Worship Ministry Foundations - Time and People

One thing about ministering to another church, it makes me look again at the foundations of worship ministry. I have to explain again to a new worship team why what I do works, as well as why they sometimes get results even though they don't do everything the way I tell them to.

When they have this understanding they are able to adapt to any changes that happen, because they know the foundations and principles that give them results. And that is what I want for you too, of course!

2 Chronicles 5:13-14 – The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: "He is good; his love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.

Time:

How long has this group, fellowship or congregation been around? The longer it has been around, the more time it has had to build up their unity. And that is something that will be expressed in their worship.

In 2 Chronicles 5:12 (not included above) we read that the musicians involved at the dedication of the Temple were Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. They were around and serving ever since King David's time (1 Chr 25:1). Solomon started building the temple since the 4th year of his reign, and completed it in the 11th year (1 Kings 6:37-38). And this tells us that Asaph, Heman and Jeduthan were already serving and heading their respective worship teams for at least 11 years.

Of course we can expect some turnover (some musicians would have retired ever since and some new ones introduced). But the fact remains, 11 years is a considerable period of time. Enough to build a unity of heart and mutual understanding that allows them to work well as a team. In 1 Chronicles 25:7, we find that they were sorted out by family groups. That means that even outside of ministry time they were in considerable amount of fellowship with each other.

What this means:

This means that the worship ministry of a long-standing group can do things ineffectively and still experience the glory of God in their worship. However, this ministry may end up thinking that they have results because of their heart, skill, methods or their super-anointing. You can just imagine the books, worship albums and worship seminars that will follow from that!

And if they ever minister at another church and the people there don't respond, they may think it's because the congregation are not true worshippers, not serious about God and all that. The congregation may also end up suspecting that there is something wrong with themselves, why do they not experience the glory of God when the 'anointed', famous worship team from another church comes to minister to them.

People:

As we saw from 1 Chronicles 25:7, the worship ministry was made up of Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their relatives. That is quite a closed group. At the dedication of the Temple, they were joined by 120 priests on the trumpets, another closed group. Once you have a closed group of people who have spent a lot of time together, unity is easy to build.

But what if your church is NOT a closed group? What if you have new believers born-again into your church regularly? What if you have people from other churches visiting or switching over to your church? What if your group is growing, as the LORD desires?

Acts 2:47 – And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (NIV)

That means that you have to discover what is the most user-friendly approach to worship ministry and stick to that, unless you want to alienate the newer people. Your congregation may already be used to your various musical and worship leading quirks, but wouldn't it be better if what you do works not only with them but also with newcomers as well?

This means cleaning up your worship team of any musical distractions. Make sure your drummer can keep time and your keyboardist or pianist isn't doodling or rambling away on the instrument because he or she is bored. Make sure your overall band sound isn't too loud or too full, since the more you play the less they sing.

And most importantly, make sure the congregation always knows where you want them to sing next. I've seen too many lead singers rather than worship leaders, people who are more interested in their own singing rather than leading the congregation. Musicians, you are not exempted. If your worship leaders are not musically inclined or trained, and they have difficulty knowing when to start singing, then you are not doing your job as a worship musician. If you can't even cue in the worship leader, who has some idea of what is going on, how much more lost would the congregation be?

All those tips and pointers I just gave are not new. I have mentioned them before in my emails and posts (and taught in greater detail in my book, of course). If you get good results in your church even in spite of not following these tips, it would most likely because you have a long-standing, closed group. Nothing wrong with that, just remember that what you are comfortable with now may not work should the group dynamics change or if you have to minister in a new congregation, OK?

Be blessed!

Like Beasts That Perish

I've got a confession to make.

 

This season, I've been quite unbalanced in my Bible consumption. The only passages I am studying this season are from the Psalms (because I want to make sure I stay in the Psalmic flow in my worship ministry) and on the good stuff, like health, wealth and protection.

So you can guess I was quite taken aback when out of nowhere, the words "like beasts that perish" keep ringing in my spirit. When it stayed for more than a couple of days, I flipped over to the Psalm where it came from, Psalm 49. And I found something interesting.

First, this phrase is used to describe all men.

Psalm 49:12 (NIV) - People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 49:16-20 (NIV) - Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases; for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them. 

Which leads us to the question: who are those who have no understanding?

Psalm 73:21-22 (NIV) - When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.

In the New Testament, we see that false teachers too are like the beasts that perish. Why?

2 Peter 2:10-12 (NIV) - This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish. 

They follow the cravings of their fleshly nature and despise (make light) of authority. The telling sign is that they blaspheme (Strong's #987, Blasphemeo, to rail at, revile, to speak evil of) in matters they do not understand. In other words, they don't hesitate to talk trash even when they don't know the people or the issues involved. 

They are also ill-disciplined, in fact, Peter refers to them as slaves of depravity (2 Peter 2:19) because depravity rules over them. I know it is fully possible for believers to be caught in the entanglement of sin and addiction. That does not automatically mean that they are like the beasts that perish. If they are humble, and are wise enough to hold their peace when they do not understand a matter, that means that they still have hope, because of the wisdom that still remains and is still working within them.

But if their lives are messed up and they are STILL arrogant, we have a problem here!

When Jude talks about people who are like beasts, the words are strikingly similar to Peter's:

Jude 8-10 (NIV) - In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. 

In this day and age, I come across a number of children who are both ill-disciplined (no habit of delayed gratification) and quick to revile, condemn and insult. A few weeks ago, I saw a little girl, who could have been no older than five or six years old, arguing with and insulting her mother in public. That girl even went as far as to actually strike her mother on the arm a few times, at least until she noticed my furious glare from a few metres away.

God is my witness, I was only seconds away from shouting at her hard enough to probably traumatize her for life. It was only the presence of the mother that kept me from exploding, since I knew It would be a horrible loss of face for the mother should I act as if she was incapable of disciplining her daughter and I (a total stranger) have to take over.

(by the way, I was just talking with Jess last night about facing demon-possessed people. He said I was fierce enough to frighten away demons … face-palm moment!)

After a while, the mother noticed me and remarked "Hey, aren't you the keyboardist from [my old] church?" That was more than ten years ago. And that meant that this lady was also a believer. Yet her daughter turned out like that…

Ill-disciplined and blasphemous people are on the rise in today's society. It is therefore the responsibility on us Christians to:

• Pray for our children 
• Model the right behavior (to be self-controlled and respectful) for them

… lest they, like too many I've seen, end up like the beasts that perish. The Bible does hold out hope for them, since we are told to: 

Jude 23 (NIV) - … save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. 

But won't it be a lot easier to keep them from descending to such depths in the first place? Just some food for thought... 

Psalm 49 ends with this sobering truth:

“People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.”

It’s not just about them, it’s about us. When we envy wrongly, when we resist discipline, when we rail at what we don’t understand, we live no differently. But God’s call is higher: to walk in wisdom, humility, and understanding. That is what separates a child of God from a beast that perishes. 

Every time we let ourselves be corrected, every time we silence envy, every time we choose restraint instead of impulse, we rise above being beasts and walk in understanding. May God find our hearts and actions befitting his elect people, chosen and delightful in his eyes

Be blessed!

Spiritual Denseness and Dullness

One thing I struggle with this season is this sense of being spiritually dense, as if I am not hearing God as well as I ought to. Because I believe God is still planning good in my life, I'm trying not to let myself get too frustrated over it. But it does make me curious about being spiritually dense. What are some of the reasons people cannot hear clearly from him?

Asaph, one of the psalmists, had a struggle with this too.

Psalm 73:1 - Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

Amen, brother! Preach it!

Psalm 73:2-3 - But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Huh? I don't think I understand…

Psalm 73:4-5 - They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.

Are you sure?

Psalm 73:6-12 – Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?”
This is what the wicked are like— always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

Hold it there, Asaph. I'm getting the feeling that you are just generalizing here. You might see a few wicked prospering here and there, no denying that, but you make it sound like they ALL prosper. Are you sure that is what you really mean?

Psalm 73:13-14 - Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.

What I always thought was that we keep our hearts pure and our hands clean so that we may ascend the mountain of the LORD (Psa 24:4) and be in his presence. What does the prosperity of the wicked have to do with it? Were you thinking that keeping a pure heart and clean hands would ensure the speedy downfall of the wicked? I don't think it works like that!

I can see that you are troubled, Asaph. It looks to me like it's coming more from holding on to your expectations, that the world has to immediately confirm to YOUR idea of justice and reality, rather than what it actually is…

Psalm 73:15-16 - If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.
When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply

It's good that you restrain your words in front of the children of Israel, so that you do not stumble them. What I suspect is that you are trying to 'understand' all this based on your perspective, rather than the Word of God. And personally, I sometimes find that even the Word of God doesn't get through my thick skull when my emotions run amok. I think the best thing to do is…

Psalm 73:17 - till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

Oh never mind, Asaph! I see you figured it out yourself.

Psalm 73:18-20 - Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

Notice a 180 degree change in perspective after entering the presence of God?

Psalm 73:21-24 - When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

This is one of my favourite promises in the Bible. It humbles me and exalts the goodness of God at the same time. It humbles me by reminding me that no matter how spiritual I think I am, I can easily fall back into being a senseless and ignorant beast before God. And yet even then God is still with me, he still holds me and guides me. His faithfulness and patience humbles me, moves my heart and brings me to repentance.

And let's not forget the later glory he has waiting for us!

Psalm 73:25-26 - Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

I've seen people quote this verse and try using it to preach people into desiring and longing for God above the things of this world. But I seldom see them preach it in its context. "Earth has nothing I desire besides you" is NOT a command from God. It’s a statement from Asaph AFTER he has entered the sanctuary of God. In other words, you can fulfil this verse ONLY when you are in the presence of God.

Final Observations:

First, envying the wicked and becoming spiritually dense seem to come together. I discovered this when I recently went through it myself. Which comes first and causes the other? I can't say for sure. But what I CAN say is that if you find yourself envying the wicked, check to see if your spiritual senses are dulled also.

And quickly run into the sanctuary of God before the bitterness that follows (Psa 73:21) has enough time to take root and defile you (Heb 12:15)!

Second, this entire Psalm, coming from someone as spiritually mature as Asaph, is a reminder that I will need to regularly enter the sanctuary of God to restore my vision and sensitivity towards God. Therefore, I have to guard that very jealously. I cannot let condemnation keep me from seeking God when I am by myself, and I cannot let offences with others keep me from seeking God when I am in the congregation of his people. To let being offended (or "disappointed", as the pseudo-spiritual would say) with other people keep me from the presence of God is foolishness and childishness to the highest degree.

Anyway, these are my thoughts and impressions from this Psalm. I hope that something from this would edify you and encourage you in the Lord. Be blessed!

A Few Nights Back

I was just praying a couple of nights back, and this verse caught my attention.

Psalm 65: 4 (NIV) - Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.

This is the question: what ARE the good things of God's holy temple?

I have to admit, I couldn't think of anything offhand. I looked at the rest of the psalm to see if there were any answers or clues. It continues to talk about God's character and power over the elements of nature (Psa 65:5-7). Then it describes how God gives blesses his people with abundant harvests.

If you know me long enough, you'll know that I have no objections to tangible and concrete blessings, such as wealth and health. And in this psalm, wealth is given in its most primal form, not gold, silver or precious stones, but in the form of food. In times of famine, what is the point of having money if there is no food for you to buy?

But I personally don't believe these tangible blessings are the good things the Psalmist refers to in verse 4. Those are depicted as outside of the temple, how God nourishes the land to give a bountiful harvest. What about the blessings within?

Another passage that came to mind as I mused on this,

Ephesians 1:3-9 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to son-ship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ…

This passage, I suspect, tells us the blessings within God's holy temple.

1. Being chosen for a destiny – vs 4-5
2. An adoption to son-ship (being an heir of God) – vs 5
3. Redemption and forgiveness – vs 7
4. Revelation of God's purpose – vs 8-9

Notice that forgiveness and being chosen also comes out early in Psalm 65?

Psalm 65:3 (NIV) - When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.

And in the next verse:

Psalm 65:4 (NIV) – Blessed are those you choose and bring near…

Of course, Paul explains everything a lot more clearly in his letter to the Ephesians.

But there's a problem I realized I have fallen into. When I look at Ephesians 1:3-9, I know the words. But do I get the reality of the words? I don't think so. I think truly grasping these truths require revelation from the Holy Spirit of God.

1 Cor 2:9-10 (NIV) – As it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" — the things God has prepared for those who love him — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

That is why even in Ephesians 1 Paul prays:

Eph 1:17-19 (NIV) – I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Right now, I find that I need to go back to that same prayer. All the prayer, study and meditation on that passage I have done before does not count for much in the now. It's not about how closely you followed the Lord and sought him in the days, months and years past; it's about how closely you follow him NOW. I used to take the Ephesians prayer and pray it over myself, another sibling-in-Christ and my pastor, and whenever I made that my regular practice my heart and mind was set on things above, not things below (Col 3:1-2). But once I stop I start to drift away.

I guess that is why Paul says "I KEEP asking"!

How about you? Is your heart set on things above? Are you enjoying and delighting in the good things of God's house, his holy temple?

Be blessed!

Add an Ad, Anyone?

If you are interested in making money via the Internet, there are three main ways.

1. You use your blog or website to promote your products and services
   
2. You use your blog or website to promote the products of other people, and when a sale is made through your site you get paid a commission
   
3. You have a blog or site that has very high traffic, and businesses who want to get the attention of those who pay attention to you pay you to feature their ads on your site.

As you can guess, I chose the first option, to promote my worship ministry e-training material. I didn't expect other people to want to advertise their stuff on my site, so I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked if I'd be willing to host an ad for Louie Giglio's products on my site. Being a fan of Louie Giglio's work, I of course agreed!

So my site has only ONE ad. At the other extreme, there's another worship leader's blog that has ads galore. What he did was that he signed up for those ad programs that allow Google or the blog host to allocate ads to your site based on what their systems think is relevant. Problem is, their systems decide based on keywords, and if advertisers of wrong products chose keywords poorly, the wrong kind of ads can appear on your site.

This has resulted in all kinds of products being displayed at his worship ministry site. One ad clicked over to a "Free Develop-Your-Psychic-Powers DVD program", another to "Witchcraft Exposed", which promises to teach you witchcraft secrets and spells that others will not teach you. To be frank, I sometimes head over to his site JUST to see what kind of ads will turn up THIS time!

On one hand it's funny, and on the other, it's sad. Because I know about the quirks of the ad program he signed up for, and having been online for a longer period of time than he was, I once emailed him some time back to tell him the ad program was featuring yoga products on his worship ministry site. I was expecting him to either:

1. Ignore me, since I am a stranger to him and him to me
   
2. Thank me profusely for pointing out something he didn't know and was embarrassing him behind his back. Then deal with it.
   
3. Tell me that he has investigated yoga and thinks it's OK. And if that was his personal conviction, I can respect that.

But can you believe it? He actually emailed me, saying "The ads are beyond my control…" No, they are not! He chose to allow ads on his blog. He could have decided to use a free blog that wouldn't charge him anything for hosting his site, or he could have just trusted in God to provide the less than US$10 each month to host his site.

Nope, he decided he needed the few-cents-per-click income from his site more than the respect of fellow believers and the need to follow his own convictions. * fumes *

Anyway…

In case you are thinking about making money via the Internet, I sincerely believe that the Internet, as a market, has matured. Gone are the days of making mindlessly easy money online. Making money online now takes wisdom, hard work and a willingness to grow way beyond the average person's comfort zone.

I am not very much help in this area, since I am only a worship musician. But I'd like to remind urge you to remember: whatever you do online, especially when it comes to making money, please remember:

1. The God you one day have to answer to;
   
2. Your own convictions, your personal beliefs on what is right and what is wrong; AND
   
3. Your spiritual family, the rest of the Body of Christ.

Don't do things that you'd be ashamed to acknowledge before anyone, such as using automatic article spinners to produce and submit many different versions of an article for the sake of tricking Google's search engines. If I'd be ashamed to admit that to Google, how much worse would it be to admit it before the Judge of all the earth, right?

Thanks for putting up with my rant. I just needed to get this off my chest. Be blessed!

How To Plan Evangelistic Concerts

Many, many years ago, the pastor of a Singapore mega-church was invited to be the featured speaker at an evangelistic concert organized by a small church. Just before the start of the evangelistic concert the local pastor said, "Let's pray for a mighty harvest!"

The mega-church pastor asked him "How many non-Christians are there in the audience?"

"I looked, and I think there are at least two…"

"The rest of the audience are already members of your church?"

"Yes…"

"Then why go through all this work and effort to run the concert? You can just invite those two non-Christians to have dinner with me and I can just talk with them over the meal, right?"

[loud silence follows]

That pastor shared with us that story in the debrief after a series of evangelistic concerts that were initiated, organized and executed by the youth ministry of his church. What impressed him was the fact that besides putting effort to have a good show (or why call it a concert?) we put in tons of effort to bring in the non-Christians to hear the message.

Those efforts paid off. We had, on average, 50-60 salvations per show. Not bad considering that at least 90% of it was run by students who had to juggle studying for exams with practising for the concert!

All this came to mind recently when a student of mine approached me to help for her church evangelistic concert. She asked me about how to find musicians, and I offered to help find them. But I needed to know what type of concert it was going to be, so I could find the appropriate musicians. And that was when she admitted that she didn't know and haven't yet planned what type of concert it was going to be.

Here's my advice to her (and anyone else planning evangelistic concerts)

If you want to do something big worth doing, you need the specific plan. When Moses was given the assignment to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, God gave him specific plans, blueprints and details. You need that kind of plan first before you even ask God about how to get the resources you need.

So if you say you want to do a concert ...

1) Who is it for? English-speaking? Chinese or dialect-speaking? Or others? What demographic do they belong to? Youth, working adults, male, female, families with kids... who?

You need to be focused on this, because in this day and age people have a lot of demands on their time. They won't turn up for something just because posters were put up or things like that. If you know WHO you are targeting, you can then formulate a plan to invite them for the concert.

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but if you live in a city like Singapore, the days of organizing an evangelistic rally with a famous speaker and having hordes of non-Christians, young, old and in-between, lining up to attend it, are long gone. People have separated themselves into their demographics (working adults, families with kids, elderly with health challenges, grandparents actively involved with their grandchildren, entrepreneurs, and so on). There is no more one-size-fits-all approach to reaching and connecting with them!

To know more about how social dynamics have changed in many parts of the world, head over to http://jvworship.blogspot.com/2010/10/introduction-to-marketing.html, I give a brief overview there.

2) What do they want?
This is the plan for inviting them to the concert- you have to show them that they should sacrifice 1-2 hours of their time to be at your concert. If you don't know what they want, you cannot persuade them.

Moreover, when you give them the reasons, you have to speak to them in THEIR language. As Paul said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I may save some." (1 Cor 9:22). Many Christians are lazy when communicating with non-Christians; they make no effort to hear them before they start speaking down to them. It's like saying "Jesus is the answer!" but not stopping to ask them first what is their question.

Very shoddy. Any businessman who takes this kind of attitude towards getting customers for his business DESERVES to have his business fail… Are we less serious about an evangelistic concert than a businessman is over growing his business?

3) How can you give it to them?
If they want entertainment, you have to be more entertaining than what people get from TV, because otherwise they can stay at home and watch TV. If they want interaction, you need to offer them interaction that is better than joining their colleagues at the pub or the karaoke lounge. If they want information, you have to make sure the information you present them really adds value to their lives. What do they want?

The Problem is...
Many people plan evangelistic concerts based on what they feel other people OUGHT to want, rather than what they really do want. It's a very self-centred way of doing things, and it puts off the non-Christians. Evangelism is about connecting with people and then connecting them with God. And if you want to do an evangelistic concert, you'd better have evangelists on your team. And listen to what they say.

Many of the serious worship leaders and musicians I know have a prophetic inclination. They find spending extended periods of time praying and praising God something very natural, but are less developed in their people skills. That is why few of them can teach or evangelize. I suspect many Christian singers and musicians who have an evangelistic gifting end up in the secular world and connect well with non-Christians. But if they are left alone and without genuine fellowship and discipleship from fellow believers, they easily end up compromising their testimony, like salt that has lost its taste.

You may think that the hours you spend in prayer and worship makes you more spiritual than them. And maybe, just maybe, you are. But if you have no evangelistic gifting, you NEED their wisdom, advice and help to make an evangelistic concert work. God made us such that we need each other in the Body of Christ in order to come to the fullness of the measure of Christ (Eph 4:15-16).

In the end…

… After you have looked at all these questions and waited upon God, you may find that an evangelistic concert may not be the best thing to do after all. You may plan some other outreach event instead, and it may not even involve music. We musicians tend to look for ways to drag music into every church activity we are involved in. But that may not be necessary or wise all the time.

Don't do what I have seen too many pastors and leaders do – get started doing something and THEN ask God to guide them. That's wrong. The better way is to wait upon God for his instructions FIRST and then move from there. It can be difficult, because the flesh usually swings between rationalized laziness and frantic activity to try and please God. And as I am fond of saying, the fruit (results) don't lie!

So if you are planning for an evangelistic concert, I hope you will find my thoughts and opinions helpful. Be blessed!

Working With Your Pastor and Being the New Guy

A couple of quick points:

First, I came across a couple of very useful posts recently. They are about:

1) Working Together With Your Pastor - Useful advice for worship leaders on how to partner with your senior pastor.

2) Being the New Guy - if you are taking over a worship ministry established by someone else, what should you keep in mind?

Secondly, I'll be announcing a special gift for those who are on my Hidden-Truths mailing list. So if you are interested in growing in your understanding of spontaneous worship and playing for prayer time, make sure you keep an eye on your email inbox!

That's all for now. I'll be in touch...

Hobble, limp, grumble, whine...

(Personal blog post)

It's the end of Feb 2011, and the thoughts most pressing on my mind: my toes hurt!

I kicked them against something hard (and that's all I'm saying, I don't want to look totally lame). They didn't hurt at first, but later there was pain even as I played piano pedals during church. And after playing for service I ran to the washrooms, looked at my by-then-swollen toes and realized I was going to suffer for the next few days...

So I went about limping around today. I did SOME teaching even though the doctor recommended that I rest completely for two days. But I drew the line at carrying the guitar around for teaching guitar. That would be going too far, so I postponed my guitar teaching to another day.

It sounds lame (no pun intended) that with all the horrible things that could have happened to me but didn't, my mind is fixated on my poor hurting toes. I'm limping around as I walk, and as I hobble I am feeling really sorry for myself.

Yes, I reserve the right to be silly once in a while! :D


Another thing on my mind this month was how I managed to clear a lot of my old clothes, as mentioned in my blog posts. It was a good experience, letting go of whatever I knew I had to let go of. I guess that's one of the beneficial aspects of Chinese New Year, the custom of cleaning out the house, which leads naturally to clearing out whatever we ought to really get rid of.

So now I face a more spacious wardrobe and a more organized working room. Hopefully I can keep myself disciplined in this area for the rest of the year. Keeping my personal space organized, though it sounds very trivial, is one of those little things that affect how well I deal with big things.

What's the next step? To make my first 2 hours in the morning even more productive. Tell you more about it next time. Got to get on with some other matters, so I'll continue some other time. Stay tuned! :)

How to Change Your Spiritual Wardrobe

For those of us who like everything listed out neatly, here are the two lists in Colossians 3.

What To Take Off

• sexual immorality
• impurity
• lust
• evil desires
• greed (= idolatry)
• anger
• rage
• malice
• slander
• filthy language
• lying

What To Put On

• compassion
• kindness
• humility
• gentleness
• patience
• forgiveness
• love

The driven, task-oriented amongst us will probably print out the lists, put them up somewhere they would see every day and make them their New Year Resolutions. From experience, only the very disciplined amongst us can make it work. And for the rest of us, we will find it very frustrating, because we are not doing things the way God wants us to do them.

How ARE We Supposed to Change?

1) Think About Godly Things

Colossians 3:1-3 – Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (NIV)

I remember the days I so wanted to live a God-pleasing life. I had been a believer for years before that, but because I was not in fellowship with other brethren and didn't have a proper devotional life, I was convinced that it was unrealistic and unattainable. But I still wanted to try anyway.

I wasn't too sure I could follow the instructions in the Bible, but I decided that the least I could was KNOW what the instructions were. So I just made it a point to read the Bible daily. At that time I didn't know the power of reading the Bible aloud, but even then the 15-20 minutes each time, done 2-3 times a day, was enough to start changing my mind into thinking that obeying God wasn't that unrealistic and unattainable after all.

And let's face it, that was a very necessary first step!

2) Know God

Colossians 3:10 - … and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (NIV)

In verses 9-10, Paul tells us since you have take off our old self (and its habits) and put on the new self by being renewed in knowledge in the image of our Creator. This tells me that I ought to put less attention less on changing my lifestyle and more on knowing the God who created the new me.

Consider the following:

Lev 20:26 - You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. (NIV)

Knowing the holiness of God will spur us into holy living. Notice how God uses himself as an example for us to follow?

Deut 10:18-19 - He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (NIV)

And in the New Testament, we are told to imitate God:

Eph 5:1-2 - Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (NKJV)

But how can we imitate God unless we deeply and intimately know him? We need to meditate on his wonders and his deeds (Psa 77:12). When we do, and realize that we are his children and thus carry his DNA in our spirit, we then begin to find ourselves living as his children would.

3) Recognize that we are the chosen, holy and dearly loved

Colossians 3:12-14 - Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (NIV)

This is the earlier step, Knowing God, and carries it a step further. When we know God and how much he loves us, it becomes easy to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and so on. Why? Because we know God is like that, and he has treated us thus. And that makes it reasonable for us to do likewise.

Conclusion:

All these steps may seem simple. They are. But don't let the simplicity deceive you. They require us to put in consistent and regular effort to renew our minds. We used to live in the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph 2:2) and so it will take time and deliberate effort to change our thought patterns and emotional habits.

It's not an easy journey. But I can assure you that you will find joy and delight in it as you know you please God in your thoughts, words and deeds. Shall we continue this journey together?

Be blessed!

My Old Clothes

I gave away a large stack of my old clothes recently.

It took a number of trips, lugging heavy bags, taking Singapore public transport and then doing a 'heave'-offering into the Salvation Army collection centre. And from the looks of things I'll still have to make a couple more trips over the next few weeks.

We Chinese usually do loads of spring-cleaning and housekeeping before the Chinese New Year. That makes it an appropriate time to look through the wardrobe and decide if you REALLY want to wear that crazy shirt you bought the last holiday…

After totally forgetting to do this for years, I finally buckled myself down and forced myself to start on seriously evaluating my wardrobe and the clothes therein. And it started me thinking about my spiritual dress sense also. To make it very simple, our spiritual dressing is made up of:

1) What We Take Off

Colossians 3:5, 8-9 – Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry… But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. (NIV)

Why were there so many of my old clothes left in my wardrobe? Because I didn't grow physically over the past 12 or so years. Many people I know wear forced to give away their old clothes because those clothes didn't fit them anymore. But for me, my height, my arm-length and even my waistline has remained the same, so I could get away with wearing the old clothes that I used to wear 12 years back.

It's just like how some believers, when they first turn to Christ from an extremely bad background, such as drug and alcohol abuse, crime and all that, change spiritual dressing very drastically. Because what they had to get rid of was very obvious and easy to see, you could see the changes in their lives very quickly. They knew their old ways just didn’t fit their new identity in Christ (2 Cor 5:17).

It was like people whose waistlines grew a few inches. It's obvious that their old jeans don't fit anymore!

Some believers don't have horrible backgrounds when they come to Christ. Maybe they were by nature nice people already, or their parents had brought them up well, or they had really good self-discipline. Because the things they had to get rid of were not so obvious, they could actually get away with staying the same, not totally surrendering their behavior and emotions to the Lord, and people around them wouldn't notice.

It's like me keeping old clothes from 12 years back because they still fit OK!

So why I get rid of the old clothes then? Because no matter how much I washed them, they still stink. There was a moldy, stale smell that wouldn't go away no matter how many times I put those clothes in the washing machine.

Likewise for our attitudes and habits. Even though they may still fit in our lives (they don't cause us or the people around us major inconvenience or problems), after a while, as we mature in Christ we realize that they stink, we don't like them and we really ought to get rid of them.

2) What We Put On

Colossians 3:12 – Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (NIV)

Why did I get down to evaluating my wardrobe after all these years? Because I was given lots of new clothes and I needed to make space for them in my room.

That is my primary motivation for getting rid of anger, malice, slander and other inappropriate habits from my life. Even though they were not really obvious and not causing that much problems, I needed to get rid of them to make even more room for compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

One thing I appreciate about how Paul expresses himself here – he compares those virtues to clothes. One thing that sets humans apart from animals – our clothes are NOT a part of us, and we therefore have a choice in what we choose to wear.

Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? (NKJV)

We can't change the color of our skin, but we can choose what we wear above it. Likewise, despite our basic nature, we can choose to wear compassion, kindness and the other virtues over it. At the very beginning, when we struggle with our old emotional habits and thought-life, putting on compassion can make us feel like we are faking it, that we are pretending to be kind and humble people when we aren't. The accuser can jump in to heap condemnation upon us and discourage us from the Christian walk, or we sometimes totally discourage ourselves without his help.

As long as we know that it feels uncomfortable and unnatural at the beginning, we are not expecting it to be a miraculous change and we are not very disappointed if we slip up and make mistakes. This allows us to keep on at it for the long haul, and after time what we wear becomes an integral part of our personal identity. Gentleness, kindness and patience are not longer just clothes that we may or may not wear that day; they become vital and irreplaceable aspects of our spiritual dress code.

And by that time we cannot imagine or accept replacing them with anything less!

It's just like my current dress sense. There are colours and types of clothes I know I will NEVER wear. I don't care what other people say. I am NEVER going to wear Bermuda-pants (I think I look ridiculous in them) or the brighter, fiery colours (such as yellow, orange or red). I'm sticking to my favourite colours no matter how boring they make me look. My clothes and the colours I choose are now a vital part of my personal identity and I am sticking with them!

Of course, it helps that I am already married and am no longer spouse-hunting…

So when was the last time YOU waited before the LORD and asked him what he wanted you to change in your spiritual wardrobe?

Be blessed!

When You Have to Change A Whole Church...

One of the greatest challenges a worship leader could ever face is changing the worship culture of an entire church. Whether it is a performance-based culture (they sit back and watch you make a fool of yourself on the stage) changing to a participation-based one (the people actually sing out their praises to God), or a liturgical service being changed to a contemporary service, it is a huge and daunting challenge. So if your pastor comes to you and gives you the task of creating more dynamic praise and worship in your church, here are some suggestions to help.

1) Take it slow

As I mentioned in the last chapter of my Invisible Worship Musician, God gives his people time to adapt to changes. In Exodus 16, after the people of God were delivered out of bondage in Egypt, they began clamouring Moses for meat. They said:

"There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted..." (Exodus16:3, NIV)

This suggests to me that they saw meat as being the only viable food for them. God, however, had different plans. He wanted to feed the people with manna. However, he had the kindness and gentleness to meet the people where they were, giving them what they were used to first, before giving them what he decided was his perfect plan for their food.

"At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.'" (Exodus 16:11, NIV)

This same principle also applies to establishing a worship ministry paradigm that genuinely serves the people of God, or converting your church's liturgical service to a contemporary one without alienating all the faithful members of your church. Whatever you do, please remember that it takes time for people to get used to changes in general. So do be patient with them!

2) Use the Fallback Worship Songs

What are the Fallback Worship Songs of your church? The ones the people love to death and will sing no matter what? The ones that convey the timeless truths you want people to remember when crisis strikes and their faith is tested? If you do not know what they are, go find out, and start using these songs. They will be the backbone of your church's worship culture.

It's interesting, the Fallback Worship Songs of a church can be very different, depending on its background. If the church is performance based and the members are hungering spiritually to exercise their spirits by really participating in the worship, the Fallback Songs can be very simple, musically and lyrically. But if you come from a liturgical church, the Fallback Songs can be a hymn that has 3-6 stanzas of lyrics that the faithful members of the church can sing from heart. So make use of that!

Quick tip: for a liturgical church, Chris Tomlin's How Great is our God (CCLI #4348399) is a fantastic song to teach them, because its structure and lyrics is easy for them to take to.

3) Work with a small group first

What's easier, changing the worship culture of 200 people or 10 people? If your goal is participation for the sake of unity (as shown in 2 Chr 5:13), you'll probably find 10 people easier to manage than 200. So if you need to change the worship paradigm of your church, find a small group of people you can work with and start there.

I would prefer that you plug yourself into a group that is already running and start to work from there, instead of starting your own group. If the group is already running, you can get to see the worship dynamics of the church upfront and personal, and you can better figure out what is feasible for you and what isn't. If you intend to start another group, you will have to first seek the approval of your church pastor, and then expect that you will have to shepherd the group instead of just focusing on the worship and leaving the overall leading of the group to someone else.

Joining and working with your church's prayer meeting (if it has one) is a great way to start. The people tend to be more expressive, and there is a greater link between prayer and praise that you can tap on to create a more dynamic worship culture. Also, if you do a good job at this meeting and people encounter God's presence strongly there, word will spread and more people from your church will join that meeting. And from there the fire will spread to the rest of your congregation, just give it some time.

Conclusion:

It can be difficult to change the worship culture of an entire church. But it can be done. Other people have done it before and you can do it too. If this is the vision your church pastor has for your church, and you believe in your heart that this is what God wants you to do, go for it! It will take time and serious, dedicated effort. But what worthwhile endeavour in life doesn't?

Temple Trip with Jessiah

(Personal Blog Post) 
 

Jessiah and I went to a Taoist temple recently.

It was not for a cultural or enrichment thing, it was because he won an award for his academic performance in school. The award was presented at the temple, and so we had to go down to that temple to receive the award.

Jessiah was obviously uncomfortable as we got nearer to the temple. You must understand that it was to him a canopy of unfamiliar sounds (chanting, gongs and droning music) and smells (the incense from the joss sticks). I, on the other hand, because I was raised in a non-Christian family, was much more familiar with all these elements. In fact, they brought me back to nostalgia lane, back to a time when I was so much more innocent and optimistic (and spoiled rotten by a doting grandmother)…

I am still not used to having a camera with me everywhere I go, so I didn't take many pictures of the place. But here is a picture of the tent where the awards ceremony was held. You can see how many other people were there as well. It was quite a large ceremony.

So as I sat down and waited for the ceremony to begin, I realized that I didn't want Jessiah to grow up culturally stunted. In his day to day life, he is exposed to Western culture almost all the time. I want him to be culturally-savvy, able to move confidently and wisely in different cultural contexts. Because I would accompany my parents to various temples (Buddhist and Taoist) when I was a young kid, I am still comfortable with going into temples. I am not freaking out, convinced that I will get demon-possessed and will lose my anointing if I stay there too long. No, I am relaxed, in the moment, enjoying the experience and looking to see what lessons the LORD has in store for me that day.

 

This means that I have to make a conscientious effort to bring him into different cultural situations and teaching him how to manage himself well there. That is something that I have neglected (to be honest) and I realize that I'll have to try to fix that this year. How? Hmmm… let me get back to you on that!

Side note: here is something I found VERY amusing...

I never knew that Taoist temples had money changers too! I wonder if Taoists ever felt that a particular temple had a corrupted money system in place and wished for someone to go charging in, whip in hand and start overturning the money changers' tables!

Criteria for Worship Minister?

Last year, I wrote on paying your church musicians. Recently, I came across Greg Jones writing on this topic from a different angle. He wrote on what to look for when your church is hiring a worship pastor, the full-time staff who heads the worship ministry. He calls that position 'worship leader', probably because in some churches the worship leader not only leads worship, but also gives pastoral care and training to the rest of the musicians and singers as well. And is, of course, a member of the paid staff.

Read his article here

As I said, his angle is different. It's about what to look for in someone you are going to engage as paid staff, while mine is about whether to pay the people you already have and are serving. But it is interesting to see where we converge:

1. Teaching - I believe that if your church believes in mobilizing the people for the ministry, especially for the worship ministry, then you will want to pay the musicians who lead and teach the other musicians. Greg Jones talked about how a worship leader/pastor who cannot teach may be able to tell the worship team that they are at level A and need to go to level B, but does not have the ability to equip the team as to how to get there. And this can lead to lots of frustration.
   
   
2. Possible conflicts – In my post, I wrote that if you decide to pay only the head musician and not the rest of the band, that could give problems if one of the musicians thinks the guy in charge is less deserving of it than he/she was. Greg brought up another possibility I did not consider: if the worship leader/pastor is unable to anchor the music and has to depend on a layperson (volunteer) to do it, then the layperson may feel taken advantage of. That can lead to dissension, conflict and resentment.

All in all, Greg gives a good perspective on the issue. He has his own experience as a worship leader and musician. He also thinks through his points and has useful insights to share. Let me know what you think of his article, OK?

Be blessed!

Pub Musician, Worship Musician?

Can someone who is playing at a pub or a rock band also play in the worship team?

The question seems to boil down to whether playing in a pub or rock band disqualifies someone from playing in the worship team. I've done my own pub-band time and other secular gigs as well, so here are three things that I'd look at when it comes to this issue.

Alcohol – Does the person have a problem with alcohol abuse? If so then he/she ought to avoid the pub environment in the first place.

Eph 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit (NIV)

I have no problems with believers drinking alcohol. If the Bible does not prohibit it, neither should I. But the Bible DOES prohibit getting drunk. So if we are talking about a believer who plays music at a pub and he or she consistently gets drunk, then I'd think twice about letting this person play on the worship team.

Secular music – I also have no problem with believers playing secular music. The Bible does not prohibit it, neither should I. But the Bible does speak out against confusing the sacred with the secular. Consider this passage:

Eze 33:31-32 - So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. (NKJV)

The reference to secular entertainers in Israel shows that they did exist in those days. In this passage, God says that ignoring the word of a prophet is like treating him/her just like a secular entertainer. The Bible does not condemn secular music, but it does tell us not to treat the Word of God in the same way, as mere entertainment.

The Believer's Word Life – And that refers to both the time the person spends in the Bible and his spoken words.

A secular pub is usually an unedifying place. The Bible does not give us a definite order to avoid all unedifying places, in fact we are told that the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19). So that means that we cannot totally avoid unedifying places. But we CAN keep ourselves from being polluted by the world (James 1:27). And that is what we should aim for.

So if a pub or rock musician wants to play on the worship team, my first question is this: has he or she been polluted by the world? The fastest gauge of that is his or her speech, because the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45). If the believer has been polluted by the world, his or her speech will usually be the first to go haywire.

Quick tip: don't just listen to how this person talks in church. Drop by the pub when this musician is working, hide yourself one corner and pay careful attention to how he or she behaves when no one knows you are around. There are pub musicians I know who consistently shine forth as lights in a warped and crooked generation (Phi 2:15), even at the pub itself. I'd be honoured to have those people with me on the worship team anytime!

I'll also watch for this person's hunger for the Word of God. Why? Because if his or her heart has departed from the LORD, he/she will lose the hunger for the Bible.

Jeremiah 2:15 - My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (NIV)

And once the hunger for the Word of God is gone, the pollution of the world will come in very quickly. So does the musician in question skip church services? How is his/her personal time in the Word of God? I'd ask what was the latest insight he/she got from the Scriptures recently. If you see a panic-stricken expression on the face, that's a warning sign for you right there!

Conclusion: Every believer will have areas in life where they need help. A believer who is pub or rock band musician and who has any of the above problems is NOT a lesser person in Christ than we are. They just need help in those areas, just as we ourselves do in other parts of our lives. If a pub or rock band musician has problems with alcohol abuse and with being polluted by the world, then whether he/she is included on the worship team is a decision that is best made by the pastor in charge. Why? Because the LORD may use the musician's involvement in worship ministry to spur him/her to take God seriously. Because the ramifications are heavier than usual, it is best to leave this decision to God-appointed leadership who will pray and seek the mind of God on this situation.

Let me know what you think?

The Anchor Worship Musician

It would be great if every musician in your church worship team knew how to anchor the worship music. By that I mean:

• they are all able to read where the congregation dynamics are headed,
  
  
• they all know how to cue the worship leader and congregation to start singing, and
  
  
• they all effectively use the music to unify both the praises of the people and the rest of the musicians.

But that does not just happen out of nowhere. Anchor musicians will have to be carefully cultivated. A musician who can anchor a worship team will usually play either the piano or the guitar. Those two instruments are able to provide a full rhythmic and harmony (beats and chords) support for the congregation, and are thus easier for the rest of the band to latch on to and follow.

Besides that, anchor worship musicians -

1) Need to know the various chord progressions that work as intros and for free worship. A good song intro is one that cues the worship leader and congregation to start singing. Sometimes hiccups happen in the worship session and the unity of the singing gets disrupted. The anchor musician has to know what to play that would lead the congregation back into the song or into the next song. At this point, being able to improvise a quick song intro (around 4 bars long) is an essential skill to have.

Knowing the chords that work for free worship also allows the anchor musician to lead the rest of the band when playing for spontaneous worship. You ought to confirm all these chords in advance during practice, but sometimes a congregation can build up a lot of momentum for a song that you did not plan for. So that time it helps if you are able to choose suitable chords and flow into spontaneous worship from there.

2) Should be able to think as a worship leader – the best way to get this ability is to lead worship in a small group setting. Leading worship at a small group, with only one instrument and a few people, is the best training ground for worship ministry ever. Doing this, falling flat on your face a few times, seeing firsthand and upfront what works and what doesn't, is the fastest way to learn how to lead worship.

And once you have this ability, you are able to gauge what the worship leader needs and provide that for him or her accordingly. Does the worship leader need the first note of the melody to start the song? Or the rhythms to be clearly brought out so the people get the timing? When you think like a worship leader you'll be able anticipate what you ought to play next.

3) Must dare to make mistakes – if the pianist or guitarist does not boldly lead the worship leader, congregation and band through the instrument, it is often because he or she is afraid of making mistakes.

Making mistakes is part and parcel of being an anchor musician. Sometimes we mis-read the dynamics of the congregation and sometimes we lead the people in another direction from where the worship leader is going. It's easy to tell people to pray and listen to the Holy Spirit for him to guide you in your music, but the fact remains that while learning you will slip up once in a while. And frankly, I don't see that as a problem. It hurts our pride, true, but that helps us keep our confidence in the LORD and not in our own skills, experience or worship ministry wisdom.

Conclusion:

Many musicians do not realize the power they have to communicate and lead people with their instruments. Many of them see playing their instruments merely as an opportunity for personal expression while serving the Lord's people. I hope I have helped you see the potential to use your instrument not only for personal expression but also to unify the praises of the congregation effectively. If so, then the next time you take up your instrument in the worship team, play carefully and with the awareness of how you can through your instrument help to anchor the rest of the worship musicians!