Posts tagged ‘teaching’
Teaching songs to your congregation
Worship Leaders are Teachers
In my recent visit to Brooklyn Mosaic, a new multicultural church plant, I was pleasantly surprised when they taught the congregation the songs we were going to sing for the night. I thought this was a great idea.
We went through about 3 songs where different members of the worship taught us how to sing the song and pronounce the songs. All of the songs were global songs, meaning they did not originate from the United States.
The importance of teaching as a worship leader
We have many opportunities during the worship service to teach our congregation the meanings behind songs, the scriptures that support a song, the history behind a song, and more.
The first time I introduced the Korean language to our congregation at Aldrich Church, soon after I was hired on, I explained how I was Korean. I made a point to tell people what my ethnicity was to avoid any confusion.
I can’t tell you the number of times when I first arrived in Minnesota that people wondered if I was adopted or Hmong.
If you aren’t from around Minnesota, then it’s important to know that our state adopts a lot of children from Korea. AND…Minnesota, along with Wisconsin and Michigan have lots of Hmong people living in those states.
I tell you all this to give you some context to where I’m coming from. And, like I said we have many opportunities to teach these types of things during worship.
Just be mindful of time….remember you’re the worship leader not the preacher. If we are asked to have an extended time of teaching that would be wonderful, but until we do we need to keep it somewhat brief, at least that’s the case from my experience.
Make connections for people in your congregation
Whether you’re introducing translated songs or global songs take some time to make connections for people in the congregation. If you’re singing a song in Spanish, it may be a great opportunity to make note of your neighborhood connection to the Hispanic community. If you’re singing a song in Arabic, it may be a great opportunity to pray for the missionary your church is supporting there.
Lesson
The multicultural worship leader is more than just a song leader, we are teachers. Take those brief opportunities to teach and educate your congregation about something you’re learning in scripture or something about the history of a song. It’s all about making connections and bringing context…things that come out of building relationships with people.
Share your story and your life…
Sincerely,
Peter Park
Blogger/Worship Leader/Speaker
peterpark@redemptionboulevard.com
(800) 453-3284
© 2011, Peter Park. All rights reserved.
What is required of multicultural worship leaders? – Part 2
Humbleness
Humility in listening
What’s one thing that probably everyone wants? I believe the answer to that is that people want to be heard and listened to.
Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone comes from a unique background and culture. Everyone has something to share.
When I meet with people I try to do some homework in help me to build a bridge like what that person’s native language is, what is the person like, do they have kids, etc. This helps me when I make my initial “bridge building session“.
But once we get started I try to listen intensely and ask questions.
When I talk with my friend Nikki Lerner I try not to assume that I have a sufficient competency of black culture…that my knowledge is good enough. I try to listen to her experience and knowledge of her own culture.
Who am I to tell her otherwise, right? Just because I read an article or read a book about black culture does not make me an expert. Just like I do with song translations…I verify my data with a person who represents that culture.
Humility in teaching
This is especially important as you teach others about your culture or ask other people to teach. We need to teach people with a gentle heart and not out of anger/frustration. Let me explain.
When I was in college my wife was part of this bible study with some older ladies in the church. This one person in particular would try to talk to me about her experience with Korean culture. When she tried saying some words in Korean it didn’t sound good…sorry to say.
But did I lash out on her and shake her and tell her she was wrong. NO!
At the time I didn’t say anything, but smile and nod. But learning from that experience I try to explain my story as it relates to the Korean culture. Yes, there are some things that are consistent across the board, but you have to remember that you’re just one person.
Your experience as an American is different than someone else just down the road, right? Here again, there might be similarities across the board, but God’s plan for each individual is unique and diverse.
Lesson
When we teach others about our culture and learn from others we must come to the table with humility. This means a we need a good dose of gentleness and a listening heart.
Share your story and your life…
Sincerely,
Peter Park
Blogger/Worship Leader/Speaker
peterpark@redemptionboulevard.com
(800) 453-3284
© 2011, Peter Park. All rights reserved.
Doing community better with your multicultural church
Living out the gospel in community
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what being in a community means and what it doesn’t mean. How can the church community do this better? Here are my thoughts…
What being in community doesn’t mean
Have you ever been in a situation when someone does a favor for you and you feel obligated to pay them back immediately?
Let’s say someone digs you out of the snow during a terrible winter blizzard. Is the right thing to do involve giving them money or baking them cookies right away? Maybe. I’m certainly not saying those things are wrong in itself.
But this can seem like the kind of thing you see at the store….you know, a transaction. Someone provides a product/service and you pay them back immediately for it.
What being in community could mean
It seems like a good way to do community is to work together as a worshiping community when there is a need, instead of feeling some sort of obligation. I’m reminded of how they did community in the book of Acts, specifically in Acts 2:42-47.
There was good teaching in this community, fellowship with one another, and people gave up things they had to meet a need in someone’s life. This is what community should look like.
Let’s take the example from above and let’s say you found out that the person who helped you during the snow blizzard needed help paying their electric bill. And let’s say you brought you church community together to help pay for this person’s bill. Wouldn’t that be awesome.
Now I realize some church’s have some rules setup to prevent the church from being overly taxed because so many people call churches looking for help. And I also realize that both big and small churches may not always have the money to meet a need in a person’s life?
Lesson
The church has a wonderful opportunity to model what being in a community should look like. And because I’m THINKING OUT LOUD on this blog post I want to encourage all of us to look into the scriptures. Let’s see how we can care for one another, meet needs, pray for one another, and more.
What do you think? How can we do community better? Should we pay someone back immediately when they help us with a need in our life?
Share your story and your life…
Sincerely,
Peter Park
Blogger/Worship Leader/Speaker
peterpark@redemptionboulevard.com
(800) 453-3284
© 2011 – 2010, Peter Park. All rights reserved.