Belarus worship seminar

See I was teaching.

Class

Every time I have ever left a job for a new position I’ve always had an exit interview. I’ve been thinking about that and asking myself what kind of questions would I ask me about the worship seminar that I just finished in Belarus.
What were the highlights about this seminar?
I was excited to see about 20 people there. It was a mix of younger Christians and older ones. It was fascinating for me to see was that there was a big difference between the two age groups. Probably about 15 of them were in their 20’s. The rest were probably between 30 and 50.
First of all seeing that many young people so interested in leading worship was certainly an encouragement for me. But to also realize that the others were there to learn also. In fact it was a great encouragement to me to see these older Christians there among a sea of young faces. For the younger ones, change is something that they understand and live almost every day. But for an older Christian to see the need for change and want to be a catalyst to help make that happen, well, that’s wonderful.
There were always questions; Questions in class and out of class. Questions like, “How do you go about arranging a song?” “What kind of instrumentation do you use?” “How often does the choir sing?” “How many worship leaders do you have in your church?” And of course there was the, “What do you do about a very confrontational person on the worship team?” For this one, I told them that I had no idea what they were talking about, because everyone on all of our worship teams gets along so fabulously well. We had a good laugh over that answer!
What would you have done different?
I probably would have spent a lot more time on the practical ideas and lessons for them. We did talk about the worship leader and the person of character and integrity that they need to be; of how testing brings growth, and how that person needs to live a life of servanthood. And what teamwork means.
I would have tried to have more discussions with individuals during the day if possible. I took Monday morning to do some sightseeing. On Tuesday morning I met with Daniel a full time worship leader in a new church plant in Minsk. At two years old they are running around 150-180 people. Daniel was in my TCM class I taught last year here in Minsk. Meeting like I did with Daniel needed to happen more with other worship leaders; Just listening to their stories, and to be an encouragement for them.
More time needed to be spent in this worship leader’s seminar. But time was not a luxury I had.
Will you go back?
Yes, I would like to.
When?
It may be awhile though. And it doesn’t even have to be me that goes back. It could be other worship leaders from here will go and teach in a Worship Arts Conference held for all of Belarusian worship leaders.

Worship Seminar

Here are a couple of pictures of the Seminary (and Light of the Gospel church) where I was.

The worship seminar is over. We had some great discussions about worship, and how it is more then just the singing on Sunday morning; about how it should be ingrained with in our very fiber; about how living a life of worship every day leads to a heart of praise on Sunday morning.
We talked about adding freshness to worship; about how being creative will lead to a newness and excitement in our worship; about how creating an anticipation to our worship service adds a RE-newed interest in worship for the congregation;
about how adding more participation for the congregation other then singing will bring them to a new experience in their worship. We talked about giving the congregation a worship experience full of life and joy and participation.
I listened to there questions. Sometimes I had answers. Sometimes it was enough to understand what they were asking and knowing that I understood the problem, even if I didn’t have an answer for them… sometimes that was enough.
We laughed a lot over mistakes that we all made, well, okay that I made down through the years! But we also learned from those mistakes.
There is a growing number of young people who are excited about Christ. who want the best worship that they can give not only for themselves, but also for the congregations they serve.
And I can’t end this without saying a huge THANK YOU Nikolai Sinkovets. Nikolai a former student from my TCMI class is also the president of the Evangelical Christian Baptists Union here in the Republic of Belarus. He is a man of vision. He sees CHANGE. He understands that change can and will bring a needed revival here in Belarus. He understands that the church can not be the same church it has been and continue to grow. He sees his church as growing into a flagship church for Minsk and more. He wants it to grow into a resource church. A church where it’s not the building that will bring people to Christ, but the ministries and outreach that it will have that will help people see the need for Christ in their lives.

Gloria in excelsis

Monday May 11

The class.

Me being a tourist.


Orthodox church

I did get into Minsk this morning for a little. I had the time today. Class didn't start until 6:00 to night. I really thought it was supposed to start at 4:00. I guess I get my times mixed up.
Here are some pictures of inside the big Orthodox church in Minsk. While I was there, there was a small service going on so I couldn't walk around and take a lot of pictures. I made sure the flash was off.

Here are some pictures of the class. As I mentioned in my first blog, there are a lot of young people. While this may seem like a good thing (and it is), it also creates some very serious problems for these young people. If they are leading in a church that has a hard time changing formats, it will take time and patience on their part. There are not many young people with patience.

Tonight we talked about leadership qualities and then got into a discussion about ensemble playing and singing and how that is different then singing or playing as a soloist.

We also talked about the "less is more" concept. Because a lot of their musicians are classically trained it's difficult for them to play 'less' and let the other instruments of the band play. But that even carried over into our discussion about the other instruments of the band too.

I even had a conversation with someone who wanted to know about vocal arranging. Should it be all unison, all harmony, what kind of mixture? Questions I know I asked when I was that young, but because I've been doing it for so long, i don't even think about it any more. It was good to be challenged again with those type of questions.

They are hungry for leadership. they know what they really need to do, it a matter of how to do it the best they can. And they so very much want to do it RIGHT.

Good night for now.

John

Minsk Belarus 09

Brother Nikolay.

Sunday May 10, 2009 Belarus
Yesterday when I got here they were celebrating “Victory Day”. It was a celebration of the end of WWII and their participation in it. About 10:00 at night the city had a fireworks display. The hotel I stayed in last night was right across the street where they were shooting them off. Since I was on the 11th floor I had a great view. The only problem was I fell asleep at 9. I had been up for 31 hours. I did manage to catch a couple of 50 minute naps on the plane from Dulles to Frankfort, and then one 40 minute naps from Frankfort to Minsk. I woke up hearing the fireworks, watched them until it was over, and then went back to bed. The next thing I knew it was 7:00 the next morning.
They wanted me to preach and present a special and take up 40-50 minutes. The special wasn’t what I was worried about, it was the preaching. My part lasted about 35 minutes. It’s a good thing they have 2 sermons every Sunday. The church was located outside of the city of Minsk. It’s very, very difficult to get property in the city of Minsk. It is very costly. Their vision is to build a building that will be big enough to start some community activities for the people who live around them. They also understand that the city of Minsk is growing and in the near future they will be located within the city of Minsk it’s self.
As you can see from the pictures they are a very intergenerational congregation. The building was acquired from another congregation who started building up but then ran out of funds. They took over and now have at least this one level completed enough to have a corporate worship service in it. When the worship area is completed it will be able to sit 800.

By the time we finished with church went out to eat and then get back to the seminary I had about 30 minutes to get ready for the conference.
There were about 20 in the class from about 10 different churches. One of the worship leaders there was Daniel. Daniel was in my TCMI class when I taught it here at the seminary last summer. It was good to see him again. He had 5 other people with him. It was good to talk to him and find out how he was doing.
My interpreter is a young man by the name of Gera. He just started talking classes with TCMI, so I may have him in my class someday.
I’ll have pictures of the class tomorrow.
Das vadanya

That time of year.

It's that time of year again, and I better dust off the old blog site.
Actually it's a little early for the TCMI teaching to begin, but tomorrow I leave for Belarus. I'll be in Minsk again at the Baptist Seminar there. I'll be with church leaders and worship leaders, talking about worship. The nice thing is that I will be in the seminary there. they have a room right in the same building where I'll be talking.
I'll try and keep you posted to what is happening.
I'm looking forward to my time with the people there. One of my former students is the president of the Christian Evangelical Baptist Union and works with the seminary there. We met again in December in Baltimore at the Slavic Christian Church and he invited me to come over.
Pam and I will leave for our TCMI work on June 16th. This year I'll be going to Ukraine (June 29-July 4) and Romania (July 6-11) again. I will also be teaching at the Haus in Austria (July 20-30), so that will be nice. I will only have to travel to 2 countries this year. Not 4 like I have been for the past several years. That has been fun, but it also has been draining on me.
I'll try and post something after I get there on Saturday.
Oh one more thing, pray for the people that will be there in church on Sunday, they want me to preach. I told them that I could give an 'extended' greeting. They wrote back and said, "Good, that will be 40 minutes including a couple of songs." It's going to be a long, long greeting!!