Be A Contagious Christian Campaign

This will be the theme song for month of March.

Shhh.... a leak from the Nicodemus Secret Service

Raja Petra Kamaruddin has his ways of leaking official Malaysian government documents. I have mine..... he he

In Christ Alone

Song from the Garden of Gethsemane

Here's a song I would like to present for Good Friday.

It will be a perfect song to depict the struggle of Christ to put the will of His Father above His own. The victorious death on the cross for all of mankind!

GONG XI GONG XI

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He grant you peace, grace and the strength to live according to His will and purposes. May you be blessed in the city or at the byways, may your bank account...oops.... baskets be blessed. Have a great reunion and a time of well deserved rest.

I Was Tailgated

Yesteray afternoon, on a lonely stretch in Pagoh, I was being tailgated by a black Proton Savvy Registration No JJ..... What's wrong with these jokers with small cars? He could have crashed into me. Don't play with lives on the road!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

At the 1st Quarter Meeting, there were complains that the worship leaders were the cause of inefficient practices. The reason was the late songlists. Well, I am a worship leader and I felt challenged. Let's have a look at the worship leaders:


Kingba - full time university student with loads of exams. Lives in Semenyih and travels far to church









This is me..... the ever bee zee guy who is PCC toilet leakage checker, Music Director aka Servant of All, GM for GSUS, van driver, sound engineer, music educator, construction worker, yahoogroup administrator, blogger, father, computer problem solver, etc, etc. In a nutshell very Bee Zee man!








Kok Yen - superman who teaches drums on saturdays, conduct drummer for Christs, father of 2, involved in Family ministry committee, recordings, etc. I would rate him the man with a good heart!











Pastor Ben, a very experienced working man who has chosen to plough the harvest field together with PCC pastoral team. PA to the senior pastor, heading many departments in the church and a passionate man for Jesus.




What about the pictures?
The reason their faces are here is because since that meeting, the worship leaders have got their act together and churned out the songlists early. In February, they even beat the dateline of 1 week earlier. Pastor Ben and myself have given it 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Now what do you say about that?


The bucket is now out of our hands and into YOURS!!! You now have the youtube links, lyrics, yada yada. If the practices turn out bad, it is not the worship leaders fault anymore. The tables are turned. It is now our turn to challenge you, the singers and musicians, to self practice and get the songs nailed on time. :p

FYI, come March, we are armed with a checklist evaluation to fill and we are eagerly awaiting :)

Our prayers as worship leaders is that you will pick up the pace from here and TOGETHER, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

WHY YOU SO CALCULATIVE ONE AH? Part I

After being the Music Director for a month, my presence must have been felt in the entire music ministry, at the leaders retreat and maybe the whole church. For those who don't know me well, they'll be wondering what kind of guy I am. If they have been within eaves dropping distance, the term, "fine RM5" can be concluded as my mantra. If they have been near any of the Central Working Committee meetings, they would hear about 4 and 5 star resorts, Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Music Camp at Shangri-La Putrajaya, etc. Maybe they would even have heard me mumble and grumble about how much money/time/resources was wasted or need to be used OR why I have to work on a sunday. How this or that service was worth how much, etc..... I think you get the picture. At the back of some people's mind, maybe, they are saying, "Why you so calculative one ah?"

Why you so money minded one ah?
The bombshell could have been the RM400 charge to the Sound Engineering Level 1 course to beef up our sound personnel.

Wow, RM400?! Crazy* ah? I'll let Lud, assistant Music Director, answer that in his soon to be post on this blog. The talent scouting programme and the professional charge was actually his idea. I merely implemented it. However, let me say this. GSUS Sound Engineering Level 1 started at RM300 per pax in 2002. It has risen to RM400, today's price, and is the most popular music course the company has. GSUS conducts this course all over the country 2 to 3 times yearly. A course like this would cost 2 to 3 times outside. Here's the paradime shift: It is CRAZY* not to take the course at RM400 in church when people will pay thousands to learn! It is even CRAZIER* to serve God with peanut skills and CRAZIER STILL* to have peanut trained guys handling a RM110,000 sound system! Would you let just any of the sound team members take your Camry for a spin? 2 year old Camry's should be about RM110k. If not, I will not have un-trained personnel take our sound system for a spin while I'm Music Director!


















Of course if the church members agree to spend RM110,000 PLUS inflation every 5 years or so on a new sound system, JUST TO MAINTAIN, then PTL! If not, wouldn't RM400 look like peanuts? It even looks like FREE.... aargghhhhHH!!!! I hate that word.












Back to the topic "Why You So Calculative One ah?"
And the answer, my dear Watson, is found in Luke 14:25-31. Let your attention focus on this word....COST. Verses 28 till 30 exhorts us to calculate the cost of following Jesus before embarking. Otherwise if we are unable to follow Him all till the end, then others will ridicule you. Now for the theological explaination, we will leave it to Pastor. But the gist is: there is a cost to everything. NOTHING IS WITHOUT COST!

Really but what about salvation? It's free
Yes it is! But it cost the son of God His life. Jesus died for you and me. Free salvation, yes, but with a heavy price to pay. It cost the lives of martyrs and missionaries to bring the 'free' gospel to the whole world. Even if transportation by water is free, it still cost someone's sweat to row the boat! But... I mean... but everything in the church is suppose to be free? I will avoid getting myself into this messy debate but I will categorily state, " It may be free but someone paid for the cost." Let's use the example of the Christmas programme Feed One Thousand in 2008. We, the church members paid for the tickets, to feed the community. In other words, free for the community; cost borne by you and me.

So there is a cost.... so what?
Well, everytime you come late for practice, we wait, usually doing nothing. It could be worse. We could be anointed with anger :) Time, for some of us, is worth RM18 per hour. For others it may be RM200 per hour. Still others will find these figures a big understatement. Sometimes it's not about the money. It's about someone sacrificing (cost again) 3 hours to come for practice when they are having exams or the sacrifice could be their family time. Do you really want to let down that person by coming an hour late? What about the fellowship/skillset, etc denied by you to your fellow team members when you don't show up? You basically short changed the team. Yep, that's the cost the team members have to bear when you don't show up on time or not at all!

But... but.... I just want to sing for the Lord
Do you want to sing well for the Lord OR just sing for the Lord? If it is sing well, then get trained! There are trainers for RM18 per hour and they go all the way to RMXXX per hour. XXX because it is an obscene amount of money. So how much have you spent on training your voice for the last 10 years? Is it any wonder we are on a plato and not improving? If we don't break the everything if church is FREE mentality, we are not going to foot the high cost. If we don't pay well, which good trainer would want to come all the way to PCC to train you? To be honest, you could still get good trainers to come.... at their own time and choosing. Could you run a consistent training regime base on as and when the trainers are free? BOOOMMMMM!!!!! There's the word again: FREE! Really, nothing is ever free. It is always costed in. Don't believe me? Look at Digi and Maxis promotions. "But this is church, not business", you may protest. Still don't believe me? Let me show you what was costed in to your FREE salvation. You are now not your own, having been bought by the blood of the lamb,,,, your body is now the living sacrifice , etc etc. Theorectically, God owns all Christians through the sacrifice of His son on the cross. Incidentally, that means not only your body but time, money, property, talent, influence, etc. Next time someone says free, ask what is the hidden cost! Oops..... the preachers did not mention all this when they asked for salvation prayer. YES THEY DID! It is in the fineprint, "I now accept Jesus as the saviour and LORD of my life.....".

Sitting in front of my laptop coming out with this blog cost me hours. Sigh... more costs.

Why can't we have better this and that?
Because it is costly and we don't want to pay for it. Good things need more time to make. Time is money. Therefore, good things cost more. Do you want the surgeon to finish the surgery in one hour because you want to keep a ceiling cost? Or would you want him to FINISH a good job and take more time? I hope we get the picture. If not go buy an imitation 3G iPhone from China for RM300. after 1 month, read this article again. So do we want a good worship team? Do we want good sound? Do we want good presentations? Do we want good wifes? Sorry, shouldn't bring the wifes in; now that's going to be super messy ha ha ha

Our Challenge
To improve the Creative Ministry Dept, we will need to pump in more resources. The costs rises in tandem to the quality we want to achieve. Now costs may not be equated with only money. It could be the commitment. The time put in to perfect the song, dance, etc. It could be the prayer efforts. Enthusiasm and excitement may not cost money, BUT it sure requires a lot of sacrifice from the members and leaders. Cost of energy and time, skillsets, plaanning and organization, etc, etc.

Yes, cost, money and calculations go on in my mind. All the time. Everytime I think about the church music department, all types of costs come to play. I want to send our guys to be trained by the best. But a trip to Hillsongs will cost! All these late night meetings over dinner/supper to plan with the CWC are costly. It cost money to treat the worship leaders to a meal. But that was well worth it. I believe that was the first time the music director took his tireless and faithful worship leaders out in the ENTIRE history of Praise City Church. Ok ok I may be exaggerating. BUT this I AM CERTAIN: Never once was I taken out for dinner as a worship leader section. We did go out for a dinner with all musicians once when Bernard took over. We do have once a year appreciation dinner for all serving. AND we definitely need to do more of these fellowship dinner if we are to improve things.

Conclusion?
How can I possibly conclude? There is just so much more to say and explain. Maybe this might help bring things into perspective. The church is not a business entity, that we are very clear. Let's assume, and I stress ASSUME, that the leader bears all these cost of makan, etc to streghten his department. If I can put aside RM1,200 per year, then I will be able to achieve RM1,200 worth of things with it. Now, would you the members think that is acceptable? How much can you do with RM1,200 a year to a department that has 30 plus members? So, do you expect me to put in more? Let's say I sacrifice my dinner budget with my family and double that amount to RM2,400 per year for the makan, etc of the Creative members. What can that possibly achieve? A little more mileage just to keep up with inflation! IMAGINE WITH ME if we can mobilise the entire department to pump in RM1,200 per person. That would be over RM40,000 per year. Now, what would that achieve? I could then send 10 to 15 of our members to the Hillsong Conference! So at the end of the day, I may not be as money minded as you think. I am actually goal and objective minded to train and give you the best to perform unto the Lord. If that is who I am, then what does it make those who go around not counting the cost and 'lepaking' around the pews? Those that think all things in church should be free, read Luke 14:25-31 again. Mull that and comment below!

For the easily agitated: Please substitute CRAZY*, CRAZIER* with "foolish?" and " more foolish?"

5 Got Saved on 31st January Service

Praise God! On Casual Sunday, an altar call was given after Mei Peng and my testimony about how we got saved. 5 gave their lived fo Jesus. Coincidentally both of us were from the Creative Ministry Department.

The Creative Ministry members are the face of the church during service. We take up about a third of the time of the service. We are influencial throughb our lyrics, songs, dances, performances and multimedia presentation. We, being creative people, can take the gospel further and faster if we so choose to. With mass media and the internet, the world is our mission! George rap for Pastor Aris soon to be released album. If that album sells 10,000 copies, it would mean that at least that amount of people would have heard the message of the rap. When we go to shopping complexes and declare His name through songs or musicals, multitudes get to hear the good news.

I encourage all who are reading this blog to live a life worthy of the Lord Jesus and to let our light shine, whether we are on stage or not.

Balcony at 10.45 Sunday Morning

Click on the picture and guess what these guys are doing? First prize if you can guess what Joel is doing on the far side.

Another Wind Is Blowing

I just had dinner with the worship leaders ie Kok Yen and Pastor Ben. Kingba could not make it :( It was a first, if not THE first time, that worship leaders had a meal together. Much was shared at the table. The discussions were on the fixed teams and weeks.

I am believing that this sharing and fellowship among the worship leaders will snowball to the teams. A wind is blowing in the direction of a closer fellowship among team members. Just waiting for the Lord to knit us together till we are able to minister as one!

Go! Gimras Go!

If there was an employee of the month in the Creative Dept, I would say that Gimras would be it. From a late comer and sometimes not turning up, she has been consistently on time and is taking more and more responsibility. That's the way to go Gimras! I pray your life in God will grow even more this year. Keep up the good works.


note: Words were supposed to be filled up by Pastor Jasmine who is sick. We are still awaiting the award winnig write up.

Special Officer Probed for Sedition

A special officer to the Prime Minister got into hotsoup. According to TheStar Online, he uttered racist remarks in a 1 Malaysia Seminar. You can read it here. The Malaysian Today website records the words that were used. Click here if you are an adult.

I'm just using current events to illustrate the point of guarding what's in our hearts. The Bible says out of the overflow of the heart....... How many times a slip of the tongue has got us into hotsoup? In a heated situation, you raised you voice and utter something about your mother in law...oops :)

You meant guarding your tongue? Yes that too but I meant guarding your heart
The mother in law thing must have simmered in the heart for a long time. And for a long time the tongue has been kept a tight rein. Then, one fine day, when the heart is full of 'rubbish' it gets spewed out from the tongue.

Let's make sure our thoughts and hearts are right. We need to keep a pure heart before God and man.

Anyway back to the special officer. I pray that God will visit him and bless him. And that comes from the depths of my heart. And ain't God brilliant? If you want to change someone, change their hearts. That's what Jesus did. Dear Lord, please also bless PCC members, especially the Creative members, with a pure heart, a heart that wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit, a heart that wants to serve you.


Have a fruitful weekend!

Tim.L
SOA

Daily Devotion

The article below is taken from Dr. Benjamin George's daily devotional. I believe daily communion with God through his word and prayer is essential to Christian living.

I WILL ALWAYS SING PRAISES TO YOU, AS I OFFER YOU DAILY WHAT I HAVE PROMISED. PSA 61:8.

Daily Devotion is the ‘Breath of life and Bread from heaven’ for your soul! Many Christians have wandered away from faith only because they failed to keep up their daily touch with their God and Saviour! Very often backslidden Christians, young and old come up to the altar for prayer to rededicate their lives. When I question them about their devotional life, invariably they admit that they had never kept up their daily devotions.

Dear believer, Daily Devotion should pass the stage of duty and discipline to one of Delight to you. That can happen only if you will with great determination, doggedly follow a daily routine of spending time alone with God. Something that delights you will never be forgotten or neglected. You will be pining for God and your time with Him. You will be sad when you have missed one day! Have you come to that stage in your spiritual life? Then, you will cry out like Korah's descendants, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When may I come to see God's face?” (Psa 42:1,2).

It is a great pity that Church leaders do not ‘teach and train’ young believers to have their Daily Devotions. We attach too much importance on church attendance and activity participation. In the long run all these things contribute little to spiritual stability and maturity in comparison to Daily Devotions! Christian parents should set an example and train up their children in the discipline of Daily time with God and His Word.

Dear child of God, like King David, make a vow with your God today, “I will always sing praises to you, as I offer you daily what I have promised”. ‘God’s Word’ translates it as “I keep my vows day after day”. Make a vow with God today and keep that vow every day. In the beginning it may be difficult. But practise makes it not only possible but a delight. Do you know that “Your God is enthroned on your praises” (Psa 22:3) and delights in it?

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord let me be like You, morning by morning listening to The Father’s voice and at night seeking His will. Amen.

BIBLE READING FOR TODAY PSALM 61

1 Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer!

2 In despair and far from home I call to you! Take me to a safe refuge,

3 for you are my protector, my strong defense against my enemies.

4 Let me live in your sanctuary all my life; let me find safety under your wings.

5 You have heard my promises, O God, and you have given me what belongs to those who honor you.

6 Add many years to the king's life; let him live on and on!

7 May he rule forever in your presence, O God; protect him with your constant love and faithfulness.

8 So I will always sing praises to you, as I offer you daily what I have promised.