 Welcome, guys, once again. Good morning to you all. Good to see you. Glad you guys are doing well. Alright, Kannan, can I request you to just start us off with the word of prayer, please? Kannan, I hope you can hear me. Can you hear me? Yes, yes, I can. Thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I praise you today morning, Lord. Lord, I thank you for this day, Lord. Lord, I thank you for the subject. Lord, I pray for each and everyone in our class, Lord. Lord, I pray for our prostration. Lord, give him a good wisdom to teach us and also give us a good understanding through your Holy Spirit to understand everything that he teaches. Lord, thank you for the day that you've given to us. Lord, thank you for the technology. Lord, give us some more understanding and knowledge of your words, Lord. Lord, help us to... everyone to get in fast, Lord. Lord, from the beginning till the end, our Holy Spirit should give us a good wisdom and understanding of your word, Lord. Yes, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Kannan. Go ahead and share the notes. Right. So, we stopped page 46 in the last class. All right. If you could please allow me to do a quick recap of what we covered. We'll do that quickly, okay? We'll take from... just do a quick recap from page 41, at the bottom of page 41. The role of a worship pastor. Right? The role of a worship pastor. We looked at the seven roles. It's not an exhaustive list, as I always say. It's just a few main points, right? Roles that are associated with the pastor. The first one is the worship pastor as a priest and how he's a bridge builder. He's a connection, you know? He's the connect. We are all called to build bridges between a congregation and God, isn't it? So, that's worship pastor as a priest and then worship pastor as a prophet. Worship pastor as a teacher and as a shepherd, as a pastor. Worship pastor as an intercessor and worship pastor as a mentor, right? And we see this beautiful progression that will help in the mentoring process that's helped me. And finally, worship pastor as an administrator, okay? Being a good administrator, being organized, prioritizing your roles, your responsibilities, and everything that needs to be done, okay? And then we saw the role of a worship team members. So, first we saw the role of a worship pastor and then we see the role of a worship team members, okay? One of the key points of this section, role of a worship team members, is you are looking for a committed individual, right? Nobody likes to work with a person who is not committed, isn't it? Who says one thing but does another, right? Who over promises but under delivers, okay? That's true in every aspect of professional life as well, isn't it? You know, you don't over promise and under deliver, right? The professional saying is you under promise and over deliver. That's when people believe the quality of your work, right? That's when they know that you are committed to serving them. Similarly, when it comes to ministry and in church, you are looking for the person who is committed, right? Who shares your vision, who is excited about the vision that you have for the congregation, for the church and for the team itself, okay? So, you're looking for a member who is committed, all right? And then the next section we see, we saw was trying to understand what is a rehearsal and the difference between rehearsal and practice, okay? Practice is personal. What does that mean? So, this Sunday I am leading worship in church. That means I'm going to work on the songs by myself. I'm going to practice the chords. I'm going to prepare all of that, you know, keep it ready. Practice the songs, you know, the guitar or whichever instrument that I am playing with. That is all personal. That's just me, isn't it? And then Saturday morning, I meet the team for rehearsal. So, for that rehearsal, when we meet Saturday morning, everybody, like the keyboardist, the bass guitarist, the electric guitarist, the drummer, they've all learned their parts for the song and they come prepared. They've practiced separately, individually, personally at home. And then now when we come together, we start discussing about the dynamics of the song. Like, just add a few things. Okay, hey guys, before I start off with the first song, I'm going to read from Psalm 66. And then we're going to start the first song. So, details like that will be worked out in the rehearsal. All right? So, it's very important for us, for you leaders, even if you're not musically inclined, I keep saying this, please, apologies for sounding redundant. But it's very important that even you, if you're not a musician, to know the difference between practice and rehearsal so that you hold your team accountable. Okay? Or the team that is under your supervision, you know what is happening with them as well. Okay? So that the importance of rehearsal and practice is what was looked at this section. And then the role of the band. The band is expected to be musicians who are able to play skillfully and serve before the Lord. And as we saw in 1st Chronicles and in 15 and chapter 16 and in chapter 25, we see that the musicians who ministered unto the Lord in the temple, they were all skillfully trained in their craft. Right? They were skillfully trained in their craft. But then they will learn something about skill itself. Okay? Here's a definition that says skill has been defined as the ability to do something well. Okay? To do something really well. Okay? Whatever it is, you're a graphic designer, do that skillfully. You're a video editor, do that beautifully. Right? So the skill is defined as the ability to do something well. Okay? Then we went on to see, excuse me, excuse me. I'm glad I muted my mic on time. They came into that. Anyways, sorry guys. It's the weather. So then we see, we went into just to understand skill a little deeper. You know, we saw these three points that skill is a gift from God for His glory. Okay? When He made us in His image, right? See, God is our creator, isn't it? And we were created. Right? So He's a creator. We are created. That means we are creative. Okay? We can be creative, isn't it? That's why God gave us trees and not chairs and tables. Right? We were, because we are creative, He's given us the skill to use the wood that the tree gives us to make chairs and tables, etc. Isn't it? So skill is a creative gift from God for His glory. Right? And skill must be developed, of course. Isn't it? That's why people go to universities or, you know, colleges to just to hone their skill, to learn more about the skill or that they're good at whatnot, etc. It has to be developed. You cannot be complacent and say, oh yeah, I'm good at it. I'm talented and, you know, not work on getting better. And finally, which is a very important point here is skill doesn't make worship more acceptable before God. Just because you are skillful, it doesn't make your worship acceptable before God. What makes it possible is your heart of worship, is your humility. Okay? That's the beauty of skill and humility combined. Alright, so when you're looking to get an individual, you know, into your ministry, into your team, there's this question that's always being asked, you know. Okay, so when you, you know, have taken a member into your worship team, are you looking for the skill or are you looking for the heart? That's the question I've been asked or, you know, we've been asked all the time in our worship pastors. In my opinion, and my answer to that has always been the same. That is, skill can be developed. But the heart, when I say the heart, it's the character of a person, isn't it? The character and the skill can be developed. It is a lot more easier to develop than the character of a person. So I'd rather work with a person whose skill is a little lower, but their character is better than their skill. So it becomes easy because if their character is better, if their character is humble, if they are teachable, then they are willing to learn and skill gets better, isn't it? But then if the character is like full of pride saying, you know, I'm better than everybody, what I know is right. I am always right. You know, and the skill is up there. It's going to affect everybody in the team, isn't it? So that's the importance, you know, for us to understand the importance of skill. Okay, sorry. In this next section, we see that the skills of the worship leader. The worship leader is a sacred, strange, profound concoction of effective musical skill, organization, and preparation. That's administration, one of the roles of a worship pastor, isn't it? Experience who practices their instrument, their craft, regularly leadership ability, relational ability, calling, character, intuition, natural gifting, and God's grace above all. Okay, those are some of the skills. It's like a mix, a combination of all of this that a worship leader is expected to have. So it takes time, isn't it, to develop such skill. Anyways, the next thing is what are the character traits of an effective worship leader? Once again, we saw a few points here. You need to ask yourself these questions. Are they humble? Do they have a vibrant secret life with God? Are they able to take direction or correction? Do they give importance to accolades and affirmations of people? Is that more important to them? Are they doing what they do to serve or to gain the spotlight? Are they good husbands, wives, parents, sons, daughters at home? Are they willing to train others? Are they willing to teach? Are they skilled at what they do? Are they teachable? Are they willing to quietly care for the poor as much as they are willing to stand on a stage? Are they loving, gentle, generous, et cetera, et cetera, isn't it? And then we see that the role of the singers, the main function of the singers is to stand before the congregation as a visual inspiration to worship. They need to be worshipers first before vocal ability and able to radiate worship. The main function of the singers is to stand before the congregation as a visual inspiration to worship. They need to be worshipers first and be able to radiate worship. That is the role of the singers, to encourage the congregation by themselves being worshipers first. And then the congregation sees that and they can relate to what is happening in the individual's life and then follow. That's at the bottom of page 46. Now we go on to page 47, more practical pointers in worship ministry and the organizational aspect of worship ministry. Auditions. Why do we hold auditions? Why do we have auditions? It's a no problem. Why hold auditions? So just a few pointers there. But before again, you've seen some of the auditions that has happened at APC. But so in your opinion, I want to hear from you. Why do you think auditions are important? Or do you think auditions are important? Or because it's a church, we shouldn't have auditions. What do you think? You just say, okay, whoever wants to join the worship team, please come. Talk to me. I talk to me, guys. Okay. Audition. It is important since the worship leaders and the whole team, the whole group is leading worship. And it's not just worshiping alone for ourselves. But leading the whole congregation is a totally different thing. And just as the Bible says, when you worship God, the world says, skillfully worship God. And the other important thing is... Sorry, they lost you there. I think Dave is disconnected. Thanks for sharing anyways, Dave, if you can hear me, no problem. What else, guys? Thomas, Kanan, why do you think auditions are important, as you were saying? But we are church. Why do we have to have auditions? It's not American. The worship team, they're leading the entire congregation. So even in the Bible, as we studied in the last few weeks, when David appointed worship leaders in his time, he selected a skillful one. He appointed a very skillful and talented one. The thing is, anybody can sing for a lot if they're not talented also. They can join with the worship team. But worship team is leading entire congregation. So that should be present in a good manner and with the skillful talents. That's why I think audition is need. That's very important in that point of view. Thanks, Thomas. Thank you for sharing that. Yes, like First Chronicles 25 says, the musicians were all skillfully trained, as we've referred to that scripture so many, many times. It's important. It's easy to maintain members, teams. So I think we're all in agreement that auditions are important, that it helps us have the right people in the team who can serve better. Okay, so why hold auditions? Just a few pointers here. Have a focus point for people to connect with worship ministry. It's like a point of contact. So, you know, before we have auditions, we make announcements, right? Okay, on so-and-so date, on this Sunday after the service, we are going to have worship team auditions. And all those who are interested just stay back. So, and people after the service stay back. So that's like one of the main point of contact with the congregation, with some of the people from the congregation, isn't it? So they know, okay, they meet with the worship pastors. And that's the contact with worship ministry, isn't it? And why we hold auditions is because to add people to the worship team, to add more people to the worship team, to grow the worship team, isn't it? So more people can serve. So we'll have more volunteers. That's one, that's another thing. To increase the level of musical presentation of your music. Hey, Dave, no problem. It's okay. I mean, I kind of understood. Okay. Thanks for joining back in there. All right. And the fourth point there is to provide a consistent, common and helpful method of growing worship ministry personnel. Okay. It is, it's a, it's a, it's a good practice. It's a good, you know, to be consistent and a common method of growing the worship ministry. Okay. To give away and expand the ministry. Okay. So that's why we hold auditions. So, you know, those are the, like the few main points. All right. Let me just take you through the current audition process at APC, how it works at APC. So worship team auditions will be held once or twice a year based on the requirements. Okay. Prior to the auditions, we have something called the pre-audition meeting. Okay. So let's give a proper example. All right. Let's stay, we are in the month of September. Okay. So let's say that Sunday 19th, September the 19th is the auditions. That was last Sunday. It was the auditions. Okay. But on September 12th, which is the previous Sunday, one Sunday prior to the auditions, we will have something called the pre-audition meeting. We will meet with every individual who have registered for the audition. Okay. So we have this form that they have to fill out on our website. You know, that form will have a bunch of questions as to, you know, their name, their contact information. When they got saved, are they baptized? Do they believe in speaking in tongue? Are they open to serving in different locations at APC? And so on. Just those general questions. Okay. So that there's a form that they have to fill in a registration form. Once they have done, we get the names. Right. And on, on, on a Sunday before, one Sunday prior, before the auditions, we have a pre-audition meeting with them. And in that meeting, you know, we, you know, we brief them about the vision. We share the goals of the worship ministry and the requirements of a worship team member. Okay. We set, we share our expectations from them. Okay. That's one of the things that happens. And also, we tell them that, you know, we will be sharing the song links with them. Okay. So for example, where, where are we going to do the auditions? Right. Okay. So on fulfillment of the eligibility criteria, the songs or YouTube links with the instructions for preparations will be emailed to the applicants. Okay. Once after the pre-audition meetings are over, we will send out the, the song links. It could be a YouTube link or, you know, whatever. And we will tell them, you know, we could be a YouTube link or, you know, whatever. And we'll tell them to come prepared with that song. Okay. Learn their songs, learn their part and come. And then on the day of the audition, the applicants will be evaluated as per the predetermined criteria. Okay. On the day of the auditions, you know, we have an evaluation form. For example, let's say if a vocalist is auditioning, right? If a singer is auditioning, we have certain parameters. Do they sing in pitch? It's very important for a vocalist, isn't it? To sing in pitch and to hold the pitch. Okay. That they are not tone deaf. Right. That's one of the parameters. Do they sing on time in time? Do they keep rhythm? Do they rush or, you know, are they too, are they going too fast or are they going too slow, et cetera, et cetera, isn't it? So, and then their overall presentation, overall musicality, their understanding of the song, how well they are connected with the song, their emotions of it. So they will be kind of evaluated on all of those parameters. Okay. Now after, after all of that, the selected applicants will then go through an orientation process, which is about four weeks at APC. So what? Okay. Orientation process after which they will be evaluated once again and rostered for ministering in worship. So this whole process, this whole audition process at APC will take you about two months, at least two months, even before you start singing or playing on serving in the worship team. It's quite a lengthy process. Okay. But it's a very refining process. It tests the individual's character. It tests, you know, their interest. It tests their heart, their motives, their intentions. Okay. So are they willing to go through that process to serve in the worship team? Okay. Because we take the worship ministry very, very seriously, even before we get individuals. It's not to say we are better. We don't want to end all of that. No. The most important thing is serving in the worship ministry. It's very important, isn't it? That you have the right individual, you know, who has the right heart. So that's why our orientation process is like a refining process. It's a little longer than maybe other churches, I don't know. Okay. All right. So once again, so what happens in this orientation process is very quickly, guys. So all the selected applicants, we tell them that, okay, guys, for the next month, all of you will go and attend the practice sessions of the current worship team band. Okay. All of them will go to every worship team practice, and they will just observe how the current band is practicing, how they, you know, how they meet for the rehearsal, how they come prepared for the songs. So, and by the time they start getting rostered in the team, they have an idea. Okay. So this is how it works. They get a feeling. Okay. This is how it functions. This is how you should learn the song. This is how you have to come prepared for the rehearsal. Okay. So all of that happens in the orientation process. All right. Any questions, guys? No questions? Okay. Okay. So now that we've seen how the audition works, why the audition works, you know, why do we hold auditions and how the audition process at APC functions. Now let's look at how we go about rostering the worship teams. Okay. So we have five different locations at APC. One is the central, north, south, east, west. Okay. Some of you have served in each of these locations, if not all. Okay. So you know how that works. So rostering worship teams. How we do it. Here's an example. Okay. Just an example. So around the 15th or 18th, between that window of every month, a message is sent out to the worship team. Currently we use WhatsApp as a platform. Okay. What way we make a bunch of broadcast lists. Okay. You know, and you can do that on WhatsApp, right? The broadcast. So we have broadcast lists for central worship team members south, north, south, east and west. And then a message is sent out. Okay. Below. This is an example of a message that I sent out. Almost two years ago or something, right? Okay. This is just an example of a message that I sent out on WhatsApp to all the worship team members. Okay. Ho, ho, ho. You know, hope you're doing awesome as ever. We are halfway through November. That's around 15th or 18th. Which means it's time to finish the year with the bank. Kindly send your availability for December's worship team roster to me by Wednesday, November 20th evening, please. So I give them a deadline. Of telling when, by when they are to send me their availability. Okay. And most of them, and I tell them, okay, there are four Sundays in December plus two combined services, special service because it's December. We have Christmas and New Year's Eve service or New Year's service. FII worship teams. So, I mean, all the information will be shared, right? I share the dates, the Sundays that are in the month of December. So they know the dates and what not. And then additional information saying Wednesday 25th is the combined service. Wednesday 1st is the combined service. No watch night service, et cetera. And just to make it a little interesting and funny. Okay. Say, you know, hope you're not tired already because it's a long month, isn't it? December. It's like almost seven services. Okay. So I send this message out. And then one by one. And all of these locations will also have worship coordinators. Okay. Central will have one person. North, south, east, west will have its own coordinators. So the worship team members of each location will send in their availability to that, to their worship coordinator of that location. Okay. They'll say, hey, I'm free on the 15th and the 22nd. Or I'm free on the 8th and the 22nd. Okay. So that's example. So, and so worship team coordinators collects all this information. Some of them send it to me as well. We collect all this information and then we start doing the roster. Okay. Not sure if all of you all have seen the roster. Let me, let me just quickly see if I can get that for us. Give me a second. Sorry guys. Just give me one second. Okay. I'm ready for you. Microsoft Excel is misbehaving guys. Sorry. Not my fault. What is happening? Okay. There you are. All right. So sorry guys. Thank you for your patience. Okay. Can you all see? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thanks there. All right. So this is just a glance of last year's worship team roster and how it's, how it's made. Okay. So this is for the month of January 2020. So I get in all their, you know details saying, okay, who's going, who's free and so on. So, so one of the, there's multiple tabs as you can see this tab is for worship leaders, you know. So I fill in all the worship leaders only, not the band, all the worship leaders who are free and available for that particular Sunday. So all the Sundays, the dates I mentioned this side then you have the worship leaders and the locations. Okay. North. This individual is going to, you know, be leading and what not. Okay. You see how close to his name here. Who used to lead at the north. Okay. So that's the worship leaders tab. Then you have at the bottom here you see all the locations sheet. So it's central. You know, we have all the Sundays again. And then you have the worship leaders mentioned here. So all I do is just, you know, central, I just copy and then paste here their names. John Paul, Anand, Jeremy, Russian keys, you know, whoever is free, I put their name. If nobody's free or for the fifth, I just leave it blank. Acoustic guitar, Acoustic guitar too, electric guitar, Eddie bass, drums, vocals, MDU, whoever. The more details like sound head, who will be doing the sound head practice time date when you children's church is there's anybody leading. Okay. This is the backup vocalist that you see vocalists here. Okay. And same thing that happens for every location south. It's the same format north. It's a smaller band. So here you will not see, you know, the drums or bass because it's a smaller band, but it's a smaller band. And there's a lot of people who are not many volunteers are available. So it's just, most of the time it's just one person. Like you can see, it's just me leading worship and the acoustic guitar, John Paul is just one person. Okay. So it's kind of manageable there. East is slightly a little big okay. So you have two worship leaders and acoustic guitar percussion, vocals, invest again is a smaller band. So this is the way we do rosters at APC. You know, there are many different platforms or more advanced platforms that, you know, that a lot of the church is in the west or, you know, more modernized church is used. One is called planning center. That's, yeah, you know, where you have to pay for that software. So for now we are using Excel and it's doing the work, you know. So yeah, I guess can I get an idea of what goes on how, you know, into rostering. Let's just stop sharing now. Okay. So it sometimes it takes me about if people are available, everything goes well. I can finish the roster in two days, but sometimes it almost takes me four days. Just going through thinking who's available, who can I put where and sometimes not everybody is going to respond. You know, although my message says, okay, respond to me by so and so date not everybody responds. You know, that's another, you know, challenge of leading a worship team or worship ministry is you have to respond, you have to go back and reach out to them as like, hey, you know, what is your, what are your responsibilities? So all of that goes on into putting a roster together. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, let me share the notes again. You guys with me, right? Yeah. Awesome, awesome. So you see worship ministry is just not about leading worship. It's more exciting. All right. Okay, so that's about, putting together and rostering worship teams for Sunday services. Now, once that is done again, just a little bit of the spiritual aspect, you know, in this chapter we'll talk more in depth of the spiritual aspect in the next chapter as well, but how do we encourage or teach our worship team members to prepare to lead in a worship service? Okay, how do they, how should they plan and prepare for worship service? A few pointers that we expect of them. Okay, we teach that worship is a spiritual activity. Okay, worship is a spiritual activity as mentioned in John chapter 4, verse 23, 24, where Jesus says, you know, well, the father is seeking true worshipers who will worship in spirit in truth. Right, we worship by the Holy Spirit that abides in us who empowers us and we worship in truth and one of the aspect is through the word of God because John chapter 17 verse 17 says, you sanctify me by your truth. Your word is truth. Okay, so worship is a spiritual activity and just for verse 23, Jesus says in verse 22 he says, you Samaritans worship that you do not know or understand of. Right, you do not have a revelation but we worship what we do know. That means there is an understanding. There is a revelation. Okay, so in worship there is a revelation and encounter that is required because it's a spiritual activity. Must be done with anointing, with the anointing of God. Must be done with the anointing of God. If you look at Exodus chapter 30 which if you don't please turn with me to Exodus chapter 30 verse 22 to 33. Exodus chapter 30 verse 22 to 33 can someone read that please? Someone please go ahead and read that. Okay, Exodus chapter 30 verse 22 to 33. Then the Lord said to Moses take the following fine spices. 500 shekels of liquid ma 500 shekels of liquid ma half as much that is 250 shekels of fragrant cinnamon 250 shekels of fragrant cane 500 shekels of cassia all according to the sanctuary shekel and a hen of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil a fragrant blend the work of a perfuma. It will be the sacred anointing oil. Verse 26 then use it to anoint the tent of meeting the ark of the testimony the table and all its articles the lamp stand and its accessories the altar of incense the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils and the basin with its stand you shall consecrate them so they will be most holy and whatever touches them will be holy. Verse 30 anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so that they may serve me as priests say to the Israelites this is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come do not pour it on men's bodies and do not make any oil with the same formula wow it is sacred and you are to consider it sacred whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than priest must be cut off from his people okay this is the seriousness of the anointing anointing of God and and one of the ways we expect our team members to prepare themselves is say that we must be anointed right anointed not just for anointing's sake but like it says in verse 30 anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them okay we are to be anointed to be set apart every utensil in the tabernacle every furniture was anointed in the tabernacle right so everything that we do must be done with the anointing of God as worship and ministry unto him okay and the third point there is worship is a key that opens the door worship is a key that opens the door to what? to experience the presence of God in Psalm 22 verse 3 it says he dwells or he inhabits the praises of his people or he is enthroned on the praises of his people right and then it says have victory over the enemy it's a key worship is a key opens the door to victory over the enemy Psalm 8 verse 2 says you have silenced with my praise you have silenced my enemy okay so just understanding that worship is a spiritual activity and everything that is done must be done with anointing of God holy unto the Lord okay and another key is that we need to understand that worship is a key we cannot take for granted every worship service because it's a spiritual warfare how each worship team membership prepare for service how each worship team members should prepare for service one a personal life of worship during the week prepare yourself through the week week secondly consecration of your personal life and finally a consistent personal prayer life okay a consistent personal prayer life which changes you increases personal intimacy with God increases your sensitivity to God and then finally anointing of the Holy Spirit comes spiritually prepared for being part of the worship team okay it's one of the key examples here the key points here or key takeaways of this section is very very simple we emphasize a lot on the personal life okay your personal time with God your personal intimacy with the Lord your personal walk with the Lord okay are you reading the word enough are you studying the word how is your prayer life is that consistent are you working on it are you spending enough time in prayer because it changes us it increases our intimacy with the Lord right it increases our sensitivity to God's voice and his leading and the fourth point there is very important as well right anointing of the Holy Spirit or being filled with the Holy Spirit right at one point I just want to leave us with before we conclude this section is in Ephesians chapter 5 in Ephesians chapter 5 Paul says don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit right you know that don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit now to the most of us as Christians to follow that first part of the command is very easy don't be drunk with wine of course I'm a Christian I won't be drunk with wine but the question is do we also obey the second part of the command that is being filled with the Holy Spirit have you asked yourself are you filled with the Holy Spirit if not how does one be filled with the Holy Spirit right in the Bible the Holy Spirit is referred to as the anointing oil so many times isn't it he is referred to as so many things but one of the things he is referred to as that he is the oil of intimacy he is the anointing oil so what are you doing to keep that flame burning so we emphasize on all of this to all our worship team members on how they are ought to prepare themselves spiritually for the worship service we will stop here at page 48 at the beginning of page 49 we will take a quick break I can take 2 minutes extra and I will see you for the next section take care guys