The Day I Joined Our Worship Team

As I was going through some old posts, I came across what I wrote below which I am re-posting today. It was just over six years ago when I first joined Faith Community Church’s worship team. Today, our church celebrated its inaugural service in our new 1400-seater facility. The photo is of today’s team resting […]

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 […]

From the Archives: The Worship Team as a Mentoring Family

So yesterday, one of the guys I was mentoring had a day off. Instead of just spending the morning running errands, or relaxing on his own, he decided to gather a couple of others just to chat and share life together. I think in every ministry, we need to cultivate a mentoring culture; of doing […]

Confessions of a Dyed-in-the-Wool Worship Musician

I just got back from the Blu Jaz Club in Singapore, where I heard some really brilliant jazz music by the Charlie Lim Band. My thanks to Ben Ngooi for the invite! I have to say, I was inspired. A number of things ran through my mind in the midst of the heady mix of […]

Worshipping Generations

I shared the following thoughts with the band of which I am a part at Faith Community Church on 20 October 2012. We call ourselves “Fantastic Team 3”. Below I reproduce my sharing almost verbatim (with a few edits). Lisa (the worship leader of our band) has asked me to do a 10 minute sharing with […]

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 […]

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 […]

Audition Success!

I was really thrilled yesterday to get an email yesterday as follows: Congratulations! You have been successful in the FCC worship audition. Welcome to the team! It was a good thing my wife ordered me some in-ear earphones from Catch of the Day! My joining the Faith Community Church worship team is significant to me […]