A Pastor Fell...

And I am grieved, so grieved.

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

Wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And why am I sharing with you about this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holding Back

I usually don’t get depressed reading my Bible, but these days have been different.

As I mentioned some time back, I’ve started on another Bible-on-a-year trip. At the moment I have just finished 2 Chronicles. This time through this part of the Bible I paid special attention to the prayers of David. I found myself crying when I read this:

“O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided." (1 Chr 29:18-19, NIV)

Did David ask for the wrong thing? No, as a parent I’d pray the same for my sons. I’d beg God to keep their hearts devoted to him. But we know that in the end Solomon fell into idolatry.

As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. (1 Kings 11:4-6, NIV)

And because I knew that, it made all the accounts of Solomon’s early reign and his great start all the more bittersweet. It’s kinda like watching the early days of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. You know that, in spite of all the good things he did earlier, he was going to fall away, and he was going to become Darth Vedar.

This time through the Bible, however, I think I found the beginning of Solomon’s fall, the mistake he made that led him down the slippery slope and caused everything to end so badly.

Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, "My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy." (2 Chr 8:11, NIV)

Solomon’s first foreign wife was the daughter of Pharaoh (from Egypt). Very early in his reign, he made the decision to keep her away from the presence of the LORD. Think about it, he wouldn’t even let her enter David’s palace just because the ark of the God USED to be there?

I personally believe this decision that his wife would be kept out-of-bounds to God, so to speak, that caused this aspect of his life to spiral out of control.

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. (1 Kings 11:1-3, NIV)

We usually read the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, and we learn from it that whatever we offer to God gets multiplied to make an impact for his kingdom. But the converse is also true. If we leave one aspect of our lives apart from God’s rule and blessing, that part of our lives starts to grow, to multiply and fester, and eventually it has the potential to derail our lives and mess things up for us big-time.

It was not the problem of a foreign wife that was the root of the problem. If we look at the matter in detail, we’ll see that David had a foreign wife too, the daughter of the king of Geshur (1 Chr 3:2). And so did Joseph, in fact, he married the daughter of the priest of On. That’s like a Christian prophet marrying the daughter of the Dalai Lama (if he ever had one, of course). But that did not cause those two men to backslide. They saw God as heavily involved with ALL they did. In fact, David even brought God into his domestic squabbles, as we see from the following incident involving one of his wives.

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!" David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor." (2 Sam 6:20-22, NIV)

By the way, I personally think the last line about the slave girls was David’s way of hitting Michal below the belt. I can understand his anger, but it was still mean, in my opinion. Let’s not idealize everything a man of God does, OK? Having said that, however, the fact remains that despite his mistakes, David saw God as vitally involved with all he did.

Unlike Solomon.

And hence the lesson I took from this and want to share with you.

It is too easy to divide up our lives into compartments, our family, work, leisure, ministry and other spiritual stuff and see them all as separate. And when we see them as separate, the temptation of thinking that God belongs to and should only be involved with the more spiritual stuff (such as our prayer times, Sunday services and church ministries) is strong.

If we ever give in to that temptation, we are courting trouble the way Solomon did. God desires to leave his mark, to show his hand in EVERY area of our lives.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 The 5:23, NIV)

And this is the key to seeing if you have been holding back areas of your life from God - Prayer. If there is any area of your life you have not been submitting to God in prayer, this is an area you have declared out-of-bounds to God. Whether you do that because you think it is too trivial to bring to God or because you are harboring rebellion in that area does not matter. What matters now is the fact that what you hold back from God poses a grave danger to your walk with God.

Prayer is also the key to bringing any area of your life back to God’s rule. Whatever the area may be, begin by praying to God about it again. I pray to God about many aspects of my life, even how I do push-ups. And just a couple of nights ago I had a late night conversation with a dear brother-in-Christ who showed me yet another area I have been holding back from God. When he did so I realized that I have not been praying about that aspect of my life. So I had to commit that area of my life back to God again.

Anyway, that’s it for this sharing. Pray for me that I can organize my time well this season. I’ve been very busy, but there are still more matters I’d like to share with you. Be blessed!

Birthday Thoughts

I celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks back.

I usually don't, because I don't feel comfortable with people making a fuss over me. Most of the time my birthday is forgotten, because Jessiah's (my firstborn) birthday is less than a week before mine, so he gets all the attention. And I'm cool with it.

(He was supposed to be born on my birthday; I guess he was too impatient to wait another week!)

So how did I spend my birthday? I started off with worship, of course.

1. Thy Loving Kindness (D-E major)
2. My Life is in You, Lord (G major)
3. Through it all (G-A Major)
4. How Great is Our God (A major).

Then I continued with an ordinary day at work. It's a blessing to be happy and satisfied stuffing envelopes and pasting stamps on my birthday (that's NOT my usual routine, but it just had to be done by that day). Finally the day ended off with meeting the wife for a movie (17 Again). Yup, that was pretty much it.

In my university days I had a forbid fascination with cults. And my favorite cult in those days was the Jehovah's Witnesses. They were a textbook study of standard cult psychology and got me interested in studying Christian doctrine in detail. What fascinated me was how carefully they used their differences with standard Christian doctrine both for branding and for making their members feel superior to rank-and-file Christians, that they had some secret insider knowledge. Very Nicolaitan, right?

And one of their pet 'doctrines' was that birthdays were pagan celebrations, that the two times birthdays were described in the Bible bad things happened, and so genuine servants of Jehovah (what they CLAIM to be) should have nothing to do with birthday celebrations, whether their own or someone else's.

I was exposed to all these ideas in my undergrad days, so later on, when some Christians I knew suddenly started telling me that Christmas was a pagan festival and that Christians should ONLY observe Jewish feasts, I just smiled and left the matter at that. I already saw how similar ideas (in fact, for the JW exactly the same idea, Christmas) were used, and saw the fruits firsthand. I'll pass, thanks!

Birthdays can, in fact they ought, to be used for remembering God. In Psalm 139:13-14, we read "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." But in the course of day to day life it's easy to forget to thank God for creating us in the first place. Birthdays provide an excellent platform for remembering and celebrating that.

The JW do have a point though (you never thought I'd ever say that, right?). They assert that birthdays take glory away from God and put it on the individual. And I have seen people who behave as if birthdays were their day of glory, that they should be allowed to do whatever they like on their respective birthdays. Such people who act in the spirit of Pharaoh (who executed a prisoner on that day, Gen 40:22) and Herod, who on his birthday had John the Baptist executed. Some people act as if their birthday celebrations gave them the right to treat other people badly or to demand that their whims and fancies be met, regardless of how much trouble they cause the people around them.

I personally believe that birthdays give us the opportunity to express who is the most important person in our lives. If we are self-centered, how we celebrate our birthdays will reveal that. If we live for Christ, how we celebrate our birthdays will reflect that too. I still remember the birthday party of one of my good friends. A few years ago he said "It's MY birthday, I want to spend it worshiping Jesus, so you all HAVE to join me!"

Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that how I celebrated my birthday is the best way or the correct way. I am just sharing some thoughts and memories triggered by my own birthday, OK?

So in closing I'd say I am quite OK with how my birthday went this year. Of course there are still some items on my birthday wish list that I'd like to have, such as :

1) A working computer, my previous one zonked out (a laptop would be nice)

2) A video cam, I have still have lots more vids I'd like to record and put up

3) Training DVDs, both music and Budo

But in spite of not having all those things I am still content. I enjoyed myself on my birthday this year and for that I thank God. Many information marketing people on the Internet use their birthdays as an excuse for some special sale or promotion of their products. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but I did not do that this year. Why? Because I have only ONE product at this point of time, I think it's weird to hold a birthday celebration sale just for that!

Yup, so that's it for this email. No special offer, no special promotion, just a simple sharing of my thoughts and musings. Be blessed!

When My Son was Hospitalized

If you have been following me on Twitter (@junjiehuang) or on FaceBook (as Junjie Huang), you'll know that my elder boy recently came down with some gastro-something viral thingy and had to be hospitalized. It was not an easy decision, but when he had high fever and kept vomiting out everything, even the fever medicine and water, we had no choice. He had to be put on a drip, so he had to be warded.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least. There was one young boy (at the most 2 years old) who was clamoring to go home. And his mum kept telling him that they were going home soon, just after the doctor checks him one more time. Come on, the kid was already in hospital clothes, the doctors had already made their final rounds for the day, it was after 9pm at night... she was lying through her teeth there! What's gonna happen to her when the kid grows older and he refuses to trust her because she has lied to him too many times before?

And there was this other kid, even younger than the previous one. He was initially quiet when he saw me in the ward, but by the next day he was taking my kids' toys and loudly shouting "MINE!" when any of my kids wanted to get them back. The mother would quietly take them away from him and return them to my kids when he was distracted with something else. But what message was she sending to that boy about respecting other people's property? That he was the centre of the world and the rightful owner of ALL he surveyed?

Of course, Jessiah wasn't totally perfect too. I must admit I was disappointed at his total abject fear of having the needle stuck into his hand so the nurses could insert the drip. I guess at that moment it was a little too late for me to teach him pain disassociation and calming techniques, right? It did not feel good to me, pinning him down with my arms, holding his arm and hand in place for the nurse to insert the drip, knowing that it WAS going to hurt because his hand was so tense from fear. What happened to all the breathing and calming techniques I taught him before?

"JJ, you're expecting too much from a 7 year old kid!" Yeah, maybe you're right!

If you have been following my emails and blog posts for a while you'll see that my two boys trigger off a lot of my thoughts, ideas and posts. I think about my kids a lot, especially in the context of spiritual matters. Recently as I spent a lot more time on Deuteronomy, I realized that God has our children very much on his heart also. Many times in Deuteronomy we are admonished to teach our children, to impart godly wisdom and teaching to them. For example:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children." (Deuteronomy 4:9-10, NIV)

God has children very much on his heart. And he wants us to prioritize teaching them. We are to make the most of every opportunity to teach them, using whatever is in my environment and daily schedule as a context for training them in the fear of the Lord. Consider this:

"Hear, O Israel : The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deuteronomy 6:4-7, NIV)

In other words, get obsessed with God and keep talking about him to your kids!

Raising up kids is tough. And it's gonna get tougher and tougher as the days go by. This is one thing that we MUST work at together, as a community of God and as the Body of Christ. There are three main groups of people on my heart as I write this message.

1) Parents with growing kids

Don't isolate yourself from the rest of the Body of Christ. It is a bad move in general, but it is extremely devastating when it comes to parenting. No matter how strong you are or how wise you are, you will need help. So get help!

Work in partnership with other parents. Trade tips, help mind each others' kids once in a while, just look for ways to sow practical help into the lives of other parents and be humble enough to accept the help offered by other parents too.

For example, my current ministry means that I am VERY busy on Sundays after the service. As long as my pastor isn't done, I'm not done! If he doesn't get to eat, I don't get to eat! All that is fine, except that if I have to manage my kids by myself they're not going to have a decent lunch until quite late in the day. And I don't like that. Thank God for the other parents at my church, people who know me and my kids and are willing to help feed them while I handle lots of other stuff!

2) Parents with grown kids

If you have already been there and done that, help us younger parents. Share your advice, wisdom and experience. Don't let us make all the same mistakes you did. And do encourage us. We can read all the parenting books, even excellent ones by writers full of the wisdom of God, but it just doesn't compare to you coming alongside us and telling us "this is a passing phase, your kids will grow out of this and they'll be fine!"

I know this may not be easy. Especially if you are trying to help people like me. There's just something about me, when it comes to raising my kids people tend to think I know what I am doing. That's the impression I tend to give other people. I don't. Most of the time, when I look so confident and certain on the outside, I am desperately praying for God's wisdom on the inside. When it comes to my kids I really appreciate wisdom from people who have walked the path before. And I am sure other younger parents are like me, they appreciate your help too. So please help us!

3) You're too young to have your own kids

As long as you are old enough to walk and hold something in your hand you are old enough to learn how to help manage children. Start small. If you are an only child or you never helped your parents manage younger siblings before, go volunteer in your church nursery. An extra pair of willing hands will always be appreciated. Give the parents in your church a hand, help them lift a pram up a staircase, help them carry a bag (milk bottles, powder, diapers and all that can get heavy, trust me, I know!). Do all these little things to get yourself in contact with children, to get familiar with them, and to make yourself useful with them.

Jesus said "And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?" (Luke 16:12, NIV) Show yourself trustworthy with other people's kids. The experience will prove invaluable when you have children of your own!

You may be wondering, I am a Worship Trainer, why am I talking so much about children? For one thing, God's Word wants us to care about children, to be forward looking in planning and caring for the next generation. And that's good enough a reason for many people.

But for me there is also another reason. As a worship minister I pay a lot of attention to the life of King David, the most prominent worshipper in the Bible. And one thing that really struck me about David is this: he was one lousy father. Think about it, Ammon was a selfish kid who raped his half-sister, Absalom was a bloodthirsty and violent coward (rare combination, I know), even Solomon eventually turned away from the LORD to worship other gods.

This is sobering when I look at my own two boys. What kind of people will they become? The Bible says we are to train the child in the way he should go, and when he grows old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). And this tells me that David COULD have prevented his sons from becoming like this. But he didn't.

I don't want that to be said of my life. And that is why I think so much about my sons, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. I feel very keenly the responsibilities the LORD has entrusted to me in this area. So that is why it colours a lot of what I share with you.

Anyway, that's what I'd like to share with you this time. Be blessed!

Watch and Be Blessed!

If you have been following my posts and emails long enough you'll see that I almost never share with you material from other people. I use my own stuff, thank you very much. But here is a video that has blessed me every time I watch it, and I'd like to share this video with you.

This video comes from Todd Vaters, and has been listed by Faith Visuals in their Top 10 New Easter Videos list I pray that this video will bless you as much as it has blessed me!

Serve as unto the Lord

But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. (1 Chronicles 29:14, NIV)

Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing-- grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God. (Joel 2:14, NIV)

What do the two verses above have in common? The idea that whatever we offer God came from him in the first place. We aren't really giving him anything, we are only returning to him a part of it.

Putting it simply, we are ALWAYS getting the better part of the deal.

That's something we need to keep in mind when we actually SERVE God's people. In 1 Peter 4:11, it says "If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides" (NIV). And we are told that because we are serving God, HE is the one who will reward us (Col 3:24). Not men.

And that is an area that has stumbled many who step forward to serve God. They subconsciously believe that because they are serving certain people, their reward will come from these people. Of course, we can cover this up with spiritual jargon, and say that everything we do is unto the Lord. But the acid test is when people let us down. What then?

Let me share with you my personal experience, in case you think I have my act together all the time.

One of the ways I earn a living is by giving personal lessons in worship music. And I have learned the hard way NEVER to serve at a place where I already have students serving. Because these students will stop taking lessons with me soon after that. And my income suffers.

The first time this happened was with a church where I had TWO students serving on the worship team. They lost a core musician and they were scrambling to fix the vacuum. So two of the more proactive people heard about me, checked out my teaching and decided to take lessons from me.

Problem was, no matter how quickly they learned they were not gonna be able to fix the music vacuum straight away. So I was invited to play piano for them, help them out for one of their services and all that. Being a sucker for a sob story, I agreed. The idealist in me thought "This is a GREAT way to teach them, they'll see me actually do what I tell them to do, and in front of their own eyes they'll see it work!"

That was what happened. They saw that I actually did what I told them to do. Some parts where I have told them not to play they saw me actually put my hands behind my back. (Something most church pianists don't have the guts to do, I noticed). They saw how well the congregation responded to all the subtle changes I explained (and now demonstrated) to them.

And they stopped taking lessons.

In retrospect I understand why this happens. People usually do things (like take worship music lessons) to get rid of pain. When I started serving in that church I immediately took away a huge source of their pain, the pain that comes from having rudderless musicians playing junk for a church service. So by stepping forth to serve I shot myself in the foot by taking away their motivation to take lessons from me.

I do understand that life is unpredictable and things crop up. And that was what happened to one of them. But the other one gave me loads of hyper-lame excuses. Let me give you a sample:

1) "I am not called to play music instruments" - show me from the Bible where there is such thing...

2) "I want to check my motivations and the condition of my heart" - I could tell you what was in this person's heart - laziness! Check out the other excuses and you'll see what I mean.

3) "I don't have time to practice" - which sounds really funny because soon after this person said:

4) "I'm busy with classical piano lessons, because that would help with worship piano" - Look, either you've got time or you don't. And if you don't have time and you want to learn worship music, then learn worship piano playing directly! It's like someone claiming she wants to learn Japanese but is too busy to take Japanese lessons because she's learning Mandarin to help her with her Japanese.

This person also metaphorically slapped me in the face. One day, during band practice, this person openly approached another pianist and asked this pianist to teach this person's kid. Well, at that time this pianist was a student and didn't have any teaching experience, and she knew that I had loads of experience teaching both adults and children, so she asked "Why don't you ask JJ?" The reply was "What JJ teaches is very complicated..."

OK, that was going a tad bit too far. I usually watch my manners when speaking to people in positions of leadership, but this time I spoke up and said "If you can say that, you obviously haven't been listening!" This person quietly moved on to do other stuff while the rest of the musicians and back-up vocalists waited in uncomfortable silence for the band practice to begin...

Yeah, that was what I put up with, in addition to the financial hardship that came from losing two students and giving up prime teaching time for the sake of serving. Would you believe that in the end I stopped playing for that group, not because of financial hardship, but only because of my family? My son was acting up, my wife suspected that it was because he needed even more time with me, so she appealed to me to give priority to my kid. And I did.

Not that I am such a dedicated and devoted servant of God. I think it's just because I got into the habit of turning up, that's all. Sometimes that's all God really needs from us to serve him powerfully...

I buried this season in my subconscious and tried to forget all about it. Until this happened again and again. Even with students who have been faithfully taking lessons from me for years and risen in prominence in their churches because of their growing effectiveness in the worship ministry. (Which shows you, by the way, that it's not because of my lousy people skills. If that was the problem, why would these students continue taking lessons from me for so long?)

Once I start serving WITH them, they stop lessons very soon after that. And my income suffers.

And so I have to battle bitterness and resentment. Hey look, I don't get paid to serve God with them. I do it because of the opportunity to sow more into my students' lives. The time I give up for serving could have been used to bring in more money for my family, but I forego income willingly for that purpose (that makes me a lousy businessman, I know). And so I feel betrayed when my students stop taking lessons from me. It's like them not respecting my time after I start giving them even more free lessons.

So I have two choices: give in to bitterness or really serve as unto the Lord. If I expect that people would respect my serving and so I would see SOME form of concrete appreciation from them (like continuing to take ridiculously under-priced lessons from me) I WILL be disappointed.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. (Psalm 118:8, NIV)

BUT if I see my reward as coming from the Lord, in HIS good time, in the way and manner that HE chooses, my heart will be able to rest in him. Seriously, what did it cost GOD for me to serve him? It cost him his son, who died to make me fit to serve God. And even whatever I use to serve God came from him in the first place, right?

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Cor 4:7 NIV)

So, as Jesus said before, "Freely you have received, freely give." (Mat 10:8, NIV) This does not mean to refuse monetary compensation, because in the same passage Jesus said "The worker is worth his keep" (Mat 10:10, NIV). But at the root of it all, serve as unto the Lord. And expect your reward to come from him.

Does that mean that I am now going start serving at whatever place I am invited to serve at, even if I have students there? No way! My first priority is to provide for my family (1 Tim 5:8), and that means getting more students AND keeping the students I now have. That's my bread and butter, I have to guard it wisely.

It DOES mean that I have to walk in forgiveness continually, just as Christ has forgiven me. It means that before I do anything for ministry I now count the cost. Can I afford to bear the financial consequences of serving in a particular way? And not expect anyone to come along and help me bear the burden? If so I go ahead. If not, I decline the opportunity to serve.

Conclusion: after the most recent time I lost a student after serving, I was very offended and frustrated, as you can imagine. I kept wrestling with the offence. Every time my anger arose I kept telling God "I'm gonna serve because it's you, not for any other reason. In the end you gave me everything, I am only returning part of what you gave me in the first place." And within a few weeks God opened for me a door to minister in a place and a way that I didn't believe I ever have, and even sooner than I expected. I honestly feel like Joseph taken from the prison to Pharaoh's court, a huge change overnight.

I can't share the details now (this post has gone on long enough!) but suffice it to say that I finally feel as if I am better utilized for God's Kingdom. More of my giftings and abilities are called into play. I am even busier than before, and yet there is this sense of peace and rest that pervades everything I do. I really can't explain it, but I am certainly enjoying it!

All my struggles and frustrations honestly look so small, compared to what I am enjoy in my life and ministry now. The Lord has rewarded me, and I am grateful.And that's what I'd like to share with you today.

If you serve, whether in the Worship Ministry directly (as I still do) or indirectly, or even in some other form of ministry, you can tell if you are serving as unto the Lord or unto men. Just watch what happens when people offend you or despise you. If you struggle to continue, some part of you is still serving as unto men.

If so, my dear sibling-in-Christ, don't let the offences and your disappointment cause you to give up. Your reward is on the way. Our God remembers everything you do for him and his Word declares:

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor 15:58, NIV)

Be blessed!

Preacher and Worship Leader

This is a topic someone brought up via email (thanks, Allyn!). This phenomenon doesn't happen very often, but often enough – having the pastor (preacher) as the worship leader too. It's not very surprising if you stop and think about it, many of the skill sets overlap. Planning for songs or sermons, leading a worship team, ministry team or a congregation, communicating clearly with people on a larger scale than a typical one-on-one conversation – the skills seem to just carry over from one form of ministry to another.

In fact, there are a number of pastors in Singapore who have performing experience, started serving God as worship leaders and eventually became preachers. And when I get online and nose around, this appears in other countries too. People go from leading the worship for a Bible study meeting, to leading the Bible study for the meeting, to preaching. What I personally suspect is that

1) Worshiping Jesus, the Living Word of God, intensifies the hunger to meet him in the Written Word;

2) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10) so as worship leaders worship Jesus more they grow in the wisdom of God. And start to share it.

3) When these worship leaders show themselves faithful in doing a little for a few people, God entrusts them with the responsibility of doing more for more of his people (Luke 12:42-44, 16:10).

There are also cases of people who have been active in the performing arts before they believe in Jesus or receive their assignment to full-time ministry. Singers, songwriters, musicians, magicians, actors and actresses have made the switch before. So they switch their focus from performing for their own glory to performing behind the pulpit, and for the glory of God.

So if you are a worship leader and the preacher at the same time, here's some things to take note of:

1) Create a platform for others to minister.

If you are in a small church or one that is just starting off, you may have to do everything yourself at the beginning. And that's fine. You are probably the sort used to handling everything by yourself anyway. We musicians can be such control freaks, right?

But as you do so, remember that your task as a pastor is to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:12). And that means creating the platform for people to step up and serve. In his book Sticky Church, Larry Osborne says "I learned long ago that no one steps up until there's a vacuum that needs to be filled." You may enjoy leading worship, but in the long run Ephesians 4:12 means that you may have to let go of taking that role all the time and begin sharing it with someone else.

2) People are still going to follow your lead, so…

Even when you let someone else lead the worship, remember that the eyes of the congregation will still be on you. Which means:

• When your apprentice worship leader is leading the worship, raise your hands really high, sing out loud and follow his or her lead. If you don't you are sending the people the message that it is OK for them to not follow the leading of your worship leader. That will hamstring his or her ministry from the get-go. It's bad if the people see you standing there listlessly when someone else leads worship. It's even worse if they see you peering over your sermon notes and scribbling in them, or waving an usher over to you to whisper frantic last minute instructors during the worship.

I understand if you have a lot of things to manage even up to the moment you step up to the pulpit and start preaching God's Word. Such things happen in small churches. I highly recommend that you hand these things over to a volunteer, or if you can't do that, settle them where the congregation can't see you, where you won't be a distraction to them.

• How you lead worship may not be the best way to lead worship, even if it works for you. You may have some mannerisms, tricks or preferences for leading worship. And the congregation sings their hearts out when you lead worship, so you think you're doing fine.

But the litmus test comes when your apprentice does what YOU do. Does it work for them? If not, don't do it. First, your congregation will prefer how you do things (or they would have left your church a long time ago) and if your leader tries the same things and falls flat you have diminished your leader in the eyes of the congregation. Second, even if your leader ever checks out how I lead worship and I have the glory of God coming with enough power to raise the dead, your leader will still prefer to do things your way (even if it doesn't work). So you will hamstring me in my teaching ministry too. (Yeah, it's a selfish reason. At least I am honest!)

Maybe an example will help: There's this pastor in Singapore, (former worship leader, by the way) who likes to sing through the verse and chorus of a song ONCE. Then he exhorts, preaches or prophesies as the choir (yup, it's a large church) oohs and aahs in the background. Then at the right moment he rallies everybody for a rousing final chorus.

Now that works for him because, in the natural realm he has loads of charisma to spare AND an intuitive grasp of the music (exhort for 16 bars before it's time for the chorus again), and in the spiritual realm he has a strong prophetic gifting. That means that when he talks, things happen, the people are strengthened, encouraged and comforted (1 Cor 14:3). So it's all fine and dandy for him.

Problem comes when a musician comes along, sees what that pastor does and decides to do the same thing. All he has in common with that pastor is the ability to count out 16 bars before going into the chorus again. Charisma and prophetic ability? Nah. And this musician takes things a step further than the pastor. The pastor does it for ONE song and it works, so he tries exactly the same thing, but for FOUR or FIVE songs in a row. Exactly the same structure and template, everything.

Do I even need to tell you what happens next?

3) Performance experience helps you speak powerfully into a performer's life.

Even though worship music and performance music are two different genres of music, usually it's the performers who will have the guts to take up the challenge of the worship ministry. That makes sense, since they already have dealt with the stage fright issue to a large degree.

And if they step up and begin serving God along with you, the proximity and close contact with you will give you a powerful and precious opportunity to mentor these people and sow into their lives directly. Make full use of that opportunity!

Moreover, if you have performing experience, it lends more weight to your words when you speak into a performer's life. In case you don't know, skilled musicians and performers usually have up-sized egos. And they usually don't have a lot of patience for non-musicians or non-performers telling them what to do. Either that or they will dismiss it with "what do they know about life as a musician anyway?"

But if you have performing experience, things become different. When you talk to them about being a light for Christ even as they sing and play in pubs, and you can look them in the eye and say "You can do it. I did it, and the same Jesus who lives in me lives in you!" they will be moved. They will start to think that there is hope for them to grow likewise in serving Christ. Your experience allows you to say to them "follow me, as I follow Christ!"

It doesn't sound pleasant, talking about winning the respect of performers this way. But sometimes it just has to be done. Here's my personal experience: when I conduct a workshop for playing piano in worship, one thing I emphasize over and over again is freeing up the sound space for the rest of the band to be heard and for the congregation to sing more freely. And that means playing in a careful, bare-bones fashion.

Now if there is a performance-crazy pianist listening to this, one who spends hours and hours drilling post-modernist avant-garde bebop jazz riffs, shows off those riffs while playing for worship and thinks he's doing all this to the glory of God, what's he gonna think? "Does JJ tell me to leave out the good stuff because HE can't play it?"

So part of my explanation HAS to include a brief demo of overplaying, crazy flamboyant overplaying, to show people that: yes, I CAN do it, but no, I choose NOT to do it, so I serve the congregation better.

And, more importantly, when you do this you are showing this person how to mentor and guide other worship leaders later on. What you do can multiply and be duplicated, as Paul described in 2 Tim 2:2. The best example of this will be John Wimber and Carl Tuttle . Give yourself some time, head over to Carl Tuttle's website and read his sharing on the years John Wimber worked with him. There are many, many powerful lessons to learn from that.

OK, that's about it for this post. Be blessed!

Objective and Fair?

One Sunday, I was hanging out with a friend from church after the service. “What do you think of today’s sermon?” he asked. “It’s OK, I’ll need more time to think about it and digest it” I replied.

“To me, it was full of bovine feces!”

Needless to say, I was somewhat taken aback by his comment.

“It was all about [one topic], the sermon was trying to [something bad]. I would be embarrassed to bring my non-Christian friends to hear such a sermon! Where is the [important topic]?”

“Err… I thought he talked about that when he brought up [some Bible verses] and said [certain points]?” I said.

“That was just a brief mention! The rest of the sermon was all about [one topic brought up earlier]. That’s why the church is not growing!”

Well, that was his opinion. He certainly had the freedom to decide for himself if something was just a brief mention or was it carefully woven into the sermon to broaden the perspective (what I thought). But I found it sobering, it was as if we were in totally different churches, listening to totally different pastors talk about totally different things…

Another Incident:

One day someone forwarded an email to a mailing list I’m a part of, and that email raised some discussions. In the midst of it a lady brought shared her own personal take on the topic (nothing wrong with that, right?) but got attacked over it. And this attacker was vicious, he said there was no difference between her and an unbeliever, they both never consider God and just follow their own selfish desires.

And about two paragraphs down the attacker specified that he was not just questioning her motivations, he was questioning her salvation. That, to me, is a very serious matter. So I read and reread the lady’s sharing, trying to see if there was anything in her email that could be construed the way her attacker saw it.

Nope, there wasn’t.

And I am not too blur to notice anything wrong. For the record, I majored in Philosophy in my university days, and we’re trained to find fault with arguments, anticipate possible defenses and demolish them in advance. Not good for building up a social life or winning popularity contests, hence the sometimes-offensive edge that characterizes my writing and my thoughts.

Putting it simply, I’m good, really good, at finding fault. And I couldn’t find any in what she shared.

Well, I brought it up to the attacker and invited him to show from her email how he came to his harsh conclusions about her. Needless to say, he ignored that question and called me nitpicking. I wonder if he ever realized how many people were laughing at his arguments and evasions and how silly he made himself look. But I also find it sobering to read his attack over the lady’s email, it was as if we were reading totally different emails from totally different people.

My question today: are we as objective and clear-headed as we think we are?

Mark Joyner, the author of Simpleology, once said that the indispensable skill for leaders is the ability to see the battlefield. Everything else, motivation, organization, communication and all that, can be delegated. To me, it’s about perception; can you see things the way they are, not the way your emotions, prejudices and your paradigm want them to be?

And that is important, because we need perception to be able to follow this Scriptural admonition:

And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8, NASB)

And we cannot do justice unless we can see clearly what is happening.

“But I am not a judge or leader yet. Why do you talk about justice?”

Justice starts in the little things. That’s how God works. He watches how much we esteem (or despise) justice in the little things. From there he’ll see how well we’ll do when entrusted with much (Luke 16:10-12). It can be over a small matter, such as managing the squabbles of two sons (you might guess that I’m speaking from experience in this matter) to work out a fair solution for both boys.

And injustice can be seen in matters such as a wife’s friend ignoring the faults in a wife (out of friendship) but opening bugging the husband over exactly the same faults, even when the husband is nowhere near as guilty as the wife is.

(By the way, such a friend is abetting the wife in standing in the way of sinners, described in Psalm 1:1. I wrote some material on that, and I’m thinking about whether to release here on my blog. Let me chew on that a bit.)

Practical Steps:

I am not claiming to be objective and clear-headed all the time (I’m too objective to make such a claim) but I have found some ideas useful for keeping my perspective.

1) Take time to hear or read something you disagree with, and try to put yourself in the speaker’s (or writer’s) shoes.

I started doing this just for the sake of being able to find loopholes in other people’s arguments, so that I could demolish them. Then I saw people try to do the same to me (what we sow we reap, right?) but they didn’t do a good job because they only went as deep as necessary just to come up with a cheap argument against my position. And it was easy to embarrass them as a result.

So to keep people from embarrassing me in like manner, I made it a point to always do thorough research, until I could think like the people I disagree with. And God used that to develop empathy in me. That’s a great help in developing perception, because when I start to see how people make really bad mistakes, I start asking myself if I make the same mistakes. Which leads to the second point…

2) Think through what you do, why and why you choose that reason for what you do.

The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways… Proverbs 14:8 (NIV)

This practice is so powerful, even non-Christians benefit greatly from it. One of the practical ways of doing that is to keep a journal (or blog, which is an online version of the same thing). Trying to express what we believe and why we believe it is a great way to make ourselves give thought to our ways. Even Solomon did journaling too, in a sense. We read that he had Elihoreph, Ahijah and Jehoshaphat as scribes and recorders (1 Kings 4:3).

Of course, journaling is not a fail-safe method. While writing this blogpost I took a while to check out the blog of the email attacker. Yeah, he blogs too. Some good thoughts and points, but that didn’t stop him from making a fool of himself. What else do we need?

3) Be open to being taught.

Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. (Proverbs 9:9, NASB)

And in order to be taught you need to be near people who can teach you.

He who separates himself seeks his own desire, he quarrels against all sound wisdom. (Proverbs 18:1, NASB)

Even Solomon didn’t isolate himself. He surrounded himself with godly counsel. After he was praised as having great wisdom (1 Kings 3) we read of the officials who served at his court (1 Kings 4). Notice that the overwhelming majority of them are priests?

So give this matter some thought. Hope that what I share in this will bless you in some way. Until next time...

Spirit and Truth

I led worship for a lunchtime service at Living Faith Church.

For those who are interested, the songs I used were:

1) One Day (Hillsongs, A major)
2) The Steadfast Love of the Lord (D-E major)
3) Here I am to Worship (E-G major)
4) I Love You, Lord (G major)

I recently put up some teaching on the Spotlight Anointing. What I didn't tell you is that sometimes it just isn't there. This was one of those occasions. I felt so alone out there, as if no one else was singing along and I was trying to do a solo show. Bad feeling!

I dread those times. You see, when I step up to lead worship, I usually (OK, almost always) get this feeling that everything I've done before, every success I had before, all the experience, revelation and skill I have, isn't enough THIS TIME. Those of you who have read my book know what I mean, I mentioned that in the chapter on spiritual hindrances common to the worship ministry.

The purpose of that feeling is to drive me to the flesh instead of the Spirit, to try and control, manipulate and hype up the praises rather than trust God and let him have his way.

Usually that feeling goes away half-way through the service. Last Friday was one of those times it stayed throughout. I think there was a problem with the projector half-way, so I tried to lead the worship and feed the people the lyrics (while playing piano) at the same time. That wasn't easy! (Stumble, stumble, bump. Oww!) So I ended off that time feeling totally lousy about myself, wondering if there's something wrong with me spiritually, was there something more I could have done, and all that.

It's in such moments I need to return to what it means to worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

That phrase is one of the most over-used and misunderstood phrases in the entire Praise and Worship scene. People read into it whatever THEY feel it should mean, instead of checking the Bible to get the definition from there. Bad move. You see, that phrase is taken from the Gospel of John, which is a teaching gospel, arranged in themes. So when we want to understand what a particular phrase from the Gospel of John means, we should seek it in the Gospel of John first.

And that is what I have NOT seen in many definitions of 'in Spirit and in truth.'

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24, NIV)

So, looking back at John 3, this is what Jesus said.

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. (John 3:5-6, NIV)

The immediate context tells us that it is through the Spirit that we receive our second birth into the Kingdom of God. This suggests to me that to worship in Spirit means that we are to worship God on the basis of our identity as born-again believers, not anything else.

Paul also hints at this in the following passage.

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3, NIV)

Paul contrasts us, who worship by the Spirit of God, with the circumcision group, who teach that people need to do more in order to be pleasing and acceptable to God. The circumcision group taught that believers needed to come under the Old Testament law in order to worship God. We face the descendants of the circumcision group anytime we encounter people who try to make us feel less worthy, less qualified to approach God, unless we fast a certain number of days a week, pray a certain number of hours a day, keep ourselves from sin at least 80-100% of the time, and all that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should not do all the above mentioned things. But do we worship God based on all that we can (or cannot) do? Or do we worship God based on our status and identity as his children, whom he has given new birth into a living hope?

That's the Spirit. How about the Truth?

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. (John 3:21, NIV)

This passage tells us what is Truth – that what good we do, including the worship we offer, is done through God. (Hebrews 13:15 again!) There is nothing we can do to make ourselves any better. Even more importantly, there is nothing for which we can claim any credit or glory for, since every good we have done, including our worship, all came from God and was done through God in the first place.

The flesh has no room to boast and pride has no place to stand.

If you have the same kind of thinking system as me you'll be uncomfortable over the definitions of Spirit and Truth seem to overlap. But that is how the Apostle John thinks and writes. He uses one word to define another, and the another word to define the first, until you get totally confused using conventional syllogism.

That's how John works. That's why I read John's writings whenever I think I've got everything figured out. He helps keep me humble!

Some people think that Truth refers to what they can use to bash people, putting it bluntly. They say something like "Jesus came to give both grace AND truth!" And use that to justify whacking other people over their inadequacies and failings. But that is NOT how John uses that word. Consider this:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17, NIV)

Many people use the Law and call it truth. How do you know if someone is using the Law?

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20, NIV)

If someone is using the Law, you'll become conscious of sin. You'll aware of how much you fall short in and of yourself. That is good if you take the next step, which is to throw yourself wholeheartedly onto God's grace. It's bad if someone tries to use the Law to keep you from going there.

To sum it up: to worship God in Spirit and in Truth means to worship God as his children, acknowledging that our worship is done through God. I'm not saying that my definition is the ONLY good one around, but I urge you to reject any other definition that would go contrary to this one. I especially urge you to reject any teaching on this that tries to involve your flesh and self-effort. That's 180 degrees against what John would have us believe.

Back to last Friday: Because I was so discouraged, I asked for feedback. The most accurate source of feedback will be from people in the back of the room or auditorium, because only good worship leaders will be able to engage the people in the back of the room consistently. So I grit my teeth and asked how things were from back there.

The reply? "God's anointing is upon you!"

If I did lead worship poorly, does that affect my status, my position and identity as a child of God? No, because I worship him in Spirit. Seems that I did well last Friday, but does that give me any room for pride? Nope, not really, since the Truth tells me how well I served has been done through God anyway.

Just something for you to meditate on. Be blessed!

The Spotlight Anointing

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are three points to note about the spotlight anointing.

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

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

2) The spotlight anointing can fall upon musicians too.

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

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

3) The spotlight anointing can lead to laziness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Power of the Burnt Offering

Last Wednesday, I was taking the MRT, heading for a class when I decided to start reading the whole Bible in a year. (No, it doesn't bother me that I'm about 2 months behind.) So I started in Genesis, and near the end of the train journey I finished up to chapter 11, before the calling of Abraham. It seemed like a good place to just pause for a breather, so I did.

And when I did, this passage kept speaking to my heart.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (Genesis 8:20-21, NIV)

Notice that Noah sacrificed burnt offerings on his own initiative? God found the aroma pleasing, and decided that he would never curse the ground again because of man (by bringing a massive flood, for example). Think about it: in Genesis 6:6 we just read that "The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." The flood was his response to the wickedness of the earth that caused him so much grief. And you gotta admit, it was a neat solution – drown the people causing you all the trouble and pain, and make them an abject lesson to future generations.

Don't mess with God, right?
But when Noah sacrificed the burnt offerings, something significant happened. The heart of God was moved, and he issued a blanket amnesty, promising us that he would never flood the earth again in judgement. And he made that promise knowing that fundamentally the heart of Man had not changed. We are still inclined towards sin and wickedness. And we're still gonna cause him unimaginable pain and grief.

But he made that promise anyway, established the covenant with Noah, and put the rainbow in the sky as the sign of his unfailing commitment to this decision.

Why? Because of the burnt offerings.
What does that have to do with us? What if you knew that you had something that God likes even MORE than burnt offerings? If burnt offerings could move the heart of God that much and get him to commit to being merciful to us, can you imagine how God would respond to something even better?

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

Yes, our songs are even more pleasing to God than the burnt offerings Noah brought to God. Do we realize that? Do we really believe that? Do we know that in the depths of our heart? I don't think we have any clue about this at all.

If we did we would be singing our hearts to God any and every chance we get.

If we did we'd never say things like "worship is not JUST songs". Being frank with you, that's despising and making light of something God delights in.

But how about Amos 5:22-24, when God says that he will not accept the offerings people bring him and he rejected their singing as just noise? I'll elaborate more on that some other time, but for now let me just share this verse with you:

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

If you keep hanging out with me, you'll hear this from me over and over again. And I'll keep repeating it over and over again. Our sacrifices of praise will NEVER be acceptable to God based on who we are or what we do. They are acceptable ONLY in Christ. If we think that our innate goodness or the 'sincerity' of our hearts (gag, gag, choke, puke!) is what makes God look on our worship with favor, we are deluded to the max. We have only ONE way to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. And that way is Jesus Christ.

But when we fully make use of that way, and take full advantage of how pleased God is with our songs, (because Jesus, our Great High Priest, has made our them pleasing and acceptable), who knows what will happen? If burnt offerings can move God to be merciful, how much more our songs!

As you can imagine, it was quite a train journey for me, with all these thoughts running through my head. It was raining that afternoon, but when I arrived at my station and started walking to my class, I saw many people standing next to a field, pointing their handphone cameras up at the shy.

A rainbow. Stretching all across the sky.



Interesting timing. On the very day I chose to read the book of Genesis, immediately after I read about the Flood and the rainbow, there was a rainbow for me to see. Personally I see it as a kind of confirmation of my thoughts. What do YOU think?


P.S. I talked about one common mistake, despising the praises of God's people. To find out about other such mistakes that keep people from serving effectively in worship ministry, as well as how to serve successfully, get your copy of the Invisible Worship Musician today!

Worship Team - Using Auxiliary Percussion

In the modern church band context, auxiliary percussion refers to the percussion instruments that are not part of the usual drum set. They would therefore include congas, cowbells, shakers, bar chimes, bongos and all that. Some churches include auxiliary percussion in the band even if they already have a drummer on the drum kit. Other churches may, because of space, budget or noise constraints, choose to use auxiliary percussion to replace the regular drum set.

In both cases, auxiliary percussion can greatly add the people's worship experience if used correctly. They can also be an irritating distraction if not used correctly.

Before you can understand the correct use of the auxiliary percussion instruments, you need to recognize that there are two main instrument groups. They are:

1) the groove instruments - instruments that are used to create a consistent rhythm. This group includes the congas, tambourines and shakers.

2) The ambience instruments - instruments that are used sparingly for the sake of ambience. This group includes the bar chimes, rain sticks, or even a roll on the cymbals played with the mallets.

From this we can already see the most common problem, attempting to use the ambience instruments as part of a consistent groove. A mallet roll on the cymbals every two counts, for example, when it should be used only as a fill once or twice in a song, or playing the bar chimes continually for three or four bars of the chorus, are prime examples of this kind of mistake.

The other common problem is when people playing the groove instruments do not fit their playing into the structure of the song. They end up pounding away mindlessly whether they are at the verse, chorus or ending of the song.

Please plan your parts. If you are playing the tambourine, for example, trying playing the tambourine on the second and fourth count, or maybe just the fourth count, during the verse. In the pre-chorus, play it on the second and fourth count but a little louder. And when you get to the chorus, you can shake it to an eighth-beat (quaver) pattern if you are holding the tambourine in your hand. If you are not, you can continue tapping it as before but add in a shaker part with your other hand. This is an example of planning your parts according to the structure of the song.

The third problem is not keeping the groove parts consistent. This can arise from a lack of skill or because the player is bored and trying to make the parts musically interesting by changing the beat every bar. Please do not do that. It catches the attention of the congregation, and even at a subconscious level that is a distraction. Even in secular music the acclaimed percussionists like Alex Acuna keep their groove parts consistent. There is a lesson for us in that.

Finally, the most important piece of advice: sing along with the song. Always. I see percussionists in church with their eyes and mouths closed, grimacing and straining intently to feel the song as they play. There's no need for that. Playing auxiliary percussion for worship is simple if you sing together with the congregation and let your singing guide you in your choice of notes.

In conclusion: auxiliary percussion, whether it is used together with a drum kit or by itself, has great potential to enhance the worship experience of the people of God. Follow the guidelines here and you will better utilize that potential for the glory of God and the blessing of his people!

Translation in Worship

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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