Get Outta Their Way!

My last post raised lots of eyebrows, I know. The way I summed up everything I teach with: always keep the congregation in mind. Isn't that what most of the worship ministry people are already doing?

No, they're not. And that's the reason why I have to make it my message.
Examples? Look at the majority of what people call worship songs. How many of them have a wide vocal range? The low parts are really low and the high parts are really high (examples: Ancient of Days, Did you feel the Mountains Tremble). No matter how you shift the key of the song, either the guys or the gals in the congregation can't sing it comfortably. In fact, only trained singers can manage the song. Making the average congregation member try it only frustrates them. Whoever wrote those songs didn't keep the congregation in mind.

Or how about the rhythm of the lyrics? Are the lyrics in a rhythm natural for people to speak? If not they're not natural for people to sing. If it's not natural people pay more attention to trying to sing the song correctly than to the God they're supposed to sing to. Do the lyrics go into syncopated sixteenth-beat (semi-quaver) patterns? These are too floaty, hard to people to sing with passion and intensity. (example: the verse from You Are My World) Whoever writes songs like that didn't keep the congregation in mind.

Or how about the worship leaders? Did they give clear directions through out the song? Did they structure the song to maximize the impact of the song? Or were they more interested in showing off their singing skills or the instrumental skills of their musicians? Those who do that aren't keep the congregation in mind.

I think you get the picture by now.
What happens when people structure a worship session without keeping the congregation in mind for every aspect? Very simple, the congregation just doesn't respond. Is it any surprise? They were not given what they need to sing their praises to God, worship songs which touch the heart (rather than just tickle the head) and appropriate music that encourages singing to God rather than listening to the band. What else do you expect?

Now I am a worship leader myself, and I cannot accept the idea that any worship leader will mess up the worship of the people on purpose. I prefer to believe that they are just mistaken or inexperienced. But the damage is done nonetheless.

Let's think of it from a worship leader's point of view. He has taken his favorite songs from the latest, greatest "worship" album by some big-name church or singer, enthusiastically tried them in church, and fallen flat on his face. He'll probably think it's because of the musicians he's working with, that they're not skilled enough.

So they get sent for worship seminars (re-read my post on those) and special classes. They spend hours and hours in practice sessions, drilling the riffs from each song. They now can play what's on the "worship" album note-for-note. The worship leader now goes up to try those same songs again. And falls flat on his face again.

(Hey, in one of the largest churches in Singapore they think copying the "worship" album note-for-note shows their level of skill and excellence. If not for their choir and back-up singers singing their hearts out every Sunday, they'd soon discover the shocking truth that despite how anointed their senior pastor says the worship is, the congregation JUST AIN'T SINGING!)

So now he thinks it's the question of spirituality, that he or his worship team isn't anointed enough. He then implements team prayer time, special Bible studies on worship, and brings the whole team for special worship retreats where they encounter the presence of God in a powerful and personal way. Finally he is certain that the whole team (and himself) is spiritual enough to lead worship. He then goes up to try those same songs again. And falls flat on his face again.

At this point, the worship leader has to decide if it's because of his pastor (not supportive enough, not spiritual enough, not a true worshipper, and other excuses) or because of the congregation, that they're resistant to true worship, unwilling to give their all for God, and are lukewarm or backsliden. Or that what he's taken as an example of what church worship is supposed to be like is mistaken, that he's been taken for a ride by the people who he thinks are worship experts just because they have the best-selling CDs or have written best-selling books on worship.

More often than not, the worship leader tends to place the blame on the congregation. This then leads to a sense of resentment and frustration. Spiritual jargon may be used to cover up these feelings, but the end result is that the worship leader loses his respect for congregation.

If you are such a worship leader, let me tell you something about the congregation of your church. They did their darned best to wake up early on Sunday morning and get to church on time. On the way they probably quarreled with their spouses, children or parents and are feeling lousy about it. They're now at church, tempted to arrange for a last minute "emergency ministry counseling" appointment at Ya Kun (Coffee, tea and kaya toast) but deciding against it because deep in their hearts they truly wanted to worship God. They step in and see you, the worship leader, realize that you're going to try those weird songs that they can't click with, and STILL decide to stay. Now, what are you going to do?

As I told many worship leaders before, the people turning up on time really want to worship. The only question is this: are you going to frustrate them further? Or get outta their way?

I shudder whenever I think about the times I sat in the back half of the hall/auditorium and heard the musicians playing away and realized that from the later half of the place onwards no one was singing. What a tragedy! Whether it’s a fully charismatic church or semi-traditional one, when the worship team forgets to keep the congregation in mind the congregation isn’t going to respond. And how much you practice or pray or how pure your heart is isn’t going to make a difference. If you are not going to give the people what they need they are not going to worship.

In fact, in one of the mega-churches the senior pastor often remarks that the worship in the early days of their church history was more powerful, more sincere and more anointed. Having been around I'd say the only difference is that the musicians didn't have the music standard to try any performance stuff before. Now that they have the standard (and the freedom), they started doing performance music rather than worship music. And that is the path taken by many a mega-church. Believe me, in such a church the congregation also longs for the good old days. Only the worship team is happy because they play what entertains and amuses them musically. And call that ministry done with a spirit of excellence.

Well, most of us are not in a position to do anything about what is going on at church level. But we are to be faithful with what influence God has entrusted to us. And when we have shown ourselves faithful with the little and are being entrusted with much, let us keep our perspective and remember that greatness in the Kingdom of God is the result of serving his people (Mark 10:43-44) Keep the congregation in mind in what you do. Either that or get outta their way, right?

Prayer Time: Getting a deeper understanding of teaching worship at this time. Really grateful to God. Will share with you the revelations over time. Be blessed, everyone!

Don't Drown Them!

I see this happening so often it’s sad. An unprepared, unequipped music student is thrown into the deep end of the pool of music ministry, pressurized into playing for worship before he or she is ready.

The usual excuse given is “He’s grade 08 in piano/guitar. I’m sure he can do it, after all the other guy is only grade 05 (or has no formal training) and he plays so well for church!”

And the poor unfortunate soul is plunged into the deep end of the pool, thrown in to either sink or swim. More often than not they sink. So that’s why I say, don’t drown them!

Let me make this really clear. There’s a world of difference between classical music and contemporary music. And between the contemporary music used for entertainment and the type used for worship.

Thinking that a person with extensive classical training is able to manage contemporary playing is like thinking that a person who has studied Chinese is able to manage Japanese also, since they use a large number of common characters. The only people who can believe that are people who don’t know either language. The grammars of the two languages are radically different.

Just as people who know Chinese can fully utilize Japanese ONLY if they’re been sufficiently exposed to Japanese AND given some teaching (because you can’t learn pronunciation without some form of help), likewise people who know classical music can utilize contemporary music only with some help. The concepts and ideas (the grammar, from a language point of view) are radically different. That’s a huge gap we have here.

And just as large is the gap between contemporary music for performance and contemporary music that works for worship.

Performance music gets people to sit back and listen, to go “wow! What are they doing? How did they do that?” Music meant for worship gets people to sing their praises to God. If it’s working no one notices the music. They’re too busy worshipping God and the musician(s) just kinda fade into the background. Can you see how the two are diametrically opposite?

The problem is this: True worship music isn’t attention-getting and it isn’t appealing to listen to, in fact it’s quite boring. It fulfills its purpose ONLY if people are singing along with it. And that’s not what we hear from the so-called ‘worship’ albums and CDs that are being sold these days and that our church musicians find inspiration from.

So what’s a classically trained musician to do? Seriously, they are starting from scratch. In fact, they often have lots of unlearning to do. And frankly, the ‘worship’ trainers that I know of are not much help, teaching performance music and calling it worship. Not only is performance music more complicated, it doesn’t work in worship and leads to serious problems.

Why don’t more people want to teach true worship music, music that edifies the people of God instead of entertaining them, music that doesn’t distract the people from worshipping God? It’s an absolute mystery to me. Can it possibly be that people just don’t get the secret to worship music?

Let me spell it out for you right now. If you get this simple principle and know how to apply it to any instrument or to worship leading, you don’t need me to teach you anything. It’s this: always keep the congregation in mind!

That simple principle has been the foundation of all I teach in the worship context. I don’t care if it’s not fancy enough to create an intellectual property asset that will rake in tons of money, it’s what I’m doing and I’ll stick with it.

So if you’re thinking of getting worship training, get the real thing. Evaluate what you are being taught with the principle I’ve just explicitly shared. And if it’s true worship music, use it to bless the people of God.

God knows, they really need it!

Prayer time: In the midst of everything else I’m doing I’ve just started a special intensive worship drums course for a couple of drummers from Petra. Pray for me to be blessed with wisdom and discernment, because I am holding myself to higher standards of teaching now, to get more skill imparted in a shorter time. Pray also that I will manage my time effectively to get my next post out to you quickly. It’s something that has been on my heart for nearly two months. Thanks!

Be blessed, everyone!

Mind Your Own Vineyard

My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. (Song of Songs 1:6, NKJV)

It was the last stretch of the worship workshop. The various worship bands had gone through their band training sessions and were now about to show us what they learned and understood about playing for worship. I was on an edge, repeatedly asking God "Father, I may not see these worship musicians again. What do you want me to say to them that will continue to serve them even if I am not here?" Then the SMS came.

My friend of more than 12 years, a sister-in-Christ and gifted musician, had just succumbed to cancer. Not even 30, she discovered that she had cancer only recently, and within a year her body gave up the fight and she left to be with the LORD.

I found out about her condition only weeks ago, and so it too late for me to provide her with information that could have influenced her decision and choice of treatment. But during my visits we shared about what happened during the years we didn't keep in touch, and if I was to sum up what caused her body to break down and fall prey to cancer, it would be this:

She did not choose to be good to herself. She was watching out for the interests of others but did not watch out for her own interests. To use the picture given in Scripture, she kept her brothers' vineyards but did not mind her own.

"Breast cancer has been well studied, and out of all this research, a very clear breast cancer personality has emerged. She is the woman who can give to everyone else, but cannot, or is not allowed to, receive." Lee, J.R., & Hopkins, V. (1999) What Your Doctor may NOT Tell You about Premenopause. New York: Warner Books 1999 (pg 226)
For the record, my friend did NOT fall prey to breast cancer, but instead to two others (yup, it was THAT bad…) I included that quote above to show the very clear link between a woman's emotional health and serious illnesses such as cancer.

Those of you who have heard me rant and rave about health issues know that I am not one of those simplistic people who reduce serious health matters to clichés and soundbites. I am very aware of practical causes of health problems, causes a lot more tangible than just saying "Watch out for your emotional health, be careful of the condition of your heart", what women in some churches get.

For example:
1) Talc, what most parents generously and liberally apply on the bottoms of their little babies, is a known cause of ovarian cancer. Out of sheer disgust, I have chosen not to use talc for my two sons, even though there's absolutely no chance on this earth they'd get ovarian cancer… (http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/cosmetics/talc.htm)

2) Fluoride has been known for a long time to be linked to osteoscarcoma (bone cancer). It's very ironic that this was acknowledged by a local doctor who regularly writes for the Straits Times, and he used it as a reason for people to not consume green tea for health purposes (Green tea is supposed to have considerable levels of fluoride). As for people being exposed to fluoride through toothpaste and drinking water, however, all we have gotten from this prolific and respected local doctor is a very loud silence…. ( http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/cancer)

3) When it comes to breast cancer, local magazines regularly advocate the use of mammograms and an anti-estrogenic drug called Tamoxifen. I cannot understand the logic of mammograms, since radiation is a widely recognized cause of cancer in general, promoting mammograms is to me like advocating the use of cigarette smoking to detect lung cancer. (http://www.preventcancer.com/patients/mammography/dangers.htm)

And as for Tamoxifen itself, I have another quote from the same book I quoted earlier "Tamoxifen… is listed by the World Health Organization as a cancer causing drug… Other side effects include a tripling of the risk of potentially fatal blood clots to the lung and increased risk of stroke, blindness and liver dysfunction. In fact, it has never been shown that Tamoxifen reduced the mortality rate of women using it, regardless of its "protection" against breast cancer." Lee, J.R., & Hopkins, V. (1999) What Your Doctor may NOT Tell You about Premenopause. New York: Warner Books 1999 (pg 226)

But yet I'd say issues still largely boil down to a woman's emotional health, because a woman with poor self-esteem, who does not truly treasure herself, can know all these practical matters but yet not take appropriate action on them. For example, she can know that mammograms and Tamoxifen are bad for her and yet let herself be persuaded by peer pressure. If she does not know that she is accountable to God for her body, she may allow doctors to make the final decisions for her body when she should be making such decisions herself.

And here's what I would say is the key to restoring a woman's self-esteem and emotional health. Rest.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. (Exodus 20:8-10, NKJV)

Yes, I know that the ultimate fulfillment of this command is the rest we receive when we accept the salvation given us in Christ (Hebrews 4:9-10). But the spiritual fulfillment does NOT invalidate the natural application of this command. If it did, we can also say that since the command "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" applies to Christ and his Church, the command no longer applies to us in the natural realm. Which is, of course, ludicrous. (Ephesians 5:31-33)

If you are a woman, schedule out regular rest periods for yourself in which you do no work. If you are a man, make opportunities for the primary woman in your life (either your wife or your mother, if you are unmarried) to have periods of rest. These moments in which you (male or female) do not work give you the space to get in tune with yourself, look at the God who has ordained rest for our benefit, not his (Mark 2:27) and realize that we are of great value, even over and above the work we do and how well we perform.

And if you are a husband, here's something else for you to do. Study the whole Song of Songs. And just for a while leave out the religious thinking from people who try to reduce this book of the Bible into a mere spiritual allegory. Take it as a book depicting the romance between a real man and a real woman. Study the journey of the woman, how she grows from an emotionally weak and depleted woman in chapter 1 to the powerful, confident woman of chapter 8 and take note of how the growth happens and how the man helped bring it about.

It's not for me to share what I learned from this book of the Bible, the timing isn't right yet. But guys, read it yourself and expect that God will teach you powerful truths from it that will astound and inspire you.

Prayer time: It's funny that I should finish this email on a day that I am feeling sick. This tells you very clearly how much I've neglected my own rest. Do pray for me that I can recover from the guilt and grief over my friend's death. Because of my busy-ness I had to just shut up the pain and carry on with life, which is never a good thing to do.

And I'm going to lead worship for Acts Centre on Easter, working with musicians I don't really know. To me, leading Easter worship is a great honour, and I am very excited over it. Pray for me that I will have the wisdom to serve the musicians and the whole church well. Thanks.

Be blessed, everyone!

Quick Announcement

Just a quick announcement. I'll be taking a break, possibly an extended one, from playing for the Living Faith Church monday evening services. It's because I need to focus a bit more at home during this season, some family stuff.

So the last monday I'll be playing there will be next Monday, 12th Feb. If you want to come down to check me out, next monday will be your last chance to do so at Living Faith for a quite while.

And to uphold me in prayer. I'm going to be part of a worship seminar/conference near the end of this month. Remember my post about worship seminars and conferences? This is what happens when you serve a God with a sense of humor...

Pray for me that I'll be able to live up to my own standards and ideals and bring others there within the short space of time I'm given. *gulp*

Ok, that's all for now. Be blessed, everyone!

Pace Yourself

Hello, everyone!

I know it's been a while since you last heard from me.I've been preparing myself for my big day, when I presented my What You Need to Know First info to a regular Sunday congregation at Acts Center. (28th Jan)

As I told some of you before, I have teachings/sermons for those who are in worship ministries and different topics for those who aren't, but this was the first time I had to do a cross-over and present my worship materials to a regular congregation. Needless to say I spent a lot of time and effort to review and process all my presentation to make it as relevant to regular people as possible.
And now that it's over (for now) I'm giving myself time out to relax before I start building up my momentum again.

I learnt this from my band leader many years back. He warned me that the day AFTER we first play for the main worship at the church we were serving at will be a let down. We'd be more vulnerable to depression and might even interpret it as a spiritual attack when it was just a natural occurrence after a major event.

So it's a personal habit now, to schedule downtime as soon as possible after a major event, or at least be aware that I'm not at my peak and be careful.

But don't worry, I've not run out of material and interesting stuff to share with you all. I'll get back to my usual sharing soon, ok? In the meantime, just pray for me that I'll be more careful at this season.

Be blessed, everyone!

Teach, admonish and father

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me." (Psalm 27:10, NIV)

You know by now that I am a Psalmic kinda guy. And the above passage, which I read many times, I always thought it was just a metaphoric, figure of speech kinda thing.

But just a couple of days ago, I sat down to really think about what David's upbringing was like. The ideas were disturbing. How did his father, Jesse, see him? Was David treasured and valued by his father? Look at this incident.

[Samuel] asked "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." (1 Sam 16:11, NIV)

The great prophet of God, Samuel, came to the family out of the blue. Jesse and his sons, at least, those that were with him, were consecrated and invited to the sacrifice, the heart of Old Testament worship. What a great honor for the family!

But David was forgotten, excluded, not worth the hassle of sending a servant out to fetch him. Jesse didn't have any difficulty leaving David out of an important family event. How do you think David felt about it?

Was this an isolated incident? Could be.

Children tend to follow the example of their parents. Sons especially want to be more like their fathers. Could Eliab, David's eldest brother. give us an idea of what home life for David was like? Let's look at how Eliab spoke to David when David went to the military camp, heard the challenge of Goliath, and asked the rest of the men around him what were the rewards of successfully defeating Goliath.

When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." (1 Sam 17:28)

The other men took the time to answer David's legitimate questions. Eliab got angry, implied that he was neglecting his real job (taking care of sheep) and called him conceited and wicked.

Was this how Jesse also treated David? We can't say. But was this an isolated incident? Maybe not…

When you have a child growing up in a negative environment, the child will either behave very badly to get attention, or go the extra mile to get approval. Do we see any of this in the life of David?

"Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it." (1 Sam 17:34-35, NIV)

If I ever send off my sons to tend sheep, it will be with the standing orders that if a bear or lion came to steal a sheep, they are to get the rest of the sheep (and themselves) far away. If they ever try any fancy heroics like David did, I'll thrash them senseless myself, child abuse laws be damned. I'd rather lose all my material possessions than any one of my boys.

I'm sure Jesse would have given such instructions to David too. What kind of hunger for approval will get a boy to risk his life over a sheep? I used to read that above passage as a bold and powerful declaration of faith. Now I hear the voice of a heartbroken, neglected child, willingly taking his life into his hands for the sake of winning his father's approval.

Does that thought break your heart? It breaks mine.

If David really has been brought up to think that he HAS to perform to gain approval, he'll be extremely uncomfortable to have things handed to him easily. And that is what we see too. When Saul offered David his daughter's hand in marriage, the opportunity to become royalty through marriage, he turned it down. His words were very telling.

David said, "Do you think it is a small matter to become the king's son-in-law? I'm only a poor man and little known." (1 Sam 18:23, NIV)

Remember, he said this AFTER he killed Goliath and prove himself very capable as a military leader and received the acclaim of the people of Israel. This was AFTER the women of Israel had sung of him 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.' (1 Sam 18:7, NIV) He still felt the need to prove himself to King Saul.

And so when Saul set the bride-price at one hundred Philistine foreskins, David went to get two hundred. Having met and exceeded Saul's requirements, he finally felt he was worthy to become the son-in-law of King Saul.

I suspect that David was searching, either consciously or subconsciously, for a father figure for his life. What better man to prepare him for the task of ruling the kingdom of Israel than Saul? And now that Saul was his father-in-law, there was a legitimate way for David to succeed Saul as king, without having to usurp the throne.

'See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand!' (1 Sam 24:11, NIV)

Was David sincere in his love for Saul? We can see from the times he spared Saul's life, as well as how he grieved over Saul's death, that he truly loved Saul as a father. But Saul still betrayed David.

When we betray our children, be they physical or spiritual children, they struggle with pain and bitterness and will be more likely to backslide and go into the ways of the world. That is how I interpret David's settling in the land of the Philistines (1 Sam 27). His heart was still for God's people, but yet he began a life of deception, lying to his new master Achish, King of Gath. Was he acting out what the anger he secretly harboured against Saul's actions? Pretty likely, in my opinion.

And that is why David wrote what he wrote in Psalm 27:10. It wasn't poetic license or a metaphoric, figure-of-speech thing. He lived most of his life without experiencing the love or the guidance of a father figure.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

If we truly accept our role to teach and admonish God's people, we have to expect that just as we look up to others to mentor us and guide us in our spiritual journey, we will have people looking up to us as well. And because we live in an emotionally hurt generation, some of those who look up to us will see us as father (or parent) figures.

So what are we to do about it?

Teach and lead. Don't just do the standard Church-ianity thing and foist them off with clichés like 'Don't look to man, look to God.' Even the Apostle Paul, who lived his life totally sold-out for Christ and made it his personal mission to point people to Jesus, said 'Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.' (1 Cor 11:1, NIV)

He knew that people need someone to lead and guide them by example. And he took it as a fatherly responsibility. Earlier in 1 Cor 4:15-17, he said '…for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. Therefore I am sending you Timothy, my son whom I love…'

And when you encounter those who go the extra mile to win your approval, like David did for Saul, please, recognize them for what they are, people who look up to you and want to please you. Don't feel threatened but celebrate their success as your own. By the way, that is one characteristic of good multi-level marketing programs, celebrating the success of those we disciple, even when they exceed ours. This is an excellent value for us as believers to embrace.

This is a long post, not directly related to the praise and worship training life. But it’s something God has placed on my heart recently, so I decided to share it with you all. Be blessed, everyone!

Hidden Customers

We had some sound glitches with during the Monday service at Living Faith earlier this week. And that was such a pity. It was to the worship leader’s credit that he continued to lead worship well without letting the technical problems affect him noticeably.

What made it even more of a pity was that we tried an interesting song link – key change thingy that I just absolutely knew (110%) would bless the people. I hope that the congregation was still blessed by it even though the sound system gave us some problems. How did I know my idea would work? Well, through lots of experience and understanding some fundamental principles.

AND because I watched the back-up vocalists during the practice.

Back-up vocalists. Most church musicians don’t really notice them very much. We usually see them dutifully (or listlessly) standing slightly apart from us, staring at their song lyric sheets (which most musicians don’t notice because they’re not listening). Or because most musicians are self-occupied people, we sometimes don’t notice them at all unless there are pretty girls among them.

Hey, I’m just saying it as it is.

Back-up vocalists usually fulfill two roles in the worship team. First, they provide vocal support to the worship leader. When they turn up for the practice, they get to experience beforehand what the worship leader intends to try with the congregation. They are thus better able to support him/her for that particular worship session, instead of the worship leader singing alone, praying that the congregation join in quickly…

Second, they also model worship for the congregation. Even if you are not actively participating in worship, watching back-up vocalists enthusiastically worship God will move you, even if only at a subconscious level. What you see modeled will influence you, and lean you more towards worshipping God enthusiastically, just as you see (and hear) them doing.

But did you ever think of them as ‘customers’ in their own right?

If you are a worship leader, you can see them as part of your team, there to help you get a certain song idea across to the congregation. Personally, I feel that if you are trying something that really needs the help of the back-up vocalists, something that just won’t work unless they support you strongly, that is something the congregation will not respond well to.

Or you can see them as a testing group. If the song links and ideas you plan have them singing their hearts out even during the rehearsal, you probably got a winner right there.

That was what happened during that rehearsal, when we tried the song link – key change thingy that I thought of. The back-up vocalists didn’t have any mikes during practice, but they sang so loud that I could hear them clearly.

And because the team usually plays quite loud, that doesn’t happen very often during practice. I could see from the faces of the vocalists that it wasn’t just a practice for them, but they were encountering God in worship even in the midst of practice.

Back-up vocalists are a valuable source of feedback, if you know how to value them and use them as such. They are the hidden customers that most musicians and worship leaders miss. They may not have the musical know-how to tell you what to do to revamp the worship music, but you can see from their faces if what you are trying works.

And because most do not have much music background, they aren’t impressed by how musically advanced and sophisticated your ideas are. They only care about whether what you want to try works.

So if you think you are a really skilled musician, that you have some really cool music ideas that will work really well in worship, put your ideas to the test. Try your ideas during the practice (don’t spring them as a surprise during the actual worship session) and see how the back-up vocalists respond to it.

Let me tell you upfront that the majority of back-up vocalists in church will go on singing dutifully even if your idea doesn’t help enhance the worship. That’s their job, right? But if your idea DOES work, they will sing out better, louder and clearer. You will see them smile (without the worship leader having to remind them to do so) indeed, from their body language you will KNOW when you’ve got something that works.

So do you dare to put your ideas to that test? If you don’t know or follow the basic principles of playing for worship, be prepared to fail the test more often than necessary.

Again, I’m saying it just as it is.

People, I’ve had a brother-in-Christ, one I really respect and look up to, share with me his personal concerns about my ‘marketing’ text. He felt that I shouldn’t describe my teaching and info the way I do, as teaching essential keys to getting worship to take-off.

And because this was feedback from a brother-in-Christ I really respect, not some theorist-wannabe’s knee-jerk reaction, I really gave it a lot of prayer and thought. I spent lots of time in prayer and waiting on God, laying my heart before him, waiting for him to tell me if I am in error or acting in pride.

Even after all this additional soul-searching, I still stand by what I say about what I teach. I cannot tone down my course description, especially about the two new courses I now offer, without being insincere. I still see people in worship ministry struggle because they need what I have to offer but don’t have it. And that is why I am putting in extra effort this December to organize extra teaching sessions, hoping that I can minister to even more people in the midst of this holiday season.

So help me get the word out. I'll be emailing you soon with the schedule for the lessons. And pray for me, first ly that I have the wisdom of God as I plan my schedule for this month, and that I will be able to reach out to more people, that God will bring into my path the people who will really be blessed by what I have to teach. Thanks!

Be blessed, everyone!

Stage Fright

I did a performance thingy one Friday.

Those you who have been with me for some time or have attended my various worship training sessions know that I firmly believe that worship is meant for the congregation to participate in, not for a few people to perform in. Over the years I have focused more and more on worship, rather than performing, and thus have gotten better and better at worship rather than performing.

And so the moment before I went up on stage for the Living Faith Church “Honor the Servers” event to perform two worship songs I wrote myself, I had stage fright again.

Yeah, even after all these years.

What I was told later was that I did well, so that means that the methods I use to conquer stage fright work. Thought of sharing them with you today.

The MOST important thing you MUST know: ALL stage fright is based on two factors: 1) that people are all focusing on you; and 2) the feeling that you are losing control. So the secret to overcoming stage fright is dealing with these two factors.

So in a worship context, you need to shift people’s attention away from you and to God AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Firstly, because that’s your job as a worship minister, and second, because that takes away from you pressure that you don’t have to undergo in order to get the job done.

If you are a worship leader, get the people to start singing or to do something together as a congregation as soon as possible. In general, praying and exhorting the congregation before worship is quite unnecessary, in my opinion. It adds to the pressure on you (which you don’t want) and delays the start of worship (which THEY don’t want) and means that you have to put in even more work to generate the momentum in worship later once they do get started.

So if you can do it, do it well and yet generate the momentum later once you start the worship, great! Personally, even after all these years of leading worship, I don’t do all that kind of stuff.

Now, if you are a worship musician or your mouth volunteered you for something before your rational mind kicked in (as happened in MY case), your struggle will be more of the second factor, the feeling that you are losing control.

How can you deal with that situation? First, have a familiar preparation routine. That can range from a familiar song intro style you use or even something as simple as washing your hands and drying them exactly the same way every time. This tells your subconscious that you ARE in control.

For me I’d either keep moving (if I have to do something that doesn’t involve me talking) or pray for a relevant joke to use (Lots of people present that evening enjoyed my joke about my voice inspiring thanksgiving). When the people started laughing I knew I was still very much in control.

The keep moving method is one I don’t really use these days, because people in church tend to freak out when they see me do stretching exercises, but you can easily find other ideas you can adapt and use in YOUR situation.

There were some points I slipped up. For example, I had a mike in front of me during my singing, so to keep myself from going cross-eyed looking at the mike I just closed my eyes while singing (and played some chords wrong). But overall I did OK. Sometimes it’s a question of how you choose to see the whole experience.

As I mentioned before, the worship songs were those I wrote, so I could see the whole experience in two ways. I could choose to see the experience of performing my own worship songs as being judged. Composing something is very personal because you put a lot of who you are as a person into it, and it’s very easy to interpret people rejecting it as rejecting who you are as a person.

Or I could see it in this way: because it’s MY song nobody else knows it. Therefore no one else will know if I get it wrong. A lot less pressure, right? I chose to see it this way…

Of course all these ideas are not meant to replace proper preparation. The two songs I used are songs I wrote from Scripture passages very dear to me (from the book of Psalms, surprised?) and for two weeks before I was using those two songs in my daily devotionals and discovering what songs could be effectively linked with those two songs. (Hey, once a worship leader, always a worship leader).

But sometimes even after we’ve prepared a lot we still get the jitters. That’s where the ideas here come in useful. Try them out and let me know what you think, OK?

Side Point: It’s the December holidays now. Lots of people are going to be on leave, so I am trying to organize weekday training events for them. I’ll make the announcement soon, but if you have any suggestions or any specific training you want me to do (in an intensive session) do email me and let me know, OK? And do let your friends know about this too. I’m thinking (and praying) through all this right now and will email you about this shortly.

OK, be blessed, everyone!

Crisis Thoughts

Hello, everyone!

It’s been a long while since my last update. Things have been crazy, in both the good and bad sense.

In the good sense, well, I’m gonna be conducting a worship workshop for the Youth Worship teams of another church, conducting the piano segment of a worship seminar at a Presbyterian church (need to double check which one. Some of you are wondering if their musicians are covered by insurance, I know…) and actually speaking at a church Sunday service!

Yes, I do have messages for such occasions, but I was asked to present a message that I developed specifically for people in worship ministry. That means I have to be my usual opinionated and offensive self in front of people who just might not understand what I’m about. That’s about as safe as a loaded gun in the hands of a teenager on Prozac…

In the midst of all the fun stuff, I’m also undergoing a tough season. Lots of little things have gone wrong, and trying to fix them all is very frustrating. I also face crisis in various areas of my life (thus my prolonged absence). Though I’d rather not go through all this, it is a good training season for me.

One thing that really strikes me this time is the way pressure shows us what is in our hearts. Humanistic thinking says that under-stress people say things they don’t really mean. Which can be true in a sense, but Jesus had a different view of it. He said “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

So if you are speaking words of praise even under stress, that’s because that is what you have filled your heart with during the non-crisis periods of your life. If words of anger, or exaggerations of the faults of others come out of your mouth at those times, then it shows clearly what you have placed in your heart during the rest of times.

Please, people, don’t get me wrong. I’m not sharing this with you to bring guilt. Let’s face it, even a brother-in-Christ whom I consider the epitome of Mr. Chill himself admitted he uttered a swear word in a brief moment of frustration. I am sharing this with you to remind you, “Above all else guard your heart, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

And even James said “Is any of you suffering? Let him pray.” Not gripe to our spouses, colleagues and friends. Sometimes, even just thinking how we’ll describe our problems to God is enough to restore our perspective and see our problems the way God sees them. And of course when God talks back and reminds us that he is very much greater than our problems…

So instead of “Charmed”, “Smallville” or mindless game shows, take the time to really feed your heart with good stuff, like the word of God…

Which brings me to my second topic…

When you are in the midst of crisis, you can cope with it in many ways. One that is a life-saver to me at this time is just reading the Word of God.

Were you expecting something else?

I just came across this during a sermon recently. In the parable of the prodigal son, it was recorded that the father ran to the returning son and embraced him. Interestingly enough, the Greek word used for embrace in that passage came out again in the book of Acts, when Peter was at Cornelius house. When Peter was speaking the Word of God to the people there, it said the Holy Spirit fell upon the people present. And same Greek word was used for both the father’s embrace in Luke 15 and the Holy Spirit’s embrace in Acts.

And that explains why I feel the presence of God so strongly when I am just chilling out with the Bible, reading it aloud. Especially when I’m reading to Jessiah. As I told some of you before, he doesn’t get any children’s bible kiddie stories from me. He gets Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, oftentimes in New King James Version, because that’s the version that I tend to find first when I am at home.

And he likes it. If I home he’ll ALWAYS ask me to read to him, and that is what I read. Someone just asked me if a four-year-old is capable of taking the Word of God neat. Well, Jessiah has no complaints…

While speaking the Word of God to him, the presence of God comes down. Not in the awesome sense that we sometimes experience during moments of intense worship, but in the gentle sense, like a loving father’s embrace. And in that manifest presence of God my son Jessiah falls asleep, while I am touched, encouraged and strengthened by my Father’s embrace.

Crisis periods can be difficult, not because of the weight of the crisis itself, but because they often leave us feeling very lonely. And when you feel misunderstood by siblings-in-Christ and thus can’t bear to get angry with them, that can be even worse.

So give yourself time to just speak the Word of God aloud to yourself. It feeds your heart with truth and your soul with the strength and comfort of God.

Prayer time: Pray for me that I’ll see God at this time. In the midst of breakthroughs, I need to see God as the strength of ministry and the one who empowers and enables me to serve his people. Pray also that I’ll receive greater wisdom to make core decisions for my ministry at this time. Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!

What it takes

What does it take to play for worship?

This post has been taken down because I've got an even better (and much cooler) version in my book. If you are serving in the worship ministry or if you are a pastor looking for more information on this topic, email me and I'll send you the updated chapter free-of-charge in a PDF file.

You can get my email address by getting on my mailing list. Go to www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/lsite01.htm

Be blessed!

How great is YOUR God?

How great is our God, sing with me how great is our God, all will see how great, how great is our God. - Chris Tomlin, How Great is Our God.
I just led worship for the Sunday morning congregation of Acts Center yesterday. Wow!

The people were really singing their hearts out to God and encountering God in a real way during the worship. And again I had the satisfaction of bringing people to encounter God, using just a guitar and the anointing he gave me.

Of course I had help. People who lent me the guitar and the mike, people who helped project the lyrics for the congregation and of course a dear sister-in-Christ from Tuesday Group who specially took the time and effort to be there and sing backup for me to help the congregation flow in worship.

Kinda interesting, this sister, Sister F, arrived late for the pre-service preparations because her car broke down. And after the service when we were chatting she told me that the projected cost of repairs was $2000.

I couldn’t believe it. She too sang her heart out during worship and during the sermon she was furiously soaking in every word from the pastor. It was as if she wasn’t given a $2000 piece of bad news just that very morning.

Either that or she has a God who is greater than a $2000 problem.

Which brings me to the question I have for you. How great is YOUR God?

O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent. (Psalm 104:1-2, NIV)
Now, we all have the same God as Sister F. But not all of us can shrug off a $2000 problem just like that, because not all of us have a revelation of God in which he is bigger than a $2000 problem.

Let’s look at things in a different way. If you discover that you’ve left the baby’s things behind at home JUST after you’ve struggled to get the pram and the two boys up the bus, and you’ve got to get off, head home, grab the bag and then head off to church to meet the rest of the family, does that ruin your Sunday worship service and leave you fuming at yourself (or your spouse) during worship? Or is your God so great that all that hassle is a hiccup barely worth mentioning or thinking of?

What I am getting at is that you can see how great your God really is to you by seeing how great a problem has to be before it can trouble your peace and affect the way you relate to God and to others. The greater God is in your eyes, the smaller other problems become.

Now of course problems are problems and need to be dealt with. But do they need to affect your peace? Or you can just deal with them as if they are no big deal, because your God is bigger than they are? One very common source of quarrels for Sunday mornings is being late. I know of people who will argue bitterly with their spouses over being a few minutes late for worship.

And when the arguments start getting hysterically historical (“You ALWAYS XXX, I told you not to XXX for the last 3 Sundays and you promised that you won’t XXX again. Now you’ve XXX-ed again and we’re going to be late again, just like the last 3 Sundays…”) that’s when we tend to forget that nowhere in Scripture are we specifically told to be punctual for services, but we are repeatedly admonished to watch how we treat our siblings-in-Christ. Do we honestly believe God is so concerned about our punctuality for services that he’ll close one eye to us emotionally abusing our spouses or children for the sake of punctuality?

Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:20, NIV
Of course, I’m not advocating that you should be late for worship. In fact you should make a special point to be on time. (Especially when I am the one leading worship, of course). What I am saying is how great is your revelation of God will determine how much all these matters trouble you to the point that you forget what is really important to God.

So how do we grow in our revelation of the greatness of our God?

1) Pray for such revelation

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 also 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 the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. - Ephesians 1:17-19, NIV
2) Feed such revelation.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? – Romans 10:14, NIV
We feed the revelation of the greatness of our God by exposing ourselves to preaching, whether during church sermons, sermon CDs, the preaching in the Bible, the preaching we sing to ourselves and to others during worship, or even from the indirect preaching of others as we hear their testimonies.

I’m willing to bet that if I were to quantify the amount of time, money and effort Sister F has put into feeding her revelation of the greatness of God, it will be easily be worth more than $2000. Because she has a greater than $2000 revelation of the greatness of God, I am looking forward to seeing how God will deal with her car problem. Will he just do something to the repair bill that it becomes negligible? Or give her a sudden windfall to cover the repair cost? Or just give her a new car? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.

Important note: If you are serving as a worship musician, don’t let your service deceive you into thinking you don’t need to further feed your revelation. There are musicians who serve in church for the sake of the music, not for the sake of serving God and his people.

Frankly, I’ve got absolutely no problem with that at all. If people want to indulge their desire to play music, I’d rather they do it in the house of God and let his people be blessed, than do it in a pub someplace, where the quality of their music is judged on how many alcoholics they can attract to that pub. And besides, there’s less 2nd hand cigarette smoke in church.

What I am concerned about, however, is that the musician may spend lots of time in the house of God and not feed the revelation within. And that would be such a waste. Here’s a quick test for you to see if a musician is there for the sake of the music or feeding the revelation of God’s greatness. Look at what happens when something goes wrong with the music.

Yesterday when I was leading the worship, the E bass string on the guitar went drastically out of tune, going to some out-of-tune D. So I had to immediately change my playing style to avoid that string, and tune that string later at the first available break. (Since I was the only musician, that break took a long time in coming.)

And I totally forgot all about it after that. It was only later yesterday evening when I was thinking through the points of this email, how Sister F just shrugged off the car problem she had, that I remembered that something went wrong with the music also. But because I knew my God is greater than the E bass string on the guitar it just didn’t affect me at all. My peace was unruffled and I just continued leading worship, being a blessing to God’s people and being blessed by his presence myself.

So that’s it for this somewhat longer post. Feed your revelation of the greatness of God. And may he reveal his greatness to us in ever-increasing measure as we continue to grow in him!

Prayer time: I’m going to be conducing worship training for the worship personnel of Acts Center this coming Saturday. Because I know the people involved (and have sat in for the services even when I am not playing for the worship) I am going to adapt my sharing to be more specific for this group (rather than share what applies to many churches across the board). Pray for me that I will say the right things and that what I share will be received in the right way. Other words, pray that if there are people offended with me, let them be offended because they heard me correctly and didn’t agree, rather than because they misunderstood me. Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!

More T & A (Teaching & Admonishing)

A quick follow-up note on the last post…

A couple of Saturdays ago, I spent 4 hours with my sis and one of her friends, a worship leader from her church. And it was great. I was totally in my element, sharing about leading worship, singing, demonstrating on both the keyboard and guitar… Wow! Totally fun!

Because I got held up at home, I got there late and VERY hungry. My sis got lunch for me, and while I was eating she was listing the questions she had for me to answer. When I heard some of her questions, however, my spirit got so excited that I forgot my hunger. I had to discipline myself to finish the food before getting started on her questions.

"I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:32, 34)

And once we got started, the time just shot past. I was showing how to modulate the key of a song in different situations, how to actually apply all these ideas in worship, what can be done with familiar songs, common situations during congregational worship and all that.

The really unusual part of the experience, however, was that AFTER it I realized MANY things about what I am doing, what I trying to teach. I found new and clearer ways of explaining what I had to teach. They just came to me in the days after the sharing session.

It was as if my subconscious was so stimulated by the interaction with my sis and her friend that for days I kept getting revelations and seeing connections about what I have been called to teach.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

This is what you can get from teaching and admonishing one another, as the Scripture exhorts. I know the other people there were blessed by the sharing, but I was blessed even more. And that is what I want you to experience too.

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25)

And I definitely was refreshed by the whole experience. After 4 hours I was ready to keep going on. Or find new people to share my info and experience with.

And that is why I do what I do, right?

Another point:

I shared last time about spending lots of time in the book of Psalms. My personal experience is that because the Psalms are less intellectual and more emotional, they build me up in my emotions more than other parts of Scripture.

And you kinda want to have more than an average familiarity with the book of Psalms. Because when the storms of life hit, sometimes our emotions just shut down and go dead on us and we find it difficult to pray our hearts out to God.

So at such moments, the Psalms do wonders for helping to bring life to our emotions again. The crisis Psalms (27, 31, 34, 54 and 61, for example) may seem a bit way-out for us during the normal days of life, but if you spend some time with them then they will minister to you so much more during the stormy seasons.

I just went through such a period, in fact. I was blasted in stereo, torn down effectively by a couple of experts and given burdens no one should ever have to bear, at a time when I most need my clarity… And the sheer unfairness of it all caused my emotions to just shut down. I couldn’t even pray the way I usually do.

All I could do was to take the crisis Psalms and read them aloud a few times each. And do that everyday until my emotions started coming back to normal again.

Now, you don’t want to wait until a crisis before you start feeding on these Psalms. It takes time for them to become a part of your spirit, and for them to start aligning your emotions and thoughts with the Word of God. So start on them now. It will take you less than 10 mins a day to read through them aloud a couple of times, but after just 3 weeks you will feel different, as if God has deposited something solid and substantial into your soul and spirit. (He will.)

Ok, that’s all for now. Get back to you all soon. Be blessed!

Teach and Admonish

I have a confession to make.

I am a control freak.

And that is a side of me that I had to face up to, especially as I am writing this.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…” 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)

When I first started serving in a worship ministry, the popular teaching was that we musicians were a specially called group, the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Levites and priests.

As I grew in my understanding (and just kept on reading the Bible) I just couldn’t hold to that idea anymore, that worship leaders and worship musicians are a separate group from the ‘average’ believer. I don’t believe that is an idea that can be justified from New Testament Scripture.

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a Kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father…” Revelations 1:5-6 (NIV)

Notice from the two passages I quoted that there is no argument the New Testament believer is a priest? Depending on what translation you are using, people can dispute whether we are made kings. But it is clear that we are definitely made priests.

All of us. Even the ones who are not serving in a worship ministry or see themselves as having no music gifting at all.

And one very neglected duty of the priest is the duty to teach. If Christ has made you a priest, he has given you not only the duty to praise God but also to teach. Consider this passage on the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe:

“He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.” Deuteronomy 33:10 (NIV)

And what are the priests to teach?

“They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it according to my ordinances.” Ezekiel 44:23-24 (NIV)

This is the tough part for me. To tell you all that you are called, no, you are commanded by God to teach his people. What if you start teaching the wrong things to God’s people? Wouldn’t I be at least partially responsible?

“I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” Romans 15:14 (NIV)

And THAT is the verse that slapped me in the face and told me to tell you what I am telling you now.

Now, I’d love it if I could teach you what to teach God’s people, and be your reference and guide if you have any questions, or be someone you check things out with before you share your teaching with others. But it’s better for me to share with you some principles that will help you teach the right things to God’s people.

1) “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult, whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still, teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning.” Proverbs 9:8-9 (NIV)

Remain open to being taught. Notice in the above passage mockers and the wicked are grouped together? And so are the wise and the righteous. Be open to what others share. Please, don’t swallow everything they say wholesale, because they may be wrong, but at least give them a fair hearing before you come to your conclusion. Remember Proverbs 18:13!

And thank them too, even if they are wrong. Oftentimes it’s very hard to step up to a sibling-in-Christ and share what you think they need to hear, especially if it’s something uncomfortable. So thank them for making the effort and assure them that you’ve heard what they had to say and you are giving it thought.

2) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16, NIV)

Notice the word “dwell”. Think about it. There are scientists who study cockroaches and centipedes, right? But they don’t let those creatures dwell with them in their own homes. Likewise, we can study the Bible seriously. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Word of Christ is dwelling within us.

So let the Word of Christ dwell within us as a welcome and respected guest. As you open your mouth and speak out the Scriptures, let this welcome guest minister to you, edify you and educate you.

And also keep up your worship lifestyle. Besides teaching God’s word we are also to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Now, there is room for us to disagree on the exact definition of those terms for worship, but it’s clear that we are to keep worshiping God, as that is part of letting the word of Christ dwell richly in us.

Side point: I personally spend lots of time in the book of Psalms also. I believe that it helps me understand the rest of the Bible better. In Ephesians 5 the psalms are linked with being filled with the Spirit. As I said, this is a personal thing.

3) Be ruled by peace.

In Colossians 3:15, we are commanded to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. We are called to peace, and in this context we’re talking about peace with our fellow believers. And this is the order of priorities that God has. First peace, then teaching.

And when we treasure peace, unity and continually release forgiveness to preserve that unity, we will find ourselves released to greater understanding of God’s word. And that will help you to teach the word of God to his people in an effective and appropriate way.


There is so much more to share on this topic, so I hope what I’ve shared so far will help you start off or encourage you further on this aspect of your priestly ministry. Be blessed, everyone!


Prayer time: Please pray for me that I will continue to be guided by the God in my decisions. Very heavy decisions to be made this season. The breakthroughs I’ve been praying for are finally arriving, and I need wisdom in reaping the harvest. Thanks, everyone!

Life-giving Kingship

We headed to the cars. We were supposed to worship God and pray at my friend’s new place, a house-blessing event, but received news that her friend’s old mother’s health had taken a turn for the worst. And her friend was about to leave for a mission trip in just a few days.

So after lunch we went to that friend’s place. Now ‘we’ were an interesting mix of people. A retired couple that used to be missionary pastors, a newly ordained Presbyterian pastor, my friend (an undergrad) and me. Along the way, we found out that the old lady had cancer for years, and in fact outlived the doctors’ expectations while refusing conventional treatment and taking massive amounts of fruits and vegetable juices every day.

But just when her daughter was about to go for an important missions trip in just a few days, her mother suddenly became sicker. So we became a kind of prayer Emergency Response team, going there to pray.

“We fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus” – Chris Tomlin, “We Fall Down”
For years I just couldn't click with that song. The lyrics seemed artificial and contrived somehow.

“And we cry holy, holy, holy is the Lamb” – Chris Tomlin, “We Fall Down”
When we got to the home and entered the room, we saw a tiny, frail old lady sitting in a chair, head down. She seemed so weak, barely able to lift up her head to look at the sudden burst of visitors that appeared out of nowhere, struggling to lift her hand to signal to her maid to show hospitality to these people who seemed to know her daughter.

She didn’t understand English, we were told, so the pastors in the group tried to speak to her in Cantonese. Because she was too weak to respond, we gave up trying to communicate, and the rest of the people started praying for her.

Now, because I hold quite strongly to Word of Faith teaching, I felt that the way the rest of the people there prayed lacked faith. It was as if they weren’t too sure that God wanted to heal the lady and wanted to pray in a way that would hedge their bets, whatever happened. (this was just my impression, ok?)

When it came to my turn to pray, I had a choice. I could pray in a way that would show off my theological position, make me feel superior to the other people in the room and alienate these brothers and sisters in Christ from me, or I could pray the same way they did (and leave me feeling like a hypocrite, because I wasn't praying the way I felt was right), or I could just take a song and worship God. I chose to worship God.

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. (Revelations 1:5-6, NKJV)

And when we all ended the worship song, that old lady finally looked up. Looking into her eyes I saw so much life in there, I was bowled over. And I felt God telling me in my heart that He touched her body and gave her life because I sought to bypass our theological differences and unite our prayers around Jesus Christ.

I sat there, stunned by the transformation that took place right before my eyes. And at that moment I realized that what the Chris Tomlin song spoke about, laying our crowns before Jesus, could not make sense to people who did not know, in their heart of hearts, that they have been made kings and are therefore crowned with power and authority.

And this is what I’d like to share with you. The question is not how to we, as believers, get more power and authority. Its how are we going to use the power and authority we already have as kings and priests serving God the Father. (Rev 1:5-6)

In the situation described earlier all it took to unite these believers from very different background into a group that saw the hand of God at work was a simple worship song. Why was this unity so powerful and life-giving? Because it was an alliance of kings.

“When a king’s face brightens, it means life…” Proverbs 16:15 (NIV)

And that is why there are so many accounts of kings, those of Judah and Israel, in 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles. God included all these accounts in the word of God so that we, as kings-in-Christ, will learn from whatever they did, whether wrong or right.

So what does that mean to you now, king and priest of the Most High God? How does my reminder of your power and authority in Christ affect you? I’ve got a couple of suggestions, practical steps you can take to exercise the life-giving kingship powers God has given to you.

1) Pray with confidence and authority.

2) Worship God more, especially with people from a different denomination or church. (Tuesday Group is perfect for this, of course)

3) Seek alliances with other believers, whether in work, ministry or even in family life. Some believers I know are talking about home-schooling their kids together when they have kids. This is a powerful example of the alliance of kings that we can set up.

Prayer time: God has been speaking to me through his people about growing up even further as a son of God, joint-heir with Christ. Pray for me that I will be led to the Scripture Passages that I need to feed on at this time, as well as the believers whom God has chosen to mentor me in this area.

Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!

Stepping Out

1 Chronicles 29:5 “… who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?” (NKJV)

This is the season of the year when I listen through “Prosperity” by Randy Gage

This is a CD series on the spiritual principles that he used to transform his life from bankruptcy, dysfunctional relationships and horrendous health to being a multi-millionaire with great health and joyful relationships in his life.

Now, Randy Gage is comes from a Mind Science church, one of those pseudo-Christian movements. He is very New-Age in his mindset and he is quite dismissive of evangelical Christianity. Having said that, his explanations of spiritual laws that correspond to Scripture principles are very clear and fresh.

And he pulls no punches, calling things the way they are. And sometimes, that’s just what we need at times.

Here is something that he taught that really struck me. He had this chapter called “the Return to the Creator” law of prosperity. This is what he called tithing. And he expanded the idea to more than just money. He said that we are to tithe our Treasure (money), Time and Talent.

The first time I heard that was during the season when I was running away from worship ministry. And when Randy Gage spoke about tithing the Talent (which for me was playing for and leading worship), that made me VERY uncomfortable.

Can you imagine? How could I ever let myself be out-tithed by a New-Ager?

That is what I wanted to bring up with you today. If we expanded our concept of tithing to include Time and Talent as well as Treasure, how different would our lives be?

Or in another sense, as King David asked in the passage from 1 Chronicles quoted above, who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?

“JJ, you don’t understand. You’ve been playing for worship for many years. It’s so much easier for you than for me to get started…”

Actually, God seems to delight in keeping me in a position where it’s not easy for me either, so I actually DO understand. Just on Sunday I was playing for worship at a church where I may be doing worship training for their worship teams.

• To start with, I was on my WEAKEST instrument, drums. Common sense would dictate that if you are going to some place new, start off with your strongest instrument so you leave a good first impression.
  
• On top of that, I was playing on Electric Drums, not the acoustic ones I was used to. Lots of my secret techniques just suddenly became impractical. Oops…
  
• I was playing with people I don’t know. I didn’t know who was gonna cover any slips I make or what I’ll have to do to cover theirs.
  
• And finally, I was already introduced to the congregation as a music/worship instructor. So the congregation’s expectations were raised higher. And thus I had even more to lose if I flopped.

So, in a sense, it NEVER gets easy. Therefore, you get to see whether you REALLY trust in God more than your skills and experience.

Now, if your music skills are not up to par yet, you of course shouldn’t be rushing off to play for service or cell group this coming week. That goes without saying.

But talk with one of the worship leaders in your church or your cell leader. Tell them of your decision to play or serve in worship and make a firm commitment to begin within the next 3-9 months.

Notice I didn’t tell you to wait till you are ready before you talk with them. Why? Because the biggest struggle many of us have is with our mindset. At our core we don’t really see ourselves as worship ministers, skilled and equipped to serve the congregation with music instruments.

So if we wait till we are ready, what will almost always happen is that something will crop up. Our kids will start acting up when we are going to practice, or our jobs will suddenly have a burst of work requiring OT, or something like that. All these events will delay us and become excuses for us to not pursue the equipping and training we need. So we end up not serving at all.

That’s why I urge you to make a firm commitment to begin serving in worship. Talk with your leaders about it (submission to authority is crucial as a worship musician) and give a definite date.

And once you do that you will tell your subconscious that you ARE committed to serving, and that it is to submit itself to you and work with you to obtain ALL the equipping and training you need.

Now on my part, I am in the midst of compiling and defining what are the music skills needed to play in an average church setting. This will be useful both to those who are interested in serving but need to know if they are skilled enough or what they need to work on, as well as to Worship leaders who are actively trying to recruit new musicians, because potential candidates would want to know what is expected of them before they subject their music skills to scrutiny.

But YOU can just email me about what skills you are gonna need at which level and I can give YOU an answer straight away. And if you are actively taking lessons from me I’ll tell you what else you’re gonna need to be ready.

And by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it yet, after you start playing for worship, that’s when we can start moving on to the REAL training. Not that you’ve not been receiving real training from me before, but everything I share suddenly seems to take a deeper share of meaning.

Those of you who are actively serving in worship right now, whether at a cell group/small group level or for church services will understand what I mean.

Pray about the question I shared from King David “who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?” May you be in that number, and experience the exciting and blessed journey that such a decision will bring.

Be blessed!

The Power of Encouragement

KK: “You know, JJ, you really ought to turn up for this Tuesday Group meeting I’ve been telling you about.”

JJ: “uh-huh…”

KK: “Yeah, one thing about the people there, when it comes to worship, they want the real thing. And that is what I know you can bring them.”

I was in Kenneth Koh’s car when we had this conversation. (If you are familiar with the people from the Tuesday Group, you know that this is the Kenneth who would NEVER be accused of having long, greasy hair).

At that point of time in my life, I was tired and weary, feeling quite hard-pressed on every side. I had gone 2 years in the wilderness, worn-out even at the thought of returning back to the worship scene.

The last thing I wanted to think about was any form of worship ministry whatsoever.

Did I lose my anointing during that period? Hardly. There were occasions when I led worship for a small group here and there, and ALWAYS received rave reviews. But I was settled in my thinking, comfortable with things exactly the way they were.

Hebrews 3:13 “…encourage each other daily, while it is called “Today”, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin – harmatia, Strong’s #266: Missing the mark.

That was what happened to me. I was hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, of falling short of what God intends. Nobody could say that I was doing anything wrong (playing in pubs, teaching classical piano, doing training here and there), but I fell short of pursuing the ministry that God called me to, to lead worship AND teach others to do the same.

So what broke the hardening of my heart? Encouragement.

Looking back, I see now how God orchestrated opportunities for me to receive encouragement. Snatches of conversations with other people, culminating in that turning point in Kenneth Koh’s car, finally broke all the hardness of heart I had when it came to worship ministry and pursuing the calling of God in my life.

As a side point, it was most likely the overwhelming flood of DIS-couragement that caused me to finally burn out two years before and leave the ministry. Hmmm….

Now, I could have chosen to not listen to Kenneth Koh at that time. I could have used all the excuses I used before to keep things exactly the way they were.

“You don’t understand.” “You don’t know what it’s like.”

I used to think that the only people who could tell me what to do were those who had gone through exactly what I had gone through. That was a deadly mistake.

Proverbs 14:10 “The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.”

Being totally logical, the only people who will know exactly what I’ve gone through are those who have gone through ALL the experiences that have shaped me as a person, and in exactly the same way and is NOW facing the identical situation I am facing now.

Now that just ain’t gonna happen. And if by some supernatural miracle I meet such a person, all that shows is that this person isn’t any smarter than I am, or he won’t end up with exactly the same problems as I have. “If the blind leads the blind…”

Can you imagine a person undergoing a heart attack insisting that he will receive CPR ONLY from a person who has experienced a heart attack before, because only such a person will know what it’s like to have a heart attack? Does a person HAVE to undergo a heart attack before he/she knows how to administer CPR?

There was once when I was fellowshipping with this sister from Tuesday Group. And she told me that the way I spoke of my wife at that time was wrong.

If I wasn’t teachable, I could have said “you don’t understand, you don’t know what it’s like…”

And why should I listen to her? She wasn’t me, married to my wife, undergoing all the same experiences I went through. So of course she wouldn’t know what it was like.

She was no relationship expert, I mean, she wasn’t a trained psychologist or counselor.To top it all off, she herself was emotionally volatile, and had problems relating with her own mother. She didn’t even show much fruit in this area of her life. Who was she to tell me I was wrong?

But at that moment she spoke forth the wisdom of God. I could take refuge in my excuses, or I could take heed to the wisdom of God in her words. I chose to take the wisdom of God to heart.

I share the above story not to boast of how smart I am, but to show you the excuses and self-deception that can take place when a person is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I did the right thing that time. Only God knows how many times I flopped all the times before.

So when you take that step of obedience, seek out that sibling in Christ that God has laid in your heart and begin to encourage him/her to rise up to his/her calling and high destiny in Christ, don’t be surprised or disappointed if you don’t meet with an immediately enthusiastic response. Or you run into the same excuses I used myself.

Just recognize that your encouragement is a powerful force, and it is the weapon God has ordained to overcome the deceitfulness of falling-short. Use it, as we are taught in God’s word. Remember, in due time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up!

Prayer time: Pray with me that I will hear God clearly as I continue to refine and tweak my marketing efforts. I am looking at a large change in my ministry, and I need wisdom to handle all the details.

Be blessed!

The Fear of Man

Vincent Kwok and I had just finished a band practice and were hungry. (not surprised, right?)

So we headed off to Plaza Singapura for food and as usual I began telling him my ah-peh stories. Somehow the topic turned to my wilderness years, the 2 years I went way out to avoid anything to do with a worship ministry.

And Vincent asked the logical question: Why did I do that?

Simply put, I was in a setting where I HAD to please everybody.
People, verily, I kiddeth thee not. And it was not unspoken rule or unstated assumption. I was explicitly told by my superior that I HAD to please everybody. He said that HE did it and therefore I could do it.

And I accepted that.

And set out to please everybody.

Needless to say, it was a dismal failure. First, I am NOT the sort of person who does that. God didn’t make me that way.

Then as I tried harder and harder to do so and failed, I prayed for God’s help. He didn’t help me. And I got unhappy with him over that. (Yeah, people, I am being very open with you here).

Looking back, it’s funny that I’d even dare to ask God to make me even more of what I am not and blame him when he didn’t. But it wasn’t funny then. And that was how I got burned out, frustrated and bitter with people and God.

Please don’t walk that path.

“The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” (Proverbs 29:25, NKJV)

I wish I remembered this verse during that season. It would have greatly sustained me and kept me from being bothered by the dislike of the minority.

1 Timothy 6:9 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare…” (NKJV)

What I have discovered to that the fear of man is very closely linked with the love of money. It makes sense, if you stop and think about it. After all, money is powerful, but it only gives us power over other men. Try using money to bribe an attack dog to leave you alone. Doesn’t work, trust me.

So if you fear man and feel powerless to affect other people, it is very easy to fall into the love of money to try and gain influence over others. It doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough.

Likewise, if you are greedy for money, it’s very easy to feel into the fear of man, because you feel compelled to please your customers (and you start to see everyone as only a customer, rather than a sibling-in-Christ).

So how do we keep ourselves far from this snare? Trust in the LORD and you shall be safe.

If you feel that you MUST please man, and find that you are deeply affected when people dislike you, it means that you have insufficient trust in God. And you can grow to trust God not by beating yourself over the head with it, but by growing to know more about him through his word.

Psalm 9:10 “…those who know Your Name will put their trust in You, for You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” (NKJV)

“The LORD is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6, NKJV)

Now you people know that I am not talking about being rude and offensive to other people. I am talking about what happens within you when you face rejection or when people dislike you. I am talking about what happens when you gotta address an issue and you are tempted to compromise or ignore the issue because you are afraid that people won’t like you after that. (like me talking about worship conferences and seminars)

I’m only human, of course I want people to like me. But I want them to like the REAL me, not some fake, sanitized, dismembered, politically correct semblance of me. “Any resemblance to the real JJ is purely coincidental”.

And that is why I am so frank in all my emails and conversations with you people. I am giving you the room to decide if you like the real me or not. And if you don’t, well, I’d rather you dislike the real me rather than like a fake me. Get it?

Paul said “… we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives…” (1 Thessalonians 2:8, NKJV)

Why did he say that? Because the gospel of God permeated his whole life, affecting him in all he did, said and thought. Therefore it was impossible for Paul to impart the gospel without imparting the rest of his life too.

And likewise for me. I cannot divorce what I teach you about worship from the rest of my life, so it becomes such that like Paul I’ll impart worship to you together with my own life as well.

Yeah, it makes me vulnerable. Like it did for Paul. It leaves me open for rejection. Like it did for Paul. It doesn’t make business sense, because I am reducing the potential customers I can have because there’s more room for people to be offended or dislike me.

But it’s how God has made me to minister to you. It’s one of those things that I am here to do, to say things that need to be said.

Ok, I’ve gone on long enough about how I got burned out and into the wilderness. Next time I’ll share about how God brought me out. Stay tuned!

Prayer time: Looking at this issue made me realize how much I have been blessed by you, by the love and acceptance you people have shown me. I thank God for you people. You have been a blessing to me. Thank you!

Pray for me that I will continue to trust in God and be kept from the fear of man, so that I will not be tempted to compromise on the message God has entrusted to me for you. Thanks!

Conference Complacency and Seminar Shudders

I get this question ALL the time. "Do you know that (XXX) is coming to Singapore? Are you going for the seminar/workshop/clinic/worship session (XXX) is holding?"

I know this is gonna ruffle a few feathers, but in all my years of serving in the music ministry and having been sent to all these events countless times, I've NEVER been to one that was worth my time.

And what's my criteria for that? Well something is a waste of my time if it doesn't give me something tangible and concrete that I can use in ministry within the next 3 weeks. And no matter who taught in all those I attended, NO ONE has ever given me something that I could use within 3 weeks.

I can feel the temperature rising in here…
And don't get me started on all the vocal or instrumental clinics and workshops that usually follow.

What usually happens is that whoever is holding that workshop has no idea of what to teach the people, so in an attempt to say something that is appropriate for everyone, they end up with what's not useful for anyone.

And because of the low price of these instrument workshops, they usually attract a number of absolute beginners, dabblers who have not made the quality decision to be equipped in that particular instrument.

And so whoever is running that workshop feels obligated to cater to those people and give those people information they can get by going to Yahoo or Google and doing a search.

That of course makes the workshop even more irrelevant to those with a certain degree of skill, and so those with a certain degree of skill end up NOT going to such workshops. And so the proportion of dabblers attending those workshops increases, and thus the gradual and inevitable lowering of the skill level of what gets taught in those events.

Imagine the frustration I felt. I went for all these events hoping to get something that I couldn't get from the other musicians in my church and ended up with info I knew before even playing for church. What on earth was I doing there? I mean, other than wasting my time?

To all the dabblers out there, I say this: stop dabbling. Get REAL. Go join a REAL class. Pay REAL money and make a REAL commitment to equipping yourself for the music ministry. Why pay that few dollars to get what you can get free-of-charge from Yahoo? For the sake of the company and opportunity to socialize with other dabblers?

"He who walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of dabblers…" (Nevermind. You figure that out for yourself)

Why then do people still religiously go for such events?
Well, there are two sorts of people who go for such events. The first sort is made up of those who have made a quality decision to be equipped for ministry. They are actively going for regular classes or are being closely mentored, or both. And they attend such events to get inspiration.

I salute these people. They take concrete action AND have people monitoring their progress. These are the people who will count for the Kingdom of God.

Now, it's the second sort that will be really uncomfortable with this email by now. They attend such events simply because there is no follow-up. No accountability. If you're attending a class, the next lesson the instructor's gonna ask you "Did you practice what I showed you last time?" It's this accountability that leads to growth.

Such accountability and follow-up doesn't usually happen when it comes to worship seminars or the instrument workshop that goes along with it. So those who want to feel like they're growing but are not committed to the effort that brings about REAL growth are perfectly comfortable with such an arrangement.

Now I can't change everything that occurs in this area. And there are probably many who don't want me to.

But if YOU are a frustrated keyboardist with a certain degree of skill and training, and you still want more, and if you have genuine reasons why you can't commit to regular lessons with a good instructor (money issues, a job with shift-work) then I want to help you.

And this is my offer
I play for services at The Living Faith Church (www.thelivingfaith.org) on Monday evenings. Turn up for the worship and listen to what I play.

And if you like what I play and want to play that, email me with your questions. I'll give you a FREE email consultation with me on what I played and why. Email me at jvworship@gmail.com with your questions and I'll give you that free consultation.

Why should I do that, when I can charge you good money for the information? It's simple. If you are serious enough about being equipped for ministry that you'd turn up for a service, pay attention and ask good questions, you deserve that free email consultation, in my eyes.

If you're serious about the worship ministry, I'm serious about helping you.
Yes, there are many things that I can't explain over email. But I believe that if my playing resonates with you and you show God that you're faithful with what the little I can impart to you through my playing and my email, God will provide you the finances and open the way for you to have one-on-one lessons with me.

Of course, I'd like to expand this invitation to guitar and drums as well, but the fact is that I am not ministering with those instruments regularly, so I can't make such an offer for those instruments.

Anyway, my keyboard invitation is open to all. Whether you are currently a keyboard student of mine or not, or even if you've never had any formal lesson with me before in any instrument, you are welcome to take advantage of this offer. Just send me an email to tell me who you are, where you're from and when you'll be turning up, and we'll see what we can arrange from there, OK?

I know this is a crazy offer, and probably unwise too, from a business point of view. But well, in this case I've chosen to be a fool for Christ. (and not the first time either)

Prayer time: I am recovering well. Thanks for your prayers. Gradually getting back into the swing of life again. Pray for God's blessing to be strong upon the drum classes especially during this season, because it's about time for me to tie everything together so that the students can see the whole big picture of the skill and art of playing drums for worship. Thanks, everyone!

Be blessed!