James' Law of Two Springs

People were telling me that someone I know is really anointed for worship. They say that he would break out into prophetic songs in the midst of worship and those who hear it are edified. "Wouldn't it be great if the two of you can combine your gifting and work together? Wonder-Twins activated!" (Reference to a kid's TV show from a long time ago)

No.

Given the choice I will not want to minister in worship with this person. Why? Because he violates what I call James' Law of Two Springs.

James 3:9-11 (NIV) With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Simply put, James' Law tells us we should not be one of those who praise God and verbally abuse or criticise other people. And because I have spent considerable amounts of time with that supposedly anointed guy, I know him to be such a person. He is the kind of person who would sing out loud, be very demonstrative and expressive in worship, and yet within hours after the service be complaining about his spouse or verbally abusing and threatening his kids.

Of course you would not know these things about a person just from casual acquaintance. But as time goes by a person's true colours are revealed. One of his closest friends from church (not me) confronted him over how he always managed to find something wrong in every situation, instead of looking for whatever he could thank God for (1 Thes 5:18). And within weeks of that confrontation this person was talking about wanting to change church because the worship leaders and the worship musicians were not doing a good job during worship.

Yeah, right.

Am I being too strict over this? I don't think so. Jesus said that all these are symptoms of an underlying problem, a defiled heart.

Matt 15:18 (NIV) - But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'

Especially when it comes to encountering God in worship, this is crucial. Consider Isaiah's encounter with God, recorded for us in Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6:5 (NIV) - "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

When Isaiah received a vision of the LORD seated on his throne and the angels worshipping him, the first area of his life that troubled his conscience was his lips. This strongly suggests to me that we cannot meet God face-to-face in worship without his holiness challenging us in the area of our speech.

Someone can sing out loud, break into spontaneous worship (which really impresses charismatics, I noticed) and yet not truly meet God face-to-face in worship. How will I know? I listen to such a person's words in day-to-day life. As long as I can see two springs of water, fresh and salty, where there should not be, I know this person hasn't fully met the Lord in worship yet.

Isaiah 6, by the way, explains the two opposite reactions people may have after an intense time of worship. Some people talk, it seems as if their lips are loosed and they start speaking of godly things a lot more. This is not surprising, as the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). As they testified of Jesus in worship, the Spirit of prophecy came upon them.

Other people, I noticed, just fall silent. It's as if they do not want to defile the holy atmosphere around them with their worldly words. Suddenly they have no need to speak, and it seems as if their souls have entered the quietness and rest of God (Isa 30:15).

The practical aspect of things:

If you are leading your worship team, especially the singers and the worship leaders, I highly recommend that you do not accept anyone on your team if he or she does not consistently follow James' Law of Two Springs.

If you have gone through my teaching materials you should know me by now. I don't talk very much about the spiritual side of worship, about the heart of worship and all that kind of stuff. Why? Because I have seen people major on all the intangible stuff because they don't have anything to share or impart about the tangible aspects of worship ministry. That's not my role in the Body of Christ.

But James' Law of Two Springs is the ONE thing I will teach and emphasize on when it comes to the intangible aspects of worship ministry. In my 14-15 years in the worship ministry, I would say that this is one of the most important aspects of a worshipper's personal life, and it has a direct spiritual correlation on this person's spiritual effectiveness (or otherwise) in the worship ministry.

Now what if YOU are violating James' Two Stream Law?
You need to get out of it. There are three steps:

1. Prayer – My own personal testimony: when I was 17 years old I was at a youth camp and the pastor shared about specially seeking out the people who get put down and showing God's kindness to them. As he shared I suddenly realized that I myself was one who would go around putting others down. So after that sharing I asked that pastor to pray for me.

And he did. He prayed that I would let go of all the hurts I received before and walk in forgiveness. After that time I found that I suddenly lost the drive to get in the last word, to dig an insult further in, and to make other people pay for all the pain I went through before. That cleaned up my speech very quickly!

So you pray also. Find some spiritual leader such as your pastor to pray for you. There is power that comes from humbling yourself in prayer and seeking God for him to rein in your tongue.

2. Scripture – Replace unedifying thoughts and speech with the Word of God.

Colossians 3:15-16 (NIV) – Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 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.

3. Worship – In this I am not referring to serving in the worship ministry, but simply singing praises to God, both as part of a congregation and by yourself. Remember Isaiah 6? When Isaiah saw the Lord and realized the sinfulness of his speech, immediately he received atonement for his sin.

The more we faithfully and consistently offer praises onto God, the more opportunity we give God to meet with us and change us, and at a more gradual and comfortable pace than Saul had when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Many charismatics I've met seem to prefer the sudden God-turns-up-and-zaps-me kind of transformation. That sudden encounter worked for changing Saul on the road to Damascus, but it was certainly very uncomfortable! I'd rather live in submission to God and avoid such drastic measures.

Conclusion

Many people in church circles despise the power of a reined tongue. They make light of it by saying things like "He can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?" By this they imply that it is easier to say the right things than to do them. And then they think that because they do the right churchy kind of things, they need not watch their words.

James 1:26 (NIV) - If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

I have been touched by God in this area of my life. I know that my words, even when they offend, are not spoken out of malice or resentment. So I tell you: It can be done. God really wants to be there for you, to change your heart and purify the speech that arises from your lips. And when he has done his work you'll find that life is a lot better, your heart is a lot lighter and your praises to God feel a lot more powerful.

In other words, tap into the power of the One Spring!

Kung-Fu Movies and Worship Ministry

I have a confession to make.

I watched loads and loads of kung-fu movies when I was a kid.

Looking back, I wonder why I ever wasted my time with those movies.

The story lines were ALWAYS the same. The hero gets the EXCUSE (revenge, usually) to try to beat up the bad guy, always gets beaten because the bad guy is too tough, then finds the MASTER and learns the SECRET to kung-fu success, then always finally beats the bad guy.

The EXCUSE and the SECRET changes, but otherwise the movies stay the same...

I guess what I enjoyed most were the scenes of the Master training the hero in the basics first. The hero would ALWAYS have to prove himself with the basics to convince the Master to teach him the secret. And the training in the basics was always brutal, strict and exaggerated for dramatic effect.

What else do you expect from a movie, right?

What about the Worship Ministry?

I said before that God looks for the right people and puts them at the right place to do His supernatural work. And this leads to the question: how shall we know if someone is the right person for a particular work?

We look for the basics. If the person wants to play an instrument for worship, they need to have at least a basic grasp of the fundamentals of that instrument. If someone wants to sing, they need to know how to sing, breathe correctly and sing in tune consistently. These are basics.

Just like Jesus sent Peter, a fisherman, to go fish for the temple tax money (Matt 17:27).

If you are the one auditioning the musicians or singers, don't get taken in by people who tell you how passionate they are about serving God in the worship ministry, or how dedicated and sincere they will be. Someone may say "What if the person has the heart for the ministry but doesn't have the skill yet?" If the person is passionate, dedicated and sincere, they WILL give be willing to train for 6-12 months (or more, if necessary) to be ready to serve.

After all, the Bible did say that those who want to serve (deacons) should be tested, right (1 Tim 3:10)? If those people cannot pass the test of learning some music skill, which is one of the simplest parts of worship ministry, what makes you think they are that faithful in all the other parts of it?

Don't get me wrong.

I am not a technique freak. In a worship situation I do not believe in technique for technique's sake. You will NEVER hear from me anything about playing what is 'excellent'. All too often I have heard that word misused and misapplied to playing more notes than necessary and being a distraction to the congregation. You WILL hear me talk about playing what works, what is effective, what supports the praises of the people, rather than what distracts.

And even though that is easier to do, it does require that your basics be in place.

There are people who think I am being legalistic or too fussy about this. They are not the ones who have to pick up the pieces when an amateur vocalist holding a mike is belting out the songs out-of-tune at the top of his or her voice.

I am.

Those people are not the ones facing angry musicians all frustrated and wanting to quit because of the wannabe drummer playing out of time.

I am.

They are not the ones trying to unify the praises of the people in spite of all the distractions created by worship team members attempting to serve before they are ready.

I am.

I've lost count of how many times church leaders have told me "this brother/sister is passionate about serving in this way, please work with him/her." A quick test reveals that this person does not even have the basics in place, but needs at least 3-6 months of proper lessons, not just worship team practice, to be ready. And when I tell the leaders that, they say "Just work with them doing the practice, it's OK." Oh, please!

So if you want to serve, make sure your basics are in place. If you are the one choosing musicians and vocalists, make sure their basics are there. Please.

Now my book, Invisible Worship Musician, is NOT a book on music basics. You will not get from it stuff like how to form a major chord, how to hold your drumsticks or how to breathe properly for singing. You can get that from many other people, even secular instructors. There is no such thing as a holier C major chord, for example. When it comes to the music basics, we don't have anything that the world does not already have.

My book, however, does teach the basics of worship leading, since there are not many who actually know how to lead worship. I explain how to choose songs and how to use them. I also teach what the musicians ought to do when playing for worship. And the musicians need to know their own instrument basics so they can understand how they ought to apply the basic skills in a worship context.

If you are a musician and you KNOW your basics are not in place but you are already serving in the worship ministry, please address that now. Get music lessons, ask experienced musicians or if you are on my email list, email me about any of the music parts of my book that you do not understand if you cannot find someone to help you with it. I will continue to try and put up videos in myYoutube account demonstrating worship music principles I talk about in my book.

Final Kung-Fu Movie thought

Do you know the biggest difference between what I saw from my childhood kung-fu movies and what I discovered from real life kung-fu practitioners?

The real life ones LOVE the basics. They never get tired of the basics; some even practice all of them daily. You'll never hear from them any desire to skip the basics and find some shortcut to mastery and success.

They have already learned that the basics ARE the shortcut.

He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. (Pro 28:19)

May the Lord himself find us just as serious when it comes to serving his people in the ministry!

The Fish With A Coin In The Mouth

I am a charismatic. And proud of it.

But there are times when I cringe at what some of my fellow charismatics do. And that is especially when they make a very uniquely charismatic mistake, to mess up the natural and expect the supernatural to compensate for it.

What do I mean by that?

One clear example are people who claim they want to play drums for worship, refuse to seriously learn the instrument, and yet pray fervently that God would anoint their playing and bless the worship session with his presence. They would talk about depending on the Lord and not on their own efforts, not have the fruits to back it up, and then accuse others of being fleshly and earthly-minded if they do not agree that they are anointed and gifted of God in their drumming.

This mistake can manifest in other ways and contexts, other than just worship ministry. For example, a church may be seeking to hire a pastoral assistant with at least a diploma in theology, and yet put up the job notice in only one place – a secular job site. Surely if they wanted to seek the people with the right qualifications, they would at least email the notice to a few Bible Colleges or seminaries, right? They didn't.

I don't see this kind of mistake among the non-charismatics.
What makes the whole thing confusing?
You see, amongst us charismatics, we have testimonies of God directing people to do things that do not make sense, and yet they get results. Supernatural results.

All that is great – until we feed people the expectation that God will usually work like that, or if we believe that taking care of the natural details leaves God no room to work supernaturally. And for many of us charismatics, that has been put to us as the unpardonable sin, moving in the flesh, trusting in the arm of man rather than the power of God.

During this season I have been meditating on the Gospel of Matthew, and one day this verse grabbed my attention.
But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours. (Matthew 17:27, NIV)
Jesus said this after Peter had foolishly committed himself and Jesus to paying the temple tax. Jesus, being the rightful owner of the temple (and the rest of the entire universe) of course would be exempted from the tax. But because Jesus saw the whole thing as a small matter, not worth offending the Pharisees over, he chose to pay that tax in a supernatural way.

Can you imagine what the other disciples might have said to Peter as he was heading off to follow Jesus' instructions?

"Hey Peter, I heard about the temple tax people coming here just now. What happened?"
"I told them that Jesus would pay the temple tax."

"And how does Jesus intend to settle that?"

"He told me to go fishing."

"Want some help, Peter? Maybe John and James should go help you? You are going to need to catch a lot of fish to pay that tax!"

"No problem, Jesus said I only need to get one, because the first one will have the money in its mouth already!"

Wonder what the other disciples thought at this point!

What I JUST noticed, however, was Jesus took care of the natural factors as well. What do I mean? For example, Jesus sent Peter to fish for the money, not Matthew the Tax Collector or Simon the Zealot. Naturally speaking, Peter was well-qualified to perform this task.

Jesus also directed Peter to fish in the lake. That was the ideal and reasonable place for Peter to find fish. Jesus could have told him to go fish in a river or pond or even look for the fish somewhere on land, since God would have no difficulty moving fish around anywhere he wishes. And yet Jesus told Peter to go to the lake.
In other words, we see that, even when preparing for a supernatural work, Jesus would get qualified people to go to the right places for it!
Of course God can direct his people to do really weird things. It's his prerogative. Personally, if someone tells me that God told him or her to do something strange, and if everything goes horribly wrong I am the person cleaning up the mess, then I'll look for the following two signs that this person has been directed by God:

1) Timing: Notice from this account that the first fish gave Peter the results. If Peter had to catch 2,385 fish to find that one fish with the money inside, then I'll say that his finding the money was just a fluke. Things like that happen.

2) Leverage: Could Peter have paid the tax without the money in the fish's mouth? Yes, but it would take catching a lot more fish! What was supernatural in this incidence was the leverage and impact of the results. This one fish was enough to accomplish God's purpose when usually we would need a lot more fish. If Peter toiled for a couple of weeks to catch enough fish for the tax, we can see clearly that it was not a supernatural working.

There are different ways leverage can be manifested. For example, in Luke 5:1-11, Peter caught a huge number of fish (leverage) immediately upon the Word of Jesus (timing). In Matthew 17 Jesus chose to skip the necessity of selling the fish in exchange for money and used the fish to bring the money directly. And after this account, the next time Jesus gave Peter a supernatural catch of fish in John 21, the leverage was displayed through the huge number of fish again.

So I'll look for the signs. Such as a job-ad in an unusual place pulling in the right job candidates immediately, or an untrained musician being able to play what unifies the worship of the congregation. In other words, I will judge, not by the jargon or spiritual-sounding clichés the person uses, but by the fruits (Luke 6:44).

Why would a person choose to ignore the natural factors and principles that make things work?

Ultimately it is an issue of slothfulness.

The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly. (Pro 26:16, NIV)

Those who are mentally lazy and do not want to put in the necessary preparations like to think of themselves as being above the rules. They want to believe that they can get results without putting in the necessary effort. And they use the Holy Spirit as an excuse.

For example, I see some business websites that are set up by Christians, and those sites have HORRIBLE marketing copy on them. The writing that they put up is self-indulgent and totally devoid of marketing value. It will not bring them customers; in fact, it will probably drive the customers away. Those website owners can say that they are inspired by God to write what they wrote, but if it isn't bringing them the results, then they are indirectly blaming God for the lack of fruit.

The willingness to learn what is necessary and do what it takes is the difference between the mentally lazy and the serious people who just need more time to bear fruit. Those who are serious but just need more time are those who will consult with genuine experts (not just friends, neighbours and relatives) and put in genuine effort.

They are teachable but discerning. They know that they are better off getting marketing advice from a marketing expert (with proven sales results), worship ministry advice from an effective worship leader, and exercise and diet advice from someone who is healthy and full of energy.

In other words, they will make themselves into the right people and are willing to go to the right places. When their time comes they are ready for God to use their natural preparations and give them supernatural results. Just like Peter in Matthew 17.

Please hear my heart. I know what I share here will be controversial, and there will be sincere, God-fearing charismatics who are offended by what I have said. But I am sharing this so that:

1) You will recognize this kind of faulty thinking in other people;

2) You will avoid it for yourself; AND

3) You will put in the necessary effort to make yourself the right person who can go to the right places at God's direction and be blessed with supernatural results.

I will not know what is God's specific assignment and direction for your life. It may or may not be in the worship ministry. But what I can tell you is that whatever it is, it will require you to grow in your understanding and skills. And it will involve a lot of mundane, unexciting preparations. Just like in Peter's case, when all the fishing he did before using his own natural abilities helped prepare him to be someone God could use to fish supernaturally.

So be patient, be faithful, and one day you may be the one opening the fish's mouth to find a coin inside!
"May the God of peace… equip you with everything good for doing his will" (Hebrews 13:20, 21 NIV)
P.S. And if you want to get equipped to serve God in the worship ministry and you haven't got my book yet, what are you waiting for? Get it, get equipped and get going!

Who can show us any good?

I don't know why, but recently I have received more emails than usual from people, thanking me for the devotional emails I sent. Those emails cover material that is not posted anywhere on the Internet, unlike my blog posts and my teaching articles. (I may compile them into a book some day, who knows?)

Anyway, I've set up a page with a sample devotional, just so that those of you who are not on my mailing list can see what kind of good stuff you are missing. :) So go check it out!

Why Look to David?

One thing I have learned the HARD way - don't head over to any worship forums for a 'quick' look just before bedtime. The questions and thoughts I get can have me so excited I can't sleep!

One recent example is this question Peter Goh brought up on Worship the Rock. He pointed out that many Christian leaders teach worship from the Old Testament models of worship, such as Levitical worship or David's materials instead of looking at the New Testament. In John 4:23 Jesus revealed that there would be a massive change in the nature of worship "... a time is coming and has now come (NIV)" so why look at the older models of worship if God doesn't think they are good enough?

John 4:23 (NIV) - 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.

To start we first need to look at what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. I wrote about it in detail before but to quickly sum up, to worship in spirit is to relate to God on the basis of our relationship with him through our new birth (John 3:5-6) rather than what we can achieve out of our flesh (Phil 3:3). And to worship in truth is to realize that 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 (John 3:21).

This is a simple definition of spirit and truth, looking at John 3 and letting Scripture interpret Scripture. We can also say that to worship in spirit and truth is to relate to God based on the new covenant. And the new covenant means that all our sins are forgiven (Heb 8:12) and therefore we have a very good reason for total confidence and boldness in approaching God (Heb 10:19-22). Therefore praising God is a very natural fruit of such revelation (Heb 13:15).

The contemporary worship scene is more influenced by the Davidic model than the Levitical model (many people aren't keen to go back to sacrificing animals) so for now let's just consider: Why Look At David? I'll give a couple of reasons.

Firstly, David had an understanding of God that far exceeded what the Scriptures available to him revealed. We can see him as being very much a new covenant worshipper in the following areas:

1) He saw himself as a son of God - He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.' (Psalm 89:26, NIV)

2) He knew he needed the forgiveness of God and that God was willing to forgive - Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:5, NIV)

3) He knew that he had nothing in and of himself to offer God, and that whatever he had came from God in the first place - Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand (1 Chron 29:14, NIV).

People can argue over whether David was worshipping God in spirit and in truth. But what is obvious to us is that David, because of the faith he displayed in worshipping God, shows us very clearly how we ought to relate to God as new covenant believers. David was so confident in God that he believed his songs were more precious to God than even the animal sacrifices required by the Levitical priesthood.

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)

How many of us have THAT level of confidence when we sing to God? Or do we come to God with trepidation, not believing in the fullness of the finished work of Christ? Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). David definitely had the faith that pleased God. We would do well to learn from him.

Secondly, the New Testament points us towards the Davidic model of worship. We know that the whole of Scripture is God-breathed by his Spirit (2 Tim 3:16) and yet there are three specific parts of Scripture explicitly tied to the Spirit of God. They are

1) The Words of Jesus (the words in red) - The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63, NIV);

2) Old Testament prophecies - For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.(2 Pet 1:21, NIV); AND

3) The Psalms - be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph 5:18-19, NKJV).

And God considers the Psalms, the fruit of the Davidic model of worship, so important, that we are admonished twice (Eph 5:18-19, Col 3:16) to feed on them, to talk to God and each other about them. And we have a direct endorsement of the Davidic model given us in Acts 15:16, when James declared that the Gentiles (non-Jews) turning to Jesus is a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy announcing God's intention to rebuild David's tabernacle (Amos 9:11-12). If God likes the David model of worship so much that he wants to restore it, and even ties the salvation of non-Jews to its restoration, it must be something VERY important to God.

And that means it ought to be important to us also.

Disclaimer: I'll be the first to admit that there are problems with the way some people look at the David model of worship. I personally disagree with using the Davidic model of worship to justify a song-and-dance routine that is based on professional worshippers rather than the entire body of Christ. And that's because of 1 Peter 2:9 which teaches us that ALL of us are royal priests, called to declare God's praises.

But even though there are people who misunderstand the Davidic model of worship, there will always be something useful for us to glean from it (as from ALL Scripture, 2 Tim 3:16). And I believe that we will understand the Davidic Model more and more in the future, as we continue to humble ourselves before God and ask that he open our eyes that we may see wonderful things in His law (Psalm 119:18).

May God himself teach us from His word and make us fruitful in His service!

P.S. if you are not yet on my Invisible Worship Musician mailing list, get over to my page and get in now! I'm going to hold a special sale to celebrate my upcoming California ministry trip. Stay tuned!

Worship Musicians and Vampires

I have a confession to make.

I've read the Twilight Series, the series of vampire-themed novels by Stephenie Meyer.

For those of you who want to understand the appeal of this series without having to plough through four thick novels, this series is essentially Cinderella writ large. Ordinary girl attracts the devotion of a fascinating male with immense physical powers, loads of money, a rich history and the kind of good looks we attribute to Greek gods. And then she herself undergoes that same transformation to rise up to his status, to become his equal, just as Cinderella became royalty through her marriage with the prince.

There, now I've saved you the hassle of reading four thick books. You now have more time to read the Bible and all my emails!

One interesting thought that occurred to me as I read through the books: many worship musicians are similar to the vampires in that series of novels. We have three areas of similarity:

1) Heightened Sensitivity

First, just as the vampires in the series have heightened physical senses, we worship musicians also have a very much higher level of sensitivity to sound, pitch and tempo. The vampires in that series can hear a human heart beating from across the road ("no big deal, JJ! I can hear coins dropped in the NEXT room!"). Musicians are likewise more sensitive to musical nuances than the average layperson.

This can range from being able to tell if someone is singing a little out-of-tune or is playing the snare drum a millisecond delayed on the 2^nd and 4^th counts, to the subtle different in electric guitar effects. When I was a piano newbie I didn't understand why people insisted on me using the correct sustain pedal technique. Later on I found to my surprise that I could hear, while conducting a group class, the sound of ONE student using the wrong pedalling technique. It was just so obvious to me after years of hearing it done right.

Being more sensitive to all these musical nuances is great when you are trying to tune up and refine your own musical skills, or the skills of your students. It often causes frustration, however, when it applies to relating with non-musicians. Ever been in a small group worship setting when you, the worship leader, are the ONLY person in the room singing in tune? Some musicians cannot listen past the discordant sounds to hear how the people are singing their hearts out to God and encountering God in worship. All many musicians notice is how everyone else is out-of-tune when trying to hit the high C# note. This can lead to much frustration in the hearts of impatient musicians.

Remember, in a worship setting all music technique (singing in pitch, instrument skill) is meaningful only to the extent it helps the people sing out their praises to God. Serving the people is the end objective. NEVER let the music distract you from serving the congregation, and never let it cause you to despise the people!

2) The Temptation to Prey on People

Second, even though the primary vampire family in the series chose not to feed on human blood, they acknowledged that feeding on humans is the natural inclination. We worship musicians may not literally be feeding on the congregation's blood, but we have to fight the inclination to prey on them in other ways, especially for approval and applause.

Beware, especially, the mindset that the congregation owes it to us to appreciate our music. They don't. They don't understand or care about how much effort we put in to ensure we fit our diminished licks into the dominant seventh (flatted ninth) chords, or to recreate the exact horn and orchestral arrangements that we heard from some massive Christian concert. And they are most likely going to lose focus and stop paying attention during the worship if we insist on putting in 64 bars of electric guitar solos every two songs or so.

This calls for understanding and restraint. We need to understand that if we serve the congregation well they are not going to notice the little things we do for them. Only God does, therefore we should look to HIM for our reward and approval, not men. And we need to restrain musical displays at all times, doing only what would serve the people, not draw attention to us and distract them from God.

3) The Need for Deliberate Effort to Understand

Third, the vampire family has to put in conscious, deliberate effort to act like humans because they wish to stay among them. Bella, the protagonist of the story, has to remember a whole list of things to do after she has become a vampire and her dad unknowingly comes to visit. She's got to remember to breathe, to blink, to fidget, to cross and uncross her legs and remember to go to the bathroom once in a while.

We worship musicians have to remember the same thing. I was in the office with Jeff (the guy who did the music notation for my book Invisible Worship Musician) a few days back and he was commenting that he did not want to get involved with teaching laypeople about the lifestyle of worship, because we musicians view the entire matter in a very different way from the congregation.

For example, many musicians cannot comprehend singing along to a 'worship' CD, while for an average layperson in church that is quite an acceptable option. We musicians feel scandalized that people can connect with God without the intervention of us anointed, Spirit-filled, God-appointed worship ministers! But in a practical sense we are replaceable by CDs, MIDI software or Youtube videos.

So if we want to serve God's people even more effectively than a CD, MIDI file or Youtube video, we need to understand the congregation and how they see music. And we use our music to serve them. Sometimes that means playing in a boring way, because we don't want to be a distraction. Sometimes that means more work, when we change or tweak a song so that it works better for the people.

Warning!

And at all times we have to beware the deception of music = worship. In the very first worship band I joined my church called us worship musicians the modern-day Levites, saying that we were tasked to bring people into the presence of God through worship. But this statement never sat well with me, because it raised the question: what does me being a great musician have to do with worship? Does understanding one automatically mean I understand the other? Or will I have to about worship the same way every other believer does, through the Bible illuminated by God's Holy Spirit?

To say that a musician is gifted in worship ministry is like saying that someone who speaks Japanese is gifted in interior design. If you meet a few people who speak Japanese and have studied ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) and use those insights in decorating a house tastefully, that does not mean that the next Japanese-speaker you meet has the same skills and opportunities. Likewise for musicians. For a musician to be effective in worship ministry, this musician needs to be taught the specific skills of worship music and to deliberately use those skills to support the praises of a congregation.

Being skilled in music does not necessarily mean that someone is able to serve well in worship ministry! It takes more than that. It takes an understanding of what the people need and a willingness to use music to serve that need. That is the true heart of a worship minister. May God work in our hearts and grant us the insights and skills we need to serve his people!

P.S. If you are a worship leader or musician, and haven't checked out my Invisible Worship Musician yet, what are you waiting for? In that book I share in detail the understanding, concepts and skills you need to be an effective worship leader and musician. Get your copy today!

P.P.S . Continue to pray for my California trip. More and more of the details are falling in place and I am very excited! Stay tuned for the exact dates and location, they will be released soon!

Me? Going California?

Hi, everyone!

Really need your prayers! I'm heading to California (Yosemite area) in the second week of August to speak at a Worship Ministry conference. It's my first ministry trip out of Singapore, so you can guess I'm really excited about it. Do uphold me in prayer, especially over:

1. Me - pray that God will prepare me and speak to me about the work he wants me to do in this trip. I desire to be used by God to impact lives for this conference.

2. The Organizer - Pastor Allyn Bell will be handling all the logistics, promotion and all that kind of stuff. Pray that he will receive wisdom and strength from God as he labors to birth forth this event.

3. The participants - Pray that God will bring the right people to this event so that they will be blessed by it.

If you are going to be in the Yosemite area during the second week of August, do let me know! I'd love the opportunity to meet up with you. And if you'd like to be there for the conference, contact me and I'll link you up with Pastor Allyn, so he can send you the info and details you'll need.

Be blessed!

Writing Spree And New Articles

I've been on a bit of a writing spree the past week.

You see, my church has been seriously emphasizing on the ministry of small groups this season, and that has triggered off my thoughts on worship ministry from the small groups point-of-view. So I've written about

1) The Right Expectations for Small Group Worship;

2) Choosing Songs for Small Group Worship; AND

3) Essential Skills for Small Group Musicians.

These new articles have been put up on my site's articles page.

I've also been busy setting up a blog as a communications channel for my church's small group leaders and members. Over the next few weeks I'll be loading up more materials and content on it. Do take a look at it and give me your feedback and suggestions!

Be blessed!

Worship vs. Worship Leading

Worship vs. Worship Leading

What’s the balance between worship and worship leading?

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

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

Enjoy the video!

A Pastor Fell...

And I am grieved, so grieved.

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

Wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And why am I sharing with you about this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!