Did you see the mountains tremble?

No I did not, but.... I DID see the flashing lights done by the movingheads. Good to see we are using the lighting systems again after we lost our last 'light man' 2 years ago.

Chronology
Pastor sent me an sms on Friday to have flashing lights this Casual Sunday. I called Jon and this were his exact words, "Don't worry. Consider it done. Just say the word and I'll execute it!" And those lights did get the mood celebrative on sunday. Great job guys.

That's the way uh, huh, uh, huh I like it!
Yes, I enjoy working with this kind of team. As for the rest of the song or it's meaning, just erase it These are not only guys who "tai chek kong" but also quick in execution. Thank you Jon.

note: Pastor we love you and would try our best to please.

Jon, you were the man on Casual Sunday. You were playing drums and managed to get someone else to man the movingheads.

Drama in Broga

The Leaders Retreat was held in Excel Training Resort, Broga. Elsie and I drove there to attend the night session yesterday night drove back near midnight. The van I was driving, which was serviced in the morning, died near Saujana Impian. We had to call Eddie who was also heading to KL to S.O.S. I reached home at 12.45 on saturday morning and had to return immediately to the van with the mechanic. Issues was resolved and by the time I got home with the van it was 2am. It's 8 am on a beautiful saturday morning and I am heading to the recording studio to finish Pastor Aris album. Later today, at 3p, I'll be training on Basic Operation for sound system.

Yep, holding this Servant of All post feels like taking a third job, even though it's part time :)

Thanks be to God that the van didn't die at the lonely stretch of road between Broga and Semenyih. Thanks to Eddie who made a detour at midnight to fetch us.

Have a blessed weekend!

Fixed Teams and Weeks

Introduction
In the last 28 days or so, I have churned out 17 blog entries, tens of e-mails to various section heads, started and encouraged over 105 messages on Yahoogroup and to top it off generating income of RM1600 for the Creative Department. Some of you would be wondering, what else can these guys at the Central Working Committee do? Continue reading as I unfold a BOLD plan for February!

My Promise
In the 1st quarter meeting, I mentioned that we could only create a good system and conducive environment for you, the members, to serve. Today I unveil that system and I pray with all my heart that YOU will work the system, your talents will shine forth and bring glory to our Father in heaven.

Fixed Teams with Fixed Weeks of Duty
The revolution of the year is Worship Team Reality Show! No, not really. Well, a lot of reality, yes, but show...... well not quite. Anyway, back to our topic of fixed teams. I am officially anouncing 4 teams with fixed members. For now they will be named Team A, B, C and L. Each team will take a sunday each. If there are any 5th sundays, Team L will be serving. Each team is designated a FIXED week, ie Team A is always on the first week, Team L is always on the 2nd week, etc.

Team members will also be fixed. Projectionist, sound man, musicians, singers and whatever personnel needed for sunday worship service. Duration for the fixed teams will be until December 2010. After that there will be rotation.

Reserve Pool
Though we are asking the teams to commit to a particular week every month, some may have REALLY important reasons and they cannot make it. For those the reserve pool of worship leader/musician/projection/singers will come to play. In short, with advance notice, the one who cannot make it will be replaced by the reserve pool. It is not a swap.

At the moment, we are short on everything except faith in God and February enthusiasm. For those wondering what excitement has go to do with it, read here. But, the reserve pool will consist of high quality members who will commit to this program for a year. As our members grow in numbers, so will the reserve pool. An example is the worship leaders mentoring another 2 within their teams. By 2011 every team will have 3 worship leaders. Therefore, our pool of reserve worship leaders will grow and it will be less taxing in time to come. The same can be said of musicians, projectionists, etc.

We want to demolish, uproot, cast out ......

Excuse: Oh I forgot about the practice or No one informed me or I thought the schedule said 3rd March instead of 3rd April
Pastor: How can you forget when your Team A is always on the first week. Fine RM5.

Excuse: I can't perform my best because we keep having different musicians
Pastor: For goodness sake, it's a fixed team! Fine RM5.

Excuse: We keep having differnet teams of sing...e..Pastor cuts in abruptly: Fine RM5.

Excuse: I am just a soundman. No one notices even when I don't turn up on sunday.
Pastor: How dare you? Team A counts on you to provide good sound. You just killed their efforts by oversleeping on sunday. Fine RM5 million! and compulsory reading of this article!

I think you get the picture.

We want to see, we want to see, we want to see Jesus lifted High!
We want to plant/instill a "This is my ministry, my team" mentality. Not "I just play because I am scheduled." We want to you to be loyal and own up to your team mates. A commitment to the brothers and sisters in your team instead of to a schedule.

With fixed teams, we will eliminate uncertainties. It could be late songlist, don't know who is playing, etc. These will not bring the best out of the team. We want to get away from making the worship leaders responsible. We want the teams to be responsible. We want every member to make it count and to be counted upon.

Once we have fixed teams and weeks implemented, the Central Working Committee will implement 2 critical sub systems that will turbo-charge your teams! The first is an evaluation system. The second is the Buddy System. I tell you man (sorry for Manglish), this is taken from Sun Zi Art of War.

Causes of Concern
I will make my rounds to the various constituencies to explain the policy and iron out issues. You may shoot your comments here on the blog and dialog with me when I come to your practices. It should be interesting to see what comes out of this. I believe that if the members can catch the ownership principle of my ministry, my team and my church, it could be the way to a revival here!

Gloria In Excelsis Deo,

Tim.L

The Power of Excitement from You Guys/Gals, the Creative Ministry Members

Follow the steps below and find out what the hoo haa is all about:

1. Goto Worship Today Blog

2. Look for this 2 dates Jan 15, 2010 and July 29, 2008

3. Ask yourself why? Do you see anything? A prophetic voice? A revival?

4. Now Click here for the answer to this mystery!

Jan 17th Worship Leading Message

On the sunday of Jan 17th, I gave a word on little Christs or Christians. I said that Christians are powerful but we behave like the Lord Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Phillipians 2:5-8. I went on to say that as Christians we should commit our lives to God and we sung the chorus of 'Above All' with the intention of God using us to be Christ to the nations.

Well, that was the spirit of that word. There were a whole lot of impressions and emotions that I could not have expressed well in that live setting. So I have decided to put it here. During the time of worship I remebered and felt the incidents below:

In 2007, Korean aid workers to Afghanistan were kidnapped by the Taliban.
These were Christian doctors, nurses and volunteers. As for the rest of the news you can find them here.

2 hostages were martyred, though I am not sure if it was from the same group or incident. Click here.

Here's a comment posted on Youtube,

"i was just trying to say that these idiots shouldnt have gone into a war zone to do whatever the hell they went for.....all we can do is feel bad for them now.....but its ultimately their fault"

If you look at it from a human perspective, that comment is fair. Let's rationalise this: Why would anyone leave the safety of their home country for a warzone? These are doctors and nurses with a comfortable life. They went on this mission on their own accord. They had to bear the expenses. Probably took a leave of absence from their employment, thus losing even more money. I really cannot imagine going over to a place like Afghanistan. The people you are doing relief work to cannot pay you back. They are of a different culture, religion and social status. Heck, maybe, their entire's year pay may only buy a week's grocery in Korea. There is no reward when it comes to appreciation and satisfaction. At the end, look what the militants did to them. So why did they do what they did?

BECAUSE THEY ARE CHRISTIANS OR LITTLE CHRIST
What I see are not Koreans doing just relief work. I see Christ going to the Afghans. After all, is not Jesus the Lord of Christians? Are not Christians little Christ? Or Christ Ambassador? Is it not Biblical that a Christian's aim is to be Christ-like? If you substitute the Afghans with the human race, doesn't it look like a familiar pattern? Read Phillipians 2:5-8 again. Yes it is the Agape love for the human race that Jesus was nailed on the cross. It is the same Agape love for the human race that drove the 23 Koreans to the mission field. And yes no one in their right mind would do it....unless the same consuming agape fire that was in Christ in in them! Yes it is madness to those who do not know Christ. I mean, which Taliban will go to Australia and help put out the bush fire at his own expense with no rewards or religious/political mileage whatsoever?

So the Taliban is not mad but Christians are? You tell me who is mad. Let me bring this one step higher. Who do the everyday Afghans think is mad? The 'enemy' or Koreans who travelled half way around the globe to bring love and medical care OR their own, the Talibans, who murdered the enemy? Note that their own did nothing to elevate their pain or provide medical care. We, humans, lost in our sins were so undeserving, and yet Christ came for us! Read Phillipians 2:5-8 again.

Now what are you feeling? Maybe that was what I felt when we sung the song Above All. That we should rise up, take up our cross, act like little Christ and be the sacrifice that is much needed to cover the whole earth with God's love.

Summary
1. Worship leading can sometimes de-tour from your songlist. In a live situation, God can and many times will impress things on our hearts. We should allow freedom to our structure should we sense the Holy Spirit speaking. All this is possible if we spend much time in God' presence in worship and the study of His word.

2. If God decides to speak through the worship, do we break away from our structure of 35 minutes of songs and no preachy stuff from the worship team, or not? Obviously the answer is to follow God. But, the implementation of it can be so tricky.

3. We are called to revolutionize the world, but it is not an armed revolution. It is a revolution of Agape love. To love all men unconditionally, that through this love that we have for one another as well as others, the world may know that we are Christ disciples. It is easy to destroy a building. With enough explosives, you could do it in a matter of hours. Try building that same building, It will take months. The Agape love of God is the ultimate transforming power. With the death of Christ, and not through armed revolution, Christianity the religion has at least 30% 'market share' on the population of the earth!

Definition of a Good Worship Leader

Q1: Who will make a good worship leader?

A: A person the congregation will love to follow in the of worship Almighty God!

Q2: What is the difference between a worship leader and a song leader?

A: The former leads in worship through the medium of song while the latter leads in (just) songs

Q3: Why doesn't pastor make me a worship leader?

A: Because he doesn't think the congregation will follow you in the worship of God

Q4: I have all the skill sets. I lift my hands, dance and move like PCC singers. Why won't the congregation follow me in the worship of God?

A: Because they cannot stand singers who are out of tune and time, because they feel you are not REAL, they don't like your face, dress, smile, height, weight, gender ......... the list goes on and on

Q5: I don't find the jokes funny nor interesting

A: It was not meant to be funny nor interesting. Just a few facts I'm typing to fill my weekly quota

WORSHIP SINGERS PART V: THE UMPIRE STRIKES BACK

With the impending promotions of worship singers, what would the worship leaders do? I for one would like to get my pension and retire!
Ahh.... But that's not the gameplan.

Strike 3?

In every game there is an umpire to ensure rules are followed and fairplay of the game. Likewise, the worship leaders take on an added role of an umpire or class monitor if you want. They will have a set of forms to fill in and these will be evaluated and submitted for action by the 2nd quarterly meeting. We HOPE to weed out problems and ensure the practices are slick and well oiled. The set of forms will evaluate the practices, sound check and sunday worship service. The forms are free for the first 3 months. Thereafter we accept visa or mastercard.

Master Jedi not Mastercard
The worship leaders will maintain discipline, inspire better practices, and mentor the younglings. Are all these scriptural? As master Yoda would say, "read the next article, you must!"
WORSHIP SINGERS PART VI: THE RETURN TO THE JEDI ORDER



For additional role of worship leaders are they not in the archives of WORSHIP SINGERS PART IV: A NEW HOPE

Pictures taken from other sites - allfunnypictures.com

Letter to our sound personnel

Dear brother Soundman,

1. thank you for your faithful service in 2009. You were faithful, right? :) I pray your service in 2010 will be enriching for yourself and the church as a whole. Do note that there is a sound engineering level 1 training January 31st. This will be followed by the apprenticeship programme.

2. Please read http://pcccm.blogspot.com/2009/12/ghost-from-past.html to better understand my input below

3. The presence of an "early" soundman is important. The soundman in PCC get the stage ready. They ensure the stage and sound equipment are in good working order. They "organise" the stage. If things need to be moved, the soundman bascially re-positions the amps, etc. Situations change. This week 4 singers. Next practice 6. Today they stand left. Tomorrow they stand right. Suddenly we have 2 new recruits. Even in real pro setups, songlists change, addtional musicians are required, etc. Your not being punctual or worse absence sets back the musicians and singers. Not only you, anyone for that matter being late will setback the TEAM. We used to tease the drummer that he is the absent goal keeper. Well, the soundman is the central defender. Please come for the practice...... and remember..... we need you on sunday too!

It is not for early sake or to catch a glimpse of the beautiful sisters (I am being gracefull here), it is to ensure the TEAM has an excellent practice: each and everytime!

Besides loving the Lord will all your heart, these are the important things we need in the YOU, the soundman:

• as mentioned above, the setting up and position of stage equipment before the band arrives
• Soundcheck, ie making sure every performer can hear one another, Recently when I played, I coudn't hear the great acoustic playing of Chun Kit while Abi's keyboard was super loud, my piano - well let's just say I have to "imagine" my notes. All these could easily have been solved if the soundman was prepared and early.
• Familiar with the programme/songlist; who is doing what & making them sound clear with impact relevant to the performance
• Your fellowship & participation in the team activities/prayers. Remember we love our Central Defender!

Do chat with me if you feel that there are things that we can do to help you achieve the objectives above.

Once again, thank you for your faithful service.

Tim.L

The Power of Excitement - The Answer

A Revival!

Yes, a revival has happened. It has happened to Worship Today Blog. After 2 years of hiatus, the writer has risen again! I'm speculating that because of the excitement generated by PCC Creative Ministry Blog, the Yahoogroup and over 90 e-mails and messages that sprung up in January 2010, a revival has taken place!

Enthusiasm - a contagious thing

It's because you the Creative members are excited. Now think what it would be like if all of you begin to get excited and contribute? I will not be suprised a church revival is on the way!! So let's get excited, pray, co-operate and give our very best to the Lord this year and together, WE WILL DECLARE HIS NAME!

For part one of The Power of Excitement, click here.

3 IDIOTS!!!!

I was pulled along to watch this Hindi film with English subtitles. for me, this could possibly be the top ten movie in 2009. What is great about this comedy is the life lessons. This show inspires me!

"Whatever the problem in life is... just say to yourself 'Aal Izz Well'.. This wont solve your problems but it will give the courage to face it.." "Chase Excellence and success will follow".. " Life is not about getting marks, grades but chasing your dreams".. These are the golden rules which 3 IDIOTS teaches you in a very light and entertaining way.. The movie makes you laugh and in the process you learn many golden rules which can alter your life in a big manner...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187043/

Go watch it!

Casual Sunday?

In our 1st Quarter Meet, pastor Aris throwed the idea of a casual sunday. In jest, which look would you prefer? Please click on comments below and shoot!















The English school boy look?

OR




















The smart casual?

NO Procrastination!

4 true stories

• We had a dual monitor VGA card on trial recently. The purpose was we didn't want to show the projectionist typing in lyrics/searching for files on the main projector. I got news it was installed on monday and I came to test it on wednesday. By sunday Mei Peng was already training the other 3 projectionist. I didn't have to push her. She did this on her own initiative. In fact I didn't know about the training till I saw it on sunday.

• We had our 1st Quarter Meeting on the 9th. Benny was our scribist (ha ha secretary). 2 days later, on the 11th, the draft minutes were out.

• Lud posted a comment,

"This is what I mean by being excellent.. Immediate set-up for (editor: from) the moment we discuss. Hats off to you Tim."

We had talked about a net communication in terms of mailing list and our own webpage on a sunday, Dce 13. By monday, Dec 14, I started our first pages as a trial run.

• Joanne had a breakdown in the chinese service on sunday. Immediately after service, she contacted auntie Hilda who IMMEDIATELY relayed the information to me. Three days later on a wednesday we had someone look into it.

YOU INSPIRE ME!
Mei Peng, Benny, Joanne, ....... your actions INSPIRE ME! We are thankful for this kind of attitude and ownership to the ministry. I know you must have received a lot of pat in the back in the past, so much so you may not feel anything now but..... my praises come from a sincere heart, thank you for a great attitude! I pray everyone in the church may be infected by this!

What Type of Worshipper Are You?!

Those who passionately worship in Spirit and in Truth?

The lost in God's presence type?

Or maybe sombre and reserved....."so I'll cherish the Old Rugged Cross..."



or ....yawn.... like this?


Funny how just a few words can bring deEEPP meaning!

Disclaimer: Pictures taken randomly from PCC website. They do not represent anyone in particular, except the last one; couldn't find the folded arms worship posture picture.

TOP SECRET: Organization Chart for 2010

Psst.... hot from the Nicodemus Secret Service.....

Worship Singers Part IV: A NEW HOPE

A long time ago,
in a galaxy far far away
a Jedi knight brings news from.....


Starting 2010, the Central Working Committee will merge the worship leaders and singers into one section. The section will be renamed Worhip Singers and will be headed by Wong Gan Teng. They will be divided into 4 teams of worshippers with their respective team/worship leader. The teams will rotate to lead worship on sunday.

Subtle Change?
There are 3 objectives to this restructuring:

1. To dismantle the mindset of 'backup' singing

We HOPE every singer to be first and foremost - a worshipper. The role of the singers is not to provide backup, nor morale/singing support, nor visual support nor volume. It is first and foremost to worship God. The next HOPE would be the leading the congregation to worship Almighty God. We are also holding the singers accountable for a good or bad worship service/practice. Formerly, the worship leaders were responsible. We don't want a Ben Ranis/Tim.L/Kingba/Kok Yen 'worship' proprietorship. We want a body ministry. Everybody's involved, everybody's responsible!

2. To encourage active participation of singers in the practices and on sunday. To contribute to lyrical content, and songlist.

We HOPE to get the backups to the position of frontline or co-worship leaders. We encourage the current batch of singers to learn worship leading skills as well as a worship lifestyle. We HOPE the singers to be on time. We want to let you know that you are important in this ministry. This will be accomplished with pre-practice interaction/contribution. The worship leaders are expected to groom, mentor and allow space for co-worship leading. This moves away from just letting someone else sing the verses. That person must learn to lead worship. By the end of the year, each worship leader will have a team of new breed worship leaders!

3. Double the Worship Leader Base 39 years before 2050

I'll jokingly imply that our long term vision were to double the worship leaders by 2050. But sorry to say: WE ARE UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT! God willing, we HOPE to be able to "kao for" to Pastor: 12 able worship leaders by 2011.

There's the vision for worship singers in 2010. In gist, back up singers are taking a frontline role. What about the current worship leaders? Ah... For that you'll have to read Worship Singers Part V: The Umpire Strikes Back

Pictures from www.funatiq.com