Psalm 65:11-13:
You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.
These last 12 months have been full and fulfilling.
Here are some reflections on 2025.
Podcast Launch
After returning from our first Japan Mission trip to Fukuoka (and surrounds) in December 2024, Lester Sim and I decided to start a podcast, I Can’t Believe It’s Worship, a worship podcast by amateurs for amateurs. It grew out of deep but buoyant discussions during Bible studies every morning in Fukuoka.
Starting on 13 February 2024, we have consistently published an episode every fortnight – a total of 23 episodes in our first year! It’s been fun. But we also realised we were learning a lot as we prepared for each episode or sometimes, as we were sharing insights during the episode.
King’s Worship Academy
As is usual for the last several years, I have been teaching the session on Worship Theology at KWA. This March, Dave joined in, too – with Chris and Lester coming along to observe.
After getting reeled into the worship leader’s panel, Lester was so impressive that he got asked to come back the following month. I was glad that I could tag along, too, for that next session.
Michael Battersby was also particularly gracious in having Lester and I co-host Worship Together 2025 in September, themed The Songs that Changed our Lives, as an extension of our podcast.
FCC Worship
In June, I completed a 2-year stint running the worship ministry to give Dave some space to run his burgeoning portfolio as Service Pastor.
Being a proper Worship Director felt like a full-time job on top of my normal full-time job, but I was glad to hand back the reins to Dave. Hopefully I didn’t wreck anything.
I was pretty chuffed though to have completed a 2-year training curriculum for our worship team, delivered during our team gatherings.
Songwriting
I’m not much of a songwriter, but in the course of my tenure running the operations of the ministry, I really wanted to see our worship ministry write home-grown songs for our congregation.
So I wrote a song just to set a good example.
Our church started singing Dwelling Place in May 2025, which I wrote based on Psalm 84 because I think it’s important for worship songs to have scriptural grounding. The live YouTube “official” version was published in September 2025.
The FCC 100 Choir
In 2024, I saw one of our vocal leaders, Sineng Jiang, post an instastory of his leading a community choir of some 25-30 people singing Dancing Queen. I began to ponder whether it was possible to put together a community choir for FCC, except it would sing worship songs. As a culmination point, the choir would lead the entire congregation in worship on a Sunday.
Just to add an element of faith and scale, we aimed for a choir of 100 participants.
When Sineng told me he was happy to conduct, we started putting a team together of section conductors (Lester S and Jane) and Addie Choon began to work on musical arrangements.
The FCC 100 Choir led two services on 17 August.
It was intergenerational – the youngest members were four years old; the oldest were past 70.
Importantly, very few of the participants were from the worship ministry – most were congregation members – some were unchurched people. Yet we were able to come together to worship the Lord.
Kagoshima Ministry
A massive highlight was taking a small team to minister in Kagoshima in October.
At the beginning of the year, Ps Benny had asked if I would go to Kagoshima for a pastors conference in March. Not being a pastor, I wondered what I would be doing apart for spectating.
Instead, Ps Benny encouraged me that if I would go to Japan only once in 2025, I should go to teach worship. He ended up getting Kevin (our missionary to Kagoshima) to make the arrangements.
I was glad when Lester, Jackie and Chris said “yes” to come along. In retrospect, the team size and combination were perfect.
In worship seminars at Kagoshima and Miyazaki, there was such a strong sense of God’s presence and a freedom in the Spirit. After the second session in Kagoshima, we entered into a time of worship and intercession. The presence of God was so tangible that no one dared to move for a while.
Then, one by one, the worship leaders of Kagoshima shared the sense of hope they felt that a big church from Australia was prepared to come alongside them in seeking revival for their nation. On our part, even though we had come to teach, each member of our team was completely wrecked – convicted that God was wanting us to return to a heart of worship.
We also saw the power of worship being taken outside the walls of the church as we performed at a gospel concert (where we were able to preach the gospel to the audience) and also a gospel program at a local elementary school.
We recall the stories of Kagoshima here:
As a powerful postscript, the organiser of our events, who was not a Christian, remarked on how beautiful she had found the gospel. So we pitched in to buy her a Japanese-English Bible and gave it her for her 40th birthday present. One day later, after reading Luke 1 with Kevin, she gave her life to Christ.
Conclusion
If I was to glean one thing from this past year, it is that God is restoring the Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11-13).
Personally, it is about restoring intimacy with the Lord and to keep walking tenderly before Him.
Life may be full of activities (and this year certainly has been), but it cannot substitute for listening to His voice, being led by Him, and keeping in step with His Spirit.
The Worship Revolution 