clear to you, what makes you think it'll be clear to the people in the pews?"

We musicians would think in terms of chords and bars. In such a scenario, we'd either keep repeating the intro and try to drill it into the worship leader through sheer repetition, or tell them to watch out for the chords and the counts. "When you hear the chord V, count 1, 2, 3 then you start. Start on the quaver after the 3. Get it?"

No, they don't get it. What are you going to do then?

People carry a lot of assumptions within their communications, whether they are regular people speaking English or musicians playing their music. We don't look at our assumptions unless something breaks down somewhere.

For example, when pre-school children do something wrong, I hear many parents and teachers saying to children "Did I say you could do XXX?" Frankly, this means NOTHING to the kid unless you tack on the assumption that the kid should do ONLY what you tell them to do. Once the kid latches on this assumption (killing all sense of personal initiative and daring after that) that statement would finally make sense to the kid and bring the speaking adult the desired results.

And as I type this I wonder: did the musicians I work with have their initiative and daring killed this way before? If so it'll explain their horrified gasps and shocked faces whenever I suggest changing the chords or rhythms of the worship songs. Just some food for thought…

So if you are new to this translation business but want to get started in serving, truly serving the people of God, the best advice I can give you is this: just get started. Faithful with the little? God will entrust you with much (how do you think I started?) But if you are already translating what you hear on 'worship' albums into worship music and using that to serve your congregation, I'd like to encourage to keep doing what you're doing. Not everyone gonna be supportive or understand what you are doing. That's when you have to remind yourself what the Bible says "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we DON'T give up!" (Gal 6:9)

Book Reviews and Recommendations

The following reviews are up on the Recommended Resources page

a) People in the Presence of God - Barry Liesch

b) Laugh Again - Charles Swindoll

c) Dynamic Duo - Rick Renner

d) The Heart of the Artist - Rory Noland

Go check them out! More reviews and recommendations coming soon...

Because Of? Or In Spite Of?

Revelations from a Past-Life Regression

Anyone who knows me from long ago would have told you they could see it coming from miles away.

I stumbled across this book in the library on the 'simple' science of getting what you want. It dealt extensively on logical fallacies, which are arguments and reasoning that seem sound but are actually wrong. Very wrong.

I was like an addict on rehab suddenly offered the drugs he craved.

I couldn't help myself.

I devoured the book in one sitting and, before I knew it, I was brought back to my past-life as a Philosophy major in NUS. Those were the days when I was first taught about logical fallacies, learned to dissect (and demolish) arguments just for the fun of it… and couldn't carry on a normal conversation with anyone outside of the Philo department for longer than five minutes!

("Err… JJ, there's not much difference between then and now…")

Anyway, one of the fallacies is called Post hoc ergo propter hoc, which is the idea that because event A happened before event B, therefore event A is the cause of event B. And this fallacy has caused the greatest amount of confusion in the Worship Training scene.

For example, an unprepared person gets thrown into the deep end of the pool and has to play an instrument for worship. This person plays badly (out of time and many wrong chords) and the presence of God is felt in an intense way.

Conclusion? The poor playing caused the presence of God to be made manifest in a powerful way.

So we should play poorly too. Shouldn't we?

Another example: a pastor comes back from an overseas conference at a church experiencing powerful revival. He had a very personal encounter with God as the host church sang one of their home grown songs 20 times in a row.

Conclusion: if we sing the same worship song 20 times in a row we'll have the same revival too.

The examples are extreme for the sake of showing you the fallacy in action. If we decided to be a lot more discerning, however, we'll find that there are other questions we can and should ask.

Taking the second example: was the revival because of the song? Or the repetition? Or the people singing the song? Or the worship leader leading the song? Or the sermon the pastor preached before the song (earlier in the service, the night before or last week)?

Or from having as many of those factors as possible coming together?

The exact song may have played a crucial role. Or it may not, and all the impact may have been caused by something else. The musicians may have messed up the music that time. So do we say that the revival happened because the musicians messed up? Or in spite of it?

As you can easily see, it's very difficult to shift through all these possibilities and identify the immediately relevant ones. And one reason for that is because people do not have a comprehensive and sound worship ministry paradigm to help them think through the issues and factors.

That is why my book The Invisible Worship Musician is so powerful. It gives a comprehensive and sound worship ministry paradigm that helps you to:

1) understand and explain what works for worship ministry and why; AND

2) forecast, with reasonable accuracy, if (and how) any new factors may or may not influence the worship experience of the congregation.

Without it, we are simply groping in the dark. We end up tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of 'teaching' and chasing every new craze and the latest worship fads that come along.

Now I am not saying that the Invisible Worship Musician paradigm is the ONLY viable worship ministry paradigm available. However, I do sincerely believe it gives you the best results, and puts you in a better position to understand and evaluate other worship ministry paradigms too.

That's about it for now. Stay tuned, I'll be sharing with you soon about how you can discover other worship ministry paradigms that can greatly benefit your ministry.

Be blessed!

Milestones and Looking Back...

It's a great feeling!

As I shared in my previous post, my laptop crashed and I spent lots of time offline. They were fun, refreshing and enlightening. I got to read books that gave me ideas to pursue for my website and as I charted out those ideas, I realized how far out of my comfort zone they would take me.

I also suddenly realized that my site has become what I originally wanted it to be.

For those of you who have been around long enough and saw the original layout of my site (what I had in May 2008), well, that was the best I could come up with at that time. My understanding of HTML and all that was really limited (actually, non-existent). Sad, right?

But things just magically clicked together (no pun intended) after I grit my teeth and got that site out. New info came my way, and I found that I could just add in more and more of what I wanted my site to have. Then I accidentally crashed my own site sometime in August and had to rebuild everything exactly the way I wanted it.

And that feels REALLY good. Get what I mean?

As I said before, I wanted my site to:

1) explain my Invisible Worship Musician e-book - Well, that was obvious, right? I created training materials I felt I could be proud of, information that has been battle-tested in the worship ministry and blessed many people. Now it's time to up the ante and share it with the rest of the world.

2) offer Worship Ministry e-course to give people a taste of what i teach - Why do that? Because I know that there are people around who actually GET worship ministry, people who subconsciously understand what really works. I DON'T want those people buying my e-book, so I provide the e-course for them to check out my materials and see that they don't need it.

Bad business move? Not really. From May up till now I have not had to give a single refund. Which suggests that I have effectively screened the prospective buyers effectively, so that those who don't need what I offer don't buy it.

3) show Worship Ministry articles as a quick and easy reference guide for anyone involved with the worship ministry - they are short pieces of teaching that can be easily read and used. They don't replace what I teach in my book, but they are helpful and I want everyone to benefit from them.

What's next? Stuff that makes me really uncomfortable, things that have me praying that God will bring me resources, link me up with the right people, and give me LOTS of courage.

And stuff that will further increase the teaching value of my site, to make it an effective and useful resource for worship leaders and musicians for all over the world.

So for now, I am holding a special promotion for my Invisible Worship Musician materials. It's called the Milestones Sale and it allows you to purchase my materials at US$37 ($20 off the usual price). Do grab this special offer, it's only available from now until 8th November. And it will probably be the very last special promotion for this in 2008.

Stay tuned for further developments! And do contact me with your ideas and feedback for what else I can add to my website, I'd love to hear from you!

Be blessed!

Great Worship Ministry Article!

Very seldom do I come across a worship ministry article that impresses me to the very core of my being. To be frank, a lot of what's on the Internet is a rehash of the same old tired material from Praise and Worship Inc. and isn't very useful. But just yesterday I stumbled across an article by Colin Owen and moved quickly to get permission to reproduce it on my website.


People may think I don't use the works of others because I am young, brash and opinionated and think that I know best. And I won't deny the possibility. But if that's the case, what kind of article will wow me to the max, such that I HAVE to share it with you? Won't it be a really good one? Read it and judge for yourself. You can check it out here at http://www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/article11.htm


Be blessed!

Nicolaitan Email

One thing I do to keep my finger on the pulse of the worship scene worldwide is to sign up for worship lists and forums. Just reading the same questions over and over again from different people all over the world is a great way to see what are the issues that bother the people in the body of Christ when it comes to worship ministry.

So when my book came out I also sent an announcement to ONE of the lists I subscribe to. Why didn't I send it out to more? Dunno, didn't feel right. Anyway, I got this email last week from someone who subscribed to that list, reproduced here for you in exact detail.

____

57.00 dollars for an ebook your insane

dont you feel your gouging the body a little bit here

bob sorges books can be found for 99 cents

judson cornwall let us praise abebooks com a dollar

and those are amazing powerful life changing books

go buy those insteads of hajis 57.00 ebook

_______

I took a quick trip over to my mailing list, the one that emails people links to the extracts from my book. Just as I suspected, this person didn't even check out my extracts before coming to a conclusion about my book. So at that moment I had to choose what to do. I chose to interpret Proverbs 26:4-5 (NIV) this way:

"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself." – Don't answer to this person in the same tone and attitude. I've to answer him at a higher level than he emailed me at.

"Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes." This means that in my email I've to show him clearly his foolishness, or he'll think he was right and what he did was fine.

Let's face it, if you read my usual writing, you know it'll take me a lot of strain and effort to write at that guy's level, using his tone and attitude. Just for the exercise I decided to pretend I had a humungous lobotomy. If I had the lobotomy and a stroke (lost the common sense and courtesy part of my brain) and wanted to answer him according to his folly (same tone and attitude) it'll look like this:

_____

your insane yurself

u didnt even read the free pages u think u noe if the book is good

go read your powerful life changing books if they teach u to judge befor you get all yur facts rite

if money is an issue go get a job instead of emailing what you dunno bout

or if you want my book free ask nicely I sometimes do charity work haha

______

But of course, I didn't reply to him that way. Here's my spur of the moment reply

______
Hi, R!

> 57.00 dollars for an ebook your insane

No, not really. (nevermind what my wife thinks.) :) (following proverbs 12:16)

> dont you feel your gouging the body a little bit here

If you want to see what is my opinion of gouging the body, read the most recent post on the worship business
at www.jvworship.blogspot.com. If THAT doesn't get your blood boiling...   (Using proverbs 15:1)

> bob sorges books can be found for 99 cents
> judson cornwall let us praise abebooks com a dollar
> and those are amazing powerful life changing books

And you can say that my book isn't. Without reading it. Hmmmm... There's a
verse in Proverbs 18:13 about those who answer before listening.
You want life-changing at a discount? Get THAT verse. (You do have a bible of your own, right?)       

(ok, that last part wasn't nice of me. I admit that)

Hey R, let me tell you something about what I am doing. I am writing a tough book, one that people need to read.
And I am putting the whole thing on a money-back guarantee. Everytime anyone buys the book I have to pay Paypal.
That means I make a loss if anyone asks for a refund.

IF you are involved in worship ministry (not just a bystander) get the book. If you don't get results from it (or even if
you do but you still don't like me) ask for the refund. The ebook is still in YOUR possession (I can't take it back),
I'll have made a loss, and you'll still have the insights, revelations and knowledge I paid for with not just money, but
sweat and tears.

> go buy those insteads of hajis 57.00 ebook

Let me ask YOU a question then. How much would YOU price an ebook written by a friend of yours if you know that
the message in this ebook is difficult for people to accept, but has been used by your friend over and over again to not
only lead worship himself but teach total newbies to do the same. And do it effectively, over and over again. How much
would you tell your friend to charge for that?

And how much would that ebook be worth if lots of the other material around not only doesn't work, but blames the
user ("What I teach you doesn't work for you, not because I am teaching you the wrong things, but because you're not
called to the worship ministry or there's something wrong with your heart").

What price would you tell your friend to charge for the book if you know he will get loads of grief, accusations and
misunderstandings, often from people who are perfectly happy with the status quo and don't want growth? And you,
personally, what would you say to your friend who knows that he will get grief for what he's trying to do for the body of
Christ, but still goes ahead and does it anyway, because many have been blessed, but he still wants to bless even
more?

Thanks, R, for taking the time to email your thoughts. I respect that a whole lot more than people who would
criticise me behind my back. You had the courage to bring up the matter with me directly. I respect that. 

And I also appreciate the opportunity to clarify my thoughts on this. I mean, you can guess that what I just emailed
above isn't what I should put on my website, yah?

Finally, R, I'd like to get your permission to quote YOUR email and my reply on my blog. It's something that the rest
of my students need to read. Are you ok with that?

_____ 

Yup, that was my email reply. I actually wanted to use his email for a generic post on Proverbs, but the fellow actually emailed me again with shocking news – he's actually a pastor. Hence the main point of this post.

I teach the Bible, and I know for this season that God has entrusted me with insights and understanding for the body of Christ in the area of worship ministry. It's not my responsibility at this season to teach about other areas. But that doesn't mean that what I have to share doesn't apply to other areas of life too.

One of the things I have taught about in my book is about the Nicolaitan spirit. I described that spirit and how it manifests itself in the worship ministry in some detail in my book, but I didn't mention this one symptom of the Nicolaitan spirit: behaving as if one is above the rules. In other words, "the rules that apply to others don't apply to me".

Under the conventional worship ministry paradigm, which claims that effectiveness was based on the heart, it was difficult to be effective in worship ministry and not fall prey to pride. Think about it, people kept saying that the heart was the key factor for success, which implied that if you are effective in leading worship, you had a heart that God was pleased with. Not easy to resist pride if you believe that.

If a worship musician or leader from that point gets infected with the Nicolaitan virus, it can manifest in various ways, such as skipping sermons ("I don't need to go, since I know the way to the presence of God") or missing practices, or not attending church when not serving in worship. Or in how he/she treats other people.

This principle also applies to ministry beyond the worship ministry too. We have in this situation a clear-cut example of a pastor who forgot that the wisdom from heaven is pure, peace-loving and considerate (James 3:17). God may be using this pastor powerfully in some ways, but Proverbs 18:13 still applies to every one of God's children, no matter how powerfully God uses him (or anyone else) in the ministry.

Or let me put it to you this way: if you are a father, would you put up with one of your children insulting another one of your children? Would you close one eye and say "it's ok, he's dedicated to my work and purposes, I can let him bash another one of my kids once in a while"?

Don't think so.

For those of you who have read my book, by the time you get to the last chapter you'll understand why you can say that my entire book is addressing the Nicolaitan spirit that often arises in the worship ministry. And though I explain loads of technical issues in considerable detail in the book, once you understand it you'll realize that leading and playing for worship is so embarrassingly simple there is absolutely no room for pride, much less the Nicolaitan spirit.

The true nature of worship ministry is diametrically opposed to the Nicolaitan spirit. Oftentimes, just exposing the Nicolaitan spirit is enough to break its hold. I don't know if there are any easy answers to dealing with the Nicolaitan spirit outside of the worship ministry, but I hope that if there are any God will entrust them to me as I continue to be faithful with dealing with it in a worship ministry situation.

Well, this is the email I mentioned in my last post. I know some of you may disagree with me over how I handled the situation. Anyway, I can't take back my reply to him, neither could he take back his first email to me. Of course if he asked me not to quote him I wouldn't have, not because he's a pastor (I didn't know that until he replied) but because he's a sibling-in-Christ, and I know God would prefer that I respect his feelings and remember that mercy triumphs over judgment.

And for those of you who are hesitating over getting my book because of the price, grab it now while it’s on a special offer. You can check on the special offer here at www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/successstory.htm. This offer expires 27th May 2008, so hurry!

And maybe next post I can get on with the Proverbs post I want to do, one that involved child development theories... Stay tuned!