This is the summary of our discussion and action plans for May 2010
1. Cathy: The Gracious Gift of Hospitality: http://www.calvin.edu/worship/leader/hospit.php
Cathy shared with us the importance of hospitality in a church. Hospitality is a virtues that will lead on to other virtues. It is anticipating people with need who come into the community. It is the creation of free space so that change and transformation may occur. It is suspending judgment and reducing strangeness between people.
Action plan:
a. The importance is to realize that hospitality is not just for outsiders and also for the community itself. Education therefore is key in promiting this awareness in the church congregation. Xiaohui will lead the chairpersons of the services in making this community hospitality explicit within every Sunday service.
b. Cathy will link up with Pastor NaiHwei in equipping our volunteers in the welcoming teams of both services.
PeiSong: In Between Words of Worship Leaders: http://www.calvin.edu/worship/resources/inbetween/
PeiSong highlighted to us the need for good planning for the in between words we use during a worship service. There is always the danger of gaffe.
Action Plan:
a. We will do a video recording of one of our services, and do a critique of the in between words of that service. Peisong can you plan for this?
Celeste: Biblical Approach to Worship: http://www.calvin.edu/worship/idis/theology/worship101.php
Celeste spoke on what is worship. It is praise, corporate and service. Praise should reflect God’s glory, trinity. Worship should also be Formative. This means that we may not understand it fully, but it will form our theology over time.
Action Plan:
a. This education is done in every week’s liturgy but it needs to be way more explicit. Xiaohui will ensure that proper equipping of the chairpersons in done so that they may do this education more explicitly.
WeiZhen: Worship Music as Soul Food: http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1058
WeiZhen continued our previous discussion on the Worship Diet in the January Worship Study. The lesson from the philosophy that “you are what you sing” is that we need to discern what we want for our health. Music has the ability to carry messages and convey moods and it is vital that we continue a good balance of what we provide our people. This also includes an education element in getting our people well fed in music education. Weizhen and Celeste will continue to monitor our music exposure and ensure that our congregation are well informed on the huge variety of Christian music.
WanLing: Top Ten challenge of Worship Leaders: http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1239
WanLing shared on the Top Ten challenges faced by the worship leaders in the article. Overall sentiments is that the challenges of Jubilee is somewhat different.
Action Plan:
a. In view that all sub-ministries will be meeting up to discuss on the checklist to be done in our previous worship study, we will also include this in our subsequent meet-up. Each sub comm should also take time to discuss what they think are their top challenges, and these will be shared in our next meeting in July.