Category: Ministry

Wow, 7 Years Already (since undergrad)

by Junho on April 2, 2011

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Category: Ministry

This past Wednesday, I paid a visit to my alma mater (UIC) to be among the panelists to share my post-college experiences of working in the corporate world.  It was part of an “All Campus Worship” event that was being hosted by a number of student Christian organizations on campus and since I was heavily involved with Asian American InterVarsity all throughout my undergrad years and as such, there was absolutely no way I could not accept invitation to take part in this event.  My fiancée also took part in this event as a fellow panelist which was pretty neat.

Well, I am really glad I took part in this.  The panel discussion was inside of a small room with about 8 students and 4 panelists and all of the students were studying something either in the business or engineering field.  Very small, very intimate, and in the short 45 minutes that we had, I, along with the other panelists, were able to talk about a lot with these students who were eager to learn from our experiences.

As the panel discussion was taking place, I could not help but to reflect on my own 7 years of being out of school and working in corporate America.  Well, these are/were my thoughts, some of which I shared with the students and some of which I did not choose to share.  These are in no particular order, by the way.

  1. It’s so very important to carefully pick your career choice.  You don’t have to get it 100% right the first time and yes, it’s true that people make drastic career changes all the time and many people are very successful in doing so.  With that said, however, don’t just flippantly pick your career choice without doing some serious thinking about it.  Do you like the field you want to go into?  Are you good at it (or at the very least, possess some relevant talents and skills)?  Can you picture yourself enjoying your work?  Money is important (more on that later), but don’t let it be your primary motivation.  Some people say that money will follow when you put your heart into your passion, even if it means you go into a field where good money is hard to come by (i.e. creative arts)–which I don’t completely agree with.  The truth is, there are career fields where it’s very easy to make a lot of money and there are career fields where making good money is extremely hard.  Regardless, choose a career field that will actually fulfill you.  Thankfully I’ve never had to experience this first hand, but I’ve heard and read over & over again your life becomes something very sad when you spent 40, 50, 60, 70 hours per week doing something you do not enjoy doing.
  2. As a Christian, I (you – if you are a Christian) am called to be a Christian in the workplace as well.  And from having been in the working world since the age of 16, it is quite difficult to be an effective Christian in the workplace.  There have been countless number of times when I became uneasy sharing anything that has to do with my spiritual life with my coworkers.  Many, many people in the world (including those in corporate America) have extremely unfavorable opinions concerning Christians/Church/religion and many people (again, including those in corporate America) will have absolutely no problem voicing their distaste/distrust/disgust with their perception of Christianity.  There have been so many times when I’ve felt uncomfortable dipping my head for 10 seconds to pray for my meal during lunch with coworkers.  There have been so many times when I’ve felt uneasy sharing my church-filled weekend plans with my coworkers.  There have been times when I’ve gotten nervous sharing details of my relationship with Christ with my coworkers.  They still happen and they probably will for a long time to come.  The desire to fit in with the crowd doesn’t simply fade away after your adolescent years–I still have that desire.  But I have to fight against it.  Actually, I am (you are – if you are a Christian) called by Jesus to fight against that desire and boldly proclaim Christ.
  3. Money is important and developing good money habits when you’re in college is crucial.  This is something I wish I knew when I was in college.  I wish people around me told me I should start saving aggressively even when I’m in college.  I wish people told me I would never run out of things to spend my money on–car, house, utilities, church, charitable organizations, missions, dining out, groceries, engagement ring, wedding, retirement, and the list goes on and on and on.  Actually, people around me probably did tell me all this stuff but I just never paid attention.  Thankfully, I’ve learned some really good money habits in these last few years, but again, at least when it comes to money, it’s better to earn your lessons earlier than later.  Having poor money habits will cost you–not only financially but it will affect your relationships (the #1 cause of divorce is money, I believe), your health (I just read last night in a book that your FICO score can impact your insurance premiums), your spiritual life (when you have no money and are in ridiculous amounts of debt, you’ll have no money to give to church/missions/those in need and this will most likely affect your relationship with Jesus), and your career (prospective employers have a habit of checking up on your credit).  Jesus talked about money A WHOLE LOT over the course of his ministry.  On a sort-of-a-tangential-yet-somewhat-related side note, did you know that The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 now shows up as The Parable of the Bags of Gold in the latest edition of the NIV Bible?
  4. It’s important to set yourself apart from the rest of your peers in college.  It is only getting more and more difficult to find jobs and the level of competition has nowhere to go but up.  The stock market was in a cheery mood yesterday because the U.S. Unemployment Rate fell to 8.8 %, the lowest since March of 2009.  And while it’s true that the unemployment rate has been falling and many think that the unemployment rate will fall to somewhere around 6% in a few years, I still think that it’ll only get harder to make a living for those of us who are living in the States.  The talent pool seems to be exploding across various places in the world and they are competing for jobs even here in the US.  And while the talent pool as well as the quality of education is improving in various parts of the world, it appears that here in the US, it’s only getting harder to get quality education.  With all the government spending cuts that are/will be taking place, cost of education will only go up, and I think that the cost of college education here in the States is absolutely r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s.  And it seems pretty logical to me that less education will lead to less talent, which will lead to difficult times finding jobs.  Anyhow, going back to my point, set yourself apart.  Take internships, read books that relate to your career field of choice, develop your skillset on your own and don’t simply rely on your coursework to get you to where you want to be.

Phew, that was a lot.  That’s about all I have to share for now. :)

 

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Making the Most Out of Band Rehearsals

by Junho on April 21, 2010

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Category: Ministry, music

Band rehearsals–some love ‘em, some hate ‘em, but there’s no denying that they are very much necessary, even for bands that are comprised of phenomenal musicians.  Since 1997, I’ve had to partake in many band rehearsals–about 700 or so (a very rough estimate)–99.9% of them having been with bands that are associated with churches or para-church organizations.  I wanted to take some time to write down various tips on making the most out of band rehearsals–tips that have (and still do) helped me and hopefully will help you/your band/your church as well.

So here they are!

PART I:  First, I’ll start off with tips that deal with helping you (and your band) to become better prepared for band rehearsals:

1. Recordings: If you want to make the most out of your rehearsal, it is absolutely crucial that everyone in the band knows the songs before they get to the rehearsal.  It is very helpful for everyone in your band to hear recordings of the songs you’re planning on rehearsing before the rehearsal.  Unless the recordings deviate greatly from how you want your band to play the songs (which may accomplish nothing more than confuse the people in your band), email out the recordings to your band before the rehearsal–even if the recordings do not sound like how you want your band to play the songs.  For people who are in your band, being able to listen to the recordings will help them become mentally prepared for the rehearsal.  If you don’t have the recordings at your possession you may want to check out grooveshark.com or youtube.com and simply send the URLs of the songs to your bandmates.  Both websites contain enormously large databases of songs.

If, for various reasons, recordings of the songs you’d like to perform do not exist (i.e. in the case of originals) I’d say take some time to create a recording on your own.  Even a simple recording with just a guitar and voice will be very helpful for your bandmates.  And you most certainly do not need any “professional” recording equipment.  Just get yourself a cheap computer mic and use a freeware such as Audacity which will enable you to do multi-track recording on your computer.  The sound quality will be pretty bad; however, even a cheap-sounding recording is way better than no recording at all.  Trust me.  Take those extra 30 minutes to create a recording and you may very well save yourself and your band 30 minutes of rehearsal time because no one in your band knows the song.  If you’ve got a few hundred bucks at your disposal, do yourself (and your band) a huge favor by picking up some audio recording gears.  If you have a decent computer you can create some really nice sounding recordings with equipment that will cost you less than 400 bucks (including a condenser microphone, mic stand, cables, etc.).  It’s simply astounding how cheap these recording devices are these days.

2. Chord Charts: Spend some extra time to prepare nice, clean, readable, correct chord charts.  Please, please, please don’t be lazy and grab those online guitar chord chart/tabs and print them out!  They are not very readable and the chords on them may very well be wrong.  Anyhow, back to chord charts…: I’d suggest including the following in your chord chart (sorry, most of these will be painfully obvious): title of the song, key, tempo, sections (i.e. verse 1, verse 2, chorus, etc.), lyrics (duh), chords (duh duh), scan (the flow of the song–such as v1 -> v2 -> chorus -> v3 -> chorus -> bridge -> chorus…), composer, copyright info.  Here’s a screenshot of a chord chart for a song I play rather frequently (note: I cut out the middle, unnecessary portion of the chord chart):

Chord Chart

Some additional notes regarding chord charts: If you’ve got a song where some musicians will play the song in different keys (for instance, if the song is in the key of F#, the guitarist may put the capo on the 2nd fret and play the song in E; the keyboardist may prefer to play it in G and transpose the keyboard down half a step) be sure to prepare copies of the chord chart in all the different keys.  Most of the copies of chord charts I have are in various keys.  For instance, if I have a song entitled Hello, I may have Hello(C).doc, Hello(B).doc, and Hello(A).doc.  If you’ve been playing in bands for any significant length of time, you should know by now that most musicians can’t transpose on the fly :)

3. Notes on Chord Charts: In many cases, it’s not enough that you have chord charts–you need some extra notes on them for yourself and your musicians.  On the chord chart, include some notes regarding items such as:  Who’s supposed to play the intro, which instruments should come in where, and highlight any important parts of the song.  And when you make copies of the chord chart, it might be a good idea to make copies of the chord charts with notes on them for all your bandmates to see.

For an example click here.

4. *Know* the song: If you’re the lead person in the band, you of all people should *know* the song inside out.  And not only should you be familiar with your own part, you should have a pretty good feel for all the others’ parts as well.  It doesn’t mean that if you play the guitar and are the lead singer, that you should also be able to play the keyboardist’s part as well as the drummer’s, etc.  However, you should at least know when each instrument/vocalist comes in and out and have a rough idea of what should be played.  Knowing what each musician should play (or sing) will help you discern how well your band is playing during the rehearsal.  After all, “that sounded really bad… period.” is not a very helpful comment for your bandmates to hear.  You, as a leader, should be able to say, “that’s not quite how it should sound… how about you try something like [blank]?” If you’re the lead person in the band, knowing how to play more than just your instrument and/or sing harmonies will be extremely helpful.  (And it is *never* too late to learn!)

And while we’re on the topic of *knowing* the song, you should spend a good amount of time practicing on your own before the rehearsal.  This is especially important if you’re the lead person in your band.  Practice is good and good practice makes perfect.  And while you’re at it, may I suggest getting into the habit of practicing with a metronome (if you’re not already in the habit of doing it, that is)?

…And now…PART II:  Here are some tips that deal with helping you with the actual rehearsal:

5. Metronome: I’ve recently gotten back into the practice of using a metronome during the rehearsal.  I’m sure are there are different ways of doing this, but here’s how I do it:  Come rehearsal time, I hand over the metronome to the drummer and the drummer sets the metronome in a “mute” mode while the thing clicks away.  Most metronomes, along with the ticking sound, have blinking lights that blink at the specified tempo, thereby allowing the drummer to put the metronome down off to the side and look at the blinking light via his/her peripheral vision.  That way if the drummer goes out of sync with the metronome all that needs to be done is to look away (instead of being torturously thrown off by the off-beat ticking noise) and attempt to get back in sync with the metronome.

Back in the day, a long long time ago, I once had the metronome hooked up to the sound system during a band rehearsal so that the entire band could hear the metronome’s ticking sound.  That was a VERY bad idea… so bad that I still remember it after all these years.  If you really want to annoy your band, give that a try sometime. :)

6. Sound Person: This tip might be way too obvious, but it’s a really good idea to have a sound person at the rehearsal.  It’s just too much work having to go back and forth between the mixing board and your instrument/microphone and attempt to adjust the levels and EQ.  I used to have to do this all the time and it can get pretty annoying having to constantly go back & forth back & forth.  I am so very thankful there’s always a sound person at my band rehearsals these days. :)

7. Only Certain Parts: In a song, not all sections of the song are of equal importance.  And, not all sections of the song are of equal level of difficulty.  Some sections are easier, some are harder, some are really important (where if you make a mistake at that spot, you’ve just killed the song and might as well do-over), and some are really not nearly as important.  During (better yet, before) the rehearsal, determine the parts that are of higher importance & difficulty, and focus on those parts during the rehearsal.  Don’t just play the song from beginning to end X number of times and call it quits.  And if you need to get nitpicky, get nitpicky but pick and choose when and where to get nitpicky.  Getting nitpicky over sections that are of higher importance is always a very good idea.  Getting nitpicky over sections that aren’t really all that important may not accomplish more than cause annoyances amongst your bandmates.

8. Is That All?:  When you think the rehearsal is almost over, ask yourself is there anything else that we need to go over again? Ask yourself (as well as your bandmates) if there are any songs (or sections of songs) you should go over again.

… and that’s it. :)   I hope these tips will be of help to you if you play in a band at any capacity.  Please let me know if you’ve got any comments and/or questions!

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Grand Opening of Our Church – From a Worship Leader's Perspective

by Junho on March 23, 2010

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Category: Ministry

This upcoming Sunday is going to be a pretty big & important day at the church I’m serving as a worship leader–it’s the grand opening day at our Vernon Hills location.  We moved into the Sullivan Community Center (SCC) a few months back and had our first service there on Sunday, 1/24.   Since then we’ve mailed out tens of thousands of invitation mailers to homes within a 5-mile radius of the church and I’m told that we should expect around 100 – 200 visitors this Sunday.  We normally have about 50-60 adults at our Sunday service so 100+ visitors would be a huge deal for us.  We, as a congregation, have also been encouraged in these last few weeks to invite others to the grand opening and I am certainly hopeful that there will be many visitors present at church on Sunday as a result of personal invitations from our congregants.

Some may argue that our “grand opening” this Sunday may not qualify as one since prior to our move to SCC, we had been meeting in Palatine for about 3 years.  As for me, I really don’t care. :)   Grand opening or not, I’m going to treat it as such while hoping and expecting that we will have a ton of visitors to our church on Sunday morning.  And while it would certainly be nice to have Christian visitors there who are looking to change churches for all sorts of various reasons, what I would really love to see is to have a lot of people there who are not Christians.  People who are unchurched.  People who don’t have a church home.  People who have been away from the whole “church scene” for a long time but have decided to give church, Jesus, and Christians one more try.  Honestly, I’d rather have 10 unchurched people/non-Christians visit us than 100 people who are Christians.

And from my point of view as a worship leader–it would be kinda cool to have 100+ Christian visitors come check us out this Sunday and see a bigger group of people be engaged in worship.  It would be kinda cool to have a bunch of new people who are already at least sort of familiar with the songs we typically sing at church and be able to sing them with us.  It would be great if some of these Christian visitors are skilled musicians who are already familiar with the songs we normally sing on Sunday mornings and are wanting to help in the worship ministry.

BUT it would be even better if we have visitors join us this Sunday who have not been to church in a long time… perhaps never.  People who think that the songs we sing are strange.  People who can’t help but to feel uneasy and awkward during Christian worship just because they’re so unfamiliar with it.  People who don’t know how to pray.

Up until a few years ago, I used to be a member of a church where many (most?) of the congregants had “immigrated” from other churches.  And when I think back on those days, all I can say is that while it was nice to have a lot of additional people show up at church on Sunday mornings, at the same time, it felt a little bit pointless.  It felt pointless because even though the church had a sudden significant jump in numbers, there was absolutely no net increase in the number of Christians.  All of these newcomers had already heard the gospel and they were already members of an existing community of Christians.

So with all this said, I am looking forward to this Sunday.  And I will be praying that people who are unfamiliar with Jesus and His church will come join us this Sunday.  And if that’s the case, this Sunday might be my first Sunday as a worship leader where I don’t mind people who simply look lost during worship. :)

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