Matthew 25 Musings

Did I mention that I've been doing inductive Bible study this year? After going through the Bible in a year last year, I realized that I don't know the New Testament as well as I would like. So I got started on a more intense study of the New Testament.

Here's something interesting I found.In Matthew 24 Jesus shared about the signs of the end-times. Matthew 25:1 starts with "At that time...", which tells us that the rest of the chapter is especially relevant to living in the end-times. What happens if we look at the rest of the chapter in that light?

The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1-13)

Notice all that the virgins in this parable had in common - they were all waiting for the bridegroom, they all became drowsy and fell asleep and they all had oil for their lamps. The only difference was that the wise ones had enough oil for themselves to last a long time. In other words, they expected that the wait would be long.

Does that tell us that the way to be ready for Jesus' second coming is to expect that it would take a long time? Hmm...

Another interesting thing I noticed is that the wise virgins did not help the foolish ones. Their first priority was to ensure that they had enough for themselves. They took personal responsibility for being ready. They set boundaries for themselves; they chose not to share their oil with the unprepared virgins, and Jesus did NOT chastise them for their 'selfishness'. On the other hand, the foolish ones probably expected that if they did not have enough oil they could always beg some off the wise virgins.

Not smart.

The Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30)

When looking at this parable, many people apply the principles in this lesson to everything else except what it was talking about in the first place - money!

Matt 25:16-18 (NIV) The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

Here's the interesting part - the master commended the servants who doubled the money entrusted to them (Matt 25:21, 23). The servant who did not lose any of the money (Capital Preservation, they call it) was called wicked and lazy (Matt 25:26). Wonder what would the master have done if there was a servant who lost the money or spent it all away frivolously, thinking it was his own money?

Can you imagine wearing a T-shirt with the logo "Jesus is coming back. Double your money QUICK!"

But that wouldn't be too accurate a logo, would it? We are not to double our money; it's not ours in the first place. Everything in our stewardship came from God in the first place (1 Chr 29:12). Many prosperity teachers promote the idea that we are to prosper in our finances so that we can give money to further the gospel. The problem with that idea? It's not our finances in the first place; it's God's. Meanwhile, other bible teachers react by roundly condemning the idea of financial prosperity for God's people. They ignore the scary part of this parable: We are to double our master's money or be condemned as wicked and lazy.

In other words, are those teachers guilty of spreading wickedness and laziness amongst the servants of Christ? Food for thought...

The Sheep and the Goats (Matt 25:31-46)

If we were to sum up this teaching, it would be that Jesus sees what we do for the least of his brothers as what we have done unto him. Here's the question: who does Jesus see as his brothers?

There are three possible answers:

1) Humanity in general? Possible, since Jesus repeatedly addressed himself as the Son of Man.

2) The Jews? This is likely, since Jesus himself was a Jew, a descendant of David (for example, Luke:18:38)

3) The believers - Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. (Heb 2:11, NIV)

Remember, whatever group we choose to apply this principle to, we need to make sure that we do not exclude the Jewish race. Remember, at that exact moment Jesus gave us this teaching, there was no body of Christ yet, since the Holy Spirit had not yet at that moment baptised us anyone into the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13).

That means that the most immediate application of this principle ought to be to the Jews. And that Jesus sees how we treat the Jews as a reflection of how we regard him.

In Conclusion:

Maybe we could sum up this chapter as:

1) Be prepared for the long term;

2) Double HIS money; AND

3) Watch how we treat his people.

What do you think? Be blessed!

Worship Leader Tutorial - Awesome In Power

Awesome in Power (Rick Founds, CCLI#631526) is a simple and powerful song that works well in many worship situations. This vid is about how I'd teach it and lead it for a group of people who don't know the song. Enjoy!



As you'll see from the video and the notes, this is a easy song for people to latch on to and use. If I had to lead worship for a group of people whom I totally don't know, and if they don't know each other either, I might as well use a song unfamiliar to EVERYONE, so they all start on the same page. And when they get it, they get it together. Awesome in Power allows that to happen quite easily and quickly, IF you do it the way I did.

Try it out yourself and let me know how it goes for you?

Metronome Musings

Hi, everyone!

I played drums for church for the past few Sundays.

It was a stressful experience, because of both my role in the band (the time-keeper and the mood-moderator) and my own personal standards. Yes, ego does drive me hard! How did I do? Let's just say that I have a lot more work to do, and a lot of it involving training with metronomes!

Metronomes really help a drummer keep time. Usually if a drummer has sloppy playing, it is because he/she doesn't have a good internal sense of tempo OR because he/she is unable to express the sense of tempo through his/her limbs while playing. Either way, this comes out very clearly when you train to a metronome. It shows you what it means to keep strict time as well as the areas you are sloppy in your playing, whether fills or changing the drum beats.

People who refuse to train to a metronome often have an undisciplined and individualistic spirit. They want to play at what tempo feels right to them, or what their current level of technique can manage, not what tempo the rest of the band can work with. If we are playing for church, and our effectiveness as worship drummers is very dependent on how well we keep time for the band and the rest of the congregation, this kind of attitude should not be tolerated at all. If the drummer plays inconsistently and yet refuses to train to a metronome, this person does not have the basic servant's heart to serve in the worship ministry, especially when it comes to playing drums.

(I could go on ranting about this, but I think that's enough for now. It's obvious now why I give myself so much pressure when I am behind the drum kit!)

One thing I discovered when I started training with a metronome - there are two ways you can perceive the metronome. The first is to see it as an external standard and you are trying to react to it. The second is to allow your inner sense of tempo to tune into the counts from the metronome and then play according to that. You'll still have the metronome to remind you when your inner sense of tempo goes off, but because you calibrated yourself to the metronome first it becomes a lot easier to keep yourself in time.

It's like how we believers are supposed to relate with the Bible. We can see the Word of God as something external, we refer to it when we've got questions or want to have an intellectual understanding of what God expects from us. This doesn't need much engaging with the Scriptures at all, and for many believers that is all they are willing to do.

Or we can let the Word of God tune us into God's frequency. I have two main ways of doing this: the first is to take a particular passage of Scripture and read it aloud many times a day for a few days in a row (mindless, I know, but it works for me) and the second is to do inductive Bible study, when I go through a book of the Bible a few times, looking for key themes, drawing up lists of facts, making notes and all that.

Whichever way you do it, the idea is to engage with the Word of God as much as you possibly can, and in a more active way. Make it a part of you, and you'll find that you're following it even without thinking.

And that's always good!

Training with the metronome by yourself is important, but unless you have a fantastic sense of musicality (OK, just more than I do) you'll find things slipping past your notice. And sometimes it's just easier for an outsider to pick up your mistakes. Last night a singer (a non-musician) was telling me that the part of me that keeps going out of time (lagging behind) is my snare. I tend to slow down when changing from one section of the song to another, like from the verse to chorus, for example.

You know a problem is bad when even a singer can pick out where my mistakes are!

It's like how we can read the Bible by ourselves and yet miss the parts where we fall short or need to put in some effort. We think we're doing fine, while anyone else who has lived with us for a while can easily point out that we need to correct some of our blind spots. That's why we need to live in fellowship with each other and be teachable (Pro 9:9).

Psalm 19:9-12 (NIV) The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

Notice that just after David declares how precious the Word of God is, he realizes that even with the Word of God he still needs help in discerning where he falls short and misses the mark? That's the same for us. Even when we know the Bible, we have done our inductive bible study, attended Bible Study Fellowship's entire 7-year course or just simply read the Bible cover-to-cover, we will still have blind spots we need loving siblings-in-Christ to point out to us. And we need to teach one another in all wisdom (Col 3:16), to be ready to receive wisdom from each other.

So, are you submitting your life to the Word of God and allowing some trusted siblings-in-Christ to help you work out your salvation into your life? And are you likewise committed to helping someone to do the same?

Think about that while I take out my metronome, my drumsticks and sit down and get some more practice done!

Announcement: a number of people have bought my Invisible Worship Musician but have not signed up for the updates email list yet. If you are one of them, please sign up for that email list as soon as possible. Email me about it and I'll enter your name for that list. Then watch your inbox for your confirmation email. Remember to click on the confirmation link inside! That way you'll get access to all the follow-up lessons I carefully, painstakingly prepared for you (and you already paid for...)

OK, be blessed, everyone!

Game Plan of the Wicked

I recently got to know this guy who does Chinese Martial Arts. Being more adventurous than the typical practitioner, he participated in a sparring session with people from other styles. And at the end of it he realized that the other people were better prepared than he was. In his own words, "they all had clearly gone in with a game plan in mind".

As Christians trying to survive in a world that is often apathetic and sometimes even hostile to what we stand for, we need a game plan too. We need to know the general strategy of the wicked, understand what they are up to, and then formulate our responses to deny them their objectives. Here's a part of the game plan of the wicked.

For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. (Psa 11:2, NASB)

Notice that the wicked are depicted as using bows, long distance weapons. That allows them to inflict damage from a distance, rather than wrestling with us face-to-face. This suggests to me that the wicked would rather avoid direct confrontation with us believers. Also, the wicked are also described as shooting in darkness, suggesting a cowardly, sneaky attempt to catch God's people unaware and finish them off without having to deal with any resistance.

That's their game plan. What is their objective?

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psa 11:3, NASB)

Their objective is to destroy the foundations that the righteous stand upon. If the foundations that the righteous stand on are destroyed, they fall. And the foundation of God's throne, what we are to stand on, is righteousness and justice (Psa 89:14). So when we see things happening in society at large that go against righteousness and justice, what are we to do?

Continuing on with the rest of Psalm 11 -

The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates. (Psa 11:4-5, NASB)

First, we declare the praises of God. We declare that he is the God of justice (Isa 30:18) and that he will bring about justice in his own time. If we truly know the power and justice of God, we will speak boldly even as we admonish the earthly rulers of this world (Psa 2:10-12).

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (Pro 31:8-9, NIV)

Then we are to speak up for others. Even if it seems like what the wicked do will not affect us directly but affect the poor and oppressed instead. Remember, the wicked begin their attacks from a distance and in darkness. They do not like us bringing up their deeds of darkness into the light (Eph 5:11-12). We need to foil their attacks first, because if we do not the foundations will gradually be eroded and chipped away from under our feet. And then we would be in REAL trouble.

And after we speak, we are to act in obedience to God, because that establishes a foundation within our own lives (Matt 7:24-25). Consider the following passage:

... and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday... Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations (Isa 58:10, 12, NIV)

Notice that in this passage God's people raising up the age-old foundations comes only AFTER we take concrete and practical action to help the poor and needy? That's our game plan. We speak up, first declaring the praises of God, then for the oppressed in our communities. Then we act, we restore the foundations we have neglected and the wicked have destroyed. Do you think this game plan will work? I think so, the last time I read the book of Revelations it tells me that we won!

Thoughts from a Funeral Wake

On Sunday I attended the funeral wake of a lady who took guitar lessons from me many years ago. Two years back she had a cancer relapse and last Saturday she went to be with the LORD. Just a few weeks ago I was in touch with her, trying to meet and catch up, but she wasn't feeling well (no surprise, right?). So I missed the opportunity to meet her before she left. Not a good feeling...

One thing about her, she was an extremely serious student. She started learning guitar for the sake of playing for her cell group worship, and she kept on at it until I had taught her everything I knew how to teach her. And she'd practice. I never had a lesson she'd give me some excuse about not practicing whatever was covered in the previous lesson. She also gave priority to her lessons; she almost never missed them even though she was doing accounting work and would have to work late some days every month.

Contrast that attitude with the drummer wannabes I sometimes end up arguing with. They get offended when I insist that someone who wants to play drums should hold the sticks right for starters. I keep hearing MANY say "everyone has to start somewhere..." and think they are entitled to play drums on the worship team when they aren't ready. The rest of the band has to endure them trying to learn the instrument and wasting everyone else's time.

We don't put up with this from pianists, guitarists or bassists. Why should we put up with it from drummers?

Not only was this student serious with her lessons, she was also serious with serving. She would lead worship and play guitar for her cell group. And do it well. It was such a joy to be her worship guitar teacher, because she was so dedicated to learning AND serving.

Anyway, attending my student's funeral has gotten me even more sober and serious about how I use my time this year. I don't know if she had any regrets or unfulfilled wishes as she considered her eminent departure from this life. What I do know is that it is students like her who remind me why I got into teaching in the first place. Her husband told me that she was playing guitar even as her health deteriorated and it became difficult for her to get her fingers in the right places. It really touched me deeply, to know how seriously she took what I taught her those many years back.

So right now I am thinking about how to best invest my time and my life this year, so that I can not only take good care of my family but also invest my life into other people. How about you? What is on your mind and heart now as you plan how to steward your time this coming year?

The Truth About Walking in Forgiveness

I was just talking with one of the leaders I work with in ministry, and I am honoured that he was willing to share transparently with me how much he was offended by some slight he faced in his own church, as well as how frustrated he was with himself at being stumbled by such a small matter.

Then he said "You know, JJ, I'm so impressed at how much you've grown. I heard in the past that you…" and brought up an incident, from a few years ago, when I was unfairly attacked and accused of wrongdoing and my reputation was damaged. Now that was a big matter to me, in fact after all these years the hurt remains quite fresh because I never got the chance to defend myself in this. So I was tempted to set the record straight by telling this leader EVERYTHING.

If you argue your case with a neighbor, do not betray another man's confidence, or he who hears it may shame you and you will never lose your bad reputation. (Pro 25:9-10, NIV)

The problem is, telling that leader everything meant betraying someone else's confidence. The above passage in Proverbs says that it will not restore my reputation, in fact, it will damage it even further. So there really wasn't anything else I can do other than swallow the pain of the original insult and pain, and pray again that God will give me fresh grace to walk in forgiveness.

Walking in Forgiveness
Not as easy as we want it to be, right?

Ask a passerby on the street what he or she considers to be the teachings of Christianity. Almost all of them will say "forgive your enemies". And rightly so, even when Jesus was teaching us how to pray, he told us to forgive others as we pray that God forgive us our sins (Mat 6:12).

It may be basic, but that does not make it easy to do. We may find ourselves forgiving others of small matters but struggling to forgive them of big transgressions (like in my case). Or we may be able to walk in forgiveness over big matters but suddenly find ourselves stumbled over a small detail (like in my leader's case). And we cannot understand why.

What happens when we find it difficult to forgive? There are three things we can do.

1) Lie to ourselves. Tell ourselves that we have forgiven when we haven't. Try to just forget the matter, and think that the fact that we can forget an offence means that we have forgiven the culprits.

Problem: this doesn't work. Unless we can effectively walk in forgiveness, the hurt within us is like a poison slowly seeping into our spirits. Pretending that it isn't there does not help. People who try this may end up with depression, tension, migraine headaches or come down with chronic anger syndrome, when any little thing can cause them to blow up and lose their temper.

2) Give up. Say that the Christian walk is too difficult, unrealistic and that God is unreasonable in expecting so much from us.

Problem: this is like saying that because we can't perform a surgical operation on ourselves, we don't let the doctor do it for us. The Christian walk is never meant to be attempted by our own strength and willpower alone. If we were that capable, why would Christ have to die for us on the cross in the first place?

3) Seek God again and again. Pray to God every time the hurt resurfaces, and tell him you need the power of his Holy Spirit to help you obey his command to forgive.

Problem: this way requires humility. Every time we tell God that we cannot make it by ourselves and need him to help us again, we are crucifying our pride and self-sufficiency again and again. Unless you are dead to yourself and alive to God in Christ Jesus, that's painful!

After more than 25 years as a believer I have a certain level of pride over how well I can manage the Christian walk. Seeking God over a past hurt requires me to face up to the fact that I am still not that perfect, even after 25 years. I have to admit to God (and now to you) that I still need to work on the basics of the Christian walk.

The only harder than walking in forgiveness…
… is living in un-forgiveness. Walking in forgiveness is like taking out a knife that someone has stabbed into your back. Many believers who want instant gratification think that the pain should go away immediately, but if the offence is serious enough life doesn't work like that.

But if you do NOT forgive, it's like keeping the knife there and pushing it even further to make the wound worse. If you pretend the knife is not there, you will eventually bleed to death. If you push the knife in further, you'll bleed even faster.

Gory images that are very disgusting, I know. But that is how God sees us when we do not forgive. He knows that when we don't forgive we are hurting ourselves the most. It disgusts him to see us doing that. And it pains his heart, because he wants to heal our hearts and bind up our wounds (Psa 147:3). But we've got to take out the knife first.

So now, my plan is…
… to meditate on God's forgiveness.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph 4:32, NIV)

That passage from Ephesians strongly suggests to me that the more I consider God's forgiveness of MY sins and wrongs, the more I can extend his forgiveness to other people, especially those who have wronged me deeply.

This post is different, isn't it? Usually I am boldly declaring the way to deal with a problem or get the result. But this time, because it is something that I am still seriously struggling with, I cannot do that with authority. In this matter all I CAN do is share my plan for getting out of it. Maybe it's something you may want to try also, if you have problems forgiving other people.

That's all for this time. More stuff coming up soon!

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!

An Email I Received...

I just came across something in my spam filter and thought of blogging about it.

It was an email from a worship leader from whom I have not heard from for a long time. I subscribed to his mailing list, and soon discovered that he had only one product to sell, and he would email me only to sell me that one product, so I got to see how many different ways he had to plug that one product. It was entertaining until he ran out of ideas…

Then I saw his most recent email. It was on a money-making opportunity with a multi-level payout. To qualify you had to get people to click on internet advertisements, and once there are enough people in your group clicking on online ads you stand to make a handsome 5-figure sum monthly.

I am not going to say if such an opportunity is going to work in the long term, or will it collapse within a couple of months or so. The best way to find out, I feel, is to get involved, but I honestly don’t want to give up even 5 minutes a day to look at online advertisements.

But that is not the point of this post.

What I want to say is this: if you have subscribed to my mailing lists at Invisible Worship Musician, I assume you want information and insight on worship ministry. I am also going to assume that if you want money-making opportunities, you will look for people you respect in this area and consider the opportunities they offer. I am currently in the midst of setting up a secular business of my own, but if you are on my worship ministry list I will NOT bug you over it, because when you signed up I promised not to spam you with irrelevant messages. And that, in our context, refers to anything that doesn’t apply to worship ministry.

As for the other guy, I wish him well. He is the Lord’s servant, and he is accountable to God for what he does with his mailing list (Rom 14:4). On MY mailing list I will NOT promote to you anything that is not related to worship ministry in some way, shape or form.

And if you are on his mailing list too, I’d like you to share with me, either via email or the comments section below on this page, your thoughts and feelings about him branching out into such other matters and emailing you about it. Are you intrigued, amused, irritated or offended?

Let me know!

Worship Musicians - A Sales Lesson

This never fails to irk me.

I’d be talking with some business people, and they’ll tell me what kind of customers they want, usually those who would mindlessly buy all their products at prices way above the market rate. Fair enough. I mean, if I was in business that’s the kind of customers I would want too.

And when I ask, “What are these people like? What do they care about? Where can you find them?” I usually get blank stares. Or they say “Can you help improve the English in our advertisement so that we can appeal to those people?” They’ve probably realized that their advertising isn’t working, so they hope that a quick fix (like improving the grammar) is enough to have hordes of crazed customers banging down their doors, begging for the chance to give them tons of money…

If business was THAT simple, shouldn't I do it myself and take all the money? Come on!

(“JJ, I thought this is about worship ministry?” - I’ll get to that in a moment!)

Those business people don’t realize that you cannot create something, present it to your ideal customer and try to trick them into buying it. Unless you are the only source of a product everyone needs, you have to know what your customers are looking for, what matters to them and how to give them what THEY want to buy, not what you want to sell to them.

Makes sense?

Just as clueless as the business people I mentioned earlier are many church leaders when looking for worship musicians. They approach recruiting church musicians with the same amount of care, planning and thought those businesses approach acquiring customers – almost zero.

Let me put this to you in business terms: when you are recruiting church musicians, you are doing sales. You are selling people the opportunity to be used by God in a powerful ministry that can deeply touch the lives of people, and can oftentimes unlock many other hidden giftings within the servers as well.

And what is the price? The price they have to pay to buy this opportunity is time; time spent on lessons and practice to acquire the relevant skills and knowledge, as well as time spent on rehearsals and service. This is time that can be spent with the family, on the career or the social life, or studying other areas of interest.

(Taking me for example - the biggest reason I am currently a socially-inept worship ministry geek is because of all the time I spent practicing during my younger days. That was the price I paid. This is why I can’t do youth ministry. I totally don’t understand youth, because I spent my youth on scales and drum rudiments!)

Besides time, many musicians have also invested considerable sums of money, both in their lessons and to purchase their instruments for practice. Let’s not include the opportunity cost, all the money they could have made if they spent their free time working instead of practising!

From this we can see that it takes a certain personality type to become a musician. Working with this type of people is like marketing to the affluent. If you try to sell products and services to the affluent without understanding what makes them different from the rest of the market, you will fail.

Dismally.

There is one thing many worship musicians have in common. And if you understand this ONE feature, you will know how to recruit them, how to handle them and how to lead them.

What is it?

Worship musicians very often lack confidence.

This makes sense if you stop and really think about it. Music is very wide ranging and diverse, and after some time the musician become aware of all the areas they are still not good at. Sight-reading? Arranging? Playing in a particular style, such as baroque, classical, jazz or R & B? Playing by ear? Improvisation? Transposing?

This lack of confidence applies across the board, whether the musician started lessons from young or took up an instrument later on in life. Someone who reads notes feels inadequate when facing a musician who plays entirely by ear. Musicians who play entirely by ear often feel insecure because they know that there are many things they cannot practice and train in unless they can read notes. Some of them feel like they are musical fakers, without genuine substance and music skill. And this nagging sense of insecurity remains no matter how much praise they receive for their music and how much encouragement others give them.

This lack of confidence colours a lot of what musicians do and how they think, yet it is something they HATE to admit to. So if you put them in a place where they have to admit their lack of confidence or show that their skills are lacking, they won't turn up.

That is why, when churches are recruiting worship musicians, I tell them to put up their list of worship musician criteria up on their website. Don't be lazy and say "We'll tell them our criteria when they tell us they are interested". It's very likely that the vast majority WON'T. They will scan through your church website and see if the info is there. If it isn't there, many of them are NOT going to ask. They don't want to bring up the topic, find out that they don't measure up, and then have to admit that to you. They hate that feeling.

This applies if you are announcing your recruitment exercise from the pulpit. Unless you stress that there are criteria and the musicians who wish to join your worship team can find out what they are in a non-threatening way, you are making it hard for them to approach you. If you put the criteria some place where they can check it up themselves, it is a lot less threatening to them.

Imagine that you are a shopowner, you've got many customers walking into a shop but your shop staff ignore them and don't even TRY to give them some information on what you have for sale or find out what they are looking for. As a business owner, should you tolerate this kind of sloppy service? It's costing you business!

But if you have a website or blog for your church and you don't put up your criteria for worship musicians up there, that's costing you worship musicians who may otherwise be a blessing to your congregation. That's fine if you have too many musicians already serving in your church, (let's say your church is smack in the middle of Nashville), but if you don't…

In the end, do you have a heart for your musicians?

If you know what matters to musicians, you will know how to communicate with them, are better able to give them what they want and help them give you what YOU want. But you have to be willing to understand and care for them, not try to make them fit YOUR idea of what worship ministry is like or see them only as resources to be exploited.

Don't give me excuses, saying "This is not how we do things in this church, this is not our culture." If you have musicians who come on board and soon quit, something is wrong. If your church is unable to recruit enough musicians in the long term, something is wrong. And you either fix it or go without good worship musicians. Or you are bouncing from one worship ministry crisis to another, wondering when will a large part of your musicians and worship leaders quit and leave you scrambling to recruit people again.

But if you engage with your worship musicians and work sincerely with them, you will find that you too will grow in understanding and maturity. And remember that the musicians in your church are God's people as well, redeemed by the blood, dear to his heart. Don't look at them only as useful to your successful running of a contemporary worship service. See them as people that God wants to love through you.

Remember, you are selling them the opportunity to be used by God in a powerful ministry that can deeply touch the lives of people, and can oftentimes unlock many other hidden giftings within the musicians too. This is a great product, and we know it will be a blessing to them. Are you willing to do what it takes to get this product to the right people, that they (and you) may be greatly blessed?

The ball is in YOUR court now!

P.S. if you find this useful, please tell your church friends and leaders about this blog. Thanks!