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?"