Anna Tan's Blog, page 76

#AtoZChallenge: Vulnerability

One of the most difficult things to be is to be vulnerable. If there is one thing that we most often refuse to be - besides wrong, or humble - it’s being vulnerable. And yet, all great art requires vulnerability allowing people to look into your soul. Though “great art” is a strange thing to call worship leading, it’s the same principle. (Remember what I said about beauty?)

People respond to honesty, raw honesty, the kind of raw vulnerability that cries out to God for help from the depths of t...

#AtoZChallenge: Unity

Just as there needs to be unity in the body of Christ, there needs to be unity in the worship team. It’s a no-brainer. I mentioned in Listen that you need to listen to everyone and that in listening to each other, there is unity. And yet, unity is definitely not one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about worship and worship leading.

The truth is, even if you have the best musicians in the world on stage, if they don’t play together and listen to each other, you may very we...

#bookreview: Subversive Jesus by @craigasauros

Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in a Broken World by Zondervan Publishing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From its very title, Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, & Faithfulness in a Broken World, is meant to make you stop and think.
Greenfield shares the story of his journey from New Zealand to the slums of Cambodia (more of that in The Urban Halo: A Story of Hope for Orphans of the Poor), to Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where he spearheaded a commu...

#AtoZChallenge: Theology

Songs can inform a person’s theology, or at least one’s view of God, a lot more than reading books or studying the Bible does. Reading or studying something is an act of the will, and each person accepts or rejects what they read based on their worldview and life experience. But songs, even worship songs, are things that seep into your subconscious without you really thinking about it. Because these subconscious ideas are what shape your worldviews, this makes worship songs extremely importan...

#AtoZChallenge: Sensitivity

Worship leading calls for a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. In the middle of the set, in the middle of the million things that are happening at the same time, you, the worship leader, need to be sensitive to what the Spirit is saying, to what God is doing and to where He is wanting to go.

I don’t recall exactly where I heard or learnt this (probably from Josh Yeoh, the founder of PenHOP), but throughout the worship set, even whilst you are exhorting the people to praise and worship, even as yo...

#AtoZChallenge: Rest

The thing with all this doing is that it’s doing. It’s busy work. It’s working and striving and perfecting and honing and just doing a lot of stuff. Which is necessary. Which is good. Which is what we’re meant to do. We’re meant to work. We’re meant to create. We’re meant to be active.

But it is also good to rest. God commanded the Sabbath and we remember that yeah, we’re supposed to rest at least one day a week, but most times we don’t. It’s not built into our lives, like it was for the Israe...

#AtoZChallenge: Qualified

One thing I struggled with in writing this blog series was how qualified I was to talk about worship leading. I started leading worship while in youth group (because hey, when you’re young, you can do anything!) and then I took a break when I went away to study. Later, I continued worship leading in my home church and, several years later, in the next church I moved to. Then in late 2014, I felt that God was saying it was time to stop. So I haven’t been worship leading for a little over a yea...

#AtoZChallenge: Priesthood

I’d originally wanted to talk about priesthood under L (for Levites), but then Listen pushed its way through, so here we are. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood , a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Backtracking to verse 5, it says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood , offering spiritual sacrifices accep...

#AtoZChallenge: Obedience

I’ve been putting off writing this post for a while now, though it was one of those I titled early on (for reference, I’ve pre-written everything except Y and Z at this point). It’s difficult to talk about because I’m not a naturally obedient person. I’m stubborn and strong-willed — have been since I was a baby (ask my mom!) — and I won’t do what I don’t want to. If I have to, I’ll be extremely grumpy about it and definitely not gracious.

Obedience ties in with Discipline and Sensitivity, doin...

#AtoZChallenge: Name

All throughout the Old Testament, God has been gradually revealing Himself, accumulating Names to Himself like people accumulate wealth (or try to). It’s a fantasy trope that knowing a person or creature’s true name gives you insight to who (or what) they really are, thereby giving you power over them. Like I said, that’s fantasy, and a trope, but what’s true about it is that the Names of God reveal who He is, just as the way we label ourselves reveals much about how we view ourselves.

Our God...