Congratulations!

Breaking News!

You have to see this! This took place in Faith Charismatic Center on the 20th of September 2008. A day that will go down in history. I got an SMS from one of the TOUCH members, don't know who as I lost all my contacts. Sometime during the following week I got this video from Joseph Teng... Anyway, here's what happened:




Congratulations Joash and May (and all parties who waited so patiently for this day to come, especially Pastor Luke)! Well done Joash and May, you guys finally made it after so many years! I am happy for all of you.

I pray you two will continue to be faithful and to keep up your testimony as the two of you become one couple. This is a start of a journey, a long way to go, but it's going to be one heck of a ride.

Let me know if you guys need any help for the big day.

Faith Fighter

This is so cool! If the previous post did not relieve you of any stress you should try this out:

Click here to have a go!

So funny... Jesus kicked everyone's butt!

When It Rains It Pours

Yes that was the story last weekend. Throughout the week the weather was scorching hot when the weekend came it poured so heavily with such heavy winds that Elroi, Bobby and I, who were initially watching TV, opted instead to be entertained by the crazy winds that pushed the potted plants outside my house over. Yup, that was the weather over the weekend.

My schedule was no different, I'm usually very relaxed (TOO relaxed for my liking) however this week it was absolutely choked up!

Pastor Daniel told me to plan a "Cat & Dog Seminar". It was to last from 19th (Friday) to 21st (Saturday) September. Had to plan for everything from the speaker's meals, transport and accommodations to the participants' registrations and meal. That's basically the whole gig. The seminar had a great message: Christianity is really not about us, it's about Christ (hence the name).

I will make another post on this seminar but for those of you who are curious, check out UnvellinGlory's website.

Back to my weekend...

After that very exhausting weekend of services, I also had to look forward to Graduating student's photo shoot. Yes, BCM students who are about to graduate are very vain. It's for BCM's Key Magazine. This happened on Monday 1:00PM-4:00PM.

Immediately after strutting my stuff for the cameras in BCM, I had to rush home bathe, dress up real nice, put on some more make up, and head off to Dewan Sivik P.J. for the Assemblies of God's EduCare and WidowCare fundraiser. YB Teresa Kok (yes, the ISA lady) was the guest of honour. This item would definitely have not made it onto my calendar if not for me hosting the event. Someone very nicely recommended me to emcee the event. For reasons I am strongly suspicious of Pastor Gideon Yong or Shanti (my co-host). when I find out who it is he/she is going to have to pay for this. Anyway watch this space if you would like to see some of the pix taken during the dinner. It will be posted as soon as I receive them.

Busy week for me, busy week for my blog as well... stay tuned for more details on the weekend.

Anyway this whole weekend turned out to be a series of great opportunities. I had the opportunity to plan an entire weekend of services; a chance to catch up with good friends, fellow "candidates for graduation", and future colleagues; and also an opportunity to host a very big charity event and make a difference for PKs (pastors' kids) of Malaysia.

It's finally Tuesday, and boy, am I glad it's Tuesday. For pastors and ministers it normally is a case of "TGIM" (instead of Thank God It's Friday), as Monday is usually the day off. However this weekend it's TGIT. I let out a sigh of relieve as I woke up today, but it was all premature... My baby got sick for the second time and it had to be today...

When it rains... it (absolutely) pours!

I look to you God... you are my strength.

Anyone reading this feeling like they need to catch a breath as well? Read this: Psalm 73

Verse 26 says:
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

... amen.

*Feeling better already =)

Worship Evaluation Form

In my attempt to grow the worship ministry in my church I decided to implement a short 5-minute debriefing session after each service. I wanted to minimize some of the mistakes that we were making (on a regular basis). I have had this idea for some time now (about 6 months ago) but have only recently implemented it (about 2 months ago). I have been weighing out the pros and cons and really thinking it through and how I should approach this.

So to facilitate the debriefing session I decided to come up with a simple "Worship Evaluation Form". It's so simple, it only takes 5 minutes to fill up. This was VERY important as I do not want to keep the worship team from their chance to catch up with other church members. My church's worship team has used the form and it has been so beneficial to us. It helps us as we prepare, it helps us as we play. It just makes us more conscious and more intentional in whatever we do. I would recommend worship teams do this. But please be careful to keep it short and sweet (KISS), and also to make sure your team is ready to take criticism. If you have taken these two steps you can gently introduce a debriefing session for your worship team.

Last Sunday I took it one step further. Apart from the debriefing session with the worship team. I also passed out another "Worship Evaluation Form" to certain members in the congregation and asked them for their honest feedback and comment. When we first introduced the debriefing we wanted to get feedback from people who were not part of the worship team as well. However I was careful to take it slow as musicians are often emotional people and I wanted to see if they were really ready to be criticized before getting random people to give us their thoughts. I also did not want to instill a critical spirit into the church members where they constantly judge and evaluate the team, nor did I want to distract the church members from worshipping to be judging or watching the team. I passed out the forms immediately after the worship session. However I am considering passing it out to them before the session next time so that they can be more detailed and accurate in their assessments.

It turned out very well, the members were honest and commended some efforts and criticized some others. I showed it to the team during the debriefing and they were all opened and receptive to what the members thought. We instantly made two decisions based on ALL the evaluations (even previous ones), that we 1) need to select more familliar songs and 2) more importantly, was that we needed to pray harder for the worship ministry.

The forms are available for download here (at the end of this post) if you would like to use them for your own church.

I'm sure some of you who read my blog are involved in the worship ministry as well. What do you think of this idea of a debriefing session or evaluating the team? Can the forms be improved?

Or perhaps you are also a member of Canaan Church and would like to give your opinion on the worship ministry, download the form, fill it up, and let me hear your thoughts.

My ultimate goal is growth.


Download the forms here:
Worship Evaluation Form (Team)

Worship Evaluation Form (Congregation)