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| Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A Brief History of Worship Songwriting Culture in Singapore Within this article :A. A Brief History of Worship Songwriting Culture in Singapore (80s to 2000s) B. Case Study : Local Worship Music @ New Creation Church (interview with Jack Ho, Deacon and Head of Music Ministry of New Creation Church) ; Review of albums Writer : Dawn Fung  (a) Cornerstone's Devoted, their first worship album. 2001If Cornerstone Church, a mission and worship focused church is adamant about growing local worship music, then it's an indication of a change in the scene. What is happening in Singapore is a hunger for locally written expressions of worship to God. Just have a look at the worshipSG blog (worshipsg.wordpress.com), a central station for budding worship songwriters started by Methodist pastor, Barnabas Chong. Their quarterly worship event, In-Deep Worship promises to be a dynamic movement, "Not only are new songs being birthed by God and sung in individual churches, we are witnessing the beginning of an embracing of each other's songs, a humble commitment to rightly use the gift of songs God has blessed us with, songs birthed out of devotion to Jesus with an authority that comes from above, songs birthed out of agony, joy and victory!"(1) 80s  (b) Bob Fitts (1986)Partly due to the dearth of support and the structure of churches in the past, local worship music has taken a long time to surface in Singapore. And unlike local CCM, which flourished with independent groups and organisations, local worship music is hugely dependent on the health, vision and growth of local churches. Churches in the 80s were known to be legalistic, wary of new sounds and equipment. Worship music then was synonymous with hymns. It is difficult to ascertain just when local worship music began. For Pastor Barnabas, "Very few songs were churned out during the 80s by local churches. The most significant movement then was the All Good Gifts Ministry (AGGM), which produced local worship albums, Arise and Arise 2. Some churches did use their music. Ours sang songs like 'Teach Me to Worship You' and 'Whom Shall Not Fear Your Name, O King?'. What was injected into the 80s was the notion of 'praise and worship', a new category inspired by what was taking place in the US. As well, people like Don Moen, Bob Fitts, Graham Kendrick and Paul Baloche heralded the beginnings of 'the worship leader' in Singapore. As Francis Tay, the Asia Co-ordinator for CCLI and former GM of Integrity Music Asia, recalls, "Churches then, did not have the means and capacity to host 'worship events'. At the same time, there was no such thing as worship pastors, music ministries or for that matter, songwriters for the church. They were also not adept at holding big events like Eagles. The pioneers of praise and worship in Singapore were the School of Music by Jimmy Owens (hosted at Wesley Methodist Church), Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMI) and Festival of Praise (FOP). This was a new wave of worship leading and worship, which reaffirmed for many, heart for God over song." Unlike today where Christians don't bat an eyelid at the latest worship leader in town, multitudes then flocked to the Indoor Stadium for FOP where queues stretched for hours over three days. 90s "In the 90s, a few churches did their own worship CDs but personally, I don't remember songs that stood out except City Harvest's 'Make a Difference'." Pastor Barnabas' observation was not unnoticed during the 90s, where big to megachurches like Trinity Christian Centre (TCC), Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), New Creation Church (NCC) and City Harvest Church (CHC), Lighthouse Evangelism, flourished. The irony was while local worship songs were sung, their existence were mainly kept within their own walls. Was it the lack of distribution know how, other churches' support or an unimpressed local market? All, it seems. "Pastor Beatrice Kang (TCC) would personally pass me the church albums," remembers Francis. On the other hand, Pastor Barnabas suggests the latter two implications,"My own suspicion that other churches don't sing each other's songs because number one, maybe we don't feel that our local songs are good enough in terms of quality compared to foreign albums. In some way, we have this chip on our shoulder, that we should make it big outside to be accepted locally. Ironically, other countries support their own artistes, like Australia singing Geoff Bullock's songs before the rest of the world heard of him. The same with Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and many more. Secondly, we Singaporeans seem less likely to extol each other's giftings - it's rare to see local worship leaders asking for each other's music. Could it be pride?" By not distributing the music within the local church network, the 90s lacked a solidarity that could have signified an early revival of some sort. But could locally written worship songs have been shared via events like FOP? The biggest praise and worship festival in Singapore did feature some locally written songs but they were mostly done at a "preliminary" stage, before consideration for the main event. Even as a platform to unite churches under praise and worship, the FOP had found that local worship leaders still lacked professional training and understanding, and continued to sought international worship leaders for help. If anything, the 90s taught one thing : the new style of praise and worship was here to stay and it could be imitated by local churches hungry for a new experience with the Lord. 2000s  (d) FOP (2008)The popularity for modern worship music also impacted the need for music ministries, worship leaders and pastors(2) and ultimately local worship music. Just as Singapore opened its doors to praise and worship in the 80s and 90s, the value of worship (and music) has grown emphatically in 2000s to a point where it forms a central pillar of local church growth. As such, pastors are helping to open doors (3) for locally written worship songs where independent organisations cannot. Says Pastor Barnabas, "What I really believe is this : God has given us new songs, birthed in different churches, meant for the whole Body of Christ. As we mutually sing each other's songs, they will have an impact on the nation, significant to our growth here in Singapore. Embracing each other's songs (which takes humility and an open heart) fosters unity as in Psalm 133. When this happens, there is no telling how God would bestow His blessings upon us in Singapore and life forevermore!" While local worship songwriting culture has grown through the years, would we get caught up in the production and lose sight of its goal? The key difference between worship music and CCM is function. While CCM is a outlet for creative expressions of Christian songwriters and musicians, worship's goal is to draw us closer to God. David Garratt put it succinctly in an interview with Crosswalk.com(4), "I don't think the term [worship lifestyle] is really a biblical expression. What I mean is that worship biblically involves an expression of my heart to the Father. In the Bible, the physical expression of worship is usually 'lowering ourselves' before the one we worship. See Revelation 4 and 5 to see heaven's view of worship. In Romans 12, which talks about 'presenting our bodies,' the word sometimes translated 'worship' should read 'service,' which includes our worship. When we talk of worship lifestyle we are in danger of having worship involving everything we do but really meaning nothing. It sounds very good, but means that the actual essence of worship can be lost. Having said all this, what I believe is that the Father is still searching for spirit and truth worshippers." For the Singapore Church, the temptation to draw away from the essence of worship is not new. Fame, popularity and association with worship leaders can often dismiss the true aim of worship. A common thought : Would a local worship leader draw as many people to the Indoor Stadium if his name is not Parachute Band or Rueben Morgan?  (e) In-Deep Worship I (2008)Notes (1)http://worshipsg.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/in-deep-worship-fri-20-jun-08/ (2) The role of worship pastors today is two fold - one supervises the direction of congregational worship, while the other is an authority on which local churches find comfortable to connect and converge. Therefore, worship pastors are instrumental in bringing forth new songs in local churches and to share them with another. "A worship pastor is first a pastor - and music and arts happen to be the tools for ministry. It takes as much care to plan worship as for a preaching pastor to plan a sermon." Paul Ryan Coordinator for Christian Formation through Worship, http://www.calvin.edu/worship/stories/ma_worship.php (3) Check out the Genesis Project (a Christian songwriting festival), CSMusic (a CCM cum worship songwriting network), worshipsg.wordpress.com (local worship songs blog) and In-Deep Worship (a quarterly session of worship music that is interdenominational organised by TRAC Board of Worship and Music, the Methodist Church in Singapore). (4) http://www.crosswalk.com/root/spirituallife/worship/1174611/page0/print/ Images (a) http://www.cscc.org.sg/worship/album/album2.htm (b) http://www.bobfitts.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 (c) http://www.imeem.com/people/Bq-rkU/music/5Ncgr7_b/city_harvest_church_making_a_difference/ (d) http://markconner.typepad.com/catch_the_wind/2008/08/festival-of-praise---singapore.html (e) http://worshipsg.wordpress.com/
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