Our 16th Birthday Bash!
Claudia and I sent Vivian off to Phuket before dropping by JUMP Conference at Nexus. I took some time to have some small talk with the Hope Bangkok Band and some other participants.
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Praying For Vivian
I was so refreshed and thankful to God for how our Mother Church has blessed us again on our 16th Birthday. When Shirley was asking us to recall how God has been good to us over all these years, I could not help but remember how God has blessed me and many others so much through Hope Bangkok.
It was in the past when we were in Thailand for the conferences that many of us caught the vision of the Great Commission. It was there that we learnt what loving and honoring others were all about. It was there that we experienced what servanthood leadership truly was. Many among us and myself owed them big time!
Yesterday’s evening was yet another moment of blessing from them. The Band brought the praise and worship atmosphere up by a few notches to a level that we desire to be. The heart, the boldness, the genuine joy were most infectious. By the way, it would be no exaggeration to say that they were “damn” skillful too.
Pastor PN, the President of Hope of God churches, imparted much faith to us all. It was a very simple message but it was one that was preached from the inside out.
It is one thing to know and speak truth and it is another thing to impart truth. One is mostly knowledge while the other is from one's life.
At the end of the second service, people were screaming for more; more joy, more praise, more of God… This is indeed wild partying, Jesus style!
Part way during the ending praise, I was tempted to jump into the crowd to try out some body surfing. I invited some of the guys and LO to do so as well but none took up the challenge. I had really wanted to but I was afraid that they could not hold my weight!
Thank you Pastor PN and the Hope Bangkok Band for crashing our party! It is so helpful to us. We need it.
Another big thank you to many of you who worked so hard to bring the Anniversary party to us!
.jpg)
Praying For Vivian
I was so refreshed and thankful to God for how our Mother Church has blessed us again on our 16th Birthday. When Shirley was asking us to recall how God has been good to us over all these years, I could not help but remember how God has blessed me and many others so much through Hope Bangkok.
It was in the past when we were in Thailand for the conferences that many of us caught the vision of the Great Commission. It was there that we learnt what loving and honoring others were all about. It was there that we experienced what servanthood leadership truly was. Many among us and myself owed them big time!
Yesterday’s evening was yet another moment of blessing from them. The Band brought the praise and worship atmosphere up by a few notches to a level that we desire to be. The heart, the boldness, the genuine joy were most infectious. By the way, it would be no exaggeration to say that they were “damn” skillful too.
Pastor PN, the President of Hope of God churches, imparted much faith to us all. It was a very simple message but it was one that was preached from the inside out.
It is one thing to know and speak truth and it is another thing to impart truth. One is mostly knowledge while the other is from one's life.
At the end of the second service, people were screaming for more; more joy, more praise, more of God… This is indeed wild partying, Jesus style!
Part way during the ending praise, I was tempted to jump into the crowd to try out some body surfing. I invited some of the guys and LO to do so as well but none took up the challenge. I had really wanted to but I was afraid that they could not hold my weight!
Thank you Pastor PN and the Hope Bangkok Band for crashing our party! It is so helpful to us. We need it.
Another big thank you to many of you who worked so hard to bring the Anniversary party to us!
posted by Jeff Chong at 4:16 pm
27 Comments:
body surfing? you could have asked me because I only weight 50kg...
Why you of little faith!
Ha ha...
I’m not sure if we should say the hope Bangkok worship team brought up the atmosphere “a few notches”... i thought it was no big deal and to be objective about it, our own band did really well and the P&W atmosphere under our band’s playing was awesome too... looking at our ending praise and all, why did we even need to invite BKK worship team here in the first place?
And also this part about the BKK worship leader asking the congregation to laugh in the lord for 1 whole minute, i was like “what the...??!”
LE
haha I have faith in God but I have no faith in the people below!
Hi LE, thank you for vociing your thoughts. Yes, our band is great. No doubt about that. Besides the anniversary, the BKK band is also here to conduct workshops and training. I am sure that we are learning much from them. One leader told me that he had learnt much from yesterday's conference.
The laughing out loud thing may seem wierd on its own. Pastor Prayuth was trying to communciate that we should have joy in God. That is of course biblical and we should have more joy. I will look at it from that perspective :)
i wasnt talkin abt the conference, i was talkin about your comment of the anniversary svc, in which u mentioned that the atmosphere went up "by a few notches" after the BKK band came up. This i thought was a rather insensitive comparison and a classic 'band-without-honor' syndrome. i tot our band was just as great and no need for bkk band whatsoever. period.
regarding "having joy in the lord", that's what all those laughing-out-loud, rolling-on-floor churches say also.. it's a sliperry slope argument pastor...
i do believe in havin joy in the lord but to hype everyone up and get everyone to 'spontaneously' coordinate their laughing for 1 min? this is borderline cult behaviour
LE
I like the part when sing band transited to bangkok band and when we all sing 'i love the family of God'..
it was a very touching moment and i know that some people were moved to tears :'....
LE:
1. On Jeff's comments on the comparison, I think just like taste and preferances are subjectiveand differ, so the same goes with opinions. And I think Jeff is entitled to his opinions.
So great that you have high-esteemed over our own band. We do too especially for their commitment in serving the church for so many years.
However truth also does hurt at times. In this case, if the Bangkok Band is indeed really better in terms of skills and etc... then wouldn't it be great for the home team to learn from them so that they have reach their full potential?
2. In regards to the "Laughing" incident, I share the same sentiments as you. My initial thought and feeling was not very 'right' and some might misinterpret his intentions.
But knowing our Hope Movement's stand on such issues like slaining or laughing in the spirit, I gave the benefit of the doubt that his mere intentions was to encourage us to participate actively in the praising our Lord.
I think it very similar how speakers would ask the audience to stand up on their feet to massage the person in front with the intention to 'wake up' the audience and get them participating.
So does that act implies the speaker trying to advocate sexual harrassment or molest or free massage? (Maybe this is an extreme example but hope you get the principle I am drawing out)=p
Hope my opinion helps abit to provide more perspective on this matter =)
andrewong2024 (gosh, are members of the 2024 gang all startin to speak up for one another?),
on your (1), of course such opinions are "subjective" and every1 is entitled to their own. but a pastor should be careful of publishin highly subjective opinions, knowin that he has influence over ppl, esp those who dont read very carefully or critically. i dare say that now, more than half of this blog's readers will think that BKK band is superior in skills etc and really helped our anniversary's atmosphere "up a few notches". shouldnt a leader be careful of making such "subjective" public comparisons??
on (2), the speaker who ask the audience to massage each other can be doin an inappropriate thing depending on contexts, eg. Europe.
the BKK worship leader askin the audience to do coordinated laughin (supposedly in the lord) for 1min is NOT ONLY doin an inappropriate thing, given the context, but he is also stretchin the application of having joy in the lord TOO far
cheerios
LE
Hi LE,
With regards to your comment, it would be good that we can talk about this in person. You can reach me at the church email and I would be more than happy to discuss this over.
In my opnion, I do not think that i had put our own band down. In fact, it speaks of our desire to improve and grow and become even better :)
Hear from you and hope to catch up soon...
Hi there LE,
I can see from your honest sharing that you share all our concern in having a biblical and powerful church. I believe our start point is beneficial. I would however differ from your opinion on the 'sticking pt' about the bands. If Ps Jeff had shared his honest (and yes ok, subjective and wholly his) opinion in his blog, that during the time when the Bangkok team was ministering to us, that they managed to bring us to a new level of worship, so be it. In fact, why not attempt to see it from Ps Jeff's pt of view? Maybe we can all learn something from it from what it means. In fact anecdotal evidence from ppl I've spoken to shares Ps Jeff's sentiments. Furthermore I do not think that by Ps Jeff's comments he is putting our own band down, nor does that mean that our band is unspiritual/bad etc; no. I'm sure our own band is more secure than that and can see beyond just superficial evaluation. At the end of the day, we are all attempting to better bring God's presence to the world by learning and improving in our own ways wherever possible.
On the pt about Ps Prayudh from Hope Bangkok, asking you to laugh, I'm not sure but I don't think I heard that from him (I was in the 2nd svc). We were just celebrating and applauding God for about a min. In any case, yes I agree with you fully, that we should be careful of what we share, esp those amongst us who have public influence, even through such a thing as a blog.
In fact as I am typing this reply, I see that Ps Jeff would like to perhaps explain further to you personally, hope you would be ok to take up the offer.
God Bless
Can someone tell me more about being slain in the spirit? What's the Movement's stand on this? Thanks.
haha, I'm just curious why must there be so many "anonymous"-s.
What happen to voicing out opinions with your names so that we can be accountable for the words we speak? Haha..
Yesterday's anniversary atmosphere was great!
Both bands have joined hands very well and we are proud to be in Hope movement! Skills wise...hope bkk is still better (now;)) and that's why we are learning from them all these years and they are here this time to to bless us and conduct workshops for us. They are like our big brother since the beginning of our church and have helped our church soar from glory to glory. We are where we are today because of them! We owe a lot to them indeed. All these years our two worship departments have strong and very good relationships, since the early days of our church. We are covenant brothers and sisters. In fact we are convenanted across the globe.
The hope spirit is family, positive and honouring of one another. We cheer for those who do well and we love one another.
We also learn from one another and are always in unity.:)
Since it's our anniversary, i shall take this opportunity to recite our vision ...:):)...in short..
Our vision is to fulfill the GC by planting strong and biblical churches all over the world!...
- old member of hope
sounds like someone's ego is bruised. hahaha..
whatever happened to the heart of worship?
Hi anonymous "LE",
This is Rachel Tham the violinist from the Anniversary Band (Singapore). I would like to put in my own two cents worth into this. I do agree with a few people who commented here, including Ps Jeff, that the worship atmosphere was put up a "few notches" when the BKK team took over. I am in no way putting down my own team. Each team has its own strengths and dynamics in working together and creating the different atmosphere so to speak.
That's why we need to learn from one another. Our foundation and skills set for many of us even the better experienced musios have been sharpened by the exchange from Hope BKK. Indeed they are like our predecessors for many things. They have been around for at least 20 years for some of them in the worship ministry!! We musios had a chance to interact with them during the J.U.M.P. worship conference over the last two days and we really learnt a lot from them. They were also very encouraging to us and were rather impressed with our skills too.
The main idea is to be humble and learn from one another, that's when our skills will develop and grow. No doubt our band is good enough for church, as Ps Prayudt has mentioned, but what better to learn from other bands too.
I was personally ministered among many others when the Hope BKK team came to take over during the service over my band. It's the Spirit of God that flows through the worship and the music that really touched the hearts of many people. This is something that we all can get to learn on how to minister better to people. The humility to learn from others and the joy of servanthood of the Hope BKK team.
So, with both bands of different styles, skills set and experience, it was certainly an enriching experience for all of us from the worship team and I believe for them too. You have no idea how much we need them man, to point to us our "blind spots" that we might have otherwise accumulated over the years from playing together with similiar styles :)
We love the Hope BKK team! It's truly a blessing to have them :)
ya lor. one mountain will always be bigger than another mountain, that's how we know our standard and improve.
LE's too sensitive la.
Hey LE, please do email me and we can talk this over. I value your view and would love to spend some 1-1 time with you :)
Thanks all for sharing your view. It is most valuable to me.
Hey stay cool, we all know the net isn't really the best conference venue in the world...
Let's all not jump to conclusions yet. Focus on the title... its a birthday bash! cheer up!
Happy birthday Hope Singapore! It's been a long but blessed journey... :)
Can someone tell me more about being slain in the spirit? What's the Movement's stand on this? It has been bothering me. Thanks!!
Hi all, some of you may have noticed that I had deleted some comments on this entry. Allow me to explain.
I have no qualms about using this blog for constructive discussion. I do not even require everyone to agree with my views on things. In fact, it is good to offer alternative views so that we (including me) can all learn and develop together. I welcome that and I enjoy that greatly :)
However, it is not good to have mudslinging and personal attack on one another. Vulgarities and destructive comments are not my preferred mode of communication.
On LE’s view on the Hope Bangkok and Hope Singapore’s band, I respect his view totally. There is also comment that our band is as good as the Bangkok band :)
I am glad that our Hope Singapore band is doing great. As stated by Rachel, the Bangkok Worship Pastor did also comment that our band is doing well.
To make things clear, I did not in anyway put our own band down. Many of the band people are my friends and I have often affirmed them for their contribution and hardwork. In no way will I ever put their hardwork down.
Having said that, I respect the views of those who disagree that the Hope Bangkok band took the atmosphere up by a few notches.
Thank you so much for your continuous comments. I really do value every one of them. Keep them coming!
wow so many comments and happenings here well thru reading these comments i did learnt something too, i certainly agree with Rachel.
pfft. i think the whole thing is ridiculous.
i would have understood abit, if he was part of the band, he might have felt that his playing or work was insulted.
but he's not even part of the band, and he's so worked up about it.
ridiculous
and i took offense that i was condescended upon.
i've not qualms about pastor jeff's moderation, but i absolutely hate people who think that they're so morally and spiritually upright to talk about my life.
got your point Danny :)
I treasure your continous comment dearly.
yeah, you get all sorts of christians nowadays.. how's your dad anyway =/
operation went well. dad's recovering. thanks for asking
Hey Ps Jeff.....
God is good all the time...you know and I know....Praise Him for bringing you thru your Dad's operation.....I remember how God brought my dad to know Him when I least expect....He will do it for you too!
Thank God for your life, humility and leadership...I personally had a wonderful time working with the BK team and there are lots to learn from them in terms of the spiritual aspect....
Cheers!
Rach
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