Why We Need Young Musicians in Our Worship Teams

Here’s a quote which Ray Badham shared from Ric Charlesworth (a well-known hockey coach) during the last week at Arrows College as he taught on team building: Young talented players simultaneously threaten, inspire and awaken those who are too comfortable. They bring innocence and excitement and often possess skills different from those of established team […]

What is Essential, Preferable and Can Be Developed

During the week at Arrows College, Pastor Ray Badham shared about building a worship team and he posed the question: in selecting your team members, what characteristics are essential; what characteristics are preferable; and what characteristics can be developed? The students started brainstorming different answers for each category. Some people thought that it was essential […]

An Adventure in Missing the Point

Today Ray Badham taught about building a worship team at Arrows College. We were asked to brainstorm along the lines of who the stakeholders were in our worship service. One by one, the students called out ‘worship leader’, ‘musicians’, ‘vocalists’, ‘sound technicians’, ‘dancers’, ‘visuals’ etc. I thought I was being pretty savvy by calling out […]

More Definitions of Worship

Today at Arrows College, we delved deeper into the theology of worship and creativity. I was really inspired by the first session in which we surveyed worship through the Old Testament. Because of time constraints, we couldn’t look into individual passages in much detail, but I was thinking it’d be a great idea when I […]

Going Back to (Worship) School

Today, was my first day back at school following my last exam at uni and after 12 years of working life. It was quite a surreal experience. I almost felt like I should have packed a piece of fruit and a muesli bar and 15% juice in a tetrapak. I also wondered whether the cool […]

Sing to the Lord a New Song

I had the privilege yesterday of attending a Prayer Partners’ Ministry meeting. I have long respected intercessors. Many revivals have started because people have prayed tenaciously and unrelentingly for God to move. I’m not an intercessor, even though I identify most with intercessory worship. I simply can’t pray like a hard-core intercessor. In fact, I […]

The Worship Team as a Mentoring Family

It is often said that worship ministry is one of the most important ministries in the church. But that’s probably not true: in my view, all ministries are equally important. Worship ministry does, however, have some distinctives: one of which is its visibility – which is why the congregation tends to elevate its importance. Another […]

To Know the Exceeding Greatness of God’s Power

I’ve got quite a few thoughts to share today, and they are probably quite random. However, if there is to be a common thread, it is to be seen in Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesians 1:17-21: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you […]

Blessings Reel – August 2012

Ephesians 1:11-12 says this: In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. The Message paraphrase puts it this […]

I Love Our Church

I think I’ve got to stop crying so much in church. It’s getting embarrassing. You can only hold it in so long before it wells up at the bottom of your eyes and one blink sends a little stream down your cheek. I usually do the move where you discretely move your index finger flush […]