Anna Tan's Blog, page 77

#AtoZChallenge: Motive

The struggle over your motive isn’t unique to worship leading. It’s something every Christian in every ministry goes through. I think it’s just especially real and tangible for those in the arts because that’s really where fame and attention is gathered. Someone in, say, traffic ministry (helping direct traffic and parking) is probably not going to struggle with their motives and their need for fame as much as someone who is on the stage, a visible presence that everyone pays attention to for...

#AtoZChallenge: Listen

One very, very, very, very important part of worship leading - or of being in the worship team actually - is listening.

First of all, you listen to God. You listen to what He has to say to the people. You listen to His heart for you and for your church. You listen because you want to know what He wants you to do and sing this weekend.

You also listen to your pastor. You listen to his vision and direction for the church. You listen to his preaching and the things God is saying to the church thro...

#AtoZChallenge: Kindle

To kindle is to light or to set on fire, and when used in terms of emotions, it means to arouse or inspire, to impassion or excite. We talk about love as a flame and the Holy Spirit as a fire and worship as a passion. The thing about fire is that it needs to be fed. It isn’t something that goes on and on on its own. If you starve it of oxygen, it dies. If it runs out of material to burn, it dies. If you freeze it (take away the heat), it will also die. Sometimes the fire doesn’t die out total...

#AtoZChallenge: Jesus

Jesus is the centre of it all, and this is one thing that we cannot lose sight of. And yet it’s one of the easiest (to forget). There are so many things that can — and will — distract us, things that are important to every performer. Don’t bother denying that you’re a performer. Everyone who goes up on stage, everyone who loves to sing or make music — all of us are performers in one way or another. Some of us may like it more than others, but the fact remains that we do perform and often, we...

#AtoZChallenge: Integrity

A.W. Tozer once said, “Christians don’t tell lies - they just go to church and sing them.”

This is so true. The easiest thing to do in worship is to lie. It’s easy to sing a bunch of songs and not really mean what you say. You offer up fake worship, you offer up fake praise, because your heart is not in it and your mind is elsewhere, but you can do it because you’re good at singing. You’re good at putting on a show. It becomes performance.

It takes integrity to be really honest about what’s goi...

Announcing the winners of the Coexist Tour #giveaway!

*drumroll*

The winners are:

Blythe L Jackson

and

Kirby

Congratulations!

You should have received an email from me yesterday (4/9) with instructions on how to claim your prize. If you did not receive the email, please check your spam folder, or drop me a message here or on twitter.

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Get Coexist on  Amazon  or  Smashwords . Check out Book Depository or Createspace for paperbacks!

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#AtoZChallenge: Honour

Honour is reciprocal, rather like respect. As you honour others, it makes it easier for them to honour you in return. Someone usually has to start first, but it’s difficult. Growing up in an Asian society, I’ve internalised a culture of shame; growing up in a Christian environment, I’ve internalised a culture of guilt. Right now, I sometimes live in a strange mix of both, where my actions are often governed more by the fear of what other people will think of what I do and feeling guilty about...

#AtoZchallenge: Grace

Christianity begins with grace and ends with grace. And its middle needs to be filled with grace.

It’s hard to have grace when you have ten minutes left to practice three songs, the musicians are still trying to get the sound man to adjust the monitors, the singers are staring into space, the projectionist is frantically typing up the songs in time for service, and the pastor suddenly requests that you sing a new song that no one knows for altar call. It’s very difficult to have grace when you...

#AtoZchallenge: Focus

Okay, it's easy to mistake this one and go "of course my focus is Jesus!" (Which should be your natural response.) That’s not what I’m talking about. The thing is, a single worship set needs a single focus. And because I'm (primarily) a writer, I would put it as this:

Your worship set needs a story-arch.

Sure, you can put together a bunch of songs about a bunch of stuff about God, and that's fine. People can, and will, still worship. But what I'm saying is that if you have a specific or focus...

#AtoZChallenge: Exhortation

In Extravagant Worship , Darlene Zschech talks about a time when their worship team was given 12 minutes to just get up on stage and start an unscheduled service, “to take people from chaos… to being aware of the presence of Almighty God.” She concludes by saying this:

“If you don’t have the revelation about the power of praise and worship and about living as a worshipper, you can’t do that in twelve minutes because you can’t just get up and hope somebody is going to worship. It is just not goi...