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)

Divine Protection and my Sons

A part of me still hasn't recovered from the shock.

A couple of Sundays ago I saw Jacques, my second son, trip and fall face-first unto the glass panel of a cupboard at my in-laws place.

The entire glass panel shattered around his face.

And he had barely a scratch. In fact, the biggest hurt he had came, not from the glass, but from accidentally biting his lip as he fell. Other than that he was totally fine. His eyes were fine, his face was OK, the only negative consequence was that the incident left him in a brief shock for about a minute. Then he continued playing with my elder boy again, as if nothing had happened.

Once again I am firmly reminded of the importance of divine protection.

Some of you know that during my university days, I went Psalm-crazy, spending at least an hour a day meditating on the Book of Psalms. And one of the psalms I memorized during that period was Psalm 91, the Protection Psalm.

I was speaking that Psalm over my life every day during that season. So a few years later when Singapore experienced the SARS Farce and Christians in Singapore began to understand the importance of this Psalm, I was already a couple of years ahead of the rest of the believers in Singapore.

To interject: I call the entire fiasco the SARS Farce because we have people panicking over flu-type problems (the same problems that people have been dying from EVERY year before that), but this time its different ONLY because its supposed to come from a different part of the world? Since when are we supposed to classify diseases SOLELY based on travel arrangements? Oh, puh-leaze!!!

Now that the SARS Farce is over, I don't hear people talk much about Psalm 91 these days. But doesn't mean it has lost its power. Or its importance.

I was chatting with one of my students recently. She was telling me about the strange things happening in her house, explainable noises in the middle of the night, nightmares and all that, ever since she started organizing a prayer meeting. And as she shared, I realized that my life has been quite devoid of all these weird things happening, despite my serious involvement in the Kingdom of God and serving his people.

And I suspect it's because I have been speaking Psalm 91 over my household everyday for the past couple of years.

When I was a younger Christian, I used to delight in having similar horror stories to share. It was as if I needed to have all these symptoms of spiritual warfare to validate my ministry, to show how damaging my ministry was to the kingdom of darkness and to show how faithful I am to God, doggedly serving him in spite of all the spiritual opposition that came my way.

Thanks, but no thanks. Especially ever since I had kids, I realized that having glam and exciting stories and looking spiritually important in the eyes of others is just not worth leaving my family members without spiritual protection. I started blessing my sons with God's protection everyday, and as I said, for the past couple of years I have been speaking Psalm 91 over myself and my household daily.

And after I see a glass panel shatter around my son's face but leave him untouched, the words "a thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you" (Psalm 91:7, NKJV) have truly come alive for me.

I know that some of you may come from a different theological background from mine, and if you are not from the Word-of-Faith movement you may not feel comfortable with reading Psalm 91 aloud over your life everyday. If that is the case, then may I suggest that you make it a point to pray through the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) daily? This prayer also teaches us to seek God for his protection daily "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." (vs 13, NIV)

Finally, I want to say that God has truly been so good to me. If I want to murmur and complain I can come up with a whole list of things I'd like God to fix RIGHT NOW, but after I see his obvious protection of my son I think those things can wait. I'm gonna praise his holy name even more, because of his goodness to my son. Wanna join me?

My Christmas Gift 2008

About two weeks ago, what I dreaded the most finally happened.

"Daddy, I prayed to God! And God didn't give me what I want! It doesn't work!"

This was from my elder son. He was old enough to express himself, young enough to not be concerned about being politically correct or worry about offending his daddy. And his frustration and disappointment was obvious. What was I to do next?

My first temptation was to just blast at him. "And what's the problem, kid? There are things I've been praying for, and I've been waiting for them for more than 10 years. What's the matter with you? Why are you acting like a six-year old?"

"Err, JJ, because he IS a six-year old?"

My next temptation was to try to lower his expectations. "You know son, the important thing is that God will give us what we need, not necessarily what we want. Some things are just selfish desires. You should just want what's important for the kingdom of God."

Problem is, if I ever told him that, he'd start wondering about all the blank cheque verses I've been speaking to him. You know what I am talking about, those verses that delight people from the Word-of-Faith movement and stumble everyone else. Verses like "everything he does shall prosper" from Psalm 1, "… he shall give you the desires of your heart" from Psalm 37, and all that.

It was this type of rationalization, combined with the unspoken idea that you had to be poor to be spiritual, that caused James Ray (author of the book Harmonic Wealth) to forsake his evangelical Protestant upbringing to become a prominent New-Ager in the self-improvement industry (albeit one with very useful ideas)

God knows, I don't ever want that to happen to my kid.

The third temptation was for me to just dig out my wallet and just BUY the darned toy for him myself. And tell him Jesus gave me the money (which isn't a lie, OK?). But somehow that didn’t feel right. I guess I didn't want him to have the habit of assuming that Daddy's always going to be the channel through whom God will provide.

So what was I supposed to do? In the end I explained to him what Hebrews 6 said about imitating those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And told him that the Bible says that those who don't do that are called lazy.

"So son, do you want to be called a lazy boy?"

"No, daddy!"

"You've already prayed, so wait, OK?"

"OK, daddy!"

Crisis averted for now. *Whew!*

On Christmas day, my mum called to tell me that one of my cousins bought Christmas gifts for my two boys and told me to go collect the gifts from her. And when my boys unwrapped their gifts, there waiting for my elder boy was what my son was praying and asking God for.

He looked at the gift, obviously delighted. Then he paused to think, then said, "Daddy, this is actually better than the one I prayed to Jesus for! Thank you, Jesus!"

One of the most scary things as a parent is not just that through my behavior I am shaping his mental perception of God the Father (in other words, my kid may grow up with a totally warped view of God and therefore live a totally messed-up life, no pressure, right?), it's also that every time I teach him about trusting God, I am risking God not coming through for him.

If he doesn't get the toy he wants, it's not a big matter in the light of eternity. But what if God doesn't come through for him when he's praying for big things?

"in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame… " (Psalm 25:2, NIV)

My fears look really bad now that I've put them into words, don't they? But it doesn't make them any less real. And living in denial doesn't work.

For years I've had my own faith crashes, praying to God for some things, believing that he wants me to have them, and fallen flat on my face. It's easy at that time to just slap a plaster over a gunshot wound, force a causal grin unto my face and say "I'm sure God has something better for me…" and use that to cover up my disappointment, hurt and anger.

And I realized one thing: all those harsh emotions, ugly as they may be by themselves, are yet just another cover-up. They are a cover-up for fear, the fear that God will let me down. Again. I mean, if I totally trusted God to take care of me, it would be easy to expect that he'll take care of my sons too, right? My fear of God letting my sons down is a manifestation of my fear that I'll trust God for something and have a faith crash again.

All this was like a hidden tangle of knots within my heart. And it all became untangled and unraveled in a moment when God gave my son the toys he wanted for Christmas.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Couple of reasons. First, when people share with me about deep things God does in their lives, they make me more aware about God's working in my life too. I believe that as I share this with you, it may make you aware of similar areas you need God's healing touch in your own life. And then you can start seeking God for it.

Second, because, as I said in one of my really early blogposts, I don't share teaching only. I share my life too, just as Paul did.

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

I am on loads of email lists and I do get tired of people who email me only when there's something to sell me. One guy in particular comes to mind, I read his emails just to see how many ways he can try to pitch me his one product. That's all he's got, and that's all he ever emails about. So I totally have no idea what this guy is like as a person. Sad, right?

Yup, so this is what God gave me for Christmas 2008. At the end of the year he exposed this darkness in my life, this area that was unknowingly affecting my spiritual walk, and brought his light and healing.

Just wanted to share this with you. Be blessed!

Book Reviews and Recommendations

The following reviews are up on the Recommended Resources page

a) People in the Presence of God - Barry Liesch

b) Laugh Again - Charles Swindoll

c) Dynamic Duo - Rick Renner

d) The Heart of the Artist - Rory Noland

Go check them out! More reviews and recommendations coming soon...

Do Your Christmas Shopping Here!

Hi, everyone!

I've just set up a page on my site where you can check out the books I firmly believe will be a blessing to you in your personal walk with Christ and in your worship ministry. Go check it out here:

http://www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/resourcemain.htm

All purchases made there are handled by Amazon, the most experienced and reputable e-commerce site around, so you can be sure that your transactions will be secure.

And order quickly, so that you can have everything delivered to you in time for Christmas!

The URL is: http://www.invisibleworshipmusician.com/resourcemain.htm

Be blessed!

Because Of? Or In Spite Of?

Revelations from a Past-Life Regression

Anyone who knows me from long ago would have told you they could see it coming from miles away.

I stumbled across this book in the library on the 'simple' science of getting what you want. It dealt extensively on logical fallacies, which are arguments and reasoning that seem sound but are actually wrong. Very wrong.

I was like an addict on rehab suddenly offered the drugs he craved.

I couldn't help myself.

I devoured the book in one sitting and, before I knew it, I was brought back to my past-life as a Philosophy major in NUS. Those were the days when I was first taught about logical fallacies, learned to dissect (and demolish) arguments just for the fun of it… and couldn't carry on a normal conversation with anyone outside of the Philo department for longer than five minutes!

("Err… JJ, there's not much difference between then and now…")

Anyway, one of the fallacies is called Post hoc ergo propter hoc, which is the idea that because event A happened before event B, therefore event A is the cause of event B. And this fallacy has caused the greatest amount of confusion in the Worship Training scene.

For example, an unprepared person gets thrown into the deep end of the pool and has to play an instrument for worship. This person plays badly (out of time and many wrong chords) and the presence of God is felt in an intense way.

Conclusion? The poor playing caused the presence of God to be made manifest in a powerful way.

So we should play poorly too. Shouldn't we?

Another example: a pastor comes back from an overseas conference at a church experiencing powerful revival. He had a very personal encounter with God as the host church sang one of their home grown songs 20 times in a row.

Conclusion: if we sing the same worship song 20 times in a row we'll have the same revival too.

The examples are extreme for the sake of showing you the fallacy in action. If we decided to be a lot more discerning, however, we'll find that there are other questions we can and should ask.

Taking the second example: was the revival because of the song? Or the repetition? Or the people singing the song? Or the worship leader leading the song? Or the sermon the pastor preached before the song (earlier in the service, the night before or last week)?

Or from having as many of those factors as possible coming together?

The exact song may have played a crucial role. Or it may not, and all the impact may have been caused by something else. The musicians may have messed up the music that time. So do we say that the revival happened because the musicians messed up? Or in spite of it?

As you can easily see, it's very difficult to shift through all these possibilities and identify the immediately relevant ones. And one reason for that is because people do not have a comprehensive and sound worship ministry paradigm to help them think through the issues and factors.

That is why my book The Invisible Worship Musician is so powerful. It gives a comprehensive and sound worship ministry paradigm that helps you to:

1) understand and explain what works for worship ministry and why; AND

2) forecast, with reasonable accuracy, if (and how) any new factors may or may not influence the worship experience of the congregation.

Without it, we are simply groping in the dark. We end up tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of 'teaching' and chasing every new craze and the latest worship fads that come along.

Now I am not saying that the Invisible Worship Musician paradigm is the ONLY viable worship ministry paradigm available. However, I do sincerely believe it gives you the best results, and puts you in a better position to understand and evaluate other worship ministry paradigms too.

That's about it for now. Stay tuned, I'll be sharing with you soon about how you can discover other worship ministry paradigms that can greatly benefit your ministry.

Be blessed!

Worship Ministry Skills and Pride...

How being used by God keeps you humble

People look at the worship training I do (both in person and via my Invisible Worship Musician training materials) and wonder: Will someone end up in pride if they discover the secrets and methods of worship ministry, so much that they are consistently effective in this area of ministry?

Personally, I don't believe that is possible during the time of ministry. In my own personal experience, when I am more powerfully used by God than usual, I experience a very heightened state of intense awareness. I suspect this is what Paul refers to when he wrote about fear and trembling in the following passage:

...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Phil 2:12-13, NIV)

I've had quite a bit of experience in performing, so I can confidently tell you that it's not the usual performance-high that I had in my younger days. That felt both exciting and good at the same time (which is why people can get addicted to it).

The 'fear and trembling' is different. Your heart beats faster, all your senses feel more awake than usual; you see things in sharper focus, you hear details you never noticed before, you're aware of sensations you usually miss, like the feel of your clothes, the aircon and the sweat on your face.

Moreover, in this intensified presence of God, you feel as if you are balancing on a razor's edge, about to fall from a precarious position. And yet you are aware that God's presence is there, ready to catch you if you fall, ready to help you if you stumble, and gently nudging you in your singing and choice of notes on the instrument.

The Invisible Worship Musician Paradigm clears away the distractions and debris that obstruct us from serving freely as worship ministers before God. Because the methods and techniques in there are simple, I believe it is the worship ministry equivalent of what Paul described in his preaching experience:

I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. (1 Corinthians 2:3-5, NIV)

Paul's preaching of an unsophisticated message required him to lay down his trust in his powerful intellect and reasoning abilities. And when he saw fruit in his ministry, the lives of the Corinthians being transformed by the gospel, he knew totally that it was God's transforming power at work, not his own wisdom and understanding.

Likewise I see the Invisible Worship Musician as teaching us to lay down our trust in our music skills and our hearts, and trust instead that when we do things God's way, we will get God's kind of results. That way our faith will not rest on our skills or our personal devotion to God, but on God's presence.

I hope this sharing helps answer any concerns you may have in your heart about the Invisible Worship Musician. If you have not gotten your copy of the Invisible Worship Musician yet, then I urge you to take advantage of the Milestones Sale currently going on.

This promotion allows you to purchase the Invisible Worship Musician training materials at US$37 ($20 off the usual price) But hurry! This promotion will end on the 8th of November. You have less than 2 days left!

Be blessed!

Milestones and Looking Back...

It's a great feeling!

As I shared in my previous post, my laptop crashed and I spent lots of time offline. They were fun, refreshing and enlightening. I got to read books that gave me ideas to pursue for my website and as I charted out those ideas, I realized how far out of my comfort zone they would take me.

I also suddenly realized that my site has become what I originally wanted it to be.

For those of you who have been around long enough and saw the original layout of my site (what I had in May 2008), well, that was the best I could come up with at that time. My understanding of HTML and all that was really limited (actually, non-existent). Sad, right?

But things just magically clicked together (no pun intended) after I grit my teeth and got that site out. New info came my way, and I found that I could just add in more and more of what I wanted my site to have. Then I accidentally crashed my own site sometime in August and had to rebuild everything exactly the way I wanted it.

And that feels REALLY good. Get what I mean?

As I said before, I wanted my site to:

1) explain my Invisible Worship Musician e-book - Well, that was obvious, right? I created training materials I felt I could be proud of, information that has been battle-tested in the worship ministry and blessed many people. Now it's time to up the ante and share it with the rest of the world.

2) offer Worship Ministry e-course to give people a taste of what i teach - Why do that? Because I know that there are people around who actually GET worship ministry, people who subconsciously understand what really works. I DON'T want those people buying my e-book, so I provide the e-course for them to check out my materials and see that they don't need it.

Bad business move? Not really. From May up till now I have not had to give a single refund. Which suggests that I have effectively screened the prospective buyers effectively, so that those who don't need what I offer don't buy it.

3) show Worship Ministry articles as a quick and easy reference guide for anyone involved with the worship ministry - they are short pieces of teaching that can be easily read and used. They don't replace what I teach in my book, but they are helpful and I want everyone to benefit from them.

What's next? Stuff that makes me really uncomfortable, things that have me praying that God will bring me resources, link me up with the right people, and give me LOTS of courage.

And stuff that will further increase the teaching value of my site, to make it an effective and useful resource for worship leaders and musicians for all over the world.

So for now, I am holding a special promotion for my Invisible Worship Musician materials. It's called the Milestones Sale and it allows you to purchase my materials at US$37 ($20 off the usual price). Do grab this special offer, it's only available from now until 8th November. And it will probably be the very last special promotion for this in 2008.

Stay tuned for further developments! And do contact me with your ideas and feedback for what else I can add to my website, I'd love to hear from you!

Be blessed!

A Very Strange Weekend

Three whole days offline...

I only have a laptop and it crashed on me. It was something with the motherboard, so I had an entire 3 days:

1) without Internet - no emails, no checking out the worship ministry forums I'm involved with...

2) no e-books; AND

3) no typing - I was scribbling email and blog ideas on post-it notes. Talk about pathetic!

So what did I do over the weekend? It was spent:

1) playing the piano - for me, not for ministry, but just for me. I've forgetten what that was like...

2) reading REAL books, not PDFs and e-books - got loads of ideas, as usual!

3) playing with my two boys!

As you might have guessed, I got many emergent curriculum opportunities with my kids. Those opportunities were always there, but it's too easy to miss them (many adults do).

When you see how alive and in the moment young children are, you can understand why there are parents who willingly forgo additional income to stay home and home-school their kids. If you impose a decent curriculum on them they're happy. And if you can flow with them on what catches their attention at the moment, they're happy too.

Yeah, my sons have been teaching me by example how to be happy even without a computer. :) We had a great time creating and singing silly songs around the piano. The teacher-JJ side of me was satisfied at how the song rhythm was helping them get a better sense of syllable placement, crucial to their language growth. The Daddy side of me was thinking "why didn't I do this ages ago?!??!?"

But anyway, it's time to get back to work. For all of you who tried to email me about ministry and business matters over the past few days, I'll be giving you proper replies soon, give me a while to catch up.

How about the whackers, JJ? Any updates?

Err... no. I've decided to pursue the secular philosophy of "living well is the best revenge". I just had a fantastic weekend feeding on the faithfulness and love of God, shown in the joy and fun I had with my two sons. If the whackers had seen how little their threats bothered me, how easily they get forgotten and how happy I am with my two sons, they would have gnashed their teeth in frustration.

I can live with that.

I don't know if things are different in other countries, but my whackers grew up in the 50s and 60s. Those were years of huge political turmoil and upheavel around the world. Many nations were fighting for their political independence from their colonial masters. Communism was still seen as a viable political system, and many did consider it as a tool for gaining national independence.

I've noticed that many people growing up in that era have a fascination with making bold political statements and having over-the-top, larger-than-life displays. The CAUSE (whatever they were fighting for) was the ends that justified all means, and those people felt the need to announce their cause to all and sundry.

When it comes to hostilities, it translates to large threat displays. They want you to be intimidated, or to go over-the-top in fighting back. (Think Taiwanese politics). Ignoring such people, or (God forbid) joking about them was the worst possible thing you could ever do to them.

For me, I see threat displays as being VERY foolish. The Japanese have a saying "A cornered mouse can bite a cat", in other words, if you drive people to desperation, they may escalate the conflict far more than you are mentally and emotionally prepared for. Your CAUSE, whatever it may be, won't help you very much then. Bringing about your downfall has become THEIR cause.

"As far as it is up to you, leave in peace with everyone" (Romans 12:18, paraphrased)

Of course, I don't believe that means being a doormat and putting up with abuse. I have many people tell me to just endure the nonsense and try to give a gentle reply, after all a gentle answer turns away wrath (Pro 15:1). I point out to them that Proverbs also tells us what kind of people to avoid, and those admonitions are as valid as giving a gentle reply.

Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended. (Proverbs 22:10, NIV)

Anyway, this post is just a quick update, not a full teaching or sharing thing. Those will come soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to find my feet and catch up with all the online backlog. So be patient, I'll be in contact with you soon with some new things to share!

Be blessed!