Worship Ministry Mission Trips Hit Different – Part 3

In Part 3 of this series of posts, I detail the next few days of our mission program, which involved ministering to the entire gamut of age groups, from children to the elderly. The Orphanage Day 2 (Saturday 7 December) focused on ministry to children. We got up early to load up the cars and […]

The Songwriting Process Behind “My Shepherd”

In my earlier post this week, I described how our worship team began our journey into songwriting. In this post, I want to reflect on the process that I personally went through with my team in writing our song, “My Shepherd”. The songwriting process is quite foreign to me. Prior to the New Song Cafe, I can point […]

The Beginning of Our Church’s Songwriting Journey

I have been part of Faith Community Church for about three and a half years now. Over its 20-or-so-year history, the church has grown from about 80 people to over a thousand in strength. Our worship team now has nearly 50 members. For a church of that size, I have always wondered why we weren’t […]

Carefully Curating Your Congregation’s Song Catalogue

I love the word “curate”. It used to conjure up images of stuffy old men in tweed jackets with leather elbow patches carefully displaying artefacts in a museum. These days, the hipsters have taken hold of the term, and you can curate almost anything you like – magazine articles, photographs, ideas, images, conversations, recipes. […]

A Renewed Unity: Our Worship Leadership Retreat 2015

We had the honour of having our first Worship Leadership Team (WLT) Retreat this last Australia Day long weekend. So, on the evening of Friday, 23 January 2015, FCC’s WLT and our spouses/significant others drove down to a beautiful house backing onto Melros Beach for a weekend of chilling, eating, planning, eating, relaxing, strategising, crabbing, […]

Dirty Worshippers, Holy Worship – Part 2

In my previous post, I talked about how a holy God still uses, indeed privileges, messed-up people to serve Him. In this second and last part of the series, I explore the theological foundations of such a paradox. So, why do I say that in the context of worship ministry, our qualifications for those who […]

Dirty Worshippers, Holy Worship – Part 1

In this two-part series, I explore the wonderfully reassuring paradox that imperfect, messed-up people get to use their gifts to serve a holy God; yes, even to serve on something as hallowed as the worship team. In this Part 1, I reflect on the question: who is qualified to serve? In the forthcoming Part 2, I will […]

7 Things I’ve Learnt About Serving God

Recently, my church (Faith Community Church) has been going through a season focussed on being equipped for service. It is an important emphasis, because a telling sign of a healthy church is a high volunteer participation rate. With all the talk about service, and the mobilisation of church members into different ministries, I have been […]

Four Reasons Why Leaders Need to Set Team Culture

Last week, my worship director Dave Wong shared what he saw as the cultural values for Faith Community Church’s worship team. I believe that doing so will prove to be a definitive moment for the team. Here’s why: 1. Setting team culture provides a platform for unity Setting a clear team culture encourages us to […]

Hillsong Highlights – Days 1 and 2

It’s been an amazing couple of days at Hillsong Conference. Amazing and exhausting. I was hoping to get a bit of time between sessions to process and blog some of things that God has been speaking to me but the schedule is way too packed. Either you are running between sessions or queuing up to […]