Seven Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say to Worship Leaders

I loved this article which was shared by a friend through facebook. This is from Fire in My Bones and is written by J.Lee Grady
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Seven Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say to Worship Leaders

We would honor God if we applied these principles to our praise.

I consider myself open-minded about worship. My tastes in music are eclectic, so I love everything from Hillsong choruses and black gospel anthems to classic hymns and Spanish worship artists Marco Barrientos and Jesús Romero. My playlist even includes Native American, Nigerian and Iranian worship.

I love any music that stirs my soul and points me to heaven, so worshipping the Lord with other believers is one of my favorite pastimes. But there are a few things I’d like to say to worship leaders. Please don’t take these comments as criticism but as encouragement from a brother who has “seen it all” when it comes to the Sunday morning drill.

“In poor countries where people struggle from hand to mouth each week, praise is so energetic that the congregation quickly moves into the aisles to dance. Yet here in the United States our worship is often stiff and way too sophisticated.”

1. Give us something to shout about! In most countries I visit, worship is an exhilarating workout. In poor countries where people struggle from hand to mouth each week, praise is so energetic that the congregation quickly moves into the aisles to dance. Yet here in the United States our worship is often stiff and way too sophisticated. What we lack in genuine zeal we substitute with technology, orchestration and hype. It’s a pitiful tradeoff.

Worship leaders must stoke the fires of spiritual passion. Don’t let the people’s hearts remain cold or stale. Exhort them to go higher. Say like the psalmist, “Praise the Lord! …Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise His name with dancing. …Let the godly ones exult in glory. …Let the high praises of God be in their mouth” (Ps. 149:1-3,5,6) NASB.

2. Please give us content. Most of us packed away our hymnals 30 years ago and discovered the liberty of free-style choruses. Yet I get tired of singing the same phrase over and over—especially if that phrase has questionable theology. And we are cheating people if half of a song consists of lines like “Ooh, Ooh, Ooh!” or “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

There’s a reason “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross” is a classic. Its words inspire deep worship in a way that simpler songs can’t. The best solution is to mix up the playlist with both new and old songs—as well as old songs with new arrangements. If we only sing today’s trendy Top 40 we will forget where we came from.

3. Spare us the concert. True worship leaders lead rather than perform. We want you to play skillfully, but we don’t want the focus to be on you. Point us to Jesus!

Some worship leaders shift into extended periods of spontaneous worship. That’s great until you look around and realize that the congregation is sitting down while the worship leader has his eyes closed—oblivious to the fact that most people got lost 10 minutes ago. That’s not corporate worship. That’s a stage show.

4. Don’t run a song into the ground. Maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine: When a worship leader announces, “Let’s sing it one more time!” and then proceeds to sing a chorus again and again and again and again (and again and again), this is a form of lying. This happens especially with certain choruses that are like broken records—they never resolve.

If a song is so repetitive that it’s annoying, or if you can’t figure out when to stop it, just retire it. No one will ask why you don’t sing it anymore.

5. Please don’t burst my eardrums. I have a high tolerance for noise and I love rhythm. But I have been in churches where the music was so loud that my head rattled for the rest of the day. God can open deaf ears, but I don’t think we should manufacture the deafness. Have mercy on us. God doesn’t want us to drown out the sound of the people’s voices with bass guitars and subwoofers.

6. Show us the lyrics. Memo to the technical crew: We don’t have hymnals, and we don’t know the words by heart. Please don’t wait until we have sung the second verse of the song to put those words on the screen. (It would also be a good idea to have someone proofread the song lyrics. I was in a church where we were supposed to sing “Praise Him for His mighty acts,” but the Power Point slide said, “Praise Him for His mighty axe.”)

7. Honor the Word. There is nothing ruder than a worship leader who walks off the stage after the last chorus and then disappears to a side room to eat donuts. When the praise team vanishes from the church and never comes back, it sends a message to the congregation that these people don’t need to listen to the sermon. Not! Worship does not end with the last song; the last song sets the stage for the next act of worship.

I’m not a worship leader, and you wouldn’t want to hear me on a keyboard. But I believe we would honor God if we applied these principles to our praise.
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J. Lee Grady is the contributing editor of Charisma. You can find him on Twitter at leegrady. His latest book is 10 Lies Men Believe (Charisma House).

Blog talks

I've been blogging since 2005 and yet until now I do not know the fastest and easiest way to increase SEO or search engine optimization, My page rank remains the same for over a year or two but of course am grateful with that because I know a lot of good blogs or websites and yet doesn't even had a PR.

This blog is made for our ministry and my goal is to be able to share whatever we do and also to at least be of help to those who read this.

But landing on the first page of a search engine is quite a hard task and I know I have to work hard for it. Like what I did on my other blog.

I wish I could repeat the same here.

Conference over

Wow..it's been a while since I last posted, we are still here in Singapore although the conference ended last Saturday night. We decided to stay longer so we could visit some nice place here and meet some friends as well. So far we've been exploring since yesterday, visited Esplanade and Promenade and we are set to go out again this afternoon. Hubby is checking all the gadget stores,looking and comparing prices.Wishing he could buy but he knows he can only wish :) and look at the price Atrix or matrix..whatever :)

We had an amazing time at the conference and I'm making several posts for it. I particularly love the last part where we wrote in a sticky note and left it at the cross.

That's it for now. I miss bloghopping because I have no time but will definitely visit everyone once I get back to normal blogging hours.

Work and serve overseas

The main purpose of our Singapore trip is to attend the International Teams East Asia Regional Conference that happens every two years. It's a gathering of International teams Missionaries working in Asia. This year will be our second time.

However, since Singapore has lots of opportunities to work and earn more than what you can earn here in Manila, I also thought of applying for a job there and then settle for good if ever. I just do not know what job I would apply for since tech jobs are what in demand now a day. And I do not have such background.

Of course that plan and thought of mine is subject to God's approval.

I was just thinking how life would be different if we are to work and serve the Lord overseas.
Someday maybe.

God will make a way

God will make a way..
when there seems to be no way,
He works in ways we cannot see,
He will make a way for me...

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And right now, i just needed to hear that because I'm beginning to get worried for the t-shirt printing job that Rudolf accepted, he needs to finish and delivered it this week because we are leaving next week for the Mission's Conference in Singapore.

We still do not have the complete funds for the mission's conference but....

as it was stated above..

God will make a way and I am certain He will provide. Again I just have to remind my self that God is never too early and was never late. 
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And I'm quite sure he's preparing another good surprise for us :) maybe even better than His previous surprises. With God in our lives we have no choice but to get better and better and better (like the tv deals at buy.com.)

Sure there are tough times (like what we are going through now) but that doesn't mean we  will stop here. Tough times will be over and life will be better!!! That I am CERTAIN.

I'm keeping my HOPES and FAITH high.

God bless everyone!!

Labor for the Lord!

Today, the "men of faith" in our church gathered and carried not their bibles but their rugs and paint brushes. They did a major cleaning of our worship place and you can say we are so blessed to have all of them here! Instead of hiring men to do the labourer jobs they offered their services for free of course. The walls are so clean with the green paint. I'm sure the congregation will be surprise to see how it looks so different now :) And I pray everyone will praise and worship the Lord heartily tomorrow.

From this dirty and old looking white wall

to this very refreshing and beautiful green wall! 

May the Lord bless the hearts of this men!! We are all so proud of you!!
 More pictures!

Prayers please

Two weeks to go and we're off to Singapore for the Mission's Conference. And what we have is only our plane tickets. We still do not have the money for the registration fee and for the travel tax and everything else.

My husband attempted to raise funds ( I know he wrote some of our friends but no one positively responded as of to date as far as I know). And in his desire to at least help me financially, he accepted a t-shirt printing job but little did we know that this will become more of a headache to us than a blessing (at least at my point of view-I am sure God sees it differently) Right now we have to recover at least  6,000.00 pesos ($136.00) for the t-shirts we bought  but made the wrong print. Of course the client rejected it.

Recently, I am thinking to just forego the plane ticket and not attend the conference anymore but I am reminded of the "FAITH-DETERMINATION" that was preached by our Pastor weeks ago. And so I am not giving up.

We still have 13 days and I know God is never late and is never too early. He will provide and He will surely make a way. How, when, where and with whom? He only knows.

However, please keep on praying for us, please pray that our Faith becomes more stronger as we go through all of these.

God bless everyone!
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UPDATE : January 29, 2011 - I  was wrong, it's not only worth 6,000 pesos but more than 7,000.00. And we are selling it for us to recover the money. As of to date, 12 t-shirts sold. Please keep on praying for us. And if your heart says you want to help, you can do so by buying the shirt. We sell it for what it's cost 80.00. Thanks everyone!!

The reason I live?

The very reason why I live Lord is to worship you..
To worship when I am happy and sad
To worship you in spirit and truth
To worship you always

I am MADE to WORSHIP!!



When I look into Your holiness
When I gaze into Your loveliness
When all things that surround become shadows
In the light of You

When I've found the joy of reaching Your heart
When my will become enthroned in Your love
When all things that surround become shadows
In the light of You

I worship You I worship You
The reason I live is to worship You

Thankful that I am employed

I have considered resigning from my job many times, If I remember it right I told my boss thrice that I am resigning already but God do have different plans because I'm still with my boss and few weeks from now, it will be seven years since I accepted the job.

And at this point in time, I am thankful that I have a job and a stable one. Seeing the many graduates and unemployed..really I am grateful. This job has helped me more than I expected and though we do not have payday advance program in our company, they were never late in giving our salary and is helping employees during emergencies.

So right now the last thing I do not want to happen is to lose this job because of our house project. I'll stay few more years and unless the Lord brings me/us to another land I think I'll hang on here.

Waking up early in the morning to come to office is a struggle..
Serving a boss that is demanding and strict is hard
But in spite of all that..I am blessed. I work hard for what I spend.

Obedience = Abundant prosperity

Deuteronomy 28:11-14 (New International Version)

11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity--in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground--in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.  12 The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.  13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.  14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.