Gangai Victor's Blog, page 15

How to Use the iPad to Teach JESUS to Your Kids

Tablets like the iPad are so easy to use...no wonder kids love them! Rising Star Studios and Faith Inkubators  have come out with a neat app for the iPad, which leverages the fun element of the iPad to engage kids with an interactive Bible content related experience.

Their app is called FAMILY BIBLE ADVENTURES. It uses videos, songs, quizzes and more to teach kids the Good News. It's available only for the iPad (no Android version).

Once you install the app, the home screen introduces you to the app's virtual host, Rev. Emmaus B. Fink who gives a quick animated presentation of the app.

The home screen also displays icons for each step of the FAITH 5 (Faith Acts In The Home) process, which is basically a 5-step method of praying and sharing God's Word using the Bible and everyday incidents. This is how it works:

Step-1: Everyone shares their best (highs) and not-so-great (lows) moments of the day.

Step-2: Read a selected verse from Bible.

Step-2: Talk about the verse and try to relate it to the each person's highs and lows and discuss what they mean. Then talk about what God might be telling us through the Bible verse.

Step-4: Pray together thanking God for the 'high's and asking for His help to handle the 'lows'.

Step-5: The whole family then blesses one another.

The second component of the app comprises the following interactive elements to engage kids in Bible related activity:

Video stories: This section has bible stories narrated by Rev. Fink with animation, music and pictures. Each video story also has a quiz with questions related to it. Kids simply need to touch the correct answer to complete it.

Jukebox:  To listen to the music and scriptural songs.

Matching game: This is a memory match game, featuring custom art tiles and sounds taken right from the episodes.

Coloring Book: Kids can choose a blank canvas or available images and use virtual tools like pencil, brush etc. to paint and color as they like.

 

Here's a quick summary of the features:

5 beautiful motion storybook videos – God's Big Plan, Mary's Song, The Birth of Jesus, Baptism & Wilderness, and Fishing For People. 5 great original songs taken from scripture.
A fun quiz with each story to reinforce the message. A music Jukebox to play all the songs in any preferred order. An awesome match game with Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty levels (with art and sounds from the stories) A custom coloring book featuring artwork AND a built in music player to listen to your favorite FBA songs while you draw.

Family Bible Adventures comes with the first 5 videos and 10 more are available as in-app purchases. The app is a great way for kids to learn about the faith on their own or with a parent. It's fun, it's cool and totally kids-friendly, they should love it!

Interested? Get it here: http://goo.gl/Mr5u6

What are your favorite apps to teach Jesus to your kids?

Vyrso – The New Christian Reading Experience

Vyrso is the name of a modern Christian reading eco-system created by the cool folks behind the Logos Bible Software, Proclaim - the first cloud based church projection software and of course Biblia - an online Bible resource.

Vyrso’s USP is special support for Christian books. For e.g. if you’re reading an ebook in Vyrso and there’s a scripture reference, a simple touch on the reference brings up the verse text in your preferred Bible translation instantly!

Vyrso already has thousands of Christian titles available for easy purchase and access across multiple devices. Once a user account is created, you can purchase books and Vyrso maintains your virtual bookshelf readily synced.

It’s easy to call Vyrso, the Christian Kindle. With free apps for both Android and iOS platforms, Vyrso can be installed and used in a wide variety of mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android Smartphone, Android Tablet. Vyrso ebooks can also be accessed on the desktop through “Logos 4 PC and Mac” or via Biblia.com.

Vyrso brings you ebooks written by Christians for Christians. Your Vyrso experience is designed to bring you the best Christian titles on any mobile device, providing you with a virtual Christian bookshelf that goes wherever you go.

With a simple touch, Vyrso shows you the Bible passages that your ebooks reference. This is a wonderful timesaver, allowing you to read the Bible along with your favorite Christian authors' ebooks. Our cross-library search tool helps you find what every ebook in your bookshelf says about a given topic; you can find the quotes and passages you want in no time!

Vyrso connects your personal reading material with the power of Logos Bible Software, integrating all your Bible study materials with your Christian book collection. You'll love the way Vyrso and Logos create a unique study experience to give you a rich, biblical background for whatever ebook you read.

 

See this quick promo video for better understanding of what Vyrso can do:

 

Here’s the link: http://vyrso.com/

Have you tried using Vysro? What is your favorite app for ebook reading?

The 7 Key Traits of Anointed Worship Leaders – the Kind You Want to Be

If you consider a worship leader as a living signpost, what would matter a lot is which way the signpost points.
Some point towards music, others to self, some others to style and so on.
Then there are the good ones - the ones who point towards God, helping us connect with Him and express our worship to Him.
That's the kind of worship leader I strive to be. Real worship leaders worship the Lord at all times and only when necessary, they use songs.
What about you? Wanna be that stand-out worship servant who advances the praise of our God?
Here’s what I believe you ought to be working on:   The 7 Qualities of Awe-Inspiring Worship Leaders: 1. Be a friend of God Great worship leaders are God-lovers first and foremost. They love the Lord so much that they ensure to start every day with Him. They do this by maintaining strong and consistent personal prayer lives. They can pray without guitar and song. They are comfortable being still and silent before the Lord, with His Word. 2. Depend on the Holy Spirit Accomplished worship leaders don't bank on their own talent and experience as much as the Holy Spirit. Whether it's putting together a set-list or delivering a session on stage, their ears are constantly open to listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and their hearts stay in a disposition of obedience. 3. Love WORSHIP – not just a way of worshipping Put simply, fantastic worship leaders don't believe that worship happens my-way-or-no-way. They do not cause or participate in worship wars. They respect liturgy and don't consider it inferior to contemporary worship. They appreciate "When I Survey the Wonderful Cross" as much as they enjoy "Everlasting God". 4. Never stop learning Outstanding worship leaders value training. They always keep themselves open for training opportunities and make use of them more often than not. They consume books, blogs, podcasts, videos, seminars, webinars or anything else that advances their walk with God and ministerial competency. They never claim to know-it-all and they do not shy away from taking feedback. 5. Be selfless, create space for others First-class worship leaders are team players. They are secure about their own calling, position and place and therefore don’t let doubt, fear or insecurity consume them. This makes them other-centred: they love to share tips and the stage with others. They sincerely encourage and take pleasure in developing another - ministerially or otherwise. They worship when others lead worship too. 6. Be happy in the present Excellent worship leaders are grateful to serve wherever they are. Their happiness and contentment is not tagged to stuff like size of the congregation, count of facebook likes or twitter followers etc. They joyously lead through servant-hood. 7. Keep it real Top-quality worship leaders are not different people on and off the stage. They practice worship outside the church sincerely. They don't play games with God or His people. Their spouses, children or mothers-in-law will vouch for their authenticity! I attended Don Moen's worship workshop twice and both times, the one thing he spoke about most is 'keeping it real'. You can download his teaching for free here.
"I've learned through the years that becoming a worship leader involves far more than developing a set of skills - it's all about developing a life in God." - Andy Park Your turn to share: What are the qualities that make a worship leader special? Image: Level Photography

8 Practical Tips to Construct a Rocking Worship Set-List!

As a worship leader, one of my greatest joys is to watch a set-list come alive in worship. A well selected set of worship songs encourages participation, places appropriate prayers in the hearts of the people, moves them to intimacy with God and invokes a love response to Him.

Having said that, one of the easiest worship leading mistakes is to choose the wrong set of songs for a session. So here are eight tips to put together an effective worship set-list:

 

1. Pay attention to the theme of the day

Start with the theme and list down possible songs around it. A useful rule-of-thumb to follow is to have at least one song in the set-list that highlights the theme.

2. Keep the focus on God

Psalm 100:4 teaches us that when we worship God, we are entering His gates, His courts and into His Presence. So the ideal thing to do is give thanks to Him and praise His Name. Worship must be about God – so less songs about ‘us’ is better.

3. Prioritize familiar songs above new songs

Worship leaders/musicians get tired of songs faster than others. While I get that, 99% of the times, known songs lead to better participation than new songs. So less new songs and more known songs.

4. Don’t ignore new songs

It’s one thing to take known songs to keep the congregation comfortable; but it doesn’t stop there! While putting together a set-list, have a ear open to discover those fresh prayers in song that’d enhance the vocabulary of praise and worship of the congregation, breathe freshness into the worship and challenge people out of their comfort zones. It helps to introduce one or two new songs in a month.

5. Look at the song, not the songwriter

No matter how great a songwriter is, not every song written by him/her can be a winner in congregational worship. It’s important to assess a song on the strength of its lyrics, melody, singability etc. and not just by the name/reputation of its songwriter.

6. While songs need to be congregation-friendly, they should also be our congregation-friendly

Songs that work in the United States need not work in India and vice versa. While evaluating congregational accessibility of a song, it’s good practice to also consider local cultural accessibility. Consider who is our congregation (teens? young adults? elders?) and pick songs accordingly. Remember to keep it simple - a typical congregation consists more of regular folks than highly skilled musicians/singers.

7. Consider musical elements

Is the song singable at a comfortable key? Tempo and rhythm fitting into the overall set-list? Is the style/complexity within range of our musicians and congregation? If the answer is not ‘yes’ to these questions, the song should most likely not make it to the set-list.

8. Listen to the Holy Spirit

This is a no-brainer, but the temptation to finalize a set-list based on our experience and skill always lurks around! Praying to the Holy Spirit, waiting upon Him and obeying His inspiration is probably the most important responsibility of a worship leader while constructing set-lists. Another good practice is to run the entire set-list in a time of personal worship, understand what works and what doesn't and edit the set accordingly.

 

How do you plan your set-lists? Can you share what works for you?

16 Qualities Every Worshiper Ought to Have

We keep hearing all the time that a worship leader needs to be a worshiper first; so much so that it sounds kinda cliché now.

But we know it’s true.

In fact it’s true for everyone…regardless of ministry. No matter what your calling is in…healing or preaching or mercy-works or deliverance or anything else…you got to be a worshiper first.

When I think about being the ideal worshiper, I believe these 16 qualities matter a lot:

1. A worshiper offers worship to God alone (Luke 4:8).

2. A worshiper responds in love and faith to the Lord Jesus and the Gospel of love demonstrated by Him (Ephesians 3:17).

3. A worshiper understands that worship is an act of will, a conscious decision to express one’s love for God.

4. A worshiper seeks to offer worship and experience God; not simply sing songs and ‘experience worship’.

5. A worshiper understands that music/singing is not worship by itself.

6. A worshiper is sold out for Jesus, arrested by His unbelievable love, mercy and grace (Luke 9:23).

7. A worshiper gives cheerfully to the needy - time, talents, money and other resources. (2 Corinthians 9:7).

8. A worshiper endures suffering with uncompromised dependence on God (Romans 12:12).

9. A worshiper perseveres in the struggle against sin and temptation (James 1:12).

10. A worshiper builds and maintains a consistent life of daily personal prayer (Mark 1:35).

11. A worshiper desires and strives for the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

12. A worshiper intercedes for the needs of others (1 Timothy 2:1).

13. A worshiper treasures the Word of God (Psalm 119:16).

14. A worshiper does not hop to a different church every 6 months looking for a ‘better worship experience’

15. A worshiper enjoys fellowship in the Church.

16. A worshiper lives in authenticity by practicing worship outside the church too.

 

Do you struggle practicing any of these? What would you like to add?

How to Pray Silently – III: Contemplation

Continuing on the series on silent prayer, Babu Victor returns with another guest post – this time on understanding what contemplation is. The post will cover some aspects of Christian meditation, which is a necessity when learning contemplation. Please note these are not to be confused with other forms of meditation/contemplation practices, where the focus would be on emptying the mind. Christian meditation is just the opposite: filling the mind and heart with the things of God, especially His written Word.

To understand contemplation, we need to compare it with the other two forms of prayer:

     1. Vocal prayer

     2. Meditation

There are of course many other ways of praying but this is a traditional classification.

Vocal prayer

Vocal prayer is self-explanatory: all forms of verbal prayers to God including singing, prayers of petition, devotions, praise and thanksgiving.

Meditation

Meditation in simple terms is thinking about God. It is a mental activity, in which we recall who God is, His goodness towards us, our experience of His work in our lives etc. Though I say this is a mental activity, it definitely moves the heart and from it springs forth praise and gratitude. Amazingly this many a time leads to an outburst of vocal prayers!

A popular method of meditation would be to read a passage from scripture and reflect on it (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:1-3). It includes picturing the place, situation and characters in the passage and also paying a lot of attention to the spoken words. It involves a bit of role-play too i.e. placing oneself as a character in the passage.

Example: If you’re reading the passage where Jesus multiplies the bread and fish, one should be able to visualize the grass on which the people were seated, see the fish and the loaves of bread, the disciples, Jesus and also hear the words spoken. Through all this, we invite God to speak a truth about the passage into our hearts.

Meditation could simply be described as reading and re-reading an email from one’s beloved who is absent at the moment. The only ways of contact with the beloved are the email. In this case, the beloved is God and the emails are the contents of the Bible.

Meditation puts us in touch with God indirectly. We don’t access His very person but His Word, which is the medium through which He reveals Himself to us.

Contemplation

Contemplation would be something like this: you are reading a letter from your beloved reflecting on its content and you hear a knock on the door. You open the door and you see your beloved standing at the door. You leave the letters aside and just spend time with the beloved. There is no medium here, just direct contact with God. This is the stage in the spiritual life when direct contact with God becomes more and more frequent.

As we begin our journey with God, our relationship with Him depends largely on vocal prayer and meditation. Contemplation is a gift of the Holy Spirit. “It is the prayer of the heart, an entry into the presence of God where there are no words, concepts or images.  It is the prayer of being in love.” (Fr. James Farfaglia)

It should also be emphasized that at no stage in the spiritual life does the Bible become irrelevant! Even in the deepest of contemplation, Scripture is the undying firewood that is burnt on the altar of personal prayer.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” -  2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)

 

Since many of us (like myself for instance) start with charismatic spirituality, here’s a book that I found greatly helpful in merging charismatic spirituality with meditation and contemplation:

The Contemplative Way of Prayer: Deepening Your Life With God by Fr. Robert Faricy

 

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How do you meditate on the Word of God? Have you tried contemplation?