The mustard seed

This past week, I've been thinking about the direction of the youth worship team for the next half of the year, and as I look back on the past 1 year, I've seen how much you guys have grown. We have been consistently leading worship at the 11.15 service for a few months now and we have been getting comments about how the adults have been touched by our service at 11.15am worship service and our worship has helped to experience God. I am really encouraged by each and every one of you who have eagerly stepped up and taken up the challenge to lead in the 11.15am service. I know many of us were apprehensive about whether we can handle the extra commitment, playing at the main service but I want to encourage each and every one of you on the great job that you have been doing so far.

On youth sunday, I was really touched by the skit that our youths had put up (Jared, Russ, Josh, Dom, Natalie, Audrey, Zeon). I've been particularly encouraged by the fact that our worship team people are serving in other ways other than just in the worship team and through this I have seen eager hearts of service. Although all of us are part of the worship team, it is also good to serve in other ministries. Serving in one ministry does not automatically exclude you from being able to serve in other ministries. We are all more than welcome to serve in more than one ministry, as long as we have the heart for service (: and I think that the skit team on youth sunday has really reminded me of that, and now I would like to remind the rest of us to serve, wherever and whenever we can.

As I look forward into the next half of the year, I am hoping to see more youths (in the entire youth ministry) stepping up to serve in the main church and not just in YM. Be it as an usher, display coordinator etc. We must remember that the youth ministry is not a singular entity in itself but is part of the wider church. I am also looking to see how we can continue to nurture and grow our younger band members so that they can take a step further in the service in the worship team. Right now I'd like to remind everyone of us that the ministry has to grow. We can't always expect the same people to be serving in the same ministry all the time. We have to continually nurture the younger ones so that they too can grow the same way that we have grown over the years. So that just like how others have invested their time and energy into nurturing us, we too will nurture them and they too will nurture others in time to come.

Let us think of the worship team (and the people in it) as a mustard seed that needs to be continually watered and looked after. Whatever we put in, in His name, will reap benefits and fruits in time to come. So long as we continue to look after the mustard seed, it will continue to grow.

It is my challenge to all of us in the team, to ask ourselves what we can do to help the worship team to grow, and how we can help to nurture the younger ones.